Belgium: Brothers clean up in Waregem raid.

YANNICK FERTILLET, the Breton trainer who loves to raid the annual one-day meeting at Waregem, sent nine horses to the Belgian course on Tuesday. But it was his brother, Loic, who walked off with the major prize when his Beau Noir, ridden by Yannis Fouchard, gained a three-length success in the pounds 24,578 Grote Steeple-Chase van Vlaanderen.

Beau Noir had beaten Irish Stamp and Paul Carberry by three lengths in the two-mile-seven-furlong chase in 1996 and was pulled up last year. But he was trained by Yannick Fertillet for both those races.

Loic, who has owned the 11-year-old since 1993, only took out a permit in May and won with him for the first time at Pornichet-La-Baule, on the Breton coast, in July.

There were no travel allowances for the French but they still supplied all 10 runners in the big race and the lion's share in the other three, just one of which was won by a Belgian horse.

Yannick, who trains at Nozay, between Rennes and Nantes, took the pounds 13,108 Prijs Jacques du Roy de Blicquy with Limonaire and the pounds 7,373 Prijs Felix de Ruyck with Happy Djeff.

Belgian racing has hit serious trouble in recent years but prize-money at Waregem has remained steady. Even Happy Djeff's race, which is the least valuable of the four, is three times richer than the best prizes at Ostende this year.