The French Classic Races are a series of Group One Thoroughbred horse races run annually on the flat. The races were instituted in the nineteenth century, taking the British Classic Races as a model.
In the original scheme, one race, the Poule d'Essai, served as the equivalent to the first two British classics, but was later divided into separate races for colts and fillies. The Grand Prix de Paris, for many years the most important and valuable of the French classics, had no British equivalent.
| French Classic | Founded | British equivalent |
| Prix du Jockey Club | 1836 | Epsom Derby |
| Poule d'Essai | 1840 | 1000 Guineas & 2000 Guineas |
| Prix de Diane | 1843 | Epsom Oaks |
| Prix Royal-Oak | 1861 | St. Leger Stakes |
| Grand Prix de Paris | 1863 | none |
| Poule d'Essai des Poulains | 1883 | 2000 Guineas |
| Poule d'Essai des Pouliches | 1883 | 1000 Guineas |
The Prix Royal-Oak was opened to older horses in 1979, making it no longer a direct parallel to the St. Leger, which remains open only to three-year-olds. It distanced itself further from the St. Leger parallel in 1986, when it opened to geldings, becoming the only classic race in either France or Great Britain in which geldings are allowed to run. (Note that in several other major racing regions, notably North America and Australia, geldings are allowed to run in any race open to intact males if they are otherwise qualified to enter.)
Famous quotes containing the words french, classic and/or races:
“I don’t see what for French Canadians to go to defend a bunch of Poles. I don’t get that at all. I don’t see what they mean to us. And they all one kind government much same like the other.”
—Emeric Pressburger (1902–1988)
“Instead of stubbornly attempting to use surrealism for purposes of subversion, it is necessary to try to make of surrealism something as solid, complete and classic as the works of museums.”
—Salvador Dali (1904–1989)
“Arrive at New Orleans, a city of ships, steamers, flatboats, rafts, mud, fog, filth, stench, and a mixture of races and tongues. Cholera, “some.” [At] Planters’ Hotel. Mem:—Never get caught in a cheap tavern in a strange city.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)