Cadran History: The Paris Marathon

October, ParisLongchamp

QATAR PRIX DU CADRAN

Group 1, 4-year-olds and above, 4,000m/2m4f, €300,000

Created in 1837

Last winner: Kyprios (h6, IRE by Galileo ex Polished Gem (Danehill), owned by Moyglare, Tabor, Magnier & Co, bred by Moyglare Stud Farm, trained by Aidan O'Brien, ridden by Ryan Moore.

Record-time (Longchamp): new and main courses, 4'12''22 by High Jinx (2014). Smaller and main courses, 4' 16'' 24 by Elpenor (1955).

The race is run in 2025 for the 181st time.

The 2024 edition
 

October 5, 2024, ParisLongchamp Racecourse (Paris). – The finish of the €300,000 Qatar Prix du Cadran (Gr1), the marathon race of the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe weekend, run over 2m4f, was somewhat reminiscent of the Qatar Prix Chaudenay, which had been run an hour earlier. The hot favourite Kyprios (Galileo), winner of the race in 2022, led the field. In the final stages, he found himself battling with the winner of the 2021 and 2023 editions, Trueshan (Planteur), who looked like he might get the better of him but ultimately had to settle for second, with Kyprios winning by two lengths while Coltrane (Mastercraftsman), who briefly joined the fight, finished a neck behind Trueshan.

This was Kyprios's sixth victory this season, and he remains unbeaten in 2024, with his fourth consecutive Group 1 win after the Gold Cup, the Goodwood Cup and the Irish St Leger. At six years old, he seems to be better than ever. A son of Galileo (Sadler's Wells), Kyprios was bred by Moyglare Stud Farm, whose colours he carries in partnership with John Magnier, Michael Tabor and co. His dam, Polished Gem (Danehill), was Group 3-placed over 7f. She has also produced Free Eagle (High Chaparral), winner of the Prince of Wales's Stakes (Gr1) at Ascot for the same connections and trainer Dermot Weld, not to mention Sapphire (Medicean), a Group 2 winner.

I've kept the French names for the races as those would be recognizable by Racing Post readers, and I've tried to make the language flow naturally while remaining faithful to the original French.

History
 

After the Prix du Jockey Club (1836), the Prix du Cadran is the oldest race in France still to conserve its original name. To be held for the 170th time in 2014, it takes its name from the face (‘cadran’ in French) of the clock at the Military Academy at the time when the Societe d'Encouragement held its races at the Champ de Mars in Paris.

The inaugural Prix du Cadran (with a purse of 3,000 F) was run on 27 April 1837 over a fixed distance of one circuit and a quarter of the Champ de Mars, in other words, 2,500 metres (1 mile 4½ furlongs). In this first race Miss Annette, a seven-year-old mare owned by Lord Henry Seymour and ridden by Tom Robinson easily saw off her two rivals, Agelie, owned by the Duc d'Orleans, and Belida, owned by Auguste Lupin. In the second race, however, Miss Annette trotted to victory after her rivals declined to join her at the start.

For many years, right up until the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, the Prix du Cadran was run at the end of April as part of the opening spring meeting at the Champ de Mars first of all, and then Longchamp. It was the first of four important races open to four-year-olds in Paris, the three others being the Prix Rainbow (3m 1f, first contested in 1861 as the Prix de l'Imperatrice), La Coupe (2m, created in 1865) and the Prix Gladiateur (3m 7f, originally the Grand Prix, first run at the Champ de Mars in 1806). Outside Paris the leading four-year-olds could try their luck at Royal Ascot in England in June in the Gold Cup (2½m, first run in 1807), and the Alexandra Plate (2m 6½f, created in 1865); at the Goodwood Cup in July (2m 5f, first held in 1812); at the Deauville Grand Prix in August (1½m, created in 1866), and at Baden-Baden in September in the Grand Prix (originally over 2m, first run in 1858). It was not until the end of the 19th century that new races offering sizeable purses were introduced for older horses and over shorter distances of between 1¼ and 1½ miles, the first of them held in England: the Champion Stakes (1¼m, 1877) and the Eclipse Stakes (1¼m, 1886). France soon followed suit with the Prix des Sablons (1m 2½, 1889, the future Prix Ganay), the Prix Boiard (1¼m, 1891) and the Prix du Conseil Municipal (1½m, 1893).

The Prix du Cadran continued to bear the same name when it was switched to Longchamp following the opening of the racecourse in 1857. After being run over a fixed distance for six years, the length of the Prix was increased to 2½ miles in 1843, and then to 2 miles 5 furlongs in 1846. A number of further modifications were made between 1851 and 1857 before the race length was changed back to 2m 5f between 1858 and 1912. After 1913 it reverted to 2½m again. The Prix du Cadran was not contested in 1850, 1871, 1915-1918, 1940 or in 1968. It was run at Versailles in 1848, at Tremblay in 1943, 1944 and 1945 (over 2m 4½f). From 1854 to 1912 it was open to four-year-olds only and has only been open to geldings since 1986. Record time: short track and long track, 4' 16'' 24/100 in 1955 by Elpenor; new track and long track, 4' 14'' 1 in 2000 by San Sebastian. The Prix du Cadran was last run in May in 1991, whereupon it was moved to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe weekend at the beginning of October.

Multiple winners
 

Restricted to four-year-olds for the best part of 60 years (1854-1912), only eight horses have ever won the Prix du Cadran on more than one occasion. The first to do so was Nautilus, a three-time winner in 1839, 1840 and 1842 for King Louis-Philippe’s eldest son, the Duc d'Orleans, who died in an accident shortly after this last success. 30 years after the race was opened up to horses above the age of four, another multiple winner finally emerged. Not content with merely winning it twice, however, the valiant Marsyas registered a magnificent quadruple, romping home first in 1944, 1945, 1946 and 1947. The third double winner was Taine. Third in 1961 and owned by A. A. Cartier and trained by Dominique Sartini, Taine took the honours in 1962 and 1963, edging out the same horse, Misti, both times. The fourth member of this illustrious sextet is Buckskin, the winner in 1977 and 1978. He was trained in France by Angel Penna for the first of those successes, but after Penna departed for the States, Buckskin was sent to England, where Peter Walwyn trained him to his second triumph in the race. The fifth two-time champion was El Badr, who had to be patient before getting his name in the history books, four years separating his first win, as a four-year-old in 1979, and his second, as a seven-year-old in 1982. The most recent member of the club was none other than Westerner, the 2003 and 2004 winner.

• Marsyas (4 wins) in 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947.
• Nautilus (3 wins) in 1839, 1840, 1842.
• Taine (2 wins) in 1962, 1963.
• Buckskin (2 wins) in 1977, 1978.
• El Badr (2 wins) in 1979, 1982.
• Westerner (2 wins) in 2003, 2004.
• Trueshan (2 wins) in 2021 and 2023.
• Kyprios (2 wins) in 2022 and 2024.

Marsyas

With four wins in this high-class race, Marsyas is rightly considered one of the most remarkable horses in French racing history. Born at Marcel Boussac’s stables in 1940, he was sired by the English stayer Trimdon, a double Ascot Gold Cup winner. His mother Astronomie (Asterus) was dam to four more remarkable racehorses: Caracalla (1942, by Tourbillon), Arbar (1944, by Djebel), Asmena (1947, by Goya) and Arbele (1949, by Djebel).

Between the ages of three and seven, Marsyas ran 27 times, winning 16 races, finishing second four times, third five times, and coming well down the field on only one occasion, as a four-year-old at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Besides his four Prix du Cadran wins, his other French successes were the Prix Jean Prat (twice), the Prix Kergorlay and the Prix Gladiateur. After winning his first two races at the age of five (the Jean Prat and the Cadran), he pulled a muscle. Sidelined for the best part of a year, he made his return in the same two races, finishing second in the Jean Prat and winning the Cadran again. It was then that Marcel Boussac decided to enter him for longer races in England. While allowing his half-brother Caracalla to take the 1946 Ascot Gold Cup, Marsyas strung together five consecutive wins: the White Rose Stakes (Hurst Park), the Queen Alexandra Stakes (Royal Ascot), the Goodwood Cup, the Doncaster Cup and the Lowther Stakes (Newmarket). Six days after the fifth of those triumphs, he came home third in the Prix du Jockey Club Cup. As a seven-year-old, Marsyas made a glorious return in the Prix de Lutece before having a crack at his fourth Prix du Cadran. It seemed an impossible dream given the fact that the competition was tougher than ever before. Lining up against him was the four-year-old Souverain, the 6-10 favourite following victory on his last four outings: as a three-year-old in the Grand Prix de Paris, the Prix Royal Oak and the King George VI Stakes, and, after turning four, the Prix Jean Prat. It was Marsyas who dictated terms, however. After overtaking his pacesetter before the first turn, Marsyas stretched his legs and broke away. Souverain tried to use his searing turn of pace to good effect only to see it blunted by the stubborn resistance of Marsyas, who crossed the line three lengths clear. The victim of another muscle pull afterwards, it proved to be the legendary horse’s last race. As for Souverain, he soon recovered his poise and took the Gold Cup a month later.

Owners
 

• Frédéric de Lagrange (11 wins) : Compiègne (1862), Alerte (1863), Béatrix (1865), La Fortune (1866), Auguste (1867), Longchamps (1868), Le Sarrazin (1869), Boulogne (1870), Saint-Christophe (1878), Rayon d'Or (1880), Milan (1881).
• Marcel Boussac (8 wins) : Thor (1934), Dadji (1938), Marsyas (1944 à 1947), Arbar (1948), Elpenor (1955).
• Casaque Wildenstein (8 wins) : Le Chouan (1970), Buckskin (1977, 1978), Balitou (1985), Air de Cour (1986), Victoire Bleue (1991), Westerner (2003, 2004).

Trainers*
 

• Tom Jennings (15 wins) : La Clôture (1851), Hervine (1852), Papillon (1854), Monarque (1856), Compiègne (1862), Alerte (1863), Béatrix (1865), La Fortune (1866), Auguste (1867), Longchamps (1868), Le Sarrazin (1869), Boulogne (1870), Saint-Christophe (1878), Rayon d'Or (1880), Milan (1881).
• Thomas Carter (6 wins) : Miss Annette (1837), Franck (1838), Annetta (1843), Edwin (1845), Nanetta (1849), Rémunération (1855).
• Henry Jennings (5 wins) : Nativa (1844), Géologie (1860), Prétendant (1861), Revigny (1873), Clocher (1879).
• William Webb (5 wins) : Krakatoa (1888), Chêne Royal (1893), Fousi Yama (1894), Astronome II (1903), Strozzi (1906).
• George Cunnington Sr (5 wins) : Camisole (1904), Ris Orangis (1907), Aveu (1910), La Française (1911), Nimbus (1914).
• Charles Semblat (5 wins) : Marsyas (1944 à 1947), Arbar (1948).

Mme Myriam Bollack-Badel is the only woman to have trained a Prix du Cadran winner: Always Earnest (1995).

*It should be pointed out that trainers’ names only started appearing in the yearly roundups in 1890. This has made it very difficult indeed to identify the trainers of certain horses with any real certainty prior to this date. Some racing historians, therefore, have attributed some of the wins by horses belonging to Frédéric de Lagrange not to Thomas Jennings, but to his assistants at Royallieu and then Dangu. However, the roll of honour published by the well-respected newspaper, Le Sport (1882), gives all of these wins to Tom Jennings. The fact of the matter is that Lagrange’s best horses, the ones with the potential to run in both the French and English Classics, left France as two and three-year-olds to be trained by Jennings at Phantom House, Newmarket. There they were put through their paces on the best training grounds on the other side of the Channel, Chantilly’s turf course having long since gone, returning to France only for series of races scheduled over a relatively short time period.

Riders
 

• Yves Saint-Martin (5 wins) : Waldmeister (1965), Danseur (1967), Récupéré (1974), Buckskin (1977, 1978).
• Charles Pratt (4 wins): Géologie (1860), Compiègne (1862), Alerte (1863), Béatrix (1865).
• Charles Elliott (4 wins) : Thor (1934), Dadji (1938), Marsyas (1947), Arbar (1948).
• Eric Legrix (4 wins) : Neustrien (1984), Balitou (1985), Air de Cour (1986), Trebrook (1989).