In a wide-ranging and stinging critique of French racing, Graffard savaged Le Guen's judgement on Wednesday, moments before not paying the €120,000 (A$180,000) late-entry fee required for Verry Elleegant to run in the Arc as a result of the realisation that Australia's champion mare would not make the 20-horse field by Thursday's acceptance deadline.
"I am very upset about the French authorities and the French Handicapper and my racing country in general," Graffard told the Nick Luck Daily podcast.
"We try really hard the young trainers to promote our sport and try to make it competitive and open. We play the game and France Galop try to make it difficult at every single stage.
"This filly (Verry Elleegant) has been a good example as to how unopen the French are. Every step of the way has been difficult for her and the owners and they have made our life very difficult right up until the end.
"Opening the race (increasing the field limit for the Arc) has been done in the past and it looks like it depends on who is training it (the horse) or not. For international racing I think it would have been fantastic and logical.
"I am not the only one, La Parisienne is 12/1 in betting (to win the Arc) and she is not getting a run in the race, and she's owned by American people (Kentucky-based Peter Bradley), trained by a young guy (Yann Larner, training in partnership with father Carlos).
"If she (Verry Elleegant) was trained somewhere else, she would have come into the race with a mark and there would be no discussion."
Graffard acknowledged Verry Elleegant's highest rating this year was 113 and claimed Le Guen's 'whole goal was to come back to this mark of 113' rather than apply her previous Australian mark of 120.
"So he has used two runs (in France) to do that. I mean she is rated below Group 2 winners, it's crazy," Graffard said.
"Just as another example, my filly (four-year-old Sweet Lady) who won the (Group 1) Prix Vermeille has a (French) handicap mark of 50.5, which is the same as (Arc nominee) True Testament (who is also outside the top-20 for the Arc), so she wouldn't have even got into the race."
"At one stage we need to consider that French fillies are not that bad and deserve a normal mark because it's so unfair really.
"You can't (talk to the handicapper), they're always right. They always have a good reason, it's very, very difficult. They always think they are right.
"It's very upsetting and not good for the sport in general, I think. I'm very angry against my racing country and I have to apologise to all the Australian racing fans."
Le Guen stated that Verry Elleegant's two French defeats under trainer Francis Graffard were not the sole reason for the reassessment, indicating that her performances throughout this year, including her final four starts for Chris Waller, contributed.
"She finished 2021 after winning the Melbourne Cup on 123 and this year she has run six times - four times in Australia and twice in France - and even when she won a Group 1 at Randwick in February, she did not post a rating higher than we have her now with any of the international handicappers, except Australia," Le Guen told Racing Post.
"For that win (in the Chipping Norton Stakes) the Australian handicapper gave her 114, but France and Britain made her 109, Germany 111 and Japan 113.
"She was second then at Rosehill where she was awarded between 111 and 113 across the international handicappers, and then in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in April she was rated 105, and the Australian handicapper gave her 104.
"She didn't run that well on her comeback after four months in the Jean Romanet and was rated 103 and then in the Prix Foy we made her 113, and that was giving the winner Iresine a career-high of 118.
"Since the beginning of 2022 she has not managed to get past 113 in six attempts.
"Of course, if she had only run once or twice this year her figure would not have dropped so far but today she doesn't merit being given a place in the international classification, which requires a mark of 115 to get in. And that is according to every single one of the international handicappers."
頭三段武豐2022-09-29 20:52:42
華老納應該偷笑緊
宮澤有紀寧2022-09-29 20:53:02
贏紅寶都跑唔到凱旋門
法國佬好笑到噴飯
波利2022-09-29 20:53:44
係條友本身說班馬主去跑arc之後反口搞到名都報唔切
頭三段武豐2022-09-29 20:54:59
Waller:都叫左你地縮沙架啦
桜雪2022-09-29 20:55:37
講咩都好畀stay foolish broom依啲入都係無說服力
恐慌性防疫2022-09-29 20:56:44
France Galop:
凱旋門大賽有幾高級?
高級到贏預賽都跑唔到;
高級到贏過 11 場 G1 都跑唔到