Alec Head

Alec Head

1924-2022

Far better known as a trainer than a jockey, Jacques Alexandre (Alec) Head was born on July 31, 1924. Alongside fellow trainer Francois Mathet, he dominated French racing in the post-war era and enjoyed great success in Britain and Ireland, highlighted by Lavandin's victory in the 1956 Derby.

Alec’s father, Willie Head, was France’s champion jump jockey four times either side of World War One, during which he served in the British army. He finished second on Ballyboggan in the 1919 Grand National. Willie Head’s own father (also named William) had emigrated from England, while his wife Henrietta was the daughter of the English-born trainer Henry Jennings.

Alec rode as a professional between 1940 and 1947. In May 1944 he made a winning debut over jumps on Nicky, trained by his father. He quickly developed into one of the leading jump jockeys, winning the Grande Course de Haies aboard Vatelys in 1946, a feat he repeated in 1947 with Le Paillon.

In 1947 he rode Le Paillon in the Champion Hurdle. They started favourite for the race but, due mainly to Alec’s lack of experience at Cheltenham, he was beaten into second place by Danny Morgan on National Spirit.

A talented performer on the Flat, Le Paillon had only been schooled over hurdles to settle his nerves and Willie Head then proceeded to send him out to win the Grand Prix de Deauville and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Fernand Rochetti took the ride at Longchamp as by the autumn of 1947 a combination of a serious fall at Auteuil, rising weight and the insistence of his wife Ghislaine, had led Alec to retire from the saddle and take out a licence to train at the age of just 23.

He went on to become one of the most successful post-war trainers, sending out the winners of most of the big races in both England and France. At one stage in the 1960s, he had around 140 horses under his care.

He saddled four winners of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and launched a stream of successful international raids, with a Derby, a 1,000 and 2,000 Guineas, an Ascot Gold Cup and an Eclipse Stakes among his triumphs in Britain.

In addition to his success as a trainer, he was one of Europe’s most important and influential breeders of the post-war period, as well as father and mentor to two more of the greats of French racing, trainer Criquette and jockey (and later trainer) Freddy Head.

Setting out from a yard on Avenue Marengo in Maisons-Laffitte, within four years Alec was training for two major owners, the Aga Khan and Pierre Wertheimer. He began training for Wertheimer in 1949 and the famous blue and white silks were carried by many of his most important winners.

His association with the Aga Khan was established when Nuccio won the 1952 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, having finished runner-up to Tantieme the previous year.

That was the first of Alec’s four triumphs in the Arc as a trainer – to which can be added three more as a breeder and another as owner. Nuccio’s Arc victory was the highlight of that 1952 season at the end of which Alec was crowned champion trainer for the first time.

Over the course of the decade, Alec saddled several notable winners in the Aga Khan’s emerald silks, taken over on the death of his father in 1957 by Prince Aly Khan and then in 1960 by his son Karim, the current Aga Khan.

In 1955 the homebred colt Vimy and jockey Roger Poincelet made history when becoming the first French winners of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, chiefly at the expense of that year’s Mathet-trained Derby winner Phil Drake. That was Alec’s first major British victory. In the autumn of that year, he sent over Hafiz to land the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Champion Stakes.

He won his first British Classic in 1956 when Lavandin overcame driving rain and 26 rivals to triumph in the Derby in the hands of Rae Johnstone. He then won the 1957 1,000 Guineas with Rose Royale and the 1959 2,000 Guineas with Taboun.

Also in 1959, Alec won a second Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Prince Aly Khan’s Saint Crespin, who had already annexed the Eclipse Stakes that July.

Alec had further success in the immediate aftermath of Prince Aly Khan’s death in a Paris road accident in May 1960, saddling Charlottesville to win the Prix du Jockey Club and the Grand Prix de Paris, while Sheshoon won the Ascot Gold Cup and the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud that same summer.

Irish punters quickly learned to respect Alec’s runners, with Pederoba, Butiaba and Fiorentina all securing Irish 1,000 Guineas victories between 1956 and 1959, while Ommeyad landed the 1957 Irish St Leger and Amante the 1958 Irish Oaks.

In 1958 Alec purchased the Haras du Quesnay stud farm near Deauville. He was determined from the outset not just to build up a broodmare band but also to stand stallions, with Lucky Dip the first to arrive for a season in 1959.

Le Fabuleux began his stallion career there in 1966 and remained for six seasons before being syndicated to stand at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky.

His successors in the stallion barns at Le Quesnay included Riverman and Green Dancer, both having shone on the track in the Wertheimer silks, while Bering and Anabaa each carried the beige and black colours of Alec’s wife Ghislaine.

Among the fillies to emerge from Le Quesnay were the winners of three Arcs, they being Robert Sangster’s Detroit in 1980 and the mighty Treve in 2013 and 2014.

Resulting from his ventures to the sales at Keeneland, Alec trained a string of top milers throughout the 1970s, claiming three Poule d’Essai des Poulains with Riverman, Green Dancer and Red Lord, while Ivanjica and Dancing Maid both scored in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.

In 1976 he recorded a third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victory with Ivanjica, ridden by son Freddy, wearing the colours of the Wertheimer family.

Alec’s fourth and final triumph in the Arc as a trainer came courtesy of Gold River under Gary Moore in a rain-sodden 1981 running, again carrying the blue and white Wertheimer silks.

The winner of more than 2,300 races in a training career that spanned five decades, Alec relinquished his licence at the end of the 1983 season. He had already seen his daughter and son combine to land an Arc with the family-owned Three Troikas and a 1,000 Guineas with Le Quesnay homebred Ma Biche, and it was Criquette who would take over the family’s training mantel.

Alec’s efforts in the breeding and training spheres were rewarded when he was made an honorary life member of the Thoroughbred Club of America in 1990, while ten years later his own country paid him its highest honour when naming him a chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur.

His connections with leading breeders around the world were key in attracting stallions to the farm and it was his belief in 2005 Derby winner Motivator which led not only to his eventual arrival at Le Quesnay but also the mating which resulted in the dual Arc heroine Treve.

Although spending much of his retirement in the Bahamas, Alec was a constant presence during the summer racing and sales season at Deauville and frequently spent the autumn back in Chantilly as wise counsel to his daughter as she prepared her string for the big end-of-season targets.

Alec Head, one of the key figures in French racing for more than 70 years, died in July 2022 at the age of 97.