Maurice Ephrussi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ephrussi

Maurice Ephrussi (November 18, 1849 - October 29, 1916) was a Russian-born French Jewish banker who also bred and raced Thoroughbreds.

A member of the Ephrussi family, Maurice Ephrussi was born in the free port of Odessa where his father founded the Ephrussi Bank and was involved in the business of exporting wheat. Trained in the banking business, Maurice Ephrussi's elder half-brother, Ignaz, was sent to Vienna to open the Ephrussi & Co. bank while Maurice and his older brother Michel were sent to open a branch in Paris, France.

Through Banque Ephrussi's activities involving the Rothschild family's oil business in the Baku area of present-day Azerbaijan Maurice Ephrussi met Béatrice de Rothschild. She was the daughter of Alphonse de Rothschild, a head of the wealthy and powerful Rothschild banking family of France. Maurice Ephrussi and Béatrice de Rothschild were married in Paris on June 5, 1883. [1] They maintained a home in Paris, a villa in Monte Carlo called "Rose de France," and in the early 1900s built Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.

Maurice and Béatrice Ephrussi were avid art collectors and his cousin, Charles Ephrussi, proprietor of the "Gazette des Beaux-Arts" in Paris, was a patron of the Impressionists.

[edit]Haras du Gazon

Maurice Ephrussi and his brother Michel were both involved in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. Maurice owned Haras du Gazon, a breeding farm in Bazoches-au-Houlme, Orne, Normandy where he bred the outstanding runner and champion sire, Perth [2]. Perth's sire was the Ephrussi stallion War Dance who also sired the brilliant filly, Roxelane [3].

In the 1860s, Maurice Ephrussi had acquired Château de Reux near Reux, Calvados located about 90 kilometres (56 miles) northeast of Haras du Gazon.

Horses raced by Maurice Ephrussi won a number of important races in France and England including the:

Cambridgeshire Handicap - (1) - Alicante (1907)

La Coupe - (1) - Bariolet (1882)

Prix de la Forêt - (2) - Seymour (1879) Alicante (1889)

Prix du Cadran - (1) - Bariolet (1882)

Prix du Jockey Club - (1) - Mordant (1907)

Prix Gladiateur - (1) - Bariolet (1882)

Prix du Nabob - (2) - Alicante (1890), Chapeau Chinois (1893)

Prix Royal-Oak - (1) - Alicante (1890)

Prix Jean Prat - (1) - Alicante (1891)

Haras du Gazon was later purchased by American horseman, Herman B. Duryea. [4]

Maurice Ephrussi died in 1916. His widow lived the rest of her life at their residence in Monte Carlo where she died in 1934. [5]

[edit]References

Pinçon, Michel. Grand fortunes: dynasties of wealth in France (1998) Algora Publishing ISBN 978-0964607354

Information on Haras du Gazon in the May 14, 1922 (edition 1) of the Daily Racing Form

La Lettre de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts : La Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild" (numero 59 - janvier 2010) Friends of Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild