Charles Henri Semblat was a French jockey and racehorse trainer.
14 Facts About Charles Semblat
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Charles Semblat subsequently had an even more successful career as trainer for the owner-breeder Marcel Boussac.
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Charles Semblat is the only person to have both ridden and trained the winner of France's most important race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
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Charles Semblat became an apprentice jockey at a young age and rode his first winner at the age of 13 in 1910.
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Charles Semblat attracted the attention of some of the leading figures French racing and became closely associated with the Chantilly trainers William Cunnington and Frank Carter.
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Charles Semblat was the leading jockey in France for five successive years from 1924 and added a sixth championship in 1934.
7.
Charles Semblat won a third Arc on the seven-year-old Motrico in 1937 and in the same year he won his only British Classic Race winner when he rode the Carter-trained outsider Le Ksar to success in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket Racecourse.
8.
Charles Semblat replaced Elliott and rode for Boussac with considerable success and soon took over the role of trainer.
9.
In 1944 Charles Semblat sustained serious injuries in a fall which forced him to retire from riding.
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Charles Semblat was an immediate success as a trainer at Chantilly where he trained a string of forty horses.
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Charles Semblat was keen to exploit the opportunities which the end of hostilities brought for international competition.
12.
Charles Semblat won a second Gold Cup with Arbar in 1948 and in the following year sent Djeddah across the English Channel to take both the Eclipse Stakes and the Champion Stakes.
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Charles Semblat won a fourth British classic when Talma won the St Leger in the following year.
14.
Charles Semblat continued to train horses, but with less success, recording his last major win when Thymus took the Poule d'Essai des Poulains in 1959.