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a snub ? André Fabre ’ s life revolves around his horses . He has practiced all types of riding , or almost . He loves it , and he loves horses . He respects them , never says anything bad about them . And he takes as an injustice the fact that the performances of his horses are not recognised at their true value . « I think that in this profession , you succeed alone against others », he declared in Week-end in September 1990 . Yet , André Fabre defends all the players in his team .
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• A classic-winning trainer , now a racing manager , John Hammond was assistant to André Fabre before taking out his licence . He spoke about Fabre ’ s personality with journalist Julian Muscat in an article dedicated to the French trainer in the Racing Post , in October 2019 .
“ When I joined him as pupil assistant [ in 1987 ] my first impression was that he ran a big operation that was extremely well organised . The tack is immaculate and his two stables [ in Chantilly ] are run on five-star lines . But when you talk about his set-up you also have to talk about his wife Elisabeth . She is a fine horsewoman in her own right and has always been there , day to day .
“ He ’ s an extremely witty man . If you sat next to him at lunch you ’ d have a very amusing time – and you probably wouldn ’ t talk about horses at all . He is very self-deprecating ; I have never heard him talk about all the Group races he has won .”
“ Horses by Linamix were a bit wired to the moon . Very few other trainers won good races with them . A lot of them were quite hare-brained and difficult to train .”
“ I saw how he treated his staff and his horses , and how he dealt with owners . He ’ s a man of real integrity . He ’ s not somebody who ’ d do something he didn ’ t really believe in for the sake of expediency , or with an ulterior motive . He certainly wouldn ’ t have made a politician in the current era .”
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• Maxime Guyon , on his way to becoming the jockey most used by André Fabre , after Sosie ’ s victory in the 2024 Prix Niel .
« He ’ s a real stayer , he ’ s very tough . He ’ s typical of Mr Fabre ’ s horses , who are cold and just keep going to the end . Sosie has a super mentality , he ’ s really easy . That ’ s a real advantage . Mr Fabre gives the horses time to come . Sosie had won at 2 and we knew that at 3 he was going to improve again because physically he ’ s a monster . He ’ s a strong , very imposing horse .»
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• Alain de Royer Dupré and André Fabre arrived in Chantilly at roughly the same time , and they reached the top together .
« André Fabre is a true horseman . I ’ ve trained good trainers , and to each of them , I said that the person to really imitate and watch was André Fabre . For me , he was the epitome of the classic trainer . When I arrived in Chantilly and things started to go well , I was invited to a radio program with Olivier de Rincquesen called ‘ The Number Ones of Tomorrow ’. At the end , he asked me who the future number one would be , and I replied ‘ André Fabre ’. He has intelligence , he has culture , and he is very clear in everything he does . For me to enjoy training , I have to limit myself to 120 horses , 150 tops , but he has always worked with larger numbers . He has his wife Elisabeth , of course , but I think he has the brains to train a lot of horses . I recently spoke with someone who had worked for him and for me , and he told me that we had very similar foundations but that there were differences , of course , especially in terms of recovery . That is to say , he takes more time in recovery than I do . I never really wanted to let the horses get too fresh , and from what I understand , he prefers that . We can see and understand our neighbour ’ s gallops , but not these kinds of things . Apart from that , it was enough for me to watch what he was doing to understand what he was up to , whereas from time to time , there are people , you can watch them as long as you like , but you still won ’ t have a clue . When I arrived in Chantilly from the provinces , I didn ’ t want to stray from my base , because I brought things with me that came from eventing and that helped me a lot . I didn ’ t want to lose that base . On the other hand , I was ready to see what others were doing . For example , due to a lack of turf gallops in the provinces , we worked a lot on sand , and we didn ’ t want to start too fast so that the horses would finish their canters well . I tended to do the same on the grass at first , but I quickly realized that this was a mistake , because I watched what the horses of other trainers were doing , and in particular André ’ s . And very quickly , I started to start the gallops much more frankly , so that the horses pulled less , which has only advantages . These are things you learn , that you can refine and thanks to which you improve .»
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