Only Eric Tabarly had managed to win the legendary transatlantic race on two occasions (1964 and 1976), the mother of all single-handed races.
safransixty.com

[...] également réussi à remporter deux fois (1964 et 1976) cette Transat Anglaise mythique, ***la mère*** de toutes les courses en solitaire.
safransixty.com

Mother of all

"Mother of all..." has become a stock phrase in English-language public discourse and popular culture. It implies the largest or most significant example of a class, which completely overshadows all other cases in the class. For example, "the mother of all battles" would imply the largest, most destructive, most significant battle ever fought.

History

The phrase "the mother of all..." was popularized in recent years, though not introduced, by Saddam Hussein, then President of Iraq, after the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Bulletins to Iraqi citizens advised them to prepare for an invasion and "the mother of all battles" [1] if the US-led coalition forces attempted to evict his army of occupation from Kuwait.[2] The phrase "mother of all battles" in this instance was a translation of the Arabic expression Umm al-Ma'arik. This is a common trope in Arabic public rhetoric. As Saddam's audience would have understood, it refers to the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in AD 637, when an Arab army defeated the Persians.[3]
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[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_of_all]