ENGLISH TEXTS
the new sales agency Aktem will establish its headquarters on site for upcoming auctions already scheduled, could we soon see a new edition of the Critérium de Maisons-Laffitte( Gr. 2)? Before offering any answers, let’ s look back at the love story between Maisons and the horses.
To find the first links between the horse and Maisons-Laffitte, one must go back to the Comte d’ Artois, brother of Louis XVI, then owner of the château from 1777, who had the stables restored in 1779. These stables housed the Count’ s English stable. There were no races yet at the time, but there were“ matches” held in the Plaine des Salons in Neuilly-sur-Seine, in the park of the Château de Vincennes or near Fontainebleau. In 1818, the Maisons estate was acquired by banker Jacques Laffitte, who wished to make Maisons the city of racing. It would take until 7 June 1878, on the land of a neighbouring farm, to witness“ real” racing events at the racecourse created by Joseph Ollier, inventor of the PMU. That same year, in order to“ thank” Finance Minister Léon Say for his donation of 60,000 francs to the French trotting Horse Society, Maisons-Laffitte even staged trotting races! From 1878 to 1881, 76 race meetings were organised at Maisons-Laffitte, and until 1898, both the racecourse and the training centre underwent constant improvements. In that year, the racecourse received a new service stop on the Paris – Mantes line, triggering an explosion in attendance. 1889 – 1898 – 1899 – 1902: during these periods, numerous improvements were made to the site— tracks, weighing area, new starting methods. From 1908 to 1914, the beginning of the First World War, it was the training centre that underwent continuous redevelopment. As an anecdote, after hosting trotting races several times, the racecourse welcomed a number of Group 1 Flat races during the Second World War, including the renowned Poules d’ Essai, the Prix Morny and the Jacques Le Marois. In 1972, the“ city of the Horse” became one of the most modern equestrian capitals in Europe. This is therefore a story over two centuries long that binds the horse to Maisons-Laffitte. The racecourse can also pride itself on being the largest in the Île-de-France region and on having the longest straight line in Europe.
ÉDOUARD BOUTOLLEAU
BY MÉGANE MARTINS
DIRECTOR OF THE MAISONS-LAFFITTE TRAINING CENTER
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“ The Maisons-Laffitte training center was restructured in 2020, and major renovation work was carried out in 2021. The tracks were fitted with a draining base, which helps maintain good ground quality despite bad weather. All the obstacles at Fromainville were rebuilt, meeting expectations and providing a highly efficient turf training facility. The all-weather track has also been completely renewed. Since the restructuring, horses trained at Maisons-Laffitte have won at Group level in both disciplines, demonstrating the performance and attractiveness of the training center. Young and new trainers have recently settled in, such as Lucie Pontoir, Jérémy Da Silva, Florian Guyader and Jessica Dupont-Fahn, and have already recorded racing results. Nathan Vergne will also set up at the end of the year, and we regularly receive new requests. We can also continue to count on the center’ s established trainers, such as Gianluca Bietolini, Carlos & Yann Lerner or Yannick Fouin to name only a few. Overall, the momentum is very positive at the training center, which hosts 450 to 500 horses. Our aim is to continue improving it and to provide technological tools to our trainers. We have installed speed panels on certain tracks to give new reference points to trainers and riders and we are currently testing cameras that allow trainers to directly retrieve videos of canters on their smartphones. Access to the new racecourse track is an additional asset for training the horses. Maisons-Laffitte is generally very dynamic thanks to the various projects undertaken, such as the CIRE, a new rehabilitation center for horses initiated by Frédéric Hinderze. There is also a rehabilitation center for jockeys under construction, which will soon be operational with Doctor François Duforez, in partnership with the MGEN of Maisons-Laffitte.”
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