The Queen of Quebec
by Lisa Harkema
From humble beginnings she rose to be one of the best broodmares in history. An ordinary racehorse, as a broodmare Amour Angus defied all expectations and is now considered one of the best in history.
Pierre Lévesque had a large chicken farm and also bred Aberdeen Angus cattle on his farm in Stanbridge Station, Quebec. In 1961, he also decided to buy a few standardbreds to race. Four years later he bought the entire stable of Leon Sauteur, including stallion Champ Adios and several broodmares.
“I told Leon Sauteur I wanted to buy Champ Adios, who at that time was a free-for-aller in Montreal. At first my plan was to race a few horses, but it got a lot bigger,” Lévesque smiles. “He told me if I didn’t have broodmares I didn’t have a business, and I ended up buying all of his horses. It was a bit crazy, because I didn’t have a barn for horses. I got that built as soon as I could, but for a little while they were in the same barn as the chickens,” he adds with a chuckle. “Over time I added horses here and there and at some point I had 15-20 race horses, around 80 broodmares and 55 yearlings. We also had several stallions including Bye Bye Pat. He was a very good stallion for us.”