ENGLISH TEXTS
flat racing.“ But it has always been well treated in France,” Pierre Champion assures us, pointing to the prizemoney levels. This brings us back to Jean-Pierre Launay:“ He changed many things by having half of the committee members elected, whereas they had previously been entirely co-opted. Professionals came in to restore a fairer balance, with beneficial effects in terms of organization and programming. Long dominated by retired military officers, the governing bodies were rejuvenated under his leadership and entered a new phase of dynamism.” Many trainers ran one yard for flat racing and another for jumping. The provinces shed their inhibitions, and Jehan Bertran de Balanda became part of the movement.“ He even had something of a pioneering spirit, bringing owners from the Centre-East, such as Mr. and Mrs. Carion, to Paris.”
Today, the balance has reversed At Maisons-Laffitte, training conditions were relatively similar to those known today around Paris. But“ resources were more limited in the provinces, and that often held trainers back. It was less functional, more difficult to prepare a horse for Auteuil than it is now. Nothing like the Macaire or Chaillé- Chaillé estates, which are like small Maisons-Laffitte today. Trainers worked their horses on the racecourses themselves. For them, winning at
Auteuil was a major event.” That is why Metatero, a provincial horse who won the Grand Steeplechase de Paris in 1982, will forever remain a symbol for Pierre Champion.“ His owner and trainer, Gérard Margogne, based in western France, nevertheless chose to entrust him to André Fabre for the final adjustments a few days before the event.” A choice highly symptomatic of the gap that then existed between Paris and the provinces. In a sense, the balance has now been reversed. The closure of the Maisons-Laffitte racecourse in 2020 naturally sealed the shift. But whether they are named Nicolle, Macaire or others, the great masters of NH racing have taken the opposite route by setting up their bases in the provinces.
NH RACING IN FRANCE IN FIGURES( 2024)
1,946 – Number of NH races 17,595 – Number of runners 4,397 – Number of horses that raced
Source: Ecus Yearbook 2025
BY PAUL CASABIANCA
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DOMINIQUE BOULARD
“ NOWADAYS, THERE IS NO LONGER ANY SEGREGATION”
A former jockey under François Boutin, it was there that Dominique Boulard first met Jehan Bertran de Balanda fifty years ago.
After becoming a trainer himself, and having worked for fifteen years at ARQANA, Dominique Boulard reflects, through his own career, on the evolution of horse racing, marked by decentralisation, the increase in race meetings, and the closure of certain racecourses.
They have known each other for over fifty years. Since their shared time with François Boutin, Jehan Bertran de Balanda and Dominique Boulard have crossed paths regularly. At the Haras du Quesnay, the trainer from Le Mans found many promising horses. His counterpart, meanwhile, breaks in and pre-trains the Head family’ s yearlings. Dominique Boulard, son of the renowned trainer Louis Boulard, an emblematic figure of racing in the Centre-East and South-East of France in the last century, looks back on the man who took up the role of trainer in 1978:“ In the 1970s and 1980s, races were mainly run at weekends. In NH racing, two racecourses complemented each other in the Paris region: Enghien and Auteuil. Jehan came from Lyon to settle in Maisons-Laffitte in 1986. He had a stable of horses of a certain quality, shaped for Enghien, which suited the profile of Lyon races better. These horses were well schooled and jumped quickly. At Enghien, the track was less demanding and the ground often less testing than at Auteuil. One day, I found myself at Jehan’ s alongside Alec Head, who
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