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Feed Balancers and Quality Horse Feeds
TOPSPEC TRAINER OF THE QUARTER
The TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter award has been won by David Cottin. Cottin will receive £1,000 worth of TopSpec feed, supplements and additives as well as a consultation with one of their senior nutritionists. Lissa Oliver or me, Cheltenham is the temple of jumping and the most prestigious place to win a race, it’s a dream come true,” says David Cottin, talking about Easysland’s Cross Country Chase success, the first Cheltenham Festival win of his training career. Cottin has only been training in Chantilly, and in the tranquil second base in Liond’Angers in the Loire Valley, since September 2017 and his first runner was also his first winner, Amour Du Puy Noir. A former threetime champion jockey in France, amassing 13
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TRAINERMAGAZINE.COM ISSUE 69
Healy Racing
Gp1 wins and 732 wins, Cottin is the son of retired trainer Philippe Cottin. Having spent time in the UK with Andrew Balding, Paul Nicholls and Philip Hobbs, Cottin works alongside partner Amanda Zetterholm, former assistant to Mike de Kock. Calm and tranquillity are Cottin’s by-words. At Chantilly, a sand paddock and two large grazing paddocks are used for daily turnout, while he has also taken over his father’s stable in western France, a perfect setting for breaking-in, training and resting horses.
“I used to love Cheltenham even as a child,” Cottin says, “and I had the race in mind for Easysland since early autumn, when I started to get him back for the track. My father trained for 25 years and he always said Easysland would be a very special cross-country horse, even when he was being broken in. He has been prepared by racing, I’m very easy on my horses at home. I wanted him to progress for his races, so he was not fit for his first race of the season, but he is unbeaten.”