With the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud upon us early next month, all French eyes will be on Iresine, a gelding which has become synonymous with Marie Vélon. Recordsetter for the number of wins in a season by a female jockey, Vélon has, in just five years, gone from relative obscurity to the top 10 list of 2023.

Truly passionate, the young rider from Lyon did her tour of pony clubs and equestrianism, to pony racing, until the age of 12 when she sampled her first taste of racehorses, and has not looked back.

Expected to follow the traditional BAC route in school, she surprised many with her decision to seek apprenticeship in a racing yard. And she duly did, taking up the opportunity to join the stable of Alain de Royer Dupré, much to the delight of her mother.

“He wasn’t accepting any apprentices at that time, but later on told us that he couldn’t resist such a motivated candidate.” Marie’s sole thought upon entering the racing school, AFASEC, was to become a jockey and race-ride. “I could not have found a better place to learn the trade. My boss, Laurent Métais, trusted me to ride the good horses in their gallops, like group-winner, One Foot In Heaven.”

Although happy in Chantilly, she was not getting enough rides, so left for Lyon and joined Jean-Pierre Gauvin’. “Mr de Royer Dupré didn’t have a lot of horses for an apprentice, but before my departure, he gifted me my second ride….at Lyon!”

Third in the number of horses ridden by a woman in 2022, compared to winning just one race six years ago, Vélon also secured her maiden Group 1, Iresine in the Prix Royal-Oak, followed by a majestic victory in the 2023 Prix Ganay. Roll on 8th July at Saint-Cloud.