It is perhaps a relief to find that Chantilly
has not yet gone the way of some of the
supermarket-sized stables in Newmarket,
meaning that the current tally of around
2,500 resident Thoroughbreds is spread
more evenly between the area's 110
trainers. Only five of them have strings
that run into three figures—André Fabre,
Freddy Head, Fabrice Chappet, Alain de
Royer Dupré, and Henri-Francois Devin,
who recently completed the purchase of
Criquette Head's former yard.
Just as hunting preceded racing in the
town, naturally Thoroughbreds were
preceded by hunters, a number of which
were owned by Louis-Henri de Bourbon,
the 7th Prince de Condé. His fervent belief
in the fact that he would be reincarnated
as a horse led to him building the Grandes
Ecuries (Great Stables) to which he hoped
he would one day return in his four-legged
guise. Nowadays, the stables provide an
imposing backdrop to a day's racing at
Chantilly, a place to which any fan of the
sport would long to return.
