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Les Anglais in France: The Families
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THE CARTER DYNASTY
View an Abridged Carter Family Descent Chart
The Carters had a dominating effect on French Racing not only because they were so numerous, but also because they had talent. Other racing families came to France in imitation, such as the Cunningtons, Jennings and Watsons, with whom they intermarried, but perhaps none were so pervasive. The Carters were the founders of the English colony in Chantilly and instrumental in the future racing success of the town and nation. Members of this family have an unparalleled racing record; they won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe 5 times, the Prix du Jockey Club on no less than 27 occasions, the Grand Prix de Paris on 16 runnings and the Prix de Diane 23 times.
The family originated in the Leicestershire village of Peckleton, close to the battlefield of Bosworth -- where Richard III lost his kingdom for the want of a horse! William (1769 - 1850) and Ann (1773 -1860) had a large family with at least 14 children. It was Thomas "Genius" Carter (1805-1879), their fifth son, who Lord Seymour invited to France in 1831 and the Carters dominated first the Bois and later the Chantilly areas for 131 years between 1831 and 1964. Some have seen Tom Carter as the "father" of the French Turf.
In England, Thomas had been apprenticed to Lord Henry Fitzroy's trainer; the Rev. Henry Fitzroy, who was half brother to the 4th Duke of Grafton and "a fine specimen of a sporting parson." At a young age Thomas Carter became trainer to the Duke of Grafton at Newmarket, probably in succession to Robert Robson. After arriving in France, Seymour persuaded him to move from the Bois to the delights of Chantilly in 1835, with 17 horses and a staff speaking entirely English. He settled on the Route de la Table, at "La Fourriere," which was an offshoot of the Chateaux de Chantilly and part farm and part barn. He immediately won the first three runnings of the Prix du Jockey Club in successive years with Fran(c)k (by Rainbow 1836), Lydia (by Rainbow 1837) and Vendredi (by Cain 1838).
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| Memorial tablet to Thomas Carter in St. Peter's Church, Chantilly. "To the beloved memory of Thomas Carter, born at Peckleton, Leicestershire 17 February 1805 - died at Chantilly 25 September 1879. Interred at Peckleton 25 September 1880. The memory of the Just is blessed." |
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In 1842 Seymour gave up racing and Carter developed newfound independence. He built a stable at Lamorlaye and took on horses from Baron Nathanial Rothschild and Jean Reiset, winning the Prix du Jockey Club on a further six occasions. He trained Meudon (by Alteruter - Margarita) who won the Jockey Club in 1846 and the same race in 1849 with Expérience (by Physician - Aspasie) and again in 1854 with Celebrity (Gladiator - Annetta). In 1852 he won the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) with Bounty (by Inheritor - Annetta) and again in 1854 with Honesty (by Gladiator - Effie Deans).
He was an excellent mentor and taught the great future professionals, Henry and Tom Jennings. The ties were strengthened when Henry married into the family in a union with Ann, Tom Carter's younger sister. Carter became wealthy and comfortable in his new environment and participated in the building of the English Church at the corner of the Rue de Cascades and the Avenue du Bouteiller, on ground donated by the Duc D'Aumale. There is a memorial tablet in St. Peter's church.
Tom "Genius" Carter confusingly had many successful relatives, who with their descendants are illustrated on the accompanying family tree, which shows some of their intermarriages, especially with the Jennings.
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Tom had great charm and charisma and enticed several of his family to follow him onto the continent under his guidance. His older brother Jonathan (1802-1881), however, who worked for Tattersalls stayed in Newmarket, but had a son also called Thomas C. "Neveu" (1830-1891) who came to France and worked for Comte de Lagrange, le Duc de Castries and Edouard Fould at Royallieu, near Compiègne, 20 kilometres north east of Chantilly. In turn his son Willy trained in Italy before returning to France to work for M. Wysocki and M. D'Espous de Paul.
John (1796-1881), the eldest of the original Carters, did not move to France but his son Elijah (1825-1865) went to Italy to train for King Victor Emmanuel and his son William (1856-1933) emigrated to India where he became very wealthy as a trainer, and was known as Willy Carter Bombay. Unfortunately he returned to Newmarket and lost all his money in a bad business deal.
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| Plaisanterie, trained by Thomas Carter |
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The Carters became so numerous that they became known by the name of their training establishment or their crack horses. Thus Tom, son of Thomas Carter (The Genius), was known as Carter Plaisanterie (1842-1918). He bought Plaisanterie (by Wellingtonia - Poetess) as a yearling filly for FF825 and kept a half ownership. As a three year old she went on to win 14 out her 15 races including the Cambridgeshire and the 1885 Cesarewitch. Large fortunes were won on odds of 25/1 and 10/1 respectively.
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Richard Carter (1800-1870) was another older brother of the original Tom, who first joined his brother at Glatigny. His youngest son, Richard, Snr. was born in 1840 at Le Haras de Galtigny near Versailles. He then went to Belgium to train for the Duc de Litta, returning eventually to Royallieu.
Richard Snr. (1840-1923) trained at Royallieu for Maurice Ephrussi, brother-in-law of Edouard de Rothschild, M.Hawes and Henri Say (the diminutive sugar magnate). His cracks were Codomen, Prix du Jockey Club winner Mordant (by War Dance - Magdala), Chulot, Tricolor and L'Epe. His sons were Charles (1869-1952) who trained for Comte de Brissac, Michel Ephrussi, M. Liènart and Maurice de Gheest, and Roland (1872-1902) who trained for M. Gagé until his early death at age 29.
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Richard Carter's eldest son, Thomas Richard (1830-1905), became the lifelong trainer for Henri Delamarre and his cracks, Vermout (by The Nabob - Vermeille) and Boïard (by Vermout - La Bossue). Vermout got two French Oaks winners (Campêche 1873 and La Jonchere 1877) and Enguerrande who won the Epsom Oaks in 1873, and some good sons: Boïard, who won both the Prix du Jockey Club and the Grand Prix de Paris in 1873, and Perplexe, sire of two good classic winning colts. This branch of the family produced yet more talented offspring.
Thomas Richard's son Fred (b. about 1835) trained for Alexandre and Paul Aumont and had sons Frank and Alec. Frank (1882-1937) won many classics initially from Clos de Roi (1911-1922) then at Mill Cottage on the Terrain des Aigles. Frank was a cool reflective man with a dismissive personality and was known as the "Duke of Gouvieux" (after the village of Gouvieux where he trained) "more in deference than irony." He had three Arc victories with Mon Talisman (by Craig an Eran) in 1927, Pearl Cap (by La Capucin) in 1931 and Samos (by Brûleur) in 1935.
Alec (1887-1914) became one of the best steeplechase jockeys in France. Alec took French nationality, and was killed as a conscript into the French army in 1914. In June of the same year he had won the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris with Lord Loris for James Hennessy.
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The third son of Thomas Carter was Richard Jr. (1859-1913) who trained at Daisy Cottage on the Rue Victor Hugo and was retained by Messieurs Maurice Caillault, Claude-Joachim Lefèvre and August Belmont. His greatest success was to win the Prix du Jockey Club in 1899 with Perth (by War Dance). His son, Percy (b.1889) trained on the Rue Faisanderie, then at Mill Cottage, where he succeeded his brother-in-law Frank who died an untimely death in 1927. He won the Arc in 1925 with Priori (by Brûleur).
Richard Jr.'s younger brother Arthur trained for the Comte de Samperieri and George Milton and then Edmond Blanc, Jean Joubert and Leon Mantacheff. Arthur's son Lesley, although crippled, also trained for a while.
THE CUNNINGTONS
View an Abridged Cunnington Family Descent Chart
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The Cunningtons originated in Norfolk, some serving as customs officers, and moved to Newmarket where they established themselves as butchers. Thomas Tebbut Cunnington and his wife Susanna Poulter had 7 children, George (1850-1919), their fifth child, was sent to France at the age of 10 as an apprentice to Tom Jennings. He married Maria Carter, daughter of John Carter, and they in turn had a large family with the usual intermarrying with the other English professionals.
George and Maria's sons, George (1871-1944) and Elijah (1875-1943) married Watson girls, Fanny and Mary, from the family originating in Richmond, North Yorkshire.
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| Elijah Cunnington and Richard Johnson |
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| Massine, winner in England and France |
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Elijah trained the cracks Massine (by Consols), winner of the Ascot Gold Cup and the 1924 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, and his son Mieuxcé. Mieuxcé (by Massine out of L'Olivete) was a high-strung horse of stamina and speed. He won the Grand Prix de Paris and the Prix du Jockey Club in 1936 among 3 other wins of 9 starts, his career terminated by injury during training. He also schooled Massine's sire, Consols, and Opott, dam's sire of Mieuxcé. Elijah trained at Irrintzina (War Cry) stables in Chantilly, which he bought from wealth from the success of his own horse Cri de Guerre. His owners included Henri Ternynck, who bred Massine and Mieuxcé, Jean Prat, and many others. His son-in-law Richard Johnson (1898-1946) worked with him as assistant trainer.
Another brother Edouard (1873-1924) trained for the Duc de Grammond at La Villa des Bois and married Marie Rose Carter. They produced John (Jack) Cunnington (1899-1971), one of the great Chantilly trainers who came to the fore after Edouard's untimely death in 1924.
Jack Cunnington took French nationality and served in Germany bringing home a bride, Peggy, rather to the dismay of the family who would have preferred that he married one of the established English families; a Watson, Jennings, or Carter. The crack of Jack's yard was Le Pacha (by Biribi) in 1941, who, on the basis of stable gossip, he bought for an owner, M. Gund, at the colossal price of FF500, 000. Le Pacha won the Prix Lupin, The Jockey Club, Grand Prix de Paris and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 1941.
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In addition to intermarrying with the Carter, Watson, Webb and Johnson families, the Cunningtons also joined with the Pratts, when Charles Cunnington (1855-1925), George's brother, married Cecilia E. Pratt (1862-1934), daughter of the jockey and trainer Charles Pratt (b. 1835). In 1856 Charles had married Marie Louise Tardif, the daughter of a Lamorlaye builder, who gave him five daughters, including Cecilia. This was the start of another Cunnington branch in which the eldest sons were all called Charles. The current Charles was born in 1943, the son of Jack -- Charles "Jacky" Cunnington (1907-1977).
Charles Pratt was born at St. Mary's, near Newmarket, on 1st April 1835. He went to France at the age of 17 as a jockey, and joined Henry Jennings, who was training at La Croix St. Ouen for the Duke de Morny, and later for the Lafitte-Nivière confederacy. He rode Gontran (by Fitz Gladiator - Golconde) for them, winning the Prix du Jockey Club in 1865, and the next year, with Florentin (by Florin - Reine Blanche), he won the Prix du Jockey Club again, for owner Henri Delamarre.
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| Charles Pratt and his filly Sornette |
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Pratt, rather unusually, continued to ride successfully after starting his own training establishment until 1876, when he had a serious accident that terminated his career as a jockey. In 1870 he won the Prix du Jockey Club again while riding Bigarreau (By Light - Bataglia), and then the Prix de Diane and Grand Prix de Paris with his outstanding filly Sornette (by Light - Surprise, by Gladiator).
Charles Pratt spent most of his life training at Lamorlaye, where he bought land, and in 1876 he build a large stable, then called La Grande Porte, close to what is now the Rue Charles Pratt.
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Most of the Carter and Cunnington family had to leave France in a hurry at the outbreak of World War II, apart from those few who had taken French nationality. As trainers left Chantilly, the only Carter who had French nationality was Percy, and the only Cunningtons were Jack, in Chantilly, and Willy and Charlie in Maison-Laffitte. There were a couple of others, but they were not involved in racing. Those that remained had access to the best horses in the stables. Jacky Cunnington, a descendant of Charles, remains as a Chantilly trainer.
THE WATSONS
View an Abridged Watson Family Descent Chart
The Watsons arrived later in Chantilly than the Carters and Cunningtons. In about 1894 James Cooper Watson left Richmond in North Yorkshire for Chantilly. The Watsons were trainers for the de Rothschild families on both sides of the English Channel.
Of Scottish origins in the early 19th century, the family, headed by Francis (1783-1854), had acted as one of the lighthouse keepers on the Inner Farne Islands, off the Northumbrian coast.1
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Francis' eldest son, James (1813-1891) became a successful racehorse trainer at Richmond, training from Belleisle stables, adjacent to the race course and close to the Zetland estate and Aske stud. He had previously trained the legendary Beeswing (Dr. Syntax - mare by Ardrossen), for a local MP, Mr. Orde at his stables in Nunnykirk, County Durham. James was in many ways an unlikely man to be seen in Paris, but in 1863 he was there to see his Donnybrook come fourth in the Grand Prix de Paris. Racing was becoming internationalised, and one of his former apprentices, Alfred Hayhoe, had become trainer to the Rothschilds at Palace House Stables in Newmarket forging an early link between the families.
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After James' death in 1891 his wife, Jane (née Cooper) went over to Chantilly to keep house for her son James Cooper Watson and took his four sisters with her. Two of these, May and Fanny fell in love with Cunnington boys, George and Elijah, and subsequently married them.
James Cooper Watson (1862-1929) took over his father's establishment at Belleisle, but with the decline of racing at Richmond, he accepted an appointment as trainer to Baron Edouard de Rothschild (1868-1949) at Chantilly to succeed Frank Lynham. Rothschild had the famous colours, "La casaque bleue, et toque jaune" (blue silk with a yellow cap) and maintained stables at the Chantilly hippodrome together with the legendary family stud, the Haras de Meautry, near Deauville.
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| James C. and Frank Watson with Le Roi Soleil |
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J-C fitted in well with the self confident and comfortable English colony. A contemporary French account described him "...as typical of the English (the outré-mares) of grave features, with a high colour, well trimmed moustache with little mutton chop sideburns, wearing a chestnut bowler, black jacket, striped trousers and a phlegmatic air." The Watsons intermarried with the Cunningtons.
He prepared Le Roi Soleil (by Heaume - Mlle. De la Valliere) for Baron Alphonse de Rothschild to win the Grand Prix de Paris in 1898 and Sans Souci II (by Le Roi Soleil - Sanctimony) the 1907 Grand Prix de Paris. In 1911 Alcantara II (by Perth - Toison d'Or) won the Prix du Jockey Club.
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J-C had a younger brother Francis (Frank) (1866-1946) who was apprenticed to another brother, John Watson, at Newmarket, before going to France where he established a successful practice as a horse dentist. This John Watson (1870-1934), known as "Jack," was for 40 years the private trainer in Newmarket to Leopold de Rothschild, having taken over on the retirement of Alfred Hayhoe. He also trained for the American millionaire August Belmont, and won the 2000 Guineas for him with Norman III (by Octagon - Ninevah) in 1907. Another important success was the 1912 St. Leger with Tracery (by Rock Sand - Topiary), who also won the St. James Palace Stakes, Champion Stakes and Eclipse Stakes. In France, he won the Grand Prix de Paris in 1919 with Galloper Light (by Sunstar - Santa Fina) for Leopold de Rothschild.
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| Geoff Watson, trainer for the Rothschilds and bon viveur |
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Geoffrey Lionel Watson (1905-1994) was John Watson's second son. He went to Chantilly and became an assistant trainer to Frank Carter from 1925 to 1930. In 1930, he took out his first trainer's licence, and his owners included Baron Guy de Rothschild, Baron Elie de Rothschild and Baroness Guy de Rothschild. He was known to all as the Rothschild trainer and had the air of a rich gentleman farmer, well rounded, with a gourmet interest in good food. During the war years, he served in the Royal Army Service Corps in North Africa.
His racing record was remarkable with four winners of the Prix de Diane at Chantilly, four Prix Ganay winners at Longchamp, and a Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe with Exbury (by Le Haar) in 1963 for Guy de Rothschild. He also had three Grand Prix de Paris wins with Vieux Manoir (Brantôme - Vielle Maison) in 1950, White Label (by Tanerko - Alba Nox) in 1964 and Pleben (by Sheshoon out of Devastating) in 1972. In 1965, he trained Diatome for Baron Guy de Rothschild to win the 14th Washington D. C. International Race.
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In 1972 Watson had 44 victories, and was the top French trainer. On retirement he went to Cannes in the South of France, where he died in 1994.
THE JENNINGS AND THE HEADS
View an Abridged Descent Chart of the Jennings - Head Family
In 1836 Tom "Genius" Carter brought the Jennings brothers over to La Fourriere at Chantilly when they were only 17 and 13. Thomas (Old Tom) (1823-1900) and Henry (Old Hat) were from a large family born in Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire, the sons of John Jennings and Ruth Titchmarch, who ran a coaching inn, with a horse breeding and trading interest.
Initially they were stable jockeys at Chantilly, but then Tom became Carter's assistant trainer. Both brothers married Carter brides. Henry took Ann Carter, Tom Carter's younger sister, and Tom married Mary Ann Carter, the niece of "Genius" Tom. Henry founded a dynasty, which resulted in the present Head family, perhaps the most successful of recent French racing families. Hat is the great-grandfather of Christiane "Criquette" Head-Maarek (b.1948), the world's leading female trainer.
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| "Old" Tom Jennings and his wife, Mary Ann Carter |
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Tom Jennings was the most successful trainer in the history of the Prix du Jockey Club, with ten victories, and also the trainer of Gladiateur, winner of the English Triple Crown and the Grand Prix de Paris.
After Tom Carter's retirement Tom and Henry trained together, and won the first running of the Prix de Diane (The French Oaks) with Nativa in 1843, ridden by Tom. The brothers enjoyed considerable success on French courses but in 1844 there was a bitter row between them. It wasn't until the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, 17 years later, that they reconciled.
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Tom used his contacts during this period to establish work in Turin for the Prince de Savoie, to set up English-style horseracing in Piedmont. He once, Hannibal-like, walked 22 horses from France to Italy across the Alps during a war. Jennings had his own racing colours, white, green and red, the colours of the Italian flag.
In 1850 Alexandre Aumont persuaded him to return to France as his trainer at Compiègne and he quickly won for him the 1852 and 1855 Prix du Jockey Clubs with Porthos and Monarque. When Aumont became ill, the Comte Frédérick de Lagrange and his confederacy bought the entire racing establishment for £10,000, with the aim of becoming the best in France and moving into England to establish a major French challenge. Jennings was adequate to the task; he was bilingual, had developed a shrewd business sense, and was above all trustworthy.
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| Phantom House yard in 1895 |
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Tom settled in Phantom House stables at Exning, on the northern outskirts of Newmarket, where with his son "Young Tom" he trained Gladiateur and the winners of most English classic races. Jennings was the first trainer to operate on a European level and crossed between Newmarket and Chantilly with frenetic regularity, up to 30 times a year.
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For Lagrange in France he won eight Prix du Jockey Club with, Ventre Saint Gris (1858), Black Prince (1859), Gabrielle D'Estrees (1861), Consul (1869), Insulaire (1878), Zut (1879), Albion (1881) and Dandin (1882).
In addition to all this, Tom operated a farm from near Bury St. Edmonds with brickworks attached, from which he supplied the building materials for Lagrange and Warren Towers stables. He died on 12th December 1900 at the age of 76.
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Henry "Old Hat" Jennings also rode as a jockey for Tom Carter when young, and married Ann while assisting with Lord Henry Seymour's stable at Porte-Maillot. He went on to train for Prince Marc de Beauvau, serving as head trainer at Beauvau-Komar, and also schooled horses for the Baron Niviére, and for the "Big Stable" operated by Lagrange and Niviére, which is when he and his brother, Tom, had their falling-out.
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He moved on to serve as principal trainer for the Comte de Morny's stable, and after the count died, Henry established his own public stable in La Croix Saint-Ouen, where he had trained the count's horses. He quickly outgrew that facility, and built a new stable in the same village, Bac de La Croix-Saint-Ouen, where he juggled -- not always successfully -- horses for a number of important sportsmen, including Madame Edgar de la Charme, Leonce Delâtre, Pol Nanquette, L. André, Alexandre Aumont, the Comte Gustave de Juigné, and the Prince Auguste d'Arenberg. At one time -- 1873 -- he was balancing the needs of twelve different owners with a total of 78 horses in training; he preferred not to think of himself as a public trainer, but as the director of several establishments under one umbrella.
Henry was apparently a restless, testy character, and arguments with his owners were frequently soothed over by Ann, known as "Mrs. Henry" to the ever-changing staff under Jennings' supervision. He was constantly experimenting with different training methods, and was the first in France to do away with sweating, making "the animal...face the fight in a more natural state, bringing it closer to the condition of an ordinary horse." For a while, he also ran his horses barefoot.
Henry trained many winners, including ten winners of the Grand Critérium at Longchamp, including Miss Cath (1855), Duchess (1956), Isabella (1860), Stradella (1861), Czar (1865) Revigny (1871), Jonquille (1875) and her brother Jongleur (1876), Mantille (1877) and Basilique (1879). Jongleur, to single out just one, owned by the comte Gustave de Juigné, went on to win the Prix Lupin, the Prix du Jockey Club, the Prix Royal-Oak, and at Newmarket the Select Stakes and the Cambridgeshire Handicap (he died at age four from tetanus). He won well with horses on his own account as well, including Virginie II and Métropole.
Henry's wife, Ann, died at age 74, childless, and Henry surprised and scandalized the community by marrying his wife's niece, Mathilda Watkins, many years his junior, who was apparently pregnant prior to the nuptuals. Their daughter, Henrietta Jennings, married William Head, a successful jockey, trainer, and owner, who became the parents of Jacques-Alexandre "Alec" Head.
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| Champion Charlottesville, trained by Alec Head |
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Alec Head, became a formidable trainer and breeder; he bought the Haras du Quesnay, near Deauville, which had been purchased by W.K. Vanderbilt in 1907 and abandoned before the war. Alec had the Aga Khan and Aly Khan as his principle owners and the services of jockeys Ray Johnstone and George Moore. In 1947 he won the Grand Prix de Paris with Avenger II (by Victrix II - Minnewaska), trained by Albert Bucquet, and again in 1960 with Charlottesville (by Prince Chevalier - Noorani by Nearco). In 1959 he won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with St. Crespin (by Aureole). In 1969 Beaugency was second in Prix du Jockey Club, but the prize remained in the family; his father, Willy Head, winning with Goodly (by Snob - Alizetta), ridden by his son Freddy.
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Alec Head married Ghislaine van de Poele, who gave him four children, Christiane, Freddy, Patricia and Martine. Freddy, after a period in Australia, was champion French jockey on six occasions, while Martine managed Quesnay.
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Perhaps the most outstanding member of the present generation is Criquette Head-Maarek (b. 1948), the world's leading female trainer, married to Gilles Maarek, a racing journalist. With other members of the Head family she continued a long relationship with the Wertheimers, proprietors of the House of Chanel. A list of her winning horses includes, Three Troikas (Arc de Triomphe, 1979), Harbour and Egyptband (Prix de Diane, 1982 and 2000), Bering (Prix du Jockey Club 1986) and Ma Biche, Ravinella and Hatoof (the English 1000 Guineas in 1983, 1988 and 1992).
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1. The Watsons were friends of the Darling family, who were also light keepers on the nearby Longstone light. Grace Darling (1815-1842) on 7th September 1836 spotted the wreck of the Forfarshire and with her father rescued nine survivors in a deed which captured contemporary imagination. Robert (1815-1885), Francis' second son, was a distinguished artist and produced one of the few portraits of Grace Darling.
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Books and Articles
Bridel, Oliver, The Carters
Fairfax-Blakeborough, J., Northern Turf History V.1 (J.A. Allen & Co., London, 1948)
Jennings, Roy, An Even Chance (Cambridgeshire Local History Society)
Longrigg, Roger, History of Horse Racing (Macmillan, 1972)
McCartney, Carolyn (trans), L'Association de sauvegarde de Chantilly et de son environment (September 2004)
Rickman, John, "Old Tom and Young Tom."
Thibault, Guy, La Mainmise Britanique
Wade, Paul, Chantilly, Kingdom of the Horse (abridged, Vivian Mare, 1999)
Other Sources
Patricia Moss and Carolyn McCartney (Carter/Cunnington family)
John and Jo Watson (Watson family)
Acknowledgements
I am most grateful to my friend Daphne Dench, inheritor of the Carter, Cunninton, Watson and Johnson family lines, who over a dinner time conversation revealed some of the complexity of the English in Chantilly. She put me intouch with her relatives John and Jo Watson, her sister Pat Moss, and especially her niece Carolyn McCartney. Carolyn has been tireless in her pursuit of family information, and Pat has provided invaluable personal insight and instant French translation. These families have been generous with their time and personal photographs. Xavier Bougon of France-Galop kindly corrected the script to prevent errors "lost in translation."
The websites of tbheritage.com and France-Galop have been an invaluable source of information.
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