The French training ranks lost one Spaniard at the end of 2024 with the retirement of Arc-winning trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias, but they have quickly gained another in Patrik Olave.
The trainer has been licensed in his native country since 2017, and was based at Spain’s largest training centre at La Zarzuela racecourse in Madrid. In early February he set up camp in Pau with a number of horses for Spanish owners and, after a settling-in phase, was rewarded with his first French winner last Thursday with Cashlyn Cavalier at Royan.
It was a timely boost just ahead of the start of the Arqana Breeze-up Sale, where Olave was on the hunt for new recruits alongside Gerardo Torres, the former manager of La Zarzuela who now manages Yeguada Rocio and also acts as Arqana’s representative in Spain.
“It has been a long run to get all the paperwork done but it was the plan from December to get the licence and the winter is probably the best time for such a big move. So far, so good,” says Olave, who started out with just three horses eight years ago.
He continues, “We started to build from the ground up and for the first four years we grew from three to six to to 10 to 12, but the last three seasons, even though we have been winning races nationwide in Spain, we got up to 20 to 25 horses and it was hard to progress beyond that.
“Moving to France is not an easy task – it’s coming to the big stage with a new group of trainers and owners. But, we had the chats with our owners over many months to see if it suited them.”
La Zarzuela’s proximity to Madrid is highlighted by the view of the cityscape as a backdrop to the racecourse, and that has been one of the major factors in driving ownership since the track reopened in 2006 after a decade of inactivity.
“In Madrid, the owners do enjoy coming to the yard to see the horses, so having horses more than 600km from their home was a big change for them,” says Olave, who has a number of horses in his stable for Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals, the major Spanish owner-breeder behind Yeguada Centurion, which has a strong presence in France, where Pujals has been represented by Group 1 winners Big Rock and Blue Rose Cen.
“The owners have been very supportive and thanks to them we have been able to come to France. So we start with 25 horses and that gives us a chance.”
The Olave string on the Pau training grounds | Patrik Olave Racing
Added to that number from Saturday’s breeze-up sale was a brother to the G3 Prestige Stakes winner Mise En Scene (Siyouni), bought by Olave and Capucines Bloodstock for €105,000 from the Gaybrook Lodge Stud draft. The chestnut colt has a pretty special pedigree as his dam Gadfly (Galileo) is a half-sister to the 1,000 Guineas winner Speciosa (Danehill Dancer) from a family which also includes the multiple Group 1 winner Pride (Peintre Celebre).
“We have a lot of two-year-olds so most of the runners will be in the autumn or maybe next year. This is more of a transition year, but it was great to have that winner,” he says.
Olave is not in entirely unfamiliar territory in the south-west of France as he spent some time there working for Francois Rohaut after completing a stint with Mikel Delzangles in Chantilly. A fluent English speaker, he also worked for Shadwell at the stud’s rehabilitation yards in Thetford.
“I started with Mikel in the yard mucking out and doing all the basic things – it is important to start somewhere,” he says. ” I then went to work for Francois Rohaut, so I know the training grounds. It was a great experience.
“Pau is lovely and there is a good programme in the region. Jean-Claude Rouget and Francois Rohaut have done so well there and you can build your horses down there. And if you have a good one you can always come to Paris.”
Pau is also not too far from where Olave and his French wife Julia grew up.
“She is from the French Basque Country and I am from the Spanish Basque Country,” he explains. “There are more opportunities here. We had a good run in Spain but we felt that it was a good time to make a change. I felt like Pau was the perfect place. The training grounds are really good, they are top notch. And we are not that far away from Spain, so if one of our owners wants to have a run in the Spanish Derby, or whatever, then we can still go, but there are lots of good racecourses around Pau, so it made sense for us.”