The Queen Without A Crown
by Lisa Harkema
It wasn’t just a win, it was humilating demonstration of supremacy. It was unthinkable really, that an – in North America – unknown French mare could not only defeat, but humiliate the trotter that according to the US fans was undoubtedly the best trotter in the world. However, Une de Mai at her best was nothing short of spectacular. The French queen could be fickle, however, and also lacked luck at times. This caused her to be the only French queen without a crown.
The 1969 International Trot was supposed to be an easy win for Stanley Dancer’s outstanding Nevele Pride, by many considered unbeatable. However, Jean-Rene Gougeon was did not agree as he before the race declared to Sports Illustrated that “I think we can win, or else I would not have come. I think Une de Mai may trot better than Roquépine. She has more speed, she can leave faster. Now it will be interesting to compare Une de Mai with Nevele Pride.” Nevele Pride had post 7 and Dancer had to use him a bit to get to the lead, which he did after half-lap third over outside of Fresh Yankee and Une de Mai. Gougeon was happy to sit outside of Nevele Pride, in fact it may just have been her preferred position. The very idea of racing outside of Nevele Pride seemed crazy but not to Gougeon: “I wasn’t going to take her back (…) because then Stanley Dancer would have been able to take back and I didn’t want him to do that. I wanted to keep the pressure on him.”
Une de Mai struggled with the turns and lost a length, but on the straight she pushed “Pride”, make sure the tempo was high. Four times Une de Mai came at Nevele Pride, slowly zapping him of energy. As patriotic Americans expected their champion to leave the field at the end of the last turn, it was instead the 5-year-old French filly who exhausted the favorite and shocked the American crowd. However shocked, the crowd also recognized that they had witnessed a spectacular performance by an even more spectacular trotter and immediately gave Une de Mai due recognition. Roosevelt’s Jack Lee simply stated that “I have seen them all, but I have just seen the greatest.” Gougeon summed the race, and Une de Mai’s character, up in legendary fashion “When she looked him in the eye, he understood.”