Ganay History : A first summit at ParisLongchamp

Prix Ganay

Group 1, 4-year-olds and above, 2,100m/10.5f, €300,000

Created in 1889, became Prix Ganay in 1949

Last winner: Haya Zark (h5, FRA by Zarak ex Haya City, by Elusive City), owned by Odette Fau, bred by Odette Fau, trained by Adrien Fouassier, ridden by Alexis Pouchin.

Record time: 2’7’’2 by Planteur (2011, Longchamp) ; 2'6''38 by Sottsass (2020, Chantilly)..

The race is due to run in 2025 for the 133rd time

The 2024 edition

Sunday, 28 April 2024, ParisLongchamp Racecourse, Paris — This year's €300,000 Prix Ganay (Gr1) with its nine runners promised a thrilling showdown. Fans at ParisLongchamp were treated to exactly that: the top five finishers were separated by less than a length in a sensational race, with Haya Zark (Zarak) just managing to hold off Zarir (Frankel), who was competing in his first group race after two wins earlier in the season.

Closing from the back of the pack, Feed the Flame (Kingman) snatched third place from the Irish visitor Al Riffa (Wootton Bassett), who was just a nose ahead of Horizon Doré (Dabirsim).

The pace was set by the visitor Crypto Force (Time Test), joined by the Prix d’Harcourt (Gr2) winner Zarakem (Zarak). After an animated start, Zarir and Haya Zark trailed closely, followed by Birr Castle (Cloth of Stars) and Fantastic Moon (Sea the Moon).

In the home straight, Zarakem was the first to challenge, battling it out with Haya Zark, who took over but was soon threatened by Al Riffa and Zarir, who found a gap on the inside. Feed the Flame finished strongly on the outside track past Horizon Doré, both coming from the rear. However, none could quite catch Haya Zark, with Zarir coming closest at the post.

Arrivée magnifique du Prix Ganay (Gr1) #ParisLongchamp et victoire de Haya Zark (Zarak), pour son éleveur Odette Fau devant Zarir (Frankel). pic.twitter.com/GWMoRzw9Ru

— France Galop (@francegalop) April 28, 2024

Haya Zark, who won the Prix Exbury (Gr3) by ten lengths in March at Saint-Cloud and hadn't raced since is typically known for excelling on heavy tracks. Yet, the five-year-old pulled off quite the feat on a ground perhaps firmer than many thought necessary for him to show his best form.

Promising as a three-year-old, Haya Zark had finished fourth in the Prix Greffulhe (Gr2) won by the champion Onesto (Frankel) in 2022.

Bred by his owner, Odette Fau, Haya Zark is out of Haya City (Elusive City), who did not stand out in three starts. Haya Zark is her first winner. His grand dam, Haya Samma (Pivotal), did not race. At stud, however, she produced Haya Landa (Lando), who was third in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Gr1) and the Prix de la Nonette (Gr2) and second in the Prix Allez France (Gr3), as well as Haya of Fortune (Soldier of Fortune), third in a Critérium de l’Ouest (L) and dam of a recent winner, Haya of Star (Cloth of Stars).

A full sister to Haya Zark, born in 2020 and has not run, while an Anodin colt was born last year.

History

Originally run as the Prix des Sablons, the name was changed in 1949 to honour the memory of the Marquis de Ganay, the former president of the Société d'Encouragement. Created in 1889, the race was initially run over 1 mile 2 furlongs, a distance maintained until 1970, except for the 1944 and 1945 editions held at Maisons-Laffitte over 1 mile 2½ furlongs. The race was not held between 1915 and 1918. There is one recorded dead heat, which occurred in 1943 between Arcot and Tornado. In 1959, the first two finishers were both disqualified: Balbo was demoted for interfering with another horse while entering the home straight, and Malefaim, who came in second, was demoted for boxing in two other horses on the rails. Chief, who finished third, was ultimately declared the winner.

In 2016 and 2017, the race was run at Saint-Cloud during the Longchamp renovation. 2020, it went to Chantilly and was run in June because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Only as the 19th century reached a close was a series of new races open to older horses and set over distances of less than 2½ miles. These races availed of hefty prize money and were designed as trials for the Prix du Cadran and Ascot Gold Cup, the two most coveted races of the era for 4-year-olds and above. It was with this aim in mind that the Champion Stakes (1 mile 2 furlongs, 1877) and the Eclipse Stakes (1 mile 2 furlongs) were set up in England, while the Prix des Sablons (1 mile 2 furlongs, 1889), Prix Boïard (1 mile 2 furlongs, 1891) and Prix du Conseil Municipal (1 mile 4 furlongs in 1893) saw the light of day on French soil,

When the Prix Ganay was promoted to Group 1 in 1971, its date and distance were interchanged with those of the Prix d'Harcourt (created in 1929), which was held at the same hippodrome for the same category of horses. Ever since, the Prix d'Harcourt (Group 2, 1 mile 2 furlongs) has taken place three or four weeks prior to the Prix Ganay, which is an extra ½ furlong in length and is held on the last Sunday in April.

The first edition of the Prix des Sablons involved just three runners, with 5-year-old Le Sancy (at odds of 1/2) heavily favoured. Nonetheless, that did not stop outsider Acheron, at odds of 3/1 and wearing the colours of Auguste Lupin, from coming through to win by three-quarters of a length. Le Sancy would redeem himself by winning the following year’s race, just one of an impressive 27 wins between the ages of 2 and 6 for Baron de Schickler’s famous grey.

The number of runners remained steadfastly low in the pre-First World War years, at an average of just five. That said, the quality made up for the lack of quantity. 1892, for example, Prix du Jockey Club winner Ermak had to make do with finishing in the frame. With fellow Jockey Club winner Ragotsky coming second in 1894, it was not until 1897 and Champaubert that a winner of the French Derby at Chantilly would also take the Prix Ganay. Following his lead were Gardefeu (1899), Maintenon (1907), Sourbier (1921), Ksar (1922), Bikala (1982), Helissio (1997), Vision d'Etat (2009) and Sottsass (2020). Meanwhile, the following 10 Jockey Club second-placers would console themselves with Prix Ganay success: Codoman (1902), Biribi (1927), Tornado (1943), Basileus (1946), Tantième (1951), Diatome (1966), Frère Basile (1979), Le Marmot (1980), Subotica (1992) and Waldgeist (2019).

Given the overwhelming tendency to retire quality fillies for breeding at the end of their third year, the so-called weaker sex is thus little represented on the Prix Ganay honours list. An asterisk does though accompany the names of three Prix de Diane winners to have repeated the feat in the Prix Ganay: Galette (1894), Quilda (1898), *La Camargo (1903), Ramscapelle II (1919), La Savoyarde (1931), *Allez France (1974, 1975), Infra Green (1976), Trillion (1978), Triptych (1987), Kartajana (1991) and *Aquarelliste (2002).

Two victors at the English Derby have won the Prix Ganay, Relko (1964) and Mill Reef (1972), the latter achieving the most emphatic win in history by finishing 15 lengths clear of the unfortunate Amadou, defeated by Caro the previous year.

Cirrus des Aigles won the race thrice in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Only five horses have been able to win the race twice. They are Caïus (1904, 1905), Goya (1939, 1940), Tanerko (1957, 1958), Allez France (1974, 1975) and Saint Andrews (1988, 1989).

The Prix Ganay has also often proved to be a triumphant step on the road to glory taken by future Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winners since its founding in 1920. The Ganay-Arc double has been pulled off by nine horses: Ksar (1922), Massine (1924), Biribi (1927), Djebel (1942), Tantième (1951), Exbury (1963), Rheingold (1973), Allez France (1974), Subotica (1992), Dylan Thomas (2007) and Waldgeist (2019). Two other horses also came agonisingly close to joining that distinguished list, with Ganay winners Cadum (1925) and Sagace (1985) only dropping to second in the Arc after a steward’s enquiry. Bago also doubled by winning the Ganay in 2005 to go with his 2004 win as a 3-year-old in the Arc.

Foreign runners won on 8 occasions. They are Mill Reef (1972), Rheingold (1973), Pelder (1995), Golden Snake (2001), Dylan Thomas (2007), Duke of Marmalade (2008) Pastorius (2013) and Cracksman (2018).

Jean de Ganay (1862-1948)

Jean de Ganay was one of France’s most widely respected race organisers. Elected as a deputy member of the Société d’Encouragement committee in 1902, he became a founder member in 1905 and carried out the commissioner’s role from 1903-1918. In 1933 he was awarded the presidency of the committee, a position he would hold until his death in 1948. Under his direction and that of the team of commissioners in place at the time, the Société d’Encouragement were responsible for the transformation wrought on the Longchamp Hippodrome during the winter of 1903-04, devising the first anti-doping controls (via saliva testing) in 1912, and the 1908 increase in prize money for the Grand Prix de Paris. The 300,000 French Francs offered made it the most lucrative race during the pre-First World War years.

Belonging to a family of renowned horsemen, Ganay (who became a Marquis upon his father’s death in May 1903) followed the family tradition by serving time in the cavalry. In 1888, he declared his colours (yellow jersey, green cap), and in the same year, he acquired the horse Le Gourzy after a claiming race at Longchamp. Le Gourzy would go on to win its owner the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil in 1892. His colours would regularly be worn to victory thanks to horses of the calibre of Kerym (Prix Hocquart 1896), Eperon (Prix Morny 1900), Passaro (Prix Greffulhe 1901), Amer Picon (Prix Gladiateur 1902, 1903), Iermak (La Coupe 1904). Finally, in 1911 one of his horses would taste victory in one of France’s biggest races - As d'Atout winning the Grand Prix de Paris in 1911. As d'Atout was born on Ganay’s Rabey stud farm at Quettehou in La Manche, another magnificent animal resided there: the stallion Le Sagittaire, crowned champion dam sire in 1906.

Absent from hippodromes during the years separating the two world wars, Ganay’s colours made an unexpected yet remarkable return to the limelight in 1946 via Kerlor, who triumphed in the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil and the Grand Prix de Deauville. Having been adopted by his son, François, the colours were once more victorious thanks to the exertions of Rapace, winner of the 1955 Prix du Jockey Club.

Owners