Mon Talisman

Mon Talisman was a bay horse with a narrow white blaze[2] bred in France by Guillermo Ham. He was sired by Craig an Eran, the winner of the 1921 2000 Guineas[3] and Eclipse Stakes,[4] His grandsire Sunstar won the 2000 Guineas and Epsom Derby in 1911 before becoming a successful stud; apart from Craig an Eran, notable offspring included the 1917 Epsom Oaks Sunny Jane.[5] Mon Talisman's dam Ruthene was a half-sister of the leading sprinter Ethnarch and a great-granddaughter of Scene, an influential broodmare whose other descendants have included Animal Kingdom.[6]

During his racing career, Mon Talisman was owned by the Argentinian Miguel Edouard Martinez de Hoz and was trained in France by Frank Carter.

At the end of his racing career, Mon Talisman was retired to become a breeding stallion in France. He was not a conspicuous success but did sire one outstanding horse, Clairvoyant who won the Prix du Jockey Club and the Grand Prix de Paris in 1937.[17] Mon Talisman disappeared following the Fall of France in 1940. One report stated that he had been slaughtered for horsemeat by French refugees.[18]

In their book A Century of Champions, based on a modified version of the Timeform system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Mon Talisman a "superior" winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. They rated him the one hundred and thirty-third best racehorse of twentieth century, the twenty-seventh best horse of the century to have been trained in France, and the best horse foaled in 1924.[9]

• Mon Talisman was inbred 3 × 3 to Cyllene, meaning that this stallion appears twice the third generation of his pedigree.