Brantôme (horse)

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Brantôme


caption =
sire = Blandford
grandsire = Swynford
dam = Vitamine
damsire = Clarissimus
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1931
country = France flagicon|France
colour = Bay
breeder = Haras de Meautry
owner = Baron Édouard Alphonse de Rothschild
trainer = Lucien Robert
record = 14: 12-0-0
earnings = $1,979,631
race = Prix Robert Papin (1933)
Grand Critérium (1933)
Prix Morny (1933)
French 2000 Guineas (1934)
Prix Lupin (1934)
Prix Royal-Oak (1934)
Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (1934)
Prix du Prince d'Orange (1935)
Prix du Cadran (1935)
awards= French Champion 2 Year-Old
French Champion 3 Year-Old
honours =
updated= September 23, 2006

Brantôme (1931-1952) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse and prominent sire. Owned by the Haras de Meautry stable of Édouard Alphonse de Rothschild, he was named for the city of Brantôme, Dordogne. He was unbeaten at ages 2 and 3 and is ranked among the best French horses ever.

Sired by Irish stallion Blandford (1919-1935) out of the mare Vitamine, as a two year-old, Brantôme won the Prix Robert Papin, Grand Critérium and the Prix Morny and was voted two year-old Champion of the year. His major victories at age three include the French 2000 Guineas, the Prix Lupin, the Prix Royal-Oak, the country's most prestigiouis horse race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe plus other significant races. Undefeated, he was voted the three-year-old Champion of the year. In 1935, at age four, Brantôme suffered his first loss. Entered in the Ascot Gold Cup in England, eleven days before the race Brantôme got loose from the stables and was not caught until after he had galloped into downtown Chantilly. The horse lost three shoes and sustained a bad cut. Despite this, his owner still sent him to compete in the Ascot Gold Cup where he finished out of the money.

After winning twelve of the fourteen races he competed in, Brantôme was retired to stand at stud. During the German occupation of France in World War II the Nazis seized some of the best racehorses in France. They shipped more than six hundred thoroughbreds out of the country. Some went to Hungary, but most were shipped to Germany for racing or for breeding at the German National Stud. Among them was the champion Brantôme who would be recovered in 1945 at the end of the War.

Brantôme was the sire of Vieux Manoir who was the grandsire of All Along and Ivanjica as well as Val de Loire who was a Leading sire in France three times and the damsire of Shergar. Brantôme was also the great-grandsire of Exbury.

Brantôme died on July 3, 1952 at the age of twenty-one.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/brantome Brantome's pedigree and racing stats]