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Since the Constantin’s, the history of la Lorie is closely connected to France horse-breeding. Gabriel-Felix Constantin, the Maine , Anjou and Touraine royal stud-farms’ superintendent, became a remarkable horse breeder. In 1750, he inaugurates his own stud-farms and builds in the 1780’ huge stables and outbuildings to supply the Royal House. Constantin’s stud-farm provides the Greats in power with young horses to satisfy their fashionable taste for races. Le château de la Lorie ’s stud farm and races are already most renowned and appreciated.
Sight of the stud farms
The Stud Farms of the chateau
Charles-Felix, Gabriel-Felix Constantin’s son, travels a lot and spends a lot of time in Italy and England where he binds connections with many British notables. Back in Anjou, he receives in his castle of la Lorie many English officers – of whom the winner of Napoleon Lord Wellington, the prime ministers William the 1 st Pitt and his son William II Pitt who came to stay at the Angers horsemanship Academy. The fantastic stallion ‘ Regulator’, which initiated with the 7 French brood mares of la Lorie a line then divided between the Orleans Dukes, princes of Condé and the Royal stables, has been offered by William 1 st Pitt to Charles-Felix. La Lorie ’s private stud farm insured a great part of the property incomes and its renown spread largely abroad Angevine frontiers.
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About the racecourse
The chateau of la Lorie is located about 10 km away from the place called ‘Lion d’Angers’ and its hippodrome, and about 15 km away from the first French horse-breeding area ‘ la Mayenne ’. Its terraces, its gardens full of lime-trees, ponds and flowerbeds, dominate the property’s private racecourse, regarded as one of the most pleasant of West of France.
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Drawing of Regulator
