The Dutch fairytale
by Lisa Harkema
At 7 he was still a highly average trotter, clearly below the best in France. However, a Dutch trainer thought he saw something in the picturesque colt and purchased him for one of his owners. Willem Geersen needed no time in turning Hairos II from highly average to world class, and thus started one of the most spectacular fairytales in the world of trotting.
The story of Hairos II starts in the Calvados department of France, where he was bred by Georges Gosselin and born in 1951. He made his debut as a two-year old, but failed to win in 6 starts. By the end of 1956, when he was 5-years-old, he was 6-5-9 in 73 starts, with a personal best of 1.20,6 (2:09.3) – not even close to the best French horses such as Gelinotte, nor the best in his 1951 crop, Hortensia VII and Honore II. In 1957, as a 6-year-old, he was 7-2-4 in 26 starts, had lowered his personal best to 1.19,5 (2:08) and was clearly improving – but was, just as clearly, quite a bit behind the best.
In the 1958 Prijs der Lage Landen in Duindigt in the Netherlands, in late June, Hairos II finished fourth. He was around 10 lengths behind the winner Icare IV, who narrowly defeated Jamin. But Dutch trainer Willem Geersen clearly noticed something in the French horse that nobody else did, and subsequently inquired about the horse. Not speaking a word of French, the following month he traveled to Paris together with Belgian trainer Adrien D’Haenens. Testing Hairos II at Vincennes, Geersen did not like the shoeing and equipment: in the eyes of Geersen, the shoes were too heavy and Hairos II wore too much equipment. Thinking there was much improvement to be had simply by making some equipment changes, the Dutch trainer bought the French-born on behalf of one of his owners, Andries Voordouw.