Anyone who has been paying attention over the last decade will have realised long ago that Amy Murphy is a fine trainer. When she upped sticks from Newmarket to set up in France in March 2025 her departure was certainly a loss to the British training ranks.Her husband Lemos de Souza, a former champion apprentice in his native Brazil, now trains under his own name in their former yard, the enterprising couple having identified the benefits of running separate operations each side of the Channel. Apart from missing friends and family, Murphy has not looked back since taking out her licence in France, where she is now 14th in the trainers' table in the middle of a banner season.“My target, which everybody thought was mental, is to try and finish in the top 10, so I've got another month to move up four more places,” she says. It is not an unreasonable aim in a season which has included three individual stakes winners. The juvenile Tokaido (Ubettabelieveit), who races for long-term clients Daniel Macauliffe and Anoj Don, has been one of those flagbearers, winning four straight races in France, including the Listed Prix La Flèche, G3 Prix du Bois and G2 Prix Robert Papin. His most recent start saw him finish eighth in the G2 Flying Childers at Doncaster on Friday and, described as a “big horse who is still growing, and not just a two-year-old”, he has now been roughed off for a good long holiday before returning next season.Murphy still has two darts to throw come Arc weekend, even though it appears likely that Victoire Magique (Vicor Ludorum) and Jabracadabra (Cracksman) may be aimed in the same direction towards the G2 Qatar Prix Chaudenay. Having won on debut this time last year, Victoire Magique struck again at Angers in June before finishing runner-up in the G3 Prix du Lys then winning the Listed Prix Michel Houyvet in Deauville. He backed up that first black-type win with a second success in the G3 Prix Gerald de Geoffre at Longchamp. Two days later, his fellow three-year-old Jabracadabra bought more joy when winning the Listed Grand Prix de Craon. None of the aforementioned trio cost a fortune: Tokaido was bought in partnership with Matt Coleman for £58,000 at last year's Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale, and the same agent assisted Murphy in the purchase of Abracadabra for €45,000 at the Arqana October Sale. Meanwhile, Victoire Magique was bought by de Souza for 40,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 3.“Victoire will aim for the Chaudenay on Arc Weekend, and I think he'll have a great chance,” Murphy says. “Since we've stepped him up to staying distances, which was probably always going to be his gig, he's not looked back. I always thought this would be the trip that he'd want, but he was sort of a bit young and hooliganish up until the last few months. I kind of had to build and block him to get him there but something's clicked in his brain and he's doing the opposite now. He's just racing.”Jabracadabra, who also has an entry in the 1,950-metre Prix Dollar, is more likely to join his stable-mate over 3,000 metres in the Chaudenay.“He's been a star this year,” she adds. “He's done very little wrong. In the Arqana Series race where he only finished fifth, that wasn't really his fault. The ground was just rattling on the day, and over 2,000 metres, I think he was just going as fast as he could go.“But he's a lovely horse, and again, I'm kind of hoping I don't have to run them against each other, but we'll just see how it all plays out with the ground.”She adds of her decade-long association with Coleman, “Matt's great, he's always been a big help to me, whether it be on and off the racecourse. We've worked together since he bought me my first horse when we set up.”Back in Murphy's first year with a training licence in 2016, it wasn't long before she made her mark, sending out Kalane (Kalanisi) to win a Listed mares' chase in the colours of her father Paul Murphy, a successful National Hunt owner-breeder. In the case of Kalane, she had been purchased from breeder Sunnyhill Stud, and the Murphys returned to the well to buy Kalane's full-brother Kalashnikov, the horse who really put his young trainer's name on the map. After winning his first three starts, Kalashnikov then landed the G3 Betfair Hurdle at Newbury as well as twice finishing runner-up to Summerville Boy, including when beaten only a neck in the G1 Supreme Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Prior to her move, Murphy tasted success in France with her first Flat stakes winner, Manhattan Jungle (Bungle Inthejungle), who was bought by her husband for just €20,000 and went on to win the Listed Prix Reves d'Or in Vichy as well as being Group-placed on several occasions. The filly, another to race initially for Macauliffe and Don, was later bought by American-based Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and provided the trainer with another first when contesting the G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Keeneland. Despite growing success on the Flat, Murphy says she has not completely turned her back on the National Hunt scene.“I've got a couple of jumpers – Dad's homebreds,” she says. “One is a very nice three-year-old that will go to Auteuil in about a month, first time out. He is out of Kalane and is by Nathaniel [named Kalaniel]. He's a lovely horse.”She is adjusting to the different facilities available to her yard at Lamorlaye, which is adjacent to Chantilly and has access to the wide range of gallops encircling the twin training bases, including the lengthy, climbing sand surface of the Piste des Lions.“In the sand, I find that they don't need as much work as they probably did on the Polytrack in Newmarket,” she says. “So I've had to adapt and I've found between races you just need to tick them over rather than gallop them as much.”Along with her black-type horses, she has also trained Appleblossomwhite (Soldier's Call) to win twice in the colours of de Souza's LDS Bloodstock this summer.She explains, “Predominantly, 90% of the time we work as two completely separate operations – what runs in England runs in England, what runs in France runs in France – but there has been the odd one, like Appleblossomwhite, for example, who joined us at the end of last season. There's the odd one we'll move across to France, more the claiming type of horse, but on the whole, Lemos runs his show and I run my show, and we don't really get involved in each other's.“We communicate all the time, though and throw ideas off each other.”She adds of her time in France, “Of course, I miss my friends and family and stuff like that, but it's so accessible, and it's going very well, thankfully, and on all levels, whether it be the three-year-old stayers or sprinting two-year-olds. “The one thing that hasn't really changed is numbers and owners, so I just hope that this year's results will maybe open a few more doors.”A big win on Arc weekend with all the racing world watching surely wouldn't hurt in that regard. Now it's just up to Victoire Magique or Jabracadabra to conjure up another day in the spotlight for their trainer. The post Murphy’s Magic Summer Sees Her Double-Handed for Arc Weekend appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.