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Prix Matchem
The Prix Matchem is a Listed flat horse race in France open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and geldings. It is run at Maisons-Laffitte over a distance of 1,800 metres (1⅛ miles), and it is scheduled to take place each year in May or June. History The event was established in 1931, and it was originally held at Le Tremblay. It was initially the second leg of a two-part series called the Prix Biennal Herod-Matchem. The first leg, for two-year-olds, was the Prix Herod. The two parts were named after Herod and Matchem, foundation sires in the 18th century. The Prix Matchem was transferred to Évry in the 1970s. For a period it took place in April or May, and its regular distance was 1,800 metres. It was cut to 1,600 metres in 1986, and restored to its previous length in 1990. The race was switched to Chantilly in 1997, and to Maisons-Laffitte the following year. It began a longer spell at Chantilly in 1999, and returned to Maisons-La ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse
The Hippodrome de Maisons-Laffitte at 1 avenue de la Pelouse in the northwestern Parisian suburb of Maisons-Laffitte in France was a turf horse racing facility and track for Thoroughbred flat racing. Opened in 1878 by Joseph Oller, inventor of the pari-mutuel machine, it sits on 92 hectares that belonged to the wealthy banker Jacques Laffitte. The nearby Château de Maisons-Laffitte is home to The Museum of the Racehorse. In November 2018 France Galop announced that the racecourse would close at the end of 2019 due to financial pressures on the organisation. The final meeting was held on 29th October 2019. Despite the efforts of local government officials there are no plans to re-open the track and the racing surface has been allowed fall into disrepair. The racecourse layout was unique as it was one of the few courses in the world that staged both left- and right-handed races. It also featured a 2,000-metre straight track, one of the longest in Europe and three differen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint-Cloud Racecourse
Hippodrome de Saint-Cloud is a grass race course for Thoroughbred flat horse racing opened in 1901 at 1 rue du Camp Canadien in Saint-Cloud near Paris, France. During World War 1, the race course site housed the No. 4 Canadian Stationary Hospital operated by the Canadian Army Medical Corp. On July 8, 1916 the No. 4 CSH was elevated to the No. 8 Canadian General Hospital and operated until decommissioned in 1919. The facilities were built by politician and Thoroughbred owner/breeder Edmond Blanc (1856–1920) in whose honor the Prix Edmond Blanc was established in 1921. The venue was used for some of the polo events for the 1924 Summer Olympics. The Hippodrome de Saint-Cloud is host to a number of important races including the Group One Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud held at the end of June/first week of July each year, and the Critérium de Saint-Cloud run each November. In 1992, the government declared Hippodrome de Saint-Cloud an official Monument historique. References 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
François Boutin
François Boutin (21 January 1937 – 1 February 1995) was a French Thoroughbred horse trainer. The son of a farmer, he was born in the village of Beaunay in the northerly Seine Maritime département. He began riding horses at a young age and competed in show jumping and cross-country equestrianism. He began his professional racing career driving horses in harness racing then after serving as a flat racing apprentice, obtained his license as a trainer in 1964. François Boutin was the trainer for the stables of Jean-Luc Lagardère and for the Stavros Niarchos family. During his more than thirty-year career he was the leading money winner in France seven times (1976, 1978–81, 1983–84). Although victory eluded him in France's most prestigious horse race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Boutin won the Poule d'Essai des Poulains on six occasions and most every other important race in the country multiple times. Racing outside France Boutin's horse Sagaro was the first to wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cash Asmussen
Cash Asmussen (born March 15, 1962 in Agar, South Dakota) is an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. Born Brian Keith Asmussen, in 1977 he legally changed his name to "Cash". From a Texas horse racing family, his parents, Keith and Marilyn "Sis" Asmussen, operate a ranch in Laredo in Webb County, Texas. His brother, Steve Asmussen, is a successful horse trainer in American racing. Career Asmussen scored his first important graded stakes race win at the Beldame Stakes in 1979 and won that year's Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. In 1981, he rode Wayward Lass to victory in the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park (over the 1-5 entry of De La Rose and Heavenly Cause, who ran last and next-to-last), and traveled to Japan where he won the Japan Cup. The following year he won the Washington, D.C. International Stakes and his first of two Turf Classic Invitational Stakes then gained his most success as a jockey racing in France where he went to ride under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alzao
Alzao (28 February 1980 – 19 July 2007) was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was trained in France during his racing career and won four races including the Prix Matchem and the Premio Ellington. After his retirement from racing he became a very successful breeding stallion who was noted for the quality of his female offspring. Background Alzao was a "strong, compact" bay horse with a white blaze and white socks on his front legs bred in Kentucky by Shira Racing. He was sent to race in Europe where he entered the ownership of Jean-Luc Lagardère and was sent into training with Francois Boutin in France. He was sired by Lyphard, an American-bred stallion who raced in France, winning the Prix Jacques Le Marois and Prix de la Forêt in 1972. Lyphard became a very successful breeding stallion in both Europe and North America, siring Three Troikas, Dancing Brave, Dancing Maid and Manila. Alzao's dam Lady Rebecca showed good racing ability, winning the Prix ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yves Saint-Martin
Yves Saint-Martin (born 8 September 1941 in Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, France) is a retired champion jockey in French Thoroughbred horse racing. He is widely considered one of the greatest riders in French racing history. Saint-Martin won his first race on 26 July 1958 for Mme Suzy Volterra. He went on to be France leading jockey fifteen times, winning the title in 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1981 and 1983. In his career, Yves Saint-Martin won 3314 races worldwide, of which 3275 were in France. He is tied with three others for most wins (4) in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and holds the record for most victories in several other Group One races, including the Prix du Jockey Club with nine. He has won a total of 30 Classics in France. At Laurel Park Racecourse near Baltimore, Maryland, Saint-Martin won the 1962 Washington, D.C. International aboard Match II defeating both Carry Back and the Kelso. He won the French "Academie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alec Head
Alec Head (31 July 1924 – 22 June 2022) was a French horse trainer and breeder. Biography Head was the owner of Haras du Quesnay, located near Deauville. A descendant of the trainers who founded the English Racing Colony in Chantilly, Oise, Head's grandfather was a jockey-turned-trainer, as was his father William Head who was a very successful jockey, trainer, and owner in both flat racing and steeplechase events. In 2018, Head was participating in interviews about his career. Head died on 22 June 2022, at the age of 97. Haras du Quesnay Head undertook an extensive restoration of the facilities and in 1959 brought in the farm's first stallion. Over the years he and his wife Ghislaine developed Haras du Quesnay into one of the leading stud farms in France with horses acquired from across Europe and the United States. The farm would be home to prominent sires and broodmares. In the 1960s, Head reportedly was training 140 horses, the majority being owned by Pierre Wertheimer o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Criquette Head-Maarek
Christiane "Criquette" Head (born 6 November 1948 at Marly-le-Roi, near Maisons-Laffitte, France) is a retired French racehorse trainer. Known as Criquette, she was born into the Thoroughbred horse racing business. Her great grandfather was a jockey-turned-trainer as was her grandfather William Head who was a very successful jockey, trainer, and owner in both flat racing and steeplechase events. Her father, Alec Head, became a successful trainer and breeder and the owner of Haras du Quesnay near Deauville. The eldest of three daughters, her brother Freddy Head was the champion jockey six times in France who now trains horses, and sister Martine oversees the operations at Haras du Quesnay. Background In her teens, Criquette Head studied for three years in the United Kingdom at schools in Guildford in Surrey and Eastbourne in East Sussex. She started riding ponies as a child then at age 18 began competing as a rider. Trilingual (French, English and Spanish), she lived in Spain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freddy Head
Freddy Head (born 19 June 1947, in Neuilly, France) is a retired champion jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing and currently a horse trainer. Known also as "Freddie", his grandfather was a jockey as was his father Alec Head who also became a successful trainer and owner of Haras du Quesnay near Deauville. Alec Head's horses won The Derby and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. In the 1976 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Freddie Head rode to victory on a horse trained by his father and in 1979 took another win on a horse trained by his highly successful sister, Christiane "Criquette" Head. A six-time winner of the French jockey's championship, Freddie Head scored a number of important Group I wins in the United Kingdom and is best known to Americans for his back-to-back victories aboard U.S. Hall of Fame filly Miesque in the 1987 and 1988 Breeders' Cup Mile. Freddie Head retired as a jockey in 1997 and began working as a trainer. In 2008, he became the first man ever to win Breeders' Cu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aga Khan IV
Shāh Karim al-Husayni (born 13 December 1936), known by the religious title Mawlānā Hazar Imam by his Ismaili followers and elsewhere as Aga Khan IV, is the 49th and current Imam of Nizari Ismailis, a denomination within Shia Islam. He has held the position of imam and the title of Aga Khan since 11 July 1957, when, at the age of 20, he succeeded his grandfather, Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III. The Aga Khan claims direct lineal descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad through Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, considered an imam in Shia Islam, and Ali's wife Fatima, Muhammad's daughter from his first marriage. His grandfather, Aga Khan III, states in his memoirs that the Shias had a "need (for) Divine guidance" after the Prophet of Islam's death, this need being fulfilled by the Imamate. According to the Aga Khan III as mentioned in his memoirs, he has actual "Divine power, guidance, and leadership (authority)." The Institution of Imamate has continued to pre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Luc Lagardère
Jean-Luc Lagardère (10 February 1928, Aubiet – 14 March 2003, Paris) was a major French businessman, CEO of the Lagardère Group, one of the largest French conglomerates. Jean-Luc Lagardère was a '' Supelec'' engineer. He began his career in Dassault Aviation. CEO of Matra in the 1960s, he became famous with success in Formula One and Le Mans. He later built a large media and defense conglomerate that bears his name. He was a member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank. In 1981, with his friend Daniel Filipacchi, he purchased Hachette magazines, which included the French ''TV Guide'' (''Tele 7 Jours''), and the then-struggling ''Elle'' magazine. ''Elle'' was then launched in the U.S., followed by 25 foreign editions. Filipacchi and Lagardère then expanded Hachette Filipacchi Magazines in the U.S. with the purchase of Diamandis Communications Inc. (formerly CBS magazines), including ''Woman's Day'', ''Car and Driver'', ''Road and Track'', ''Flying'', ''Boating'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Fabre
André Fabre (born 9 December 1945) is a French thoroughbred horse racing trainer. The son of a diplomat, Fabre graduated from university with a law degree but then decided to pursue a career in thoroughbred horse racing. He began by working in the stables as a groom then as a schooling rider. He became France's leading jump jockey, winning more than two hundred and fifty races including the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris. When he turned to training horses, Fabre proved even more successful, first with jump horses then with flat racers. He has been the champion trainer in France on 24 occasions, including 21 straight years from 1987 to 2007, and is one of the most successful trainers in the world, winning across Europe and North America including four Breeders' Cup races. Among the many champions Fabre has trained are Trempolino, Peintre Celebre, and two horses ranked No. 1 in the world, Hurricane Run (2005) and Manduro (2007). Fabre fulfilled a lifelong ambition by finally wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
