France Soir, 4/11/73, Gérard Brami
«I started riding in Berlin, where my father was posted. It was love at first sight. I only rode if my school results were good. My good grades were rewarded with riding lessons. At 21, I arrived in Paris to study law. I still rode horses, but in show jumping, where I achieved some good results at the national level. I knew nothing about racing. A mutual friend introduced me to jumps trainer Léon Gaumondy for a kind of advanced training course... I admit that I owe my licence partly to the events of May 68. I skipped almost all my classes for training and racing. The professors at the exam were very lenient, which suited me fine.»
«I was lucky enough to meet André Adèle, a man who seems to have understood horses so well that all his horses seem happy despite the restrictive environment in which they live.»
«It’s such a difficult job. Great jockeys do a lot of things in races that come naturally to them, but which are difficult for me to achieve, as I’m only just starting out.»
Week-End, June 78, Michel Bouchet
«Taking a horse, training it, teaching it its trade and seeing it gradually blossom is obviously the most captivating thing about this profession. But we mustn’t forget the disappointments and hard knocks that are part and parcel of the job. I have the great opportunity to train horses that I know perfectly well, having often ridden them in training and in races. I have also had the even greater privilege of working alongside a true horseman. André Adèle taught me everything I know, but above all, he instilled in me a certain philosophy of the profession that his vast experience had given him.»
Michel Bouchet, born and raised in Chantilly, concluded his article with these words: «Like his master, his horses stay outside for a long time and they work very gently, with confidence, and they look happy.»
Paris Turf, 1980, Louis Deniel
«If you ask me who the architects of our success are, I will answer André Adèle, my wife and the stable staff. André Adèle, three years after his death, is still 80% responsible for my horses’ victories. My wife, who is in the saddle every morning, participates in all the gallops - which, at seventy kilos, I can no longer do. And every trainer knows that good horses are no longer good if the people around them are not up to scratch.»
«I don’t think there’s any revelation as such. In 1978, I won twenty-four races: in 1979, forty-four. This year, in 1980, people are talking more about me because it was about tiercés and a lucky streak. However, I do believe that I’m training better. I apply the methods of the ‘boss’ (he continues to refer to André Adèle as ‘the boss’). The basis of the work is a half-speed six-furlong gallop, in a group, just enough to build up a horse’s muscles and get it breathing, without tiring it out. Quality horses that are ready go all the way without weakening. The art of the trainer is to detect, in those who weaken, the reasons for their weakness. André Adèle, who served his apprenticeship before 1914 under the great American trainer Leigh, was, in his methods, an American trainer. Another example: feeding. In Europe, the basis is oats at will. He believed that oats were only a supplement, to be rationed, and that good hay should be the main component of their diet, for as long as the horse wants it. This is another American principle. I assure you: we used to go and observe at Belmont Park or in California what was on our doorstep, on Avenue du Mesnil in Maisons-Laffitte.
So I applied André Adèle’s methods almost slavishly. But the results weren’t the same. Not bad: I tell you, twenty-four wins two years ago; forty-four last year: but not as good. Often, after the gallops, my wife would point this out to me: ‘It’s amazing, the horses aren’t as well as they were at the boss’s; we’re doing the same thing and yet it’s not the same...’
Indeed, the horses were finishing their 6-furlong work both more nervous and less hardened. It came to me gradually. I understood I was giving them the same work but, obviously, not on the same track, not with the same riders: the pull of the sand, the profile of the track, the men’s handle, all these significantly modified the components of the work. So, I fumbled around to find the real equivalent of what we were doing at Maisons-Laffitte. We set off slower and from a different place on the track, 300m further on. Now, yes, I believe I’m doing ‘André Adèle’ exactly like André Adèle, not just in appearance.»
Galop Informations, September 83, Gérard de Chevigny
«I persist in believing that American races are an objective well within our reach. It hurts our pride to see English runners, clearly ranked second-tier at home, coming over and winning our ‘small’ Group 3 races; it’s because, for all their expertise and judgement, British horsemen don’t hold our racing in high regard! This is a serious matter. Instead of moaning about this false reputation, the only answer for the French offended in this way is to go and take on the English on their home turf. Alec Head and François Boutin are doing it; not a year goes by when they don’t have runners in the Derby, the Guineas or at Ascot. They run the risk of being beaten... without which you never win.»
«The Frenchman, viscerally, dislikes competition and its consequences, namely selection.»
«Our profession is almost fully mastered when we can measure, to the nearest metre, the stamina of each horse.»
«I don’t look for complications.»
«Racing isn’t a charity.»
«If it ever happens that my rivals all throw in the towel simply because ‘there’s a Fabre runner, so there’s no point competing’, then I’ll be able to assess my success! That’s what success is in France. Here, the key to success is to have people speaking well of you. Or fearing you; it amounts to the same thing. I don’t pay much attention to the form book before declaring a runner. Or very little... It’s my horses that decide to run.»
Week-end, September 1990, François Hallopé
«I admit that I don’t have a very sociable outlook on life, because I think that in this profession, you succeed alone against the others.»
«When I started out, I had no preconceived ideas and I played the game with all the journalists. But I quickly realised that my words were either invented, distorted or misinterpreted. I’m not interested in small talk, and I’m not cynical. So, I decided to cut ties with the French press.»
«Patrick Biancone long believed that, in a profession like ours, it was absolutely essential to play the media game. But who in the media helped him when he had problems? No one. In racing, the best publicity is the winners you train. It’s not a newspaper that brings you owner-clients.»
«Like many of my colleagues, I wasn’t born with a stable of 200 horses. In this profession, there is constant competition and judgement...»
«It’s the good lads that make the good horses, and the good horses that make the good trainers.»
«I’ve kept quite strong links with some former jump jockeys. Because it’s the best job in the world: there’s the risk, you have to be in excellent physical condition, you’re closer to the horses, the joy of winning is intense, life is exhilarating...»