VARENNE
The richest trotter of all time is Italian, his name is Varenne. He takes his name from the famous Rue de Varenne, the street in Paris where the Italian consulate is located. During his racing career, which began on 4 April 1998 in Bologna, he took to the track on 73 occasions, winning 62 times, coming second 6 times and third 2 times, and earning over 6 million euros in prize money.
Three years later it was bought by the Neapolitan entrepreneur Enzo Giordano, for whom he raced until the end of its career, even if at a certain point the image rights were sold. With the exception of his debut race, he was always trained by the Finnish trainer Jory Turja, in the training centre at Tor San Lorenzo on the outskirts of Rome, and driven by the Roman driver Giampaolo Minnucci who on only two occasions was forced to hand over the reins to the Finnish Jorma Kontio.
His fans nicknamed him ‘Il Capitano’ (The Captain), a nickname that has stayed with him even after he stopped racing.
His list of achievements includes all the best races in the world, and his best season was certainly 2001, when he achieved the grand slam by winning the three most important European races, Prix d'Amerique (Paris), Lotteria (Naples) Elitloppet (Stockholm), and the Breeders Crown in the USA at Meadowlands. The full house in continental races was also achieved the following year in 2002. He therefore won in seven different countries: Italy, France, Sweden, Finland, Germany, USA, Canada.
His victories, a unique and rare event, brought horse racing to the front pages of sports newspapers and even saw him as a guest in the national TV studios in a historic sports programme.
It was in Canada, at the 2002 edition of the Trot Mondial, on 28 September, that he was relegated from 2nd to 10th place, after having obtained 14 consecutive victories during the year. He ended his competitive career to definitively undertake that of a sire. First at the ‘Il Grifone’ stud farm in Vigone, in the province of Turin, then from August 2019 he was moved to the Equicenter Monteleone, in the municipality of Inverno and Monteleone (Pavia). Since 2021 he has been residing at the ‘Il Cigno’ estate in Villanterio (Pavia). As a stallion he has sired well over 2000 foals, many of which have achieved excellent results on the track; just think that five of his offspring have already won the Italian trotting Derby.
Varenne is the only horse in the history of world horse racing to have won the title of ‘Horse of the Year’ in three different countries (Italy 2000, 2001, 2002; France 2001 and 2002; United States 2001).
Some of Varenne's most important victories
• Rome - Italian Trotting Derby (1998)
• Milan - Grand Prix of Nations (1999)
• Paris - Prix d'Amérique (2001 and 2002)
• Naples - Lottery of Agnano Grand Prix (2000, 2001 and 2002)
• Stockholm - Elitloppet (2001 and 2002)
• New York - Breeders Crown (2001)
