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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The racetrack of Saint-Cloud, also known as the Val d'Or racetrack, extends over 75 hectares on horseback between Saint-Cloud and Rueil-Malmaison. Inaugurated on 15 March 1901 by Edmond Blanc, it is designed as a space dedicated to gallop races, with a track of 2,300 meters grassy. Its architecture, signed Léon Berthault, combines Anglo-Norman elegance and technical innovations: starting-gates, telegraph for results, and sophisticated irrigation. Five guard pavilions, a ride and a marshalry, built in 1902, have been listed as Historic Monuments since 1986.

The site is based on the former domain of Fouilleuse, dating back to the 9th century, originally owned by the Abbey of Saint-Denis. Transformed into a model farm by Napoleon III (1855-1860), he became a prison colony after 1871, before being acquired by Edmond Blanc in 1898. The latter erected a modern racetrack, complemented by a private training centre for its horses, including stables, saddlery and staff quarters. The Anglo-Norman style, popular with White, marks all the constructions, even hailed by King Edward VII during his visit in 1905.

During the First World War, the hippodrome was requisitioned as a military hospital by Canadians, commemorated today by the Canadian Camp Street. In 1924, he hosted the Olympic polo events. After 1952, Marcel Boussac bought the site and entrusted Eugène Lizero with a functional reconstruction (tribune, paddock), inaugurated in 1955. Only the training centre, transformed into the Paris Country Club in 1981, retains Edmond Blanc's architectural heritage.

Ranked a protected site in 1998, the hippodrome now houses 32 annual meetings, including the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and the Critérium. In 2014, a destruction project for 6,000 social housing units was abandoned through a citizen petition. The site remains an emblematic place of the francilian equestrian and architectural heritage, combining history, sport and preservation.

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