Epinard’s Stateside Visit

In the years prior to transpontine jet service, international competition with thoroughbred horses was rare, and required a long ocean voyage. American horses had raced in England and the Continent, and European horses had come to America for breeding purposes, yet no European horses had traveled westward for competition.

During the Saratoga meeting in 1923, August Belmont and other members of the Jockey Club suggested a challenge contest, featuring victors from both shores. Mr. Belmont had raced his horses extensively in Europe during the 1911-1912 New York racing ban.

This resulted in an October 1923 match race at Belmont Park, termed the International Stakes, where the Kentucky Derby winner Zev defeated the Epsom Derby winner Papyrus on a muddy track.

In Paris the following month Pierre Wertheimer, owner of the French champion Epinard, issued a challenge to race Zev, “or any other horse America cares to name.”

Following a meeting with Mr. Belmont in New York, Pierre Wertheimer consented to bring Epinard to the United States, for a series of international races to be run at Belmont Park, Aqueduct, and Latonia, Kentucky in September and October of 1924.

Ironically Epinard’s dam, Epine Blanche, was a mare August Belmont developed in France and after being acquired by Mr. Wertheimer, bred to his sire Badajoz.

Devaluation of the French Franc due to war debts may have inspired Epinard’s owner to travel. Mr. Wertheimer’s French business interest was a theatrical make-up company, which he was at this same time expanding along with Coco Chanel to market her fragrance Chanel No. 5.

Trainer Eugene Leigh was a great believer in giving a horse a change of scene, yet realized Epinard would need time to adjust to the surface change to harder American tracks, and running in the counter-clockwise direction, rather than the European style of running to the right (sometimes referred to as “continental” style).

Gene Leigh was born in Illinois, and had trained and was part owner of the 1894 Kentucky Derby winner Chant. He had also relocated to Europe during New York’s racing ban. He decided to prepare Epinard in Saratoga Springs, which demonstrated that the salubrious reputation of the Spa as an equine training and conditioning center had spread across the ocean to European countries.

The connections of Epinard boarded RMS Berengaria in early July and arrived at Saratoga Springs on the twenty second. Everett Haynes, a bluegrass native, was in the saddle for all of Epinard’s French victories, also traveled to the Spa.

Epinard (the French word for spinach) was known to be a very good starter with a noticeably odd, or crabby gait, similar in action to that of his damsire, Rock Sand. The chestnut won six races out of seven starts as a two-year-old, and much like Man o’ War, was beaten only through a bad start.

Epinard was not always ready to work at Saratoga, and would often fight his jockey, anxious to return to his stable and his mascot/talisman, Peter, an Airedale terrier.

 In order to work Epinard counter-clockwise along the rail, with so many other horses on the main track and the Oklahoma, he was frequently taken to the Simms Estate, the present-day Godolphin facility.

Many admirers of the French champion were at the track each morning to see him work out. The horse, with a very recognizable blaze, delighted his fans when he passed the grandstand, where he stopped and bowed to his audience. Turf writer C. J. Fitzgerald commented on Epinard’s intelligence, “When lined up for inspection he returned the critical appraisement of the public like the monarch he is.”

The final week of the Saratoga meet would see Epinard depart for his Labor Day engagement at Belmont Park. On his final Saturday there, following the fifth race, he was brought to the paddock for all to see, and saddled by trainer Leigh in the picturesque enclosure, who gave a leg-up to jockey Everett Haynes in the blue and white colors of owner Wertheimer. Thirty thousand race-mad enthusiasts, by far the biggest throng that ever watched the races at Saratoga, gave the French horse huge applause.

Heavy rains the night before left the track in poor condition and occasioned much scratching. Eugene Leigh decided to abandon the planned time trial, instead following the bugle’s call, Epinard was led by outrider Redcoat Murray and paraded on the main track, his first appearance under colors in the US.

The large crowd stood at attention and removed caps, as the band honored their guest with playing La Marseillaise, the strains of the French anthem rang out across the racetrack. As the Star-Spangled Banner was played, Epinard was brought to attention in front of the grandstand. The New York Times reported, “the great French 4-year-old was accorded an amazing reception.”

Epinard disappointed his owner by finishing “runner-up” (sous) in all three international races during September and October, and was retired to stud and France in November. Jockey Club Chairman Belmont passed away in December.