Olry-Roederer Hurdle: Galop Marin falls out, Gex jumps in

Sunday, November 28, 2021, Auteuil racecourse (Paris). - Odds-on favourite in the Olry-Roederer Hurdle (Gr2) after his 4th straight Grand Prix d’Automne (Gr1) win, Galop Marin (Black Sam Bellamy) unseated his rider at the first jump, leaving all his challengers on their own to seize the day. Polirico (Cokoriko) and Corazones (Nidor) took the lead behind the runaway, unridden favourite who drilled home on his own. Going into the last turn, however, Gex (Khalkevi) took over and led a rather packed field towards the stands' rail. On the contrary, the only other 5-year-old in the race, Pollexfen (Yeats) kept the inside rail and tried to defeat the leader in the run-in. He couldn't quite make up the lost ground and finished at 2 lengths of the thoroughbred bred by Andrée and Jacques Cyprès, also his co-owners with Lord Daresbury.

Gex had just won a chase at Auteuil and had finished 3rd in the Spring in the Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil (Gr1) after winning the Grande Course de Haies de Printemps Hurdle Handicap (Gr3).

Trained by Emmanuel Clayeux in the Centre of France, Gex is the last of the 5 foals out of Mexcala (Astarabad), a maiden mare bred by the Hosselet family and sold for €16,000 at  Deauville to M L Bloodstock. As for Gex, he was unsold at € 55,000 at the 2018 Summer Sale at 2. It is the family of Chuchoteuse and Subehargues, two black-typed jumpers.