ENGLISH TEXTS it creates areas of compaction and you separate the elements of this ‘ paste ’ that is the all-weather surface , you break it up .“ The track then has to be “ recompacted “ so that it recovers its binding and technical qualities . This is done using three different machines , including the Rotospike , which mixes the track very slowly . Treating the entire Chantilly all-weather track takes a whole week for two employees . “ It ’ s not just a matter of giving it a quick harrow ,“ says Marin Le Cour Grandmaison . “ The draining asphalt laid under the track is extremely fragile and the slightest snag would damage it . So we start by surveying the entire track to measure its thickness and decide on a treatment depth that will preserve the asphalt .“ At Chantilly , the site manager ’ s mission is not only concerned with the racecourse ’ s all-weather track , but also with the five all-weather tracks at the training centre , used by two thousand five hundred horses .
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By Emmanuel Roussel
WERTHEIMER & FRÈRE : A TIMELESS CLASSIC
The blue and white silks of the Wertheimer stable , headed since
1996 by the two brothers Alain and Gérard , are among the oldest and most famous in France . From its thundering debut just before the First World War to the present day , it has retained all the lessons and applied their teachings in the organisation of an armada that manages , year after year , to hold its own in an activity , the breeding of Thoroughbreds , which remains eminently unpredictable ...
The Wertheimer silks were registered in 1911 by Pierre Wertheimer . Nine years later , the elegant white and blue banner was known to all racegoers , who then numbered in the tens of millions in France only . This was all down to a phenomenal chestnut : Epinard . At the age of 2 , in 1922 , he won six races in nine weeks , including the equivalent of two Gr . 1s and a Gr . 2 in today ’ s terms . He only failed in the “ Morny “, where he was left at the start ... At 3 , madness took over . Epinard ran in two major handicaps in England : the Stewards ’ Cup , which he won , and the Cambridgeshire , which he lost by a short head under 58 kilos . He had previously also won the Prix d ’ Ispahan , over 1,850 metres , and had therefore also won that season over 1,000 , 1,100 , 1,200 and 1,600m . The following year , in 1924 , he was 4 years old . This time , it was America , the country of his trainer , Eugene Leigh ! He crossed the Pond by boat , losing an estimated 40lbs in the process , to compete in three races were created for the occasion . He had to face the local elite , seasoned opponents on their favourite distances and surface . He got beaten each time , but he was adopted by the American public because he proved to be an exceptional fighter . The US breeders soon wanted to have him at their disposal . He made several trips back and forth between the two continents until his passing , in
1942 in France . Pierre Wertheimer managed the career of his champion like a show business manager , with panache and without refusing any challenge . Champion though he was , Epinard might never have made such a mark on people ’ s memories without these extravagant tours in terra incognita . The lesson of this story : it is in the permanent challenge that racing earns its place in the hearts of the public . However , thirty years later , the Wertheimer silks won the Epsom Derby with Lavandin , a descendant of Epinard trained by Alec Head , but they still hadn ’ t reached the French podium as breeder or owner , until 1969 , in 3 rd place . Three years later , in 1972 , they won their first owners ’ title . Pierre Wertheimer had passed away in 1965 , and it was his wife who continued the stable ’ s success with Roi Lear ’ s Jockey Club ( 1973 ), followed by the great successes of Lyphard and Riverman in 1978 , also great sires at stud , under the leadership of Jacques Wertheimer , Pierre ’ s son . From then on , the Wertheimer family ’ s place was assured in the French rankings , first as owners , then also as breeders , with a first title in 1978 , which was also the year of a first breeder-owner double . The “ Epinard Century “, the name of a book of memories of horse racing between the wars , was followed by a 21 st century that saw the chestnut ’ s stable prosper . In 1994 , the Wertheimer were 3 rd as breeders and owners . In 2024 , they are leading in both categories for the second consecutive year , but of those who were with them in the French top 10 thirty years ago , only the Aga Khan and Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum , now under the Godolphin banner , remain . The others have disappeared or taken a step back .
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