The Beautiful Experiment
by Lisa Harkema
The number of US-born stallions exported to Europe is staggering high, with very few horses going the other way for stallion duty. While some think European-born stallions in the US is a very recent thing, history shows that is not the case. In fact, the first European trotting stallion in the US arrived just a few years after the second World War. The story of Quel Veinard is both strange and fascinating, but more than anything also the story about an almost forgotten horse.
Though not the best horse in the French 1938-crop, Quel Veinard more than held his own. He finished second in the group 1-races Criterium des 4 Ans and Prix de Selection in 1942. The following year he won the Prix Marcel Laurent, while in 1944 he won the Prix Doynel de Saint-Quentin. Three years later he stood stud for the first time. In this third crop, born 1948, he sired the outstanding champion Elope, winner of Criterium des 3 Ans, Criterium des 4 Ans and Prix de Vincennes. The crop also contained Ettlingen, fourth in the 1955 Prix d’Amerique. When Elope was four-years-old, back in 1952, Quel Veinard was on the verge to establish himself as one of the most popular stallions in France.