POLO CLUB DU DOMAINE DE CHANTILLY

Celebrating 20 years of togetherness and action ‘Love for horses’ has been the ultimate motto of Chantilly, throughout. Chantilly, owes much to this innovational and insightful man, by the name of Patrick Guerrand Hermes, who foresaw the very idea of reaching this elite game, to larger audiences, making it more affordable for players and also more attainable to the public. In 1996, the biggest polo club ever seen in France was standing tall on a farmland belonging to the Institut de France. Then, none knew, that this polo club would make such a strong history in the coming days. Today it is one among the three main clubs of Europe and has been the home country for an indelible World Championship and two main European Championships and one of the biggest European Tournaments, namely the French Open.

Top level international showjumping ( Longine Global Champions Tour ), prestigious horse races (40 meetings per year among which the renowned Prix du Jockey Club and Prix de Diane Longines to which, this year and maybe in 2017, will be united by the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe), the largest thoroughbred training centre in the world (2800 gallopers train daily on the 120 km of sand tracks of the Domaine des Lions and the 120 hectares of the Domaine des Aigles), internationally renowned polo (including the French Opens in September and up to 750 horses installed on the lands of the Apremont Farm), Horse Museum and equestrian art (40 Haute-Ecole horses living under the vaults of the most beautiful monument ever built for horses), without taking into consideration the different equestrian centers of the Communauté de Communes, the Henson site allowing tourists to discover the forest and the royal Domain: about 5000 horses generate almost 2500 jobs that punctuate the daily life of the Aire Cantilienne.

Events, sportive or through horse racing, and the Horse Museum have hosted some stars and other personalities that remain around horses: Bruce Springsteen, Bill Gates, Simon Baker, Kate Winslet, Thierry Lhermitte, Guillaume Canet and Marina Hands (riding), Laurent Ruquier at showjumping; Cyril Lignac and Bernard de la Villardière, both as polo players in the sight of Guillaume Gallienne or Roselyne Bachelor or also, at the Horse Museum, the Princess Anne of England, Prince Albert de Monaco and his sister Caroline de Hanovre but also Nicolas Canteloup besides several ministers, ambassadors or governments of this world. In short personalities that only a great world capital, even if it is only “horse capital”, is able to move. Anyway, who better than Chantilly, managed by former budget minister, Eric Woerth, deserves the title of “Horse Capital of the World” with all these references of past and present?