Boudvillain finds his greatest adventure after long road to Slipper

It was love at first sight for Pierre Boudvillain when he first came across horses while courting a “pretty rocky road” as a kid in the Burgundy region of France.

And while the love affair kept him on track in his early years, it soon took a back-seat to wanderlust.

Twenty-five years later and half a world away, Boudvillain is on his greatest adventure yet.

The 38-year-old rides Gratz Vella-trained Music Time in the $5 million Golden Slipper at Rosehill on Saturday, two weeks after they won the Black Opal Stakes. It was Boudvillain’s first group race opportunity and came in his third season of riding in Australia. The Canberra-based hoop leads the NSW premiership on 99 winners but has one city win to his name.

“It’s been a very overwhelming week,” said Boudvillain, who started as a jumps jockey in France.

“I never thought I would get that far. I just wanted to have a bit of fun in the country when I started racing here, and as I started to get the results, I put the goals a bit higher, but this is beyond those.

“A few months ago I said 100 wins for the season was my goal. If I have a couple of wins in town, that would be good ... even better now if it’s a group 1.”

He said he felt blessed that connections have opted against a higher-profile jockey for the Slipper. Boudvillain has ridden Music Time in all four starts - three of them wins -and all at Canberra.

“He’s not an easy horse to ride, so I think that’s what made the choice as well,” he said.

“You’ve kind of got to know him. You can feel like you are going too fast, but that’s just not fast enough for him.”

Vella originally ruled out a Slipper run, and the $150,000 late entry fee. Boudvillain believes he is right to have a crack.

“I thought if we win the Black Opal, we will be lucky and that’s going to be it,” Boudvillain said.

“I was never thinking of anything after, but the fashion that he did it, he deserves to go to a better level. Anything from there is a bonus. It’s going to be such a thrill for a country team to go up there and do our best. Whatever happens, we will be happy with the horse and it will be such a journey no matter what.”

Music Time, a $45,000 yearling, was a $34 TAB chance in the richest race for two-year-olds after drawing gate eight, which will be six with emergencies out.

“Having a lot of gate speed definitely helps in those sharp races, especially 1200 at that racecourse,” Boudvillain said.

“If we can jump clean from a soft draw and be in a forward position, we are going to be pretty competitive.”

Boudvillain’s path to the Slipper has been long. He came to Australia to visit friends in late 2016, after returning to riding in the Caribbean for three years. He liked it, stayed, met partner Nell Foley and started a family. Visa problems restricted him to track work and pre-training jobs for six years before he began race riding in October 2023.

But the desire to work with and win on horses was always there.

“Since I first laid my eyes on a horse at 13, I fell in love with horses,” Boudvillain said.

“I started with just playing horse ball, which is a mix of basketball and rugby on a horse, and then I discovered the racehorses and I said that’s what I want to do.

“My parents didn’t have a lot of money, but they worked hard to afford us what we wanted to do in the future. It was uni for my brother, and jockeys’ school for me.

“Since then it was always a dream to become a good jockey, but it was also a dream to travel and that doesn’t really go together.

“I was too young to be so serious. I always thought the world was too big not to be travelled.

“I thought I can race later, but travelling, you don’t do it as easily when you’re older, so I’m glad I did it then because now I have a family, two kids. So everything came at the right time.

“I was a bit of a troublemaker and I could have gone down a pretty rocky road pretty easily when I was a kid.

“I grew up in a very good, loving environment, but I found ways to get myself in trouble, so the horses definitely kept me on track. Going to work every morning to ride horses, it keeps you focused.

“Mum keeps telling me, ‘You’ve come a long way my son, I’m proud of you’.”