Evremond de Saint-Alary

Who was Evremond de Saint-Alary?

Count Evremond de Saint-Alary was a leading owner and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses in France. An Englishman who inherited considerable wealth and a title, as a young man in his twenties Saint-Alary became involved in horse racing and in the early 1890s acquired Haras de Saint Pair du Mont, a horse breeding farm at Le Cadran near Cambremer in Calvados, Normandy.

A passionate man, Evremond de Saint-Alary once challenged a member of the press to a duel after he had written an article criticizing one of his horses.

In 1893 Saint-Alary purchased a yearling at the Ventes de Deauville auction he named Omnium. One of the best horses he would ever own, under jockey/trainer Edgar Rolfe, Omnium won seventeen races in three years of competition including numerous important events such as the 1895 Prix du Jockey Club, the French equivalent of England's Epsom Derby. Omnium was retired to stud duty at Haras de Saint Pair du Mont and despite dying only a few years later, his successful progeny made him the leading sire in France in 1902.

In 1920, Evremond de Saint-Alary scored the first of his two wins in France's most prestigious race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Comrade, a colt trained by Peter Gilpin who had cost Saint-Alary only twenty-five guineas, won the inaugural running of the Arc and also won the Grand Prix de Paris. Saint-Alary raced in England as well where in the 1930s his horses trained by Frank Carter won two of the Classic Races and in France his second Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1935.