ENGLISH VERSION appearance of a Group 1 race, the Prix Lupin— despite its illustrious roll of honor— and eventually to the dismantling of the traditional classic route leading to the Prix du Jockey Club, with the Prix Noailles, Greffulhe and Hocquart successively losing their Group 2 status to become Group 3 races. All roads now lead to the Prix du Jockey Club, including indirect ones, without anyone really knowing how to make sense of it all. One of the aims of the restructuring, it was said at the time, was to create a“ French Triple Crown,” progressing from the 1,600 meters of the Poule d’ Essai des Poulains in May to the newly assigned 2,400 meters of the Grand Prix de Paris in July, via the 2,100 meters of the Prix du Jockey Club in June. A futile hope, as no horse has achieved— or even attempted— this treble in the past twenty years. Nevertheless, the first winner of the new-format Prix du Jockey Club was Shamardal, carrying the blue jacket and blue cap of Godolphin, for whom it remains, to date, the stable’ s only triumph in our Derby. Shamardal, in his own way, completed a form of Triple Crown, since he already had the Poule d’ Essai des Poulains in his record and was about to add, ten days later over the same mile distance, the St. James’ s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot. Between the two, he had indeed won the“ Jockey Club,” but without truly proving himself over the classic distance, leaving a sense of unfinished business.
Sidebar The First“ Jockey Club,” Initiated by“ Milord l’ Arsouille” The creation of the Prix du Jockey Club dates back to 1836, under the impetus of Lord Henry Seymour. The idea was to create the equivalent of the Epsom Derby, run in England since 1780 and crowning the best three-year-old. Moreover, the race took its name from the British Jockey Club, which had governed racing there since the middle of the eighteenth century and from which many French racing organizers took inspiration. At the same time, a fashionable club bearing the same name was founded in Paris, with Lord Henry Seymour as its first president. The Prix du Jockey Club was therefore initially the result of a form of sponsorship and patronage orchestrated by the Société d’ Encouragement pour l’ Amélioration des Races de Chevaux en France. The chosen venue was Chantilly Racecourse and the distance was fixed at 2,500 meters, soon reduced to 2,400 meters in echo of the Epsom course. Lord Henry Seymour’ s horses Frank, Lydia and Vendredi became the race’ s first three winners, much to the delight of their enthusiastic and eccentric owner, a flamboyant dandy who was not nicknamed“ Milord l’ Arsouille” for nothing, even if legend probably exceeds reality in this case. An Englishman living in France, Lord Seymour was in fact passionate about sports, challenges and feats, remarkably skilled with sword and pistol, a discipline in which he was reputedly able to split a cigar in two while it was held in the mouth of a rider at full gallop( Editor’ s note: anecdote reported by Pierre Jotreau in Les sabots de la gloire, Editions Ramsay, Paris, 1981). More seriously, Seymour played a leading role in the development of flat racing in France, extending beyond the Prix du Jockey Club itself to the emergence of Longchamp Racecourse. In short,“ Milord l’ Arsouille” is nothing less than a tutelary figure of our sport.
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THE PRIX DE DIANE: NOT QUITE THE SAME, NOT QUITE ANOTHER
The history of the Prix de Diane is only slightly less ancient and just as colourful as that of the Prix du Jockey Club. Both races will soon celebrate two centuries of existence and, inevitably, there is no shortage of stories to tell. There are the great silks of the Prix de Diane, just as there are in the Prix du Jockey Club. They are, in part, the same silks, but serving a history that unfolds differently. Every sporting adventure has its own character and uniqueness. That is precisely what makes it so fascinating and appealing.
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