French connection works perfectly for Andy Edwards and L'Homme Presse

A recommendation from a trusted French source was enough for Andy Edwards to secure the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase winner L’Homme Presse.

Edwards tends to buy horses in France to later appear under his DFA Racing partnership banner in Britain and has a network across the Channel to inform him of young prospects.

L’Homme Presse, the highest achieving son of the now Kilbarry Lodge Stud resident Diamond Boy, has won all of his five outings over fences for Venetia Williams but had begun life with two hurdling starts in the care of Mickael Seror.

He is the last of only three foals produced by Romance Turgot, a mare by Bateau Rouge who won three times over obstacles in quite a reasonable career in France.

Three years ago he did a leg at Mickael Seror’s," Edwards explained. "Felix de Giles [the British rider now based in France] rang me, he said he was a really nice horse and knew we were patient with our horses.

"They thought the world of him, then he got his leg, allowing me to step in and nab him luckily. It’s been a long, gentle, gentle road."

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Edwards declined to reveal the cost of a horse who must now be considered a live contender for next year’s Gold Cup.

Bred by Bernard Camp, he had once been offered for sale as a yearling at the Arqana Autumn 2016 Sale by Haras du Dorat but failed to find a buyer at €22,000.

"All my horses are affordable," Edwards said. "If you’ve got a pound more than the horse costs, it’s affordable."

Camp had been somewhat nonplussed when he had been contacted by France-Galop for an article earlier in the week.

“This is the first time that one of our horses will run at Cheltenham and I think I will have to find a way to watch it on TV," he had said.

Now retired after a very long spell breeding, Camp explained that he had bred L'Homme Presse in partnership with his friend Mickael Bauduin and that the dam had died four years ago.

"No-one wanted L’Homme Presse when we took him to the sales at Deauville," he said. "He wasn’t pretty and he wasn’t any good and there was no-one who was willing to pay the €25,000 we wanted. So we bought him back and brought him back home and then he was bought privately by someone in France before being sold on to England."

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