Paul Peraldi

Horses trained in France won many of the top British Flat races during the immediate post-war period. French-trained hurdlers also prospered, particularly in the early years of the Triumph Hurdle, with French runners winning five of the first seven renewals.

Run in those days at Hurst Park but now a Grade 1 contest on the Friday of the Cheltenham Festival, the Triumph Hurdle was where French jump jockey Paul Peraldi made his British debut on March 7, 1953, aboard one of that country’s challengers, Hippocampe. 

However, there was – at least officially – no French-trained winner that year, for although Clair Soleil was bred in France by Francois Dupré and won his only two races there when trained by Francois Mathet, when the colt came to England to run in the 1953 Triumph Hurdle, he was bought on the eve of the race by Mr Gerry Judd for £5,000. Hence the form book credits trainer Ryan Price and jockey Fred Winter as the duo responsible for Clair Soleil’s Triumph Hurdle success, even though they had been associated with the horse for barely 24 hours. Clair Soleil remained in England and went on to win ten more hurdle races, including the 1955 Champion Hurdle. 

Paul Peraldi finished a well beaten fifth on Hippocampe in that Triumph Hurdle, having led the field to halfway. The following season he made occasional visits to England, riding principally for Aston Tirrold trainer John Goldsmith, and it was on one of Goldsmith’s horses that Paul recorded his first English success, when his mount, Feerique, was a comfortable six-length winner of the Craigwell Handicap Chase at Fontwell Park on November 4, 1953, beating Silver Spurs, ridden by Tommy Cusack. 

Three days later, Paul doubled his score when Mon Roy II, also trained by Goldsmith, won the Warwickshire Handicap Hurdle at Stratford, beating Wild Honey, the mount of Reg Hollinshead, by three-quarters of a length. 

He did not ride in Britain the next season but returned in the 1955/56 campaign and, on March 6, came close to winning a race at Cheltenham’s National Hunt meeting when finishing second on the Gerald Balding-trained Square Shooter in the National Hunt Juvenile Chase, beaten two lengths by Michael Scudamore on the 11-10 favourite Segnor IV. 

Six days later, Paul opened his account for the season by winning the Moreton Morrell Chase at Warwick on Melted Ice, also trained by Gerald Balding. Then at Huntingdon on Easter Monday, April 2, he rode Tufter, owned and trained by Balding, to dead-heat with Pollution, partnered by another jockey from overseas, Baard Pedersen, in the Brampton Hurdle. 

That shared win at Huntingdon was Paul Peraldi’s last ride in England. However, it was not the end of his association with British racing, for on September 19, 1963, he trained L’Empereur, ridden by French compatriot Jean Daumas, to win the Somerset Chase at Wincanton by a neck, beating the useful Caduval, ridden by the good amateur jockey and future leading trainer Ian Balding, son of the late Gerald Balding.

Paul campaigned L’Empereur in England that season, culminating in an attempt at the 1964 Grand National, again ridden by Jean Daumas. Although prominent early, they gradually faded and pulled up at Valentine’s on the second circuit. 

L’Empereur’s Wincanton success of September 1963 was the last time a horse trained in France won a steeplechase in Britain for 24 years, until Nupsala’s shock victory under André Pommier in the 1987 King George VI Chase. 

Paul Peraldi died on 14 September 2022, aged 95.