The Jockey Club de Paris is a traditional gentlemen's club and is regarded as the most prestigious of private clubs in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. It is best remembered as a gathering place of the elite of nineteenth-century French society. Today it is decidedly but not exclusively aristocratic. The club seat is at 2, rue Rabelais in Paris, near the Champs-Elysées and it hosts the International Federation of Racing Authorities. It has no more official links to the horse-racing industry organisations which are separate professional bodies.

Reciprocities with other clubs

* Circolo della Caccia (Rome) *

Knickerbocker Club The Knickerbocker Club (known informally as The Knick) is a gentlemen's club in New York City that was founded in 1871. It is considered to be the most exclusive club in the United States and one of the most aristocratic gentlemen's clubs in th ...

(New York) *

Metropolitan Club The Metropolitan Club of New York is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1891 for men only, but it was one of the first major clubs in New York to admit women, t ...

(Washington) * Turf Club (Lisbon) *

Cercle Royal du Parc The Cercle Royal du Parc is a Belgian gentlemen's club, located in Ixelles, with most members originating from nobility. History The Cercle Royal du Parc was founded in 1842 when a group of Belgicist noblemen left the Orangist Cercle de l'Union. ...

(Brussels) *

Boodle's Boodle's is a London gentlemen's club, founded in January 1762, at No. 50 Pall Mall, London, by Lord Shelburne, the future Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. History The club was originally based next door to Wi ...

(London) * Jockey Club für Österreich (Wien) * Turf Club (London) * Nuevo Club (Madrid) *

Somerset Club The Somerset Club is a private social club in Boston, Massachusetts, founded perhaps as early as 1826. It is a center of Boston Brahmin families - New England's upper class - and is known as one of the big four clubs in the country, the other th ...

(Boston) *

Pacific-Union Club The Pacific-Union Club is a social club located at 1000 California Street in San Francisco, California, at the top of Nob Hill. It is considered to be the most elite club of the West Coast, and one of the most elite clubs in the United States, a ...

(San Francisco) * Círculo de Armas (Buenos Aires) *

Australian Club The Australian Club is a private club founded in 1838 and located in Sydney at 165 Macquarie Street. Its membership is men-only and it is the oldest gentlemen's club in the southern hemisphere. "The Club provides excellent dining facilities, ...

(Sydney) * Melbourne Club (Melbourne) * New Club (Edinburgh) * Kildare Street & University Club (Dublin) * Società del Whist Accademia Filarmonica (Torino Italy)

History

The Jockey Club was originally organized as the "Society for the Encouragement of the Improvement of Horse Breeding in France", to provide a single authority for

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

in the nation, beginning at

Chantilly Chantilly may refer to: Places France *Chantilly, Oise, a city located in the Oise department **US Chantilly, a football club *Château de Chantilly, a historic château located in the town of Chantilly United States * Chantilly, Missou ...

in 1834. It swiftly became the center for the most ''sportifs'' or "sportsmen" gentlemen of ''le Tout-Paris.'' At the same time, when aristocrats and men of the ''

haute bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

'' still formed the governing class, its Anglo-Gallic membership could not fail to give it some political colour:

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

, who had passed some early exile in England, asserted that he had learned to govern an

empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

through "his intercourse with the calm, self-possessed men of the English turf". Between 1833 and 1860, the Jockey Club transformed the

Champ de Mars The Champ de Mars (; en, Field of Mars) is a large public greenspace in Paris, France, located in the seventh ''arrondissement'', between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after the ...

into a racecourse, which has since been transferred to Longchamp. One front of the

Café de la Paix The Café de la Paix () is a famous café located on the northwest corner of the intersection of the Boulevard des Capucines and the Place de l'Opéra, in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. Designed in the Nap ...

is in rue Scribe, which ends at the façade of the

Opéra Garnier The Palais Garnier (, Garnier Palace), also known as Opéra Garnier (, Garnier Opera), is a 1,979-seatBeauvert 1996, p. 102. opera house at the Place de l'Opéra in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was built for the Paris Opera from ...

. On the wall is a memorial plaque on the Hotel Scribe, at number 1, which records the former premises of the Jockey Club, which occupied luxurious quarters on the first floor from 1863 to 1913. During the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

and the Third Republic, the gentlemen of the Jockey Club held numerous boxes at the Opera ("many little suspended salons" in

Marcel Proust Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust (; ; 10 July 1871 – 18 November 1922) was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel ''In Search of Lost Time'' (''À la recherche du temps perdu''; with the previous Eng ...

's phrase), where the required ballet expected in every opera was never in the first act, when the Jockey Club would habitually still be at dinner. One result was the famous fiasco of the "Paris ''

Tannhäuser Tannhäuser (; gmh, Tanhûser), often stylized, "The Tannhäuser," was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and ...

''" of 1861, when

Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...

insisted on inserting the requisite ballet into the first act, placing it immediately after the overture to get it out of the way. The second act, when the members of the Jockey Club arrived to view their favourites in the

corps de ballet In ballet, the ''corps de ballet'' (; French for "body of the ballet") is the group of dancers who are not principal dancers or soloists. They are a permanent part of the ballet company and often work as a backdrop for the principal dancers. ...

, was all but hissed off the stage. Wagner never permitted another production in Paris. Proust made his fictional character

Charles Swann Charles Frederick Swann (6 August 1883 – 7 March 1960) was an English cricketer. Swann was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium-pace. He was born at Leyton, Essex. Swann made a single first-class appearance for Essex in 19 ...

a member of the Jockey Club as a signal honor, given Swann's Jewish background. On the ground floor beneath the Jockey Club was the fashionable Grand Café. There, on 28 December 1895, a stylish crowd in the ''Salon Indien'' attended the public début of the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: * Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, ...

' invention, the

cinematograph Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the Cin ...

. The Jockey Club is directed by an annually-elected committee of a president, four vice-presidents and twenty-five members. New members are sponsored by two current members and must receive five-sixths of the members' votes present at the ballot. Hence 'No' votes, called black-balls require five 'Yes' votes, or white balls to be countered. Black and white balls are no more in use but for vocabulary.

Presidents

* Lord Henry Seymour (1805–1859): 1834–1835 * M. Anne-Édouard de Normandie : 1835–1836 *

Napoléon Joseph Ney Napoléon Joseph Ney, 2nd Prince de la Moskowa, (1803–1857) was a French politician. Ney was the elder son of Michel Ney. Born in Paris in 1803, his godfather was Napoleon I of France, Emperor Napoléon I. He married in 1828 the daughter of th ...

, prince de la Moskova (1803–1857): 1836–1849 * Comte Achille Joseph Delamare: 1849–1853 * Armand de Gontaut-Biron, marquis de Saint Blancard (1839–1884) : 1853–1884 * Sosthènes de La Rochefoucauld, duc de Doudeauville (1825–1908) : 1884–1908 * Aymeri, duc de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1843–1913) : 1908–1913 * Comte Elie d'Avaray : 1913–1919 * Armand de la Rochefoucauld, duc de Doudeauville:Son of Sosthènes de La Rochefoucauld. 1919–1962 * Philippe, duc de Luynes : 1962–1977 * Pierre de Cossé, duc de Brissac : 1977–1985 * Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld, duc d'Estissac : 1985–1997 *

François de Cossé François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, King ...

, duc de Brissac : 1997–2014 * Roland du Luart, marquis du Luart : 2014–present

Prix du Jockey Club

Under the patronage of the Jockey Club, the ''

Prix du Jockey Club The Prix du Jockey Club, sometimes referred to as the French Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in France open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Chantilly over a ...

'' (1,500,000 euros) has been run at the

Chantilly Racecourse Chantilly Racecourse (In French: "Hippodrome de Chantilly") is a Thoroughbred turf racecourse for flat racing in Chantilly, Oise, France, about north of the centre of the city of Paris. Chantilly Racecourse is located in the country's main hors ...

(at the foot of the

Château de Chantilly The Château de Chantilly () is a historic French château located in the town of Chantilly, Oise, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Paris. The site comprises two attached buildings: the Petit Château built around 1560 for Anne de Montmor ...

) on the first Sunday in June since 1836. The race at the ''Hippodrome de Chantilly'' is the proving-ground of the best of the three-year-olds, the French equivalent of The Derby at

Epsom Downs Epsom Downs is an area of chalk upland near Epsom, Surrey; in the North Downs. Part of the area is taken up by the racecourse, the gallops are part of the land purchased by Stanly Wootton in 1925 and are open to users such as ramblers, model ...

or the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

in the USA. Until 2004, the course was 2400 meters; since then, it has been run at 2100 meters. In France, only the ''

Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is a Group 1 flat horse race in France open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, France, over a distance ...

'' has a richer purse (5,000,000 euros); that race was inaugurated by the Jockey Club in 1863 as the Grand Prix de Paris, and run at the

Hippodrome de Longchamp 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 tr ...

. The racecourse was painted by

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

, and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, among others.

Notes

{{Reflist

References

''Les célébrités de la rue'', (1868): "Isabelle, la bouquetière du Jockey-Club"