France: Renew Grand Prix on Sunday Card, Daily Racing Form, 1954-06-26

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France Renew Grand Prix On Sunday Card GODOLPHIN-DARLEY Paris Correspondent, Daily Racing Form PARIS, Prance. The Grand Prix de Paris is Sundays big event at Longchamp and the climax of the 3-year-old season. The whole card is sub- sidized by the National Lottery which runs a sweepstake on the Grand Prix de Paris. First prizes amount to well over 00,000. The added money in the classic itself is 5,000, the winner to receive 7,000 plus 75 per cent of the stakes. Each one of the five other races on the same card may be considered stakes with engagements closed on June 8. Two of these are for three-year-olds and upward at one mile and at one mile, 275 yards; two others are handicaps, one for three and ups and one mile and a half, the other for three-year-olds only at one mile and a sixteenth. The remaining event is a five-furlong dash for two-year-olds, the first minor stake of the season for that generation. There will be no foreign invader in Sundays ! Grand Prix line-up though there I I were 38 nominations from London, 10 from Dublin and 29 from Rome among the 706 registered in November 1952, when the horses were yearlings. This is the 92nd running of the Grand Prix de Paris, originally subsidized by the then private railway companies and the Paris Municipality. In 1863, the conditions, unchanged since, made the event open to all horses of any breed from any country, though none but thoroughbreds have ever started in the classic. For a long while, all the French racing was generally limited to thoroughbreds foaled in France. The Grand Prix de Paris was one of the few major international events of the continent. Prior to World War I., It was the richest event in the world and the winner received then about 2,000 in gold. Horses from all parts of Europe have tried to pick up the rich reward. The latest foreign winner was in 1938 when Nearco, from Italy beat Canot and Bois Roussel. The favorite Sunday undoubtedly will be Lawdy L. Lawrences Le Petit Prince, recent brilliant winner of the Prix du Jockey Club, or French Derby at a mile and a half. The distance of one mile, seven furlongs, which many of the runners will be covering for the first time will test the stamina to the utmost. Le Petit Prince should not experience much trouble in that respect, since his sire, Prince Bio, is already responsible for two previous winners of the event in Sicambre in 1951 and Northern Light in 1953. The winner by a head at Ascot, Bous-sacs colt Elpenor, is by Owen Tudor, winner in. 1952 of the same event, out of Liberation, whose dam is by Bahram, and is a half-sister to Pharis by Pharos, being also out of Carissima, by Clarissi- mus. Silex is by Sir Fellah, out of Rari-tfhfcBelle, by Casterari, out of Karabelle, by Ptolemy. His three-year-old full sister, Rabella, was unlucky in the Oaks at Epsom, being interfered with. French racing is honored each year by the President of the Republic, who, in company with Madame Rene Coty, was the guest at Auteuil last Saturday for the Grand Steeplechase de Paris, six miles, one furlong, 25 jumps, 7,500 added. Favorite in the field of 14 was Courtois six-year-old gelding Burlador and the stable entry the five-year-old mare Lissa. Next in the betting was the seven-year-old gelding Orleans, whose connections were not too hopeful because the chaser is of the type that must go out in front and run fast, and to do so and win over four miles is more than tough. Orleans gave a. wonderful display and proved he was the best chaser in France, winning in great style with the master rider Paul Peraldi in the saddle. At the start. Orleans, without hesitation, went to the front as for a very fast two-mile chase, gradually increasing his advantage to some 80 to 100 yjrds and at the same time comnHm; his rivals to increase their nace. Orleans took tb f?rst water .ip" an1 he nio fences well a"ad Of t1" fil; After second water jumn. pniv one V"er. th. n"re T.ia, was aJ tn. n" afer f T" Tar fH at th br"V. A mii from hnnc, . JLissa, closed, on, Orleans,, whojeyen let her go into the lead. Some 20 lengths away Jack and Quito II. were desperately trying to gain ground. Lissa jumped the Bull Finch first, a half mile from the finish, but. was then unable to withstand" Orleans final rush and the gelding went on to a comf ortable win with the mare a real good second. Then came more or less exhausted -by the hot pace, Jack, Quito II., Spanky, Burlador, Radium, Le Magni-fique and Caddetou. The five had fallen or were pulled up. Burlador had the excuse of his rider spraining his thumb shortly after the start. Despite the rain and heavy going at Chantilly, it is difficult to go against the result of the French Derby, and the chief rivals to Le Petit Prince appear to be the runner-up Antares and Sica Boy. R. B. Strassburger was so pleased with the way the jockey M. Quemet handled Antares that he took this rider on a retainer as first jockey, on the condition that Quemet would give up riding over jumps. In passing this is another of the many instances when flat race jockeys in Paris have achieved top ranks in their profession after a period of horsemanship over jumps. Sica Boy, perhaps not the mudder he was thought to be, may display his wonderful turn of foot on the better going at Longchamp for the heavy footing at Chantilly is not expected to prevail here. Other colts, such as Beigler Bey, Le Grand Bi or Popof may have been more upset than really beaten on merit. However, the chief challenge is awaited from the fillies, either Tahiti or Uptala, first and third in the Prix de Diane or from Sun Cap, winner by six lengths of the Oaks at Epsom. A tradition was renewed at Ascot during the last Royal meeting when two French horses, Marcel Boussacs Elpenor and Georges Courtois Silex, fought out a photo finish in the two and one -half mile Gold Cup. Other French contestors were Talma, fourth; Northern Light, seventh, and Le Bourgeois ancf Terek in a field of 11 runners. Since the post war renewal of trans-channel relations the Ascot Gold Cup was won by Caracalla in 1946, Souverain in 1947, Arbar in 1948, Pan in 1951 and the French-bred exported Aquino II. in 1952. Also, second and third money was won by French invaders more often than not. The finish at Ascot is a confirmation of the May form demonstrated at Longchamp in the French equivalent, the Prix du Cadran, Cpntmued on Pqge Fif ly-Three " - - ! - Report From France I By GODOLPHIN BARLEY Continued from Page Six over the same distance. In Paris Silex was the winner by a neck from Elpenor. The winner Orleans was led into the ring looking fresh and ready for another round. The geldings success is largely due to his trainer, Valere Feraldi, and to the trainers son, Paul Peraldi, prob-. ably our foremost brush rider, who rides the gelding at home every day. The gelding was picked up by his present owner, Bene Nachbamn, in a claiming hurdle race early last year for ,300, but when he realized what he had bought he tried hard to pass it on to somebody else, but failed. Orleans was a rather good flat stake three-year-old and a top young jumper at four before breaking down. He was then fired and gelded, but developed stall walking and climbing and was a devil to take out for work. After a win, Orleans changed trainers and once in the two Peraldis hands he settled down and soon showed his real quality. Lissa was practically sold last summer for ,500 to an American owner and would be now racing in the U. S., but for the general strike last August in France. Lissa showed improving form this spring over the big jumps, winning and placing in the best company at Auteuil. Auteuil is a most popular course and has been described as equivalent in Paris to a track laid nut in Central Park. All the various enclosures were densly populated for the big chase, and. the five other chasing events. Ontlie card which excludes flat-racing. Jumping, fences and hurdling, in Paris, different from England or Ireland and also the States, is the little mans game compared with flat racing where the big breeder-owners rule the roost. Jumping is also the natural outlet for horses who race on the turf. If turf racing is expanded in the States jumping races should also be developed, particularly to cater to the same type of horse. Racing en turf also will bring about different methods of riding and training, more in line with those existing over here on the Continent. On the other hand jumping develops horsemen and we have noticed that among the younger French trainers the best are those in their riding days were well schooled over jumps and successful in that branch of the sport. Comte Gaston Niel, elevated fromfirst steward to president of the Societe dEncouragement, will retain his office as president of the Federation Nationale des Societes de Courses, which was until now the post of the first steward. Marquis de Fraguier is now ,f irst steward, assisted by -Gabriel Brun and Hubert de Chaudenay, stewards.


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800