ENGLISH TEXTS
years now. It must be getting a bit repetitive for him, but without him I wouldn’ t be nearly as sharp.”
— John Gosden
“ From two stages and 20,000 festivalgoers in 1999, when we first started, we’ ve now grown to six stages and 250,000 attendees.”
— Raymond Lopez
“ In fact, if there were a record for hours spent on the mechanical horse, Clément would be a serious contender!”
— Nicolas Lefebvre
“ The Diane is the hardest race to win— and the most prestigious.”
— Peter Brant
HEADLINE
NEWS
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They are breeders, owners, trainers, jockeys, or thoroughbred horses, and they have made the news this season. We will therefore give a voice to each of them. Every month in our upcoming editions, we will introduce you to our lucky winners.
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OWNER
PETER BRANT, THE WINNER ATTITUDE
By Emmanuel Rivron
Struck in his youth by the horse racing bug, Peter Brant has a knack for backing the right horse, as he’ s proven time and again. By setting his sights on Gezora at the end of last year, the American investor hit the jackpot in mid-June, etching his name into the history of the Prix de Diane Longines( Gr. 1). A triumph worthy of a true competitor at heart.
“ All my life, I’ ve hated losing, that’ s for sure,” Peter Brant told The New York Times back in 2010. To avoid defeat in the world of horse racing as much as possible, the businessman behind White Birch Farm has spared no effort, as evidenced by the recent crowning of his green silks in the Prix de Diane Longines.“ The Diane is the toughest and most prestigious race to win,” he told Paris-Turf just minutes after the masterpiece delivered by Gezora in that much-coveted Group 1. Deeply attached to French racing since the 1970s, this avid contemporary art collector was particularly eager to add this Group 1 to his trophy case. Already in 2017, Peter Brant had made headlines by purchasing Sistercharlie after her victory in the Prix
Pénélope( Gr. 3). Crossing the Atlantic without attempting the Prix de Diane Longines was out of the question. Despite a troubled trip down the stretch, the daughter of Myboycharlie had flown home late, narrowly missing out to Senga. While Senga never won another race, Sistercharlie went on to a brilliant career, racking up seven Group 1 wins in the U. S., including the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and the Diana Stakes at Saratoga— if not the coveted Chantilly prize. Buoyed by Sistercharlie’ s success— and just as he once did when acquiring numerous Andy Warhol works— Peter Brant remained loyal to her maternal family, acquiring her siblings as well: My Sister Nat, a dual Group winner under his colors in the U. S., and, most notably, the yearling Sottsass, who would go on to win the 2020 Qatar Prix de l’ Arc de Triomphe( Gr. 1) before retiring to stud. A true horse lover, Peter Brant had already enjoyed major success in the 1990s as the breeder of Thunder Gulch, winner of the 1995 Kentucky Derby. Yet despite such prestige, the former classmate of a certain Donald Trump stepped away from horse racing for some twenty years to fully devote himself to polo with his White Birch Farm team. Returning to racing in 2016— most notably through the acquisition of several Wildenstein broodmares— the New York-based sep-
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