27 December 2021
After sending out close to 15,000 runners and training around 3,000 winners, he proved himself to be one of the most successful French flat racing trainers. He notably oversaw the training of the horses belonging to His Highness, the Prince Aga Khan. After dedicating 53 years to his profession, Alain de Royer Dupré will call time on his career at the end of this year. Here we look back on the career of a man who made his mark on the history of racing.
The man for whom horses were a natural pathway
Born in September 1944, Alain de Royer Dupré grew up surrounded by horses. His father worked for the Haras Nationaux [the system of now defunct French regional studs] at Saint-Lô and, of course, little Alain was soon riding his own pony! Horses were the obvious next step. A skilled rider, he first turned his attentions to the world of eventing and show jumping. Although it was via the breeding industry that he was to discover the world of racing and English thoroughbreds.
As a student at an agricultural college, Alain de Royer Dupré had to do an internship, which opened the doors of the Haras du Mesnil: the stud of Madme Couturié. During the course of his military service, he met Jack Le Goff, who won an Olympic medal as an event rider, and very much a racing enthusiast. Under his guidance, Alain de Royer Dupré decided to take out a gentleman rider's licence (amateur jockey) but, by his own admission, he was not very good! After his military service, he returned to the breeding world, but soon realised that he missed the competitive element! So he set himself a somewhat madcap challenge: that of becoming a racehorse trainer.
It was in the Sarthe region in 1972 that the young trainer took the plunge and set up shop as a trainer. He started out with a team of less than ten horses, who were predominantly jumping stock. Alain de Royer Dupré's success soon attracted the attention of the big Parisian stables, which entrusted him with the care of their flat racing horses. In the wake of His Highness the Prince Aga Khan acquiring the breeding stock of Marcel Boussac, he sent him some horses. In 1981, the same owner requested that he transfer to the French capital of horse racing: Chantilly. In 1983, François Mathet, the main stay among the Aga Khan's trainers, died. Alain de Royer Dupré was cast in the role of his successor.
A total of 93 Group 1 wins: the measure of racing excellence!
In his first season at the helm of Aiglemont, the stable of His Highness the Aga Khan at Chantilly, Alain de Royer Dupré scored two Group 1 wins: the label attributed to the most highest category of race within horse racing. His wins at the very highest level would continue unabated…
He saddled his first Prix du Jockey-Club winner in 1984 thanks to the crack performer Darshaan. He went on to win this race, steeped in legend, six times (1984, 1985, 1987, 2003, 2006 and 2011). He also trained the same amount of Prix de Diane winners during his career: after claiming the 1993, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2008 and 2010 editions [of the French Oaks]. Alain de Royer Dupré also numbers two wins in the world’s biggest prize, the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: via Dalakhani (2003), the winner of the Jockey-Club that same season; before adding that of Zarkava in 2008: the winner of the Prix de Diane in the same year. Both horses carried the Aga Khan colours. Alain de Royer Dupré also enjoyed Gr 1 success with horses belonging to other owners and namely: Pride, Reliable Man, Belle et Célèbre, Giofra, Chicquita...
Alain de Royer Dupré is also a man who loves a challenge, and he didn’t hold back when it came to identifying opportunities overseas. He enjoyed 21 Group 1 success aboard. In 1984, thanks to Lashkari, he won the inaugural edition of the Breeders' Cup Turf: one of the most prestigious US races. In 2010, he similarly broke new ground, by training the first French-winner of the Melbourne Cup: the legendary Australian race known as "the race that stops a nation" following the success of Américain. He also trained four Group 1 winners in Britain, the land of horse racing par excellence, and two at the highest level in Hong Kong. It was in the latter country, which he loves so much, that the handler saddled his last Group 1 runner on 12 December 2021: namely Ebaiyra, for His Highness the Aga Khan, in the Longines Hong Kong Vase. The filly finished third.
Alain de Royer Dupré comments: “It is a tremendous opportunity to be able to train for an owner-breeder. It has been my greatest privilege to have worked alongside His Highness the Aga Khan who combines his love of racing with a passion for breeding. And I count myself fortunate to have enjoyed the lasting trust of the Haras de Montaigu (Aliette and Gilles Forien) and the Haras de la Perelle (Jürgen Winter) throughout my career that has spanned fifty fascinating years.”
With his training career drawing to a close, Alain de Royer Dupré boasts an impressive record of 93 victories at Group 1 level: which marks the very summit of the sport.
The man who moulded the queen of racing: the legendary Zarkava
Many champions have passed through the hands of Alain de Royer Dupré, but chief amongst them it is perhaps Zarkava who has left the biggest impression on racing fans. The Aga Khan champion went on to record seven wins in as many starts, and she made her mark at the very highest level [on multiple occasions]!
Alain de Royer Dupré said of her in September 2021: « Zarkava was a genius, but she had no business being so... She wasn’t perfect, especially when it came to her confirmation (limbs). I’ve had many prettier horses than her, but what a type of horse, what a racing temperament, and what an extraordinary engine! »
Zarkava made her debut in the Prix de la Cascade, a race for un-raced 2-year-old fillies, at Longchamp in September 2007. She won very easily... So easily that Alain de Royer Dupré embarked on a mission which seemed a little madcap: namely by backing her up four weeks later, despite her inexperience, in the Prix Marcel Boussac, a Group 1 race which crowns the best 2-y-old filly in France. It resulted in another victory, and one gained with disconcerting ease, without forgetting that she even fly-leaped the shadow of the finishing post!
As a 3-year-old, she continued her triumphant march forward in her all top assignments relative to the 2008 season. In the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (Group 1 over 1600 metres), run at Longchamp in May, she beat the star performer at that distance, Goldikova, by two lengths. In June 2008, Zarkava again proved an easy winner, this time in the Prix de Diane. In September 2008, she was pitted, for the first time, against older fillies/mares in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille. It gave rise to one of the most extraordinary performances witnessed at Longchamp: as Zarkava fell out of the stalls, as if asleep, and, in doing so, she gifted her rivals a 20-metres head start! To make up such a leeway is considered an impossible task, but not when it came to Zarkava: as, in the straight, she passed the whole field as if they were standing – she equalled the race record after beating the high class Dar Re Mi by two lengths. Lastly, on the first weekend of October 2008, she won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the world’s most prestigious prize, very easily.
In the wake of the Arc, the unbeaten champion Zarkava was retired to the paddocks in Normandy. Her best product, Zarak, won the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Group 1) in 2017, also for trainer Alain de Royer Dupré. He is now a stallion based at the Haras de Bonneval, which is one of the Aga Khan's studs. Zarak proved the revelation among the French-based stallions in 2021, when he topped the list of first crop sires. So the story continues...
Click here to watch a round-up of the trainer's career in video (in French)