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HISTORICAL CAMEO

by Kellie Reilly

Long before Shergar, there was Corrida -- a charismatic champion whose tragic end is shrouded in mystery. While the details of Shergar's horrible demise have at length come to light, Corrida's precise fate remains unresolved, but she was, in one way or another, a casualty of World War II. Once Europe's richest racemare, who came ever so close to winning three runnings of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Corrida was a French superstar of the 1930s, hoisting the tricolor in victory across the Continent as well as on British soil. With Sunday marking the 73rd anniversary of her second Arc title, and a few of this year's principal contenders having distant ties to Corrida, we take the opportunity to pay tribute to this ill-fated queen of the French turf.

As one would expect from a homebred campaigned by the illustrious Marcel Boussac, Corrida boasted top-class parentage. Her sire, Coronach, swept a series of top prizes in 1926 -- the Derby at Epsom by five lengths, the St James's Palace S. by an estimated 20 lengths, the Eclipse S. by six lengths and the St Leger in stakes-record time. Though the chestnut added the Coronation Cup and Hardwicke S. to his record in 1927, he was ever more plagued by breathing trouble.

Perhaps because of that malady, Coronach did not have the reputation of being the toughest of animals. Richard Ulbrich's Peerage of Racehorses summed up Coronach thus:

"There was suggestion, current in his time, that he lacked courage. Certainly he was not lacking in ability."

According to Abram Hewitt's Sire Lines, his own trainer Fred Darling believed that Coronach was "soft," although Hewitt believed that was more a matter of prejudice against his light chestnut coat and flaxen mane and tail.

Corrida's dam, Zariba, compiled an impressive resume on the racecourse herself. Zariba won the Prix Morny and the Prix de la Foret at two; the Prix Jacques le Marois, Prix Daru, Prix Penelope and Prix Edmond Blanc at three; and the Prix d'Hedouville at four. She also garnered runner-up honors in such events as the Prix de Diane (French Oaks), Prix du President de la Republique and Prix d'Ispahan.

Zariba, a 45,000-franc yearling purchase by Boussac, was a daughter of Sardanapale. The star of the 1914 French classic crop, Sardanapale captured the Grand Prix de Paris and Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby), and eventually became an influential source of stamina in pedigrees.

As Ulbrich notes, Sardanapale was advertised as "the best horse in the world" when he went to stud, "an assertion widely accepted."

Zariba's female line was no less accomplished, and had made a splash as far afield as America. Her second dam, *Fairy Gold (Bend Or), produced Belmont S. winner Friar Rock, as well as the outstanding runner Fair Play, who later gained fame as the sire of the legendary Man o' War.

Interestingly, both Fair Play and Corrida descended from the Godolphin Arabian sire line perpetuated by West Australian, but along different paths: Fair Play represented the branch that took root in America with *Australian, but Corrida hailed from the European remnant revived by her grandsire Hurry On.

Corrida had the looks to match her bloodlines, a fashionable appearance befitting a cosmopolitan celebrity. The blaze-faced chestnut was decked out with white markings on her legs, two of them fairly prominent.

To Ulbrich, Corrida was "an eye-catchingly lovely and elegant filly," and "photographs of her ooze class and distinction."

Beauty being in the eye of the beholder, however, a slightly different perspective was offered by Arthur FitzGerald and Michael Seth-Smith in their indispensable Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, 1920-1948:

"Corrida was no oil painting, but she was an extremely free mover with a lovely action, courageous, genuine and with a brilliant burst of speed; she really enjoyed her racing and must be counted one of the best winners of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe."

That verdict lay far off in the future, however, when Corrida began her career as a juvenile in 1934. Although her bare record reads one win and two placings from four starts, she stamped herself as a top performer in embryo. Corrida notably emulated her dam by taking the prestigious Prix Morny over six furlongs at Deauville, and later underlined her potential by finishing second to the colt Pampeiro, beaten a half-length, in the one-mile Grand Criterium at Longchamp.

Boussac must have had great confidence in her as a candidate for the 1935 classics. Instead of keeping her at home and aiming for the French classics, he transferred her to the yard of the renowned English horseman, the Hon. George Lambton, with an eye toward the One Thousand Guineas and Oaks.

Had her connections solicited Corrida's thoughts on the matter, she would no doubt have vetoed the move to Newmarket. Whether homesick for her familiar Chantilly, or unable to adjust to the cold and windy Heath, Corrida failed to progress as might have been hoped. She ran three dismal races that English spring.

Dispatched as the second choice (at 8-1 on the tote) in the Guineas, Corrida wound up dead last of 22 to her compatriot Mesa. The result was a complete form reversal, for Mesa was demonstrably inferior to Corrida during their juvenile days.

Indeed, Corrida "ran unaccountably badly," as Edward Moorhouse put it in the 1935 Bloodstock Breeders' Review.

Despite that colossal flop, Corrida was sent off as the third choice (at 11-1 on the tote) in the Oaks, having shown a glimmer of life on the gallops. Her supporters also likely drew courage from the fact that the soft going at Epsom was much more suitable to her than the firm ground at Newmarket. The result was a less embarrassing 10th of 17, but she was still well beaten by the victorious Quashed, and she was again adrift of third-placer Mesa.

Next on tap was the Coronation S. at Royal Ascot, where Corrida turned in her third straight unplaced effort. In fact, it was her third strike, so to speak, and she was most definitely out. Lambton realized that the best remedy for Corrida was to go back home.

Right after rejoining trainer William Hall at Chantilly, Corrida began to round into form. Runner-up to the elder distaffer Rarity in the Prix d'Astarte at Deauville, she was then pitted against older males in the Grand International d'Ostende in Belgium. It was to be the first of her three straight appearances in the lucrative, about 1 3/8-mile affair at Hippodrome Wellington, named for Napoleon's conqueror at Waterloo.

The 1935 edition of the Grand International d'Ostende was postponed in the aftermath of the untimely death of Queen Astrid, who was killed in a car accident while vacationing in Switzerland. When the race was finally run on September 1, the classy veteran Admiral Drake grabbed the tactical advantage by striking the front before the final turn, and he held off the late-running Corrida by a half-length.

Admiral Drake was no slouch. Hero of the 1934 Grand Prix de Paris, he was out of the blue hen Plucky Liege, making him a half-brother to the noted sires *Sir Gallahad III and *Bull Dog. Admiral Drake graced the cover of the Blood-Horse following his Ostende success, and he was at one time expected to ship in for the Santa Anita H.

Corrida used the Grand International d'Ostende as her prep for the Arc. This first attempt at Arc glory, though, would end in an agonizing near-miss.

Reserved in her customary spot off the pace by Boussac's retained rider Charlie Elliott, Corrida came flying down the straight. She outkicked Admiral Drake, suggesting that she'd improved since her Belgian foray, and left the defending Arc champion and 1-2 favorite Brantome, now but a shadow of his former self, behind. Yet the wire came too soon, and Corrida's daring late thrust fell just two necks shy of victory.

The top two finishers were also three-year-old fillies -- Samos, the unheralded winner at 19-1, and French Oaks heroine Peniche, who was part of the heavily favored entry with Brantome. Peniche was an unlucky loser, considering that she had beaten Samos in their previous meetings. But Corrida was arguably the most unfortunate, since she had narrowly defeated Peniche at Ostende.

Corrida's frustrating run continued in the Prix du Conseil Municipal, as she failed to reel in the 15-1 Come In by a short head while spotting him eight pounds. Her losing streak was snapped at last in her seasonal finale in the November 3 Grand Prix de Marseille. Not only did she roll by two lengths from her old rival from her juvenile days, Pampeiro, but she also confirmed her supremacy over Peniche, reiterating that Corrida was unlucky not to have won the 1935 Arc.

Corrida experienced another trainer switch in advance of her four-year-old campaign, but this did not involve a change of address. Rather, her incoming trainer, John Watts, was replacing the retiring Hall. Under Watts' tutelage, Corrida would reach the peak of her powers. That might have been due to his expertise, but her natural maturation might also have contributed significantly to her improvement.

Still, Corrida was never really herself in the early part of her 1936 and 1937 seasons either, casting a new light on her disconsolate English sojourn in 1935. If she were just constitutionally subpar in the spring, then the stress of classic preparations would have been too much for her, whether she were happy in Newmarket or not. For Watts, Corrida's first few outings of the year were usually low-key; only as the campaign advanced did the razor-sharp Corrida make her appearance, to the delight of her burgeoning fan base.

True to her pattern, Corrida opened 1936 with three straight losses, including a pair of seconds in the Prix Boiard and Prix de la Jonchere. Then she began to hit her stride with scores in the Prix du Prince de Galles and the Prix d'Hedouville. In the latter, Corrida joined her dam on the honor roll as a rare female winner.

Now the stage was set for a retrieval mission, to redeem her reputation in English eyes. Last seen crossing the Channel in ignominious failure, Corrida came full circle by making a victorious return to Royal Ascot in the Hardwicke S. By driving to a two-length decision over males, unfazed by her 133-pound impost, she was the only French invader to plunder a trophy at the 1936 Royal meeting.

Not everyone was convinced. "The Briton," the correspondent who covered British racing for the Blood-Horse, airily dismissed her effort, and opined that the runner-up, the smart three-year-old colt His Grace, was unlucky. The Briton did not explain his conjecture, or how the outcome might have been affected. It was not the last time that he would pour cold water on the ardent enthusiasm for Corrida found among French turf writers.

Back on her home soil, Corrida was hammered into 1-10 favoritism for the July 5 Prix du President de la Republique over 1 9/16 miles at Saint-Cloud. With her explosive, last-to-first rally, she collared the talented sophomore colt Vatellor in deep stretch and prevailed cozily by three-quarters of a length. Vatellor, runner-up in that year's French Derby, was himself three lengths clear of third, signifying that this was a top-drawer performance. Corrida thus became the first distaffer to win since the inception of the prize in 1904.

Corrida took her game on the road again. This time she went to Riem, near Munich, as the only foreigner venturing to the July 26 Braune Band von Deutschland, the richest race in Germany. As its very name implies, the "Brown Ribbon" was inspired by a Nazi crony of Hitler, Christian Weber, who at one time held the position of President of the Economic Federation of German Riding-Stable Owners.

The Brown Ribbon went to the home team, courtesy of the great German filly Nereide, a perfect 10-for-10 in her career. The winner of the German Derby and Oaks, each in record time, Nereide took full advantage of her 16-pound pull at the weights. Corrida, again toting 133 pounds, took a run at her younger rival in the stretch, but the front-running Nereide kept her at bay by a length. Corrida's four-race winning streak was halted, and to celebrate the German victory over the famous French invader, carrier pigeons were deployed to broadcast the news throughout the nation.

Corrida rebounded with a sparkling triumph in the August 30 Grand International d'Ostende. The 7-5 favorite and 128-pound highweight crushed Taj Akbar, to whom she was giving seven pounds, by 3 1/2 lengths. Taj Akbar, runner-up in that year's Epsom Derby, had previously defeated American Triple Crown winner Omaha in the Princess of Wales's S. Third-placer Vatellor couldn't get nearly as close to Corrida as he had at Saint-Cloud, and was beaten a total of about seven lengths.

Although Corrida had demolished two solid yardsticks, at least hinting that she would be a worthy rival to Epsom Derby conqueror *Mahmoud, or the impressive French Derby winner Mieuxce, The Briton turned a blind eye to that form. Instead, he preferred to hold her loss to Nereide against her, and crab the French form generally.

In one respect, though, The Briton had a point: the October 4 Arc was missing a few key contenders, rendering the Longchamp showpiece less informative than it might otherwise have been.

"The Frenchmen think that the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe...will settle this question of world supremacy," The Briton wrote in the Blood-Horse. "It will do nothing of the sort, for none of the champions I have mentioned above (including Mahmoud and Omaha) is engaged, but it should certainly be a fine race."

Corrida was sent off as the 4-5 favorite in a 1936 Arc that was virtually at her mercy, and she duly obliged. The only drama took place before the race, when Corrida went into diva mode, acting up and holding up proceedings. In the race itself, all went according to script. Effortlessly advancing from the rear, Corrida asserted her class by 1 1/2 lengths over 27-1 outsider Cousine, with 1935 winner Samos a lackluster fifth and Vatellor ninth.

Wheeling back just nine days later in the Champion S. at Newmarket was not the most advisable decision. Boussac, apparently brimming with confidence, traveled to "Headquarters" to see his beloved homebred, but Corrida could not deliver. Undone by a combination of a dawdling early pace, firm ground and short rest, Corrida finished a well-beaten third behind repeat Champion winner Wychwood Abbot. The Briton couldn't contain his glee.

"Those French critics who had been writing up Corrida as the best racehorse in the world thus had the bottom knocked out of their argument," he wrote, satisfied that the yeoman English had put the uppity French in their place. "The four-year-old daughter of Coronach had never looked in better trim, but she simply could not live with Wychwood Abbot."

Corrida ended the season on a high note when successfully defending her title in the November 15 Grand Prix de Marseille, mastering her pacemaker Dadji by a length, with her rival Taj Akbar unplaced.

It would have been understandable had Boussac retired her then, especially since her dam Zariba had died that year. Yet he allowed Corrida to return to action as a five-year-old, and she ultimately rewarded his faith.

As might have been predicted by now, the initial phase of her 1937 campaign was hardly awe-inspiring. She won only one of her first six starts, the Grand Prix du Tremblay, and gave The Briton more ammunition when a subpar fifth in the Coronation Cup on very firm ground at Epsom.

Once Corrida turned her calendar page to July, she began to get her act together, albeit in defeat in the July 4 Prix du President de la Republique. Lining up as the defending champion, she was relying on her rabbit Dadji to carve out an honest pace. Far from assisting, though, Dadji was a hindrance. His slow tempo played into his own hands, while helping the familiar Vatellor too. Corrida uncorked her patented charge and rapidly gained five lengths, but with the race shape all against her, she couldn't make up that final length in time and settled for fourth in a blanket finish. To prove the absurdity of the race, Vatellor, who was thrashed by Corrida in 1936, got the nod over Dadji and Mousson in a three-way photo.

The Blood-Horse race recap noted that the result was "the occasion for one of the outbreaks which are characteristic of French racing crowds...The judges waited for the photograph, published with some trembling, and finally placed the horses in the order given, with Mr. Boussac's grand filly Corrida fourth of 10.

"An uproar started immediately after the placing was announced, and some small buildings near the enclosure were set afire. With the aid of mounted police, the judges managed to stand their ground."

Were the rioters upset at the judges, or were they venting their anger inspired by the hapless Dadji?

That was the last reverse Corrida endured, for she capped her glittering career with a three-race winning streak. She captured the Grand International d'Ostende for the second straight year on August 29, neatly gaining revenge on horses who had beaten her earlier that year. The 9-4 favorite under 128 pounds, she handled Mousson by three-quarters of a length, while His Grace, the dead-heat winner of the Coronation Cup, was soundly defeated.

Then there was a little bit of unfinished business to take care of in Germany. On September 19, Corrida struck in the Grosser Preis von Reichshaupstadt at Hoppegarten in Berlin. Upstaging all of the leading German runners, as well as their Axis partner Amerina from Italy, Corrida won comfortably on the bridle, and in course record time for the 1 1/2 miles to boot. If the Germans had felt that Nereide had given them a propaganda coup the prior year near Munich, Corrida repaid them -- with interest -- in the very capital of the Third Reich.

Her sometime pacemaker Dadji also inflicted a stinging defeat on the Germans, capturing the 1937 renewal of the historic Grosser Preis von Baden.

In light of Corrida's tip-top form, it was unfortunate that the 1937 Arc did not offer her a clash with the outstanding three-year-olds Donatello II and Clairvoyant. Those presumptive challengers were ruled out of the engagement, the former by injury and the latter by retirement.

With those high-class opponents out of the way, Corrida was undoubtedly the horse to beat in the October 3 renewal of the Arc. Her legions of fans gave her an enthusiastic reception, and bet her down to even-money favoritism. She played to them, soaking up their adulation in her grand finale that was to crown it all – but not quite in the way that was widely anticipated.

Corrida's most dangerous enemy turned out to be her duplicitous pacemaker Dadji, who was in no hurry on the front end. Boussac, and the throng of 20,000 at Longchamp, were in a state of high anxiety as he led the field in a stroll. Isn't this what cost her the Prix du President de la Republique? There was one difference: Corrida was now at her sublime best, and nothing could stop her.

FitzGerald and Seth-Smith conveyed the dramatic tension of the stretch drive:

"At this stage Corrida's position looked quite hopeless. Charlie Elliott had no choice but to pull the great mare to the extreme outside. Riding one of the finest races of his career, he got M. Boussac's 'crack' to produce an amazing burst of acceleration and, making up what had seemed to everyone in the stands an impossible amount of ground, Corrida snatched the verdict literally on the post by a short head from Tonnelle to the accompaniment of thunderous and tumultuous cheering by the crowd, who idolized the great mare."

Corrida's career thus ended with a deafening crescendo. In addition to inscribing her name in the annals of French racing history, she also retired as Europe's richest mare with a bankroll of 4.5 million francs, surpassing such legends as Sceptre, Pretty Polly and La Camargo. To commemorate the feat, the Blood-Horse made Corrida its cover girl for the October 30, 1937, issue, hailing her as the "Winner of Approximately $236,875 in Four European Countries." At that time, Corrida ranked second on the overall list of money-winning distaffers; only the champion American filly Top Flight had bankrolled more ($275,900).

With her historic racing achievements, and her exquisite pedigree, Corrida ought to have become an influential matron, but her short life as a broodmare was riddled with misfortune. First bred to Tourbillon, she conceived twins, only to lose them. She next visited Mahmoud and in 1940 produced a gray filly named El Gaza, who tragically fractured her spine in her stall and died before ever seeing a racecourse. Barren in 1941, Corrida foaled a bay colt by Tourbillon the following year. This foal, subsequently named Coaraze, proved to be her only surviving offspring. From this one son, Corrida would leave a legacy that endures to this day.

Just when Coaraze was about to become France's top juvenile in 1944, the heartland of the nation's breeding industry – Normandy – was engulfed by the war. Following the invasion on D-Day, the advancing Allies were locked in a titanic struggle with the Germans, who fought desperately to contain them, and Normandy was ground zero. The region's historic stud farms were now battlefields. Such famous stallions as Prince Rose (the sire of *Princequillo) and Plassy were killed in the crossfire, Plassy being so horrifically blown up that his horseshoes were the only method of identifying his remains.

Corrida resided at Boussac's Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard, only a few miles from Falaise, and hence in the middle of the ferocious Battle of the Falaise Gap. In August 1944, Corrida disappeared without a trace. According to a UP story picked up by the New York Times on March 1, 1945, she was commandeered by the Germans in the course of their retreat, and this all-time great mare, who was cheered to the echo by thousands across Europe, was last seen harnessed to an artillery wagon.

Boussac tried in vain to find her, and judging by the past behavior of the Nazi authorities in France, it was not a forlorn hope. For throughout the German occupation, the Nazis had simply taken the cream of French bloodstock, either by outright theft or compulsory sale for a risible sum. Top-notch stallions Brantome and Pharis were among those carted off to Germany, and many horses still in training were seized as well. Boussac clung to the idea that possibly Corrida was still alive.

The Blood-Horse of March 31, 1945, featured an article by Cpl. Alex Bower, dateline "Somewhere in France, March 13," with an update on the condition of the French breeding industry. He commented on the case of Corrida:

"Corrida first came to my notice through the French newspaper published in the town where our outfit is operating. At intervals it has carried advertisements seeking the return of mares stolen by the Germans on August 17. A reward of 100,000 francs is offered for her return. Apparently M. Boussac is hopeful that she may not have been taken to Germany, but may be impounded on a farm in the neighborhood."

The reward did not yield the desired result. A few months later, when Coaraze garnered the French Derby, Corrida was still missing. We can only hope that she avoided the fate of her compatriots, 1927 Arc winner Mon Talisman, and his son, the aforementioned Clairvoyant, who were butchered for horsemeat.

Whatever became of Corrida, a trickle of her blood continues to flow through the breed, courtesy of Coaraze. Her son went on to take the Prix Jacques le Marois, the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and consecutive runnings of the Prix d'Ispahan, and later became a leading sire in Brazil. Although his Brazilian progeny include the unbeaten champion and sire Emerson, Coaraze also left his mark in his native France. He sired the top-class filly *La Mirambule, a smashing winner of the Prix Vermeille, who also figures as the direct ancestress of 1998 Arc hero Sagamix. La Mirambule produced Nasram, the sire of Naskra, who factors in the pedigrees of such notable stallions as More Than Ready, Lion Heart and Maria's Mon.

Another daughter of Coaraze, *Chimere Fabuleuse, is the third dam of Silver Hawk, who promises to remain an influential presence in pedigrees for generations to come. Aside from his valuable daughters, and his Japanese son Grass Wonder, Silver Hawk is also likely to endure through his son Hawkster, the broodmare sire of champion and up-and-coming young sire Afleet Alex.

In Sunday's Arc, too, a faint ember of Corrida's flame still glows. Grand Prix de Paris (Fr-G1) and Prix Niel (Fr-G2) hero Behkabad (Cape Cross [Ire]) traces through the direct female line to L'Esperance (Pommern), a half-sister to Corrida. Prix du Jockey Club (Fr-G1) and Poule d'Essai des Poulains (Fr-G1) star Lope de Vega (Shamardal) claims La Mirambule as his seventh dam, so he can salute Corrida as an ancestress.

Casting the net a bit wider, Corrida's half-brother *Goya II appears in the pedigree of Irish Derby (Ire-G1) and Irish Champion S. (Ire-G1) victor Cape Blanco (Galileo [Ire]). Another half-brother to Corrida, Abjer, factors in the pedigree of 1999 Arc winner Montjeu (Ire), the sire of 2005 Arc star Hurricane Run (Ire) and Sunday's contender Fame and Glory.

Corrida's memory is also revived annually by France Galop, through the running of the Prix Corrida (Fr-G2), which has ironically proven a happy hunting ground for German shippers on occasion.

It is only fitting that France Galop should have the final word on the Gallic heroine, from its page describing the Prix Corrida:

"One of the greatest ever French mares, a shining ambassador for our breeding stock on foreign soil…unquestionably the most popular mare to take to the track in the intervening years between World Wars I and II…much admired in an era soon to experience events that would shake the world to its very core."

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