Arenberg History: Youngsters back on the speeding trail

September, ParisLongchamp

Prix d’Arenberg

Group 3, 2-year-olds, 1,000m/5f, €56,000

Created in 1911 (as the Prix des Coteaux)

Last winner: Kalahara (f2, GB by Frankel ex Désertiste, by Green Desert), owned by Wertheimer&Frère, bred by Wertheimer&Frère, trained by Christophe Ferland, ridden by Maxime Guyon.

Record-time: 55''8, Kalahara (2020)

The race is run in 2021 for the 103rd time

The 2020 edition

Thursday, September 3, 2020, ParisLongchamp. - Contested this year over 5 furlongs at ParisLongchamp, the Prix d'Arenberg (Gr3) went to the French-trained filly Kalahara (Frankel), who defeated the odds-on American favourite Wink (Midshipman), until then undefeated. It was he first attempt at this level. Bred by Wertheimer & Frère and trained by Christophe Ferland, the filly was competing in her fourth race and had just won in a maiden contested in Deauville over 6 furlongs lately.

Here, after a slowish start, she came back training the field, came by the leaders about 300 yards out and finally took over Wink, who was trying to escape and hang on. Kalahara dominated the leader, despite constantly leaning to her left, and won by a length.

The first to challenge Wink, Livachope (Goken) stayed on in third, beating her stablemate Axdavali (Goken).

Bred by her owners, Wertheimer & Frère, Kalahara is out of Désertiste (Green Desert), winner of two races and a full sister to the good sprinter Only Answer, and also out of Occupandiste (Kaldoun), who foaled several Group winners and herself won the Prix de la Forêt (Gr1) and the Prix Maurice de Gheest (Gr1). Occupandiste is also the second dam of the famed sire Intello (Galileo).

In the process, Kalahara has settled a new race record in 55''8. Here's the sectional timing of the race.

History

This race, aimed at 2-year-olds, was founded in October 1911 at Longchamp, originally under the name of the Prix des Coteaux. In 1925, it became the Prix d'Arenberg in order to celebrate the memory of a former chairman of the Société d'Encouragement, Prince Auguste d'Arenberg.

Not run between 1914 and 1919 (due to war) or in 1939 and 1998 (due to budget cuts), the Prix d'Arenberg has had six different venues :

• Longchamp from 1911 to 1938, in 1941 and 1942, from 1945 to 1974, from 1983 to 1993, in 2015 and in 2020. 
• Auteuil over 4 ½ furlongs in 1940. Maisons-Laffitte in 1943, 1994, 2002 and 2003.
• Le Tremblay in 1944.
• Evry in 1996.
• Chantilly from 1975 to 1982, in 1995, from 1997 to 2001, from 2004 to 2018, except in 2015.

Its distance has changed only slightly: 5 ½ furlongs from 1911 to 1920, 5 furlongs from 1921 to 1993, and 5.5 furlongs from 1994 to 2014, and over 5 furlongs since then.

The best winners of the race could be Ecouen (1912), Roselys (1913), Epinard (1922), Heldifann (1923), Licteur (1926), Xander (1927), La Fayette (1928), Shining Tor (1933), Mistress Ford (1935), Emir d’Iran (1938), Fanatique (1942), Sayani (1945), Le Lavandou (1946, dead-heat), Damnos (1947), Cardanil (1949), Djelfa (1950), Pomaré (1951), Vamarie (1953), Reinata (1954), Polic (1955), Texana (1957), Ginetta (1958), Barbaresque (1959), L’Epinay (1960), Texanita (1963), Polyfoto (1964), Zeddaan (1967), Don II (1968), Deep Diver (1971), Sigy (1978), Adraan (1979), Sicyos (1983), Last Tycoon (1985), Ravinella (1957), Zieten (1992), Pas de Réponse (1996).

Foreign winners

An Irish winner started the trend, named Skindles Hotel (1956). The Brits moved on with Polyfoto (1964), Deep Diver (1971), Hawkins (1977), Glancing (1981), Desert Dawn (1988), Regal Scintilla (1991). And then came the Europeans from Germany (Starkey in 1997), and Italy (Pleasure Place in 2002) and then more British-trained winners with Starlit Sands (2007), Triple Aspect (2008), Cay Verde (2012), Afandem (2016), Soldier’s Call (2018) and Al Raya (2019).

Auguste d'Arenberg (1837-1924)

His father Pierre d'Arenberg (1790-1877) was the descendant of a Dutch earl and a former staff-officer of Napoleon I who became a French citizen and was made a French peer in 1828 by Charles X. Prince Auguste d'Arenberg chaired the Suez Canal Company from 1896 to 1913 and he restored and enlarged the château de Menetou-Salon built by Jacques Cœur near Bourges. Admitted to the Jockey Club in 1860, he was appointed its vice-chairman in 1885. Elected a deputy member of the Société d'Encouragement’s committee in 1866, he became the chairman in 1897 and honorary chairman in 1920.

In 1867, he joined forces with Comte Gustave de Juigné, a leading landowner, who had set up a horse-breeding operation at the Bois-Rouaud stud farm forty kilometres from Nantes. Having previously focused on half-thoroughbreds, Bois-Rouaud extended his activities to thoroughbreds. Under shared colours (jersey with red and yellow circles, black cap), the two partners enjoyed some fine successes, the most notable of which came in 1877 courtesy of their charge Jongleur in the Prix du Jockey Club, Lupin, Royal Oak and the Cambridgeshire Handicap. For more detailed information on the stable’s horses (first trained by Henry Jennings, then by Charles Pratt), please refer to the Prix Juigné in the jumps racing section. While the horses generally ran under the name of the Comte de Juigné, for certain races, they were associated with the Prince d'Arenberg, such as Mantille (Grand Critérium 1877), Nogaret (Prix de Meautry 1888), together with three of the stable’s four horses that were victorious in the Prix du Jubilée (Grand Prix) at Baden Baden: Tantale in 1889, Yellow in 1890 and Perdican in 1892.

After the Comte de Juigné’s death in the autumn of 1900, the protégés of the “Juigné-d'Arenberg partnership" were dispersed via two auctions, the first for horses in training on 19 November 1900, and then the entire Bois-Rouaud breeding stock on 29 June 1901. Acquired for 3,000 F, a yearling named Dandolo (1899) was destined to win the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris twice (1904 and 1908) wearing the Eugène Fischhof colours.

Owners

• Famille Wertheimer (7 wins): Epinard (1922), La Fayette (1928) for Pierre, Greenway (1980) for Jacques, Pas de Réponse (1996), Iron Mask (2000), Yacaba (2015), Kalahara (2020) for Wertheimer&Frère.
• Marcel Boussac (5 wins): Xander (1927), Djerba (1946, dead-heat), Damnos (1947), Cardanil (1949), Djelfa (1950).
• François Dupré (4 wins): Reinata (1954), Polic (1955), Texana (1957), Texanita (1963).
• Edward Esmond (3 wins): Highborn (1925), Mistress Ford (1935), Shrew (1937).
• Aga Khan IV (3 wins): Farhana (1966), Zeddaan (1967), Adraan (1979).
• Mme Alec Head (3 wins): Diffusion (1975), Sigy (1978), Villadolide (2003).
   

Trainers

• Christiane Head (9 wins): Sigy (1978), Sicyos (1983), Ravinella (1987), Divine Danse (1990), Key of Luck (1993), Dorée (1994), Pas de Réponse (1996), Iron Mask (2000), Villadolide (2003).
• François Mathet (7 wins): Reinata (1954), Polic (1955), Texana (1957), Texanita (1963), Farhana (1966), Zeddaan (1967), Adraan (1979).
• Charles Semblat (4 wins): Djerba (1946, dead-heat), Damnos (1947), Cardanil (1949), Djelfa (1950).
• Frank Carter (3 wins): Highborn (1925), Mistress Ford (1935), Shrew (1937).
• Robert Collet (3 wins): Last Tycoon (1985), Headache (2005), Beauty is Truth (2006).
   

Riders

• Yves Saint-Martin (6 wins): Texanita (1963), ), Farhana (1966), Zeddaan (1967), Hawkins (1977), Adraan (1979), Last Tycoon (1985).
• Freddy Head (6 wins) : Enitram (1972), Sigy (1978), Greenway (1980), Sicyos (1983), Dorée (1994), Pas de Réponse (1996).
• Roger Poincelet (5 wins) : Djerba (1946, dead-heat), Damnos (1947), Cardanil (1949), L’Epinay (1960), Sturdy Man (1961).
• Maxime Guyon (4 wins): Restiadargent (2011), High Celebrity (2014), Yakaba (2015), Kalahara (2020).
• Guy Duforez (3 wins): Shining Stor (1933), Nugget (1941), Doge (1944).
• William Johnstone (3 wins): Bao Daï (1934), Sayani (1945), Kobus (1952).
• Charles Semblat (3 wins): Mistress Ford (1935), Ethiopie (1936), Shrew (1937).
• Guy Lequeux (3 wins): Reinata (1954), Polic (1955), Texana (1957).
• Gary-W. Moore (3 wins): Diffusion (1975), Ravinella (1987), Desert Dawn (1988).