Président de la République Chase history: The French National

Président de la République Handicap Chase

Group 3, 5-year-olds and more, Steeple-Chase, 4,700m/2m7 1/2f, €225,000

Created in 1895

Last winner: Road Mix Tavel (f7 FRA by Al Namix ex Blue Road, by Grape Tree Road), owned by Jean-Luc Pignet, bred by Jean-Luc & Chantal Pignet, trained by Daniela Mele, ridden by Dylan Salmon.

The race is run in 2023 for the 124th time

The 2022 edition

Sunday, April 3rd, 2022, Auteuil Racecourse (Paris). - Second last year in the Montgomery Handicap Chase (Gr3), the €225,000 Prix du Président de la République (French Grand National, Gr3) equivalent run in the Autumn, 7-year-old mare Road Mix Tavel (Al Namix) fell twice after that and she was returning from a 126 days leave. No wonder she was offered at 37/1 as the starter lifted the gate for this 3-miler. Moreover, she was ridden by 21-years-old Dylan Salmon, who’d never won at Auteuil, nor jumped the most formidable obstacles of the wide chasing course at Auteuil. However, these two were the ones flying away after the last to score over the AQPS Furie d’Ainay (Cokoriko), who led most of the race and finished at 8 lengths, beating a brave Captain Speaking (Linda’s lad), who stayed on despite a few mistakes.

Trained by Daniela Mele, the winning mare was bred by Jean-Luc and Chantal Pignet in Normandy. It was her 23rd race. She started her career in November at 3 with a third-place at Compiegne over hurdles. Out for more than a year between 2019 and 2020, she always made the frame in chases, except twice, when she fell last season early in two consecutive handicaps …

Road Mix Tavel is the second foal out of Blue Road (Grape Tree Road), a winner over hurdles at Auteuil for trainer Guy Cherel and owner Magalen Bryant. She also gave a 6-year-old gelding, Raf Tavel (Al Namix), winner over hurdles at Compiègne exported to Britain. Then Blue Road gave a Hurricane Cat filly still unraced, a Cockney Rebel 4-year-old filly pulled up last year for her only outing, at Moulins, and a 3-year-old filly by Top Trip.

The second dam Bleu d’Avril (Pistolet Bleu) was placed in the Wild Monarch 3-year-old Fillies Hurdle (L). She’s a sister to the good chaser in Britain Royal Auclair (Garde Royale) and to the dam of Don Mirande, a winner of the Troytown Chase (Gr3).

History

With the successful creation of the Prix Montgomery in 1892 – an “international steeplechase" run during the autumn in the form of a handicap and offering a 50,000-F reward to the winner – the Société des Steeple-Chases de France decided in 1895 to organise an identical race in the spring. Christened the Prix du Président de la République, the race was inserted into the racing calendar on Easter Monday. The first edition on 14 April 1895 attracted twenty horses and must have satisfied the handicapper, as the first three, Darling, Fleuron and Bayan, finished separated by just a short head and a neck. It also lived up to the expectations of the public, who for decades had been clamouring to see the thrills and spills of a race chock-a-block with starters. Consequently, this Easter meeting became the most popular at Auteuil after the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris and one of the most profitable for the coffers of the Société des Steeples. Moreover, the regular presence at the event of the President of the Republic up until the Second World War constituted an additional attraction for race-goers.

Originally open to horses aged 4 and over, the Prix du Président de la République excluded 4 year-olds from 1941. It was not held from 1915 to 1919 and, from 1941 to 1946, it adopted the name of the "Grand Steeple-Chase de Printemps". Its distance has undergone numerous changes from 2m4f to 3m2½ furlongs.

The Président de la République Chase has brought together large fields at Auteuil. The record was set in 1973 when thirty went to post. On three occasions (1934, 1959 and 1976), there have been 29 entrants lined up at the start, twenty-seven on two occasions (1977 and 1982) and twenty-six on five occasions (1960, 1963, 1965, 1974 and 1981). Since 1994 (when the pari-mutuel was computerised), the number of starters has been limited to twenty.

The highest weights carried victoriously in the Prix du Président de la République have been 79 kilos (Héros XII 1922), 77 kilos (Héros XII 1921), 76 kilos (Coq Gaulois 1920 and Fifrelet 1953), 75 kilos (Fragilité 1906 and Méli Mélo 1950), 74 kilos (Taillebourg II 1900, Violon II 1904, Aveyron 1914, Quo Vadis 1956 and 1958 and Noiro 1966). During the last thirty years, only five horses have triumphed with 70 kilos or more: Carmont (70 kilos in 1981), Le Pontif (71 kilos in 1984), Sabre d'Estruval (70 kilos in 1990), Subehargues (71 kilos in 2001), Objectif Spécial (70.5 kilos in 2009) and Quart Monde (72 kilos in 2012).

In 2019, a few days after a fire partly destroyed the monument, the race was renamed Prix Notre-Dame de Paris and part of the betting revenues were dedicated to the reconstruction of the cathedral.

The Prix du Président de la République and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris

This double has been done eleven times, eight times in the same year: Dandolo (1908), Hopper (1912), Coq Gaulois (1920), Héros XII (1922), Master Bob (1924), La Frégate (1930), Méli Mélo (1950), Tournay (1950); and three times in different years: Agitato (Pdt. 1932, 1933, Gd. St. 1934), Bouzoulou (Pdt. 1951, Gd. St. 1949), Fondeur (Pdt. 1978, Gd. St. 1980).
 

The Prix du Président de la République and its record Tierce

Since the creation of this type of bet in 1954, the Prix du Président de la République has always (except in 1967) been a support for the tierce. On 21 April 1957, there were twenty-five starters. In the first three places came no.20 Quimilgrey (63/4), no.18 Junia (140/1) and no.19 Xanthor (100/1). There were no winning tickets in the exact order of finishing, but twenty-nine punters picked the first three in any order. Their winnings reached 6,491,960 old French francs for a stake of 200 F, the basic unit stake at the time. If a single correct bet had been placed on the finish order, the winnings would have been 27,686,400 F for a stake of 200 F. These record winnings (32,459/1) are purely theoretical, however.