Olivier Peslier

Olivier Peslier was one of the greatest French jockeys of his or any other generation, riding more than 3,700 winners including 502 Group races, of which 165 were at Group 1 level including those in Arabian races. He was France’s champion jockey four times and won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on four occasions. He also won the 1988 English Derby on High-Rise.   

Olivier Yves Guy Peslier was born in Cosse-le-Vivien on January 12, 1973. He was apprenticed initially to Patrick Biancone and then to Nicolas Clement. He rode his first winner on Cavallo D’Pro at Rouen on March 12, 1989.  

He rode his first Group race winner in Italy on Dream Talk in the Group 2 Premio Melton at Capannelle, and registered his first Group 1 victory on La Belafre for Nicolas Clement in the 1993 Prix Jean Prat. 

Oliver’s first winner in Britain was the Paul Kelleway-trained Glory Of Dancer in the 1996 Dante Stakes at York. He rode that horse in the following month’s Derby, finishing fourth behind Shaamit. Later that year he won the Prix de ‘Arc de Triomphe for the first time on Helissio for trainer Elie Lellouche. 

He enjoyed great success in tandem with Andre Fabre during the mid-1990s and early 2000s, beginning with the 1995 Irish Derby on Winged Love, then winning the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby), Grand Prix de Paris and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 1997 on the great Peintre Celebre. 

In 1998 he won the Derby aboard High-Rise for Luca Cumani, the Grand Prix de Paris for a second time on Limpid and a third successive Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on the Andre Fabre-trained Sagamix. He also won successive renewals of Ascot’s Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Air Express (1997) and Desert Prince (1998).

Olivier was France’s champion jockey for the first time in 1996 with a career-best score of 163 wins, retaining the title in 1997, then winning it again in 1999 and 2000.  

In the early years of the 21st century confirmed his status on the international stage with a Breeders’ Cup victory on Banks Hill in the 2001 Filly & Mare Turf, and Japan Cup triumphs on Jungle Pocket in 2001 and Zenno Rob Roy in 2004. He was one of the first international jockeys to make regular winter visits to Japan, earning the nickname ‘the Blue Samurai’.

At Royal Ascot he won the Gold Cup on Westerner in 2005 and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes on Ouija Board in 2006 and again on Vision D’Etat in 2009. He also added a second British Classic success on the Geoff Huffer-trained Cockney Rebel in the 2007 2,000 Guineas. 

His 11 seasons as retained rider to Alain and Gerard Wertheimer coincided with the career of three-time Breeders’ Cup Mile heroine Goldikova, trained by Freddy Head. She was Oliver’s most prolific Pattern race winner with 15 victories including 14 at Grade 1 level. In addition to her famous trio of Breeders’ Cup Mile triumphs in 2008, 2009 and 2010, she also won the Prix Rothschild four times, the Prix d’Ispahan twice, the 2008 Prix de Moulin, 2009 Prix Jacques le Marois and 2010 Prix de la Foret on home soil and, in England, the 2009 Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket and the 2010 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. 

The Wertheimer family provided Oliver with  the last of his four Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winners, Solemia in 2012, trained by Carlos Laffon-Parias. However, the Arc was not the most valuable prize he landed that year, for his victory on Cirrus Des Aigles in the 2012 Dubai Sheema Classic was worth £1,935,484, the richest race he won during his celebrated career.  

Other major triumphs to come his way included the 2010 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes on Harbinger, the 2013 Prix du Jockey Club on Intello, and the 2014 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winners Charm Spirit. Another notable success was a pattern race winner for Queen Elizabeth II herself on Dartmouth in the 2016 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Olivier had a renaissance during the Covid period, riding important winners for overseas trainers. They included, in 2021, Group 1 successes with Laws Of Indices for Ken Condon in the Prix Jean Prat – the race in which he had gained his first Group 1 victory 28 years earlier – and the Roger Varian-trained Teona in the Prix Vermeille. He also enjoyed an Indian Summer during the 2022 season when recalled by Andre Fabre.

He announced his imminent retirement on April 23, 2024, aged 51, citing his increasing battle with the scales as having brought the issue of retirement more sharply into focus.

He had his final rides two days later, not at Longchamp, where he had enjoyed so many of his greatest triumphs including four Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes, but at La Teste in southern France. 

Having missed out on a final Group race winner when finishing second in the Prix Dormane, a trial for the Purebred Arabian Derby at Chantilly, he had his last ride in a lowly handicap, just as the day’s main meeting was getting under way at Longchamp. Sadly, there was no fairytale ending, with his mount Mana Sis, despite being backed down from 16-1 to 9-2 in the minutes before the race, finishing well adrift in tenth.

That low-key ending was in stark contrast to a brilliant and extraordinary career that had made Olivier Peslier one of the greatest international jockeys of the modern era.