The horse who did the unthinkable
by Lisa Harkema
When Jean-Baptiste Bossuet looked at the yearling in September 1986, he wasn’t particularly impressed. There just was no “wow” feeling to the chestnut, but breeder Bernard Hallope, keen on selling, offered Bossuet 50 % at a low price if he would start training the horse. Bossuet accepted, somewhat reluctantly, as he knew that many other buyers, including some big-name trainers, had examined the yearling and found him wanting. Could all of them be so wrong? As it turned out, they could.
Breaking him in and then training him carefully – Bossuet isn’t one to rush his youngsters – Tenor de Baune improved steadily but his trainer still didn’t feel any “wow” factor. Hallope didn’t really want to own part of a racehorse and signaled to Bossuet that if he could find a buyer for the remaining half of the horse he was very keen on selling. Close to Christmas 1988, Bossuet persuaded his brother to buy the second half of the 2-year-old horse for a lowly 25,000 francs, less than 4,000 euros. Tenor de Baune was still unstarted but had qualified 3 months earlier. Still, Bossuet thought he had a decent horse, but nothing more, on his hands.
When a trainer believe they have a horse that is among the best in the crop they then to start them almost exclusively in the bigger races at Vincennes. Bossuet refused to believe Tenor de Baune had any business at Vincennes at first and the colt made his career debut with a win at Argentan before starting at the idyllic Meslay-du-Maine racetrack. With hindsight it seems almost ridiculous that Tenor de Baune spent most of his 3-year-old season at provincial, tracks but Bossuet still felt his chestnut tank, though looking relatively good, was nowhere near the required level to take on the best trotters in the 1985-crop. The chestnut colt had excellent manners and did exactly what was asked of him so Bousset felt he had a horse with a long and healthy career ahead of him. But stardom? Not at all.