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Prix D'Harcourt
The Prix d'Harcourt is a Group 2 flat horse race in France open to thoroughbreds aged four years or older. It is run over a distance of 2,000 metres (about 1¼ miles) at Longchamp in April. History The event is named in memory of Emmanuel d'Harcourt (1844–1928), a former president of the Société d'Encouragement. It was established in 1929, and was originally contested over 2,400 metres. The Prix d'Harcourt was held at Auteuil in 1940, and at Maisons-Laffitte in 1943 and 1944. On the latter occasion its distance was 2,000 metres. The race's distance was changed to 2,150 metres in 1946. It was cut to 2,100 metres in 1953, and to 2,000 metres in 1958. It reverted to 2,100 metres in 1961, and was extended to 2,200 metres in 1969. The event was formerly staged a few weeks after the Prix Ganay. The dates of the two races were interchanged in 1971, and from this point the Prix d'Harcou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Longchamp Racecourse
The Longchamp Racecourse (french: Hippodrome de Longchamp) is a 57 hectare horse-racing facility located on the Route des Tribunes at the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, France. It is used for flat racing and is noted for its variety of interlaced tracks and a famous hill that provides a real challenge to competing thoroughbreds. It has several racetracks varying from 1,000 to 4,000 metres in length, with 46 different starting posts. The course is home to more than half of the group one races held in France, and it has a capacity of 50,000. The highlight of the calendar is the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Held on the first weekend in October, the event attracts the best horses from around the world. History The first race run at Longchamp was on Sunday, April 27, 1857, in front of a massive crowd. The Emperor Napoleon III and his wife Eugénie were present, having sailed down the Seine River on their private yacht to watch the third race. Until 1930, many Parisians came to the track ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horse Trainer
A horse trainer is a person who tends to horses and teaches them different disciplines. Some of the responsibilities trainers have are caring for the animals' physical needs, as well as teaching them submissive behaviors and/or coaching them for events, which may include contests and other riding purposes. The level of education and the yearly salary they can earn for this profession may differ depending on where the person is employed. History Domestication of the horse, Horse domestication by the Botai culture in Kazakhstan dates to about 3500 BC. Written records of horse training as a pursuit has been documented as early as 1350 BC, by Kikkuli, the Hurrian "master horse trainer" of the Hittite Empire. Another source of early recorded history of horse training as a discipline comes from the Ancient Greece, Greek writer Xenophon, in his treatise On Horsemanship. Writing circa 350 BC, Xenophon addressed Horse training, starting young horses, selecting older animals, and proper Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Collet
Robert Collet (born 6 May 1948 in Chantilly, Oise) is a French thoroughbred racehorse trainer. Robert Collet was one of the first European trainers to win a Breeders' Cup race when he won the 1986 edition of the Breeders' Cup Mile at Hollywood Park Racetrack with Last Tycoon. In 1987, Collet achieved the extraordinary feat of winning three Group one races on three different continents with the same horse when Le Glorieux captured the Deutschland-Preis in Europe, the Washington, D.C. International in North America and the Japan Cup The is one of the most prestigious horse races in Japan. It is contested on the last Sunday of November, post time of 15:40 at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu, Tokyo at a distance of 2400 meters (about miles) run under weight for age conditions with ... in Asia. Robert Collet's son Rodolphe "Rod" Collet, is also a successful racehorse trainer. References Robert Collet at the NTRA 1948 births Living people People from Chantilly, Oise French hors ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Sobell
Sir Michael Sobell (1 November 1892 – 1 September 1993) was a British businessman, a major philanthropist, and a prominent owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses. Family and childhood Sobel (from 1946, Sobell"Sobell, Sir Michael (1892–1993)", Richard Davenport-Hines, ODNB, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/53329, accessed 2019-05-10) was born in Boryslav, Galicia, into a Jewish family; he was the only son of Lewis Sobel and his wife, Esther. His family owned factories in the Austro-Hungarian empire and oil interests at Limburg in Germany, but his parents moved to England in 1903 to escape antisemitism. The family settled in Dalston, east London, where Lewis Sobell set up as a confectioner. From 1903 Michael Sobell attended the Central Foundation Boys' School on Cowper Street in Finsbury. He married his wife Anne in 1917. Business career At the age of sixteen, with money provided by his father, he set up as an importer of fancy leather accessories. He and his father su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce McNall
Bruce Patrick McNall (born April 17, 1950) is an American former Thoroughbred racehorse owner, sports executive, and convicted felon who once owned the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). McNall claimed to have made his initial fortune as a coin collector, though Metropolitan Museum of Art director Thomas Hoving claimed he smuggled art antiquities as the partner of Robert E. Hecht. In the 1980s McNall produced several Hollywood movies, including '' The Manhattan Project'' and ''Weekend at Bernie's''. McNall bought a 25 percent stake in the Kings from Jerry Buss in 1986, and bought an additional 24 percent in 1987 to become the team's largest shareholder. He was named team president that September, and purchased Buss' remaining shares in March 1988. He then shocked the sports world on August 9, 1988 when he acquired the NHL's biggest star, Wayne Gretzky, along with Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Zilber
Maurice Zilber (c. 1920 – 21 December 2008) was a French thoroughbred horse trainer born and raised in Cairo, Egypt to a Turkish mother and a French- Hungarian father. He trained horses in Egypt from 1946 to 1962, and then moved to France where he worked for another 43 years. Based at the Chantilly Racecourse in France, Maurice Zilber conditioned horses for some of the leading owners such as Serge Fradkoff, Daniel Wildenstein, Nelson Bunker Hunt and in later years, Prince Khalid Abdullah. His horses competed across Europe and in 1976 he accomplished the rare feat of training the winner of both the English Derby and the French Derby. Maurice Zilber also regularly brought horses to North America to compete in major grass races such as the Canadian International Championship Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Canada and the Washington, D.C. International Stakes at Laurel Park Racecourse in the United States. Zilber won the Canadian International a record-tying three times and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alain Lequeux
Alain Lequeux (1947 – 26 April 2006) was one of France's leading jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...s in the 1970s and 1980s. He won 33 Group or Grade 1 races, including the 1981 Washington, D.C. International Stakes aboard Providential for trainer Charlie Whittingham. Son of leading French rider Guy Lequeux, he won more than 2,000 races while riding in France from 1963 to 1992. He won the 1974 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (Fr-G1) (French One Thousand Guineas) with Dumka, and the 1979 St. Leger Stakes (Eng-G1) with Son of Love (Fr). A noted gourmet, following his retirement from racing the popular and personable Lequeux owned and operated the Cafe Lequeux in Chantilly, Oise, Chantilly not far from the Chantilly Racecourse. He died in hospital at Senlis, Ois ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Argument (horse)
Argument (7 February 1977 – after 1996) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In his early racing career he showed consistent form and was placed in several important races, but showed marked improvement in the autumn of 1980. He was considered an unlucky loser when narrowly beaten in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and then traveled to the United States where he won the Washington, D.C. International Stakes. At the end of the year he was officially the best racehorse trained in France. In the following spring he won the Prix d'Harcourt and Prix Ganay but his form deteriorated thereafter and he was beaten in his remaining six races. He made no impact as a sire of winners. Background Argument was a dark-coated bay horse with a white coronet on his right hind foot bred in France by Pierre Ribes. Argument was by far the best horse sired by Kautokeino, who won the Prix Juigné on his debut before his racing career was ended by injury when finishing third to Sassafras in t ... [...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 for ... [...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' Cup ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Three Troikas
Three Troikas (foaled 1976) was a French Thoroughbred champion racehorse who was owned, trained, and raced by three members of the famous Head family. The highlight of her career came in an impressive victory in the 1979 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe where she defeated Troy among others. She would be crowned Champion 3yo of Europe in the same year. Early life Three Troikas' sire, Lyphard had been a very talented miler for Alec Head winning the Prix de la Forêt and Prix Jacques Le Marois but he had not handled the unique course or the trip when attempting The Derby at Epsom in 1972. Her dam was the Irish mare, Three Roses which was foaled in County Limerick and trained on The Curragh by Mick Connolly. She was by the unfashionable sire Dual, who stood for 48 guineas and whose chief attraction lay in him being out of a half sister to Meld. Despite being a big filly, Three Roses had a very busy juvenile career in Ireland, winning two races including the Park Stakes at the Phoe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
