Just a few years removed from the total collapse of the Quebec horse racing industry comes the improbable story of how the horses, horsepeople and builders from the province became the stars of the 2012 racing season.

By Paul Delean

If you were to summarize in song the extraordinary year experienced by the Quebec racing fraternity in 2012, here are some of the titles you might consider.

Against All Odds. I Will Survive. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger.

Three years after the harness racing industry in Quebec actually flatlined and horsemen were left to fend for themselves, they returned to national prominence in a major way.

Two trainers originally from Quebec, O’Brien Award nominee Richard Moreau, and Rene Allard, were far atop the pack in races won in Canada, and Allard, who also campaigns a U.S. division, ranked second in North America. A Quebec-born driver, O’Brien Award nominee, Sylvain Filion, led the Ontario Sires Stakes standings and was in a heated battle for the driving title on the Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) circuit. An owner from Quebec, Westmount resident Serge Godin (Ecurie Synergie), was number one in total earnings on WEG’s standardbred circuit in 2012.

Godin won a Breeders’ Crown final at Woodbine with two-year-old trotting colt and O’Brien Award nominee Wheeling N Dealin and an Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final (for the second straight year) with three-year-old trotting colt Prestidigitator, both trained for him by native Quebecer Dustin Jones. Wheeling N Dealin also won the William Wellwood final and a division of the Champlain Stakes and went 9-for-9 in an undefeated season sure to earn him the O’Brien.

He wasn’t the only Breeders Crown champion representing Quebec either. In one of racing’s most compelling stories of 2012, unheralded Intimidate, who had to be supplemented to the race at a cost of $62,500, twice defeated Hambletonian winner Market Share and captured the final for three-year-old trotting colts and geldings for two owners from small-town Quebec, Judy Farrow of Hemmingford and trainer Luc Blais of Lochaber Ouest. Intimidate, who they bred and who has also been nominated for an O’Brien, became only the second Quebec-bred to win a Breeders’ Crown race, the first being pacing mare Shore By Five in 1999.

Another horse bred and owned in Quebec, Rebeka Bayama, fell short in her bid for a Breeders’ Crown title with a third place finish, but stamped herself as one of the fastest pacing mares in history. The five-year-old Leader Bayama mare equaled a track record at Woodbine with a mile in 1:48.4 and was narrowly beaten by Put On A Show in a world-record 1:47.3 in the Lady Liberty at The Meadowlands. She earned almost $400,000 last year despite a brutal string of post-position draws: nine for the $391,000 Roses Are Red at Mohawk, eight for the $218,850 Golden Girls at The Meadowlands, eight for the $100,000 A Spring Of Hope Invitational at Mohawk, 10 for the $384,000 Milton final at Mohawk and nine for the $326,660 Breeders Crown final at Woodbine.

Owned by Yves Filion’s Bayama Farm of Lachute, Que., Rebeka Bayama was usually driven by his son Sylvain, who had an outstanding campaign with a career-high $8 million+ in purse earnings and over 400 wins, almost all of them in Ontario.

Filion, 43, was the regular driver of Godin’s horses and has enjoyed a long and fruitful association with Moreau, who topped 300 wins and $3.4 million in earnings in 2012.

“Richard is a great horseman… and a workaholic,” said Filion. “He knows his horses and he’s got the ability to keep his horses consistent throughout the year. When he enters his horse, he’s got a shot. He puts them in the right place.”

Filion said it didn’t surprise him in the least to see so many Quebecers win big in 2012.

“There’s always been Quebecers doing well in this sport. Michel Lachance, Daniel Dube, Luc Ouellette… the province has produced a lot of good horsemen over the years.”

Marc Camirand, head of the Quebec horsemen’s association, said the only thing that made it unusual is that so many stood out the same year.

“It’s a coincidence but it’s not luck. Ecurie Synergie invested big money in yearlings for several years and has taken a team approach to developing them and is being rewarded for that. Dustin Jones is a serious trainer. Yves Filion is an international-calibre trainer and one of the best breeding minds I know; he’s always bought quality fillies from the U.S. to breed. Sylvain took a while to get the confidence to be a leader in Ontario, but with the help of guys like Richard Moreau, he has it now. He’s at the top of his game. The Intimidate story is interesting; I know both parties (Farrow and Blais) and they’re serious, dedicated people that I hold in very high regard. Mrs. Farrow produced good horses before Intimidate; Luc’s done very well with very little. That they win a Breeders’ Crown with a Justice Hall may surprise some people, but we’ve bred good horses before in Quebec. Don’t forget, Garland Lobell started here as a stallion.”

Farrow said that, despite the problems that almost killed the industry in Quebec and have left it a shadow of its former self, there’s still a surprising degree of optimism among horse owners in the province.

“I sold a horse to a guy in the Gaspe who had to travel by ferry to get to the tracks where he raced. He’d spend hours getting there, just for the sport of it. Even when racing hit rock bottom here, a lot of people kept their horses. There was fair racing last summer in Ormstown (Que.), for the first time in 10 years, and there were 6,000 people there. They had three betting machines and probably needed 10. The whole community turned out. It’s a passion. Always has been. There are generations of horsemen here, good horsemen, and they’ve passed it down. That talent is mobile, and a lot of it moved to Ontario when things got tough. It’s been hardest for those with stallions and big farms; they couldn’t just up and go.”

Jones was among the horsemen who relocated to Ontario, leaving behind his unsold farm in Melbourne, Que. And like others before him, including Rick Zeron and Benoit Baillargeon, he struggled at first while attempting to adapt his stable to racing of a different calibre.

“When I moved in 2008, I only had Quebec-breds. That’s where we’d focused our buying. The only one who fit here was Rudy Valentino. In the old days, we’d only bring the best ones, and then even just at the end of the year, after the sires stakes were done. I don’t have a claiming stable, so it took a few years to regroup with U.S. and Ontario breeding. In 2009, we bought Martiniontherocks (winner of the Breeders’ Crown final for two-year-old trotting fillies the next year). Then Prestidigitator (winner of Ontario Sires Stakes Super Finals in 2011 and 2012) and Wheeling N Dealin.

“I don’t think what we’ve accomplished surprises people we’ve raced against before. It’s not like we just popped out of the woodwork. We had a horse (Uhadadream) in the Hambletonian in 2000. Emilie Cas El was horse of the year in Canada in 1994. It didn’t surprise me that Luc Blais showed up with a good horse, any more than it would surprise me if Murray Brethour or Ben Wallace did; he trained (Confederation Cup winner) Ring Of Life and Goliath Bayama. Amongst ourselves, we know who the good trainers are.”

Jones, whose stable collected over $1.5 million in 2012, said he’s lucky to have an owner like Godin, who is prepared to spend big bucks on yearlings (almost $1 million this year for 11 head).

“Guys like him, and (Quebec businessman) Richard Berthiaume, they’re players. They like the business. They stayed when a lot of others moved on. Not too many guys spend as much as these two every year.”

What makes the continued involvement of Godin and Berthiaume even more unusual is that they rarely get to see their horses race live. The only live races Berthiaume saw in 2012 were at Hippodrome Trois-Rivieres, where two of his horses raced on the opening-day card in September.

Yet his 16-horse stable, trained in Ontario by Benoit Baillargeon, had another excellent year, led by the Ontario-sired two-year-old trotter and O’Brien Award nominee Murmur Hanover, third in the Breeders’ Crown and a winner of $414,457, and hard-knocking seven-year-old pacer Voelz Hanover, who boosted her career earnings to $1.3 million with a $192,790 season.

“What can I say? It’s my passion. I don’t golf. I like racing, It’s expensive but I enjoy it. It’s just too bad I don’t get to see it live,” said Berthiaume.

He’s an owner who insists on honest and ready communication, and that explains his long association with Claude and Normand Bardier, who help pick out and develop yearlings for him, and trainer Baillargeon.

“I don’t want to be just a number for a big U.S. stable. I want to know how my horses are doing, even the ordinary ones, and I get that from my guys. For me, it’s just easier to communicate with another Quebecer.”

The way Quebecers look out for and assist each other is something that always struck Montreal owner Rick Karper, and it’s been instrumental in helping many transition successfully into markets outside their home province.

Sorel native Yannick Gingras, for instance, got his introduction to the U.S. market via Daniel Dube, who literally took him under his roof. Now based in the U.S., Gingras had three victories on Breeders’ Crown night and finished 2012 as the second-leading driver in America for total purses, behind Tim Tetrick, with more than $13-million collected.

“The French-speaking horsemen stick together and help each other,” Karper said. “If they’re sending a horse to an outside track, they want someone they’re comfortable with. There are also a lot of very successful family partnerships. There’s the Baillargeons (Benoit and Mario) and the Allards (Rene and Simon). Sylvain Filion and Richard Moreau go back a long time. And these guys work. They race everywhere.”

Yves Filion said that with so little racing and purse money left in Quebec, its best horsemen had no choice but to go elsewhere or change their approach, as he has done.

He no longer stands any stallions at his Quebec farm and has reduced his broodmare band by two-thirds, with the focus now on Ontario-breds. He campaigned a couple of two-year-olds, Utica Bayama and Urbana Bayama, in the OSS Grassroots series in 2012, and this year’s crop includes a half-brother to Rebeka Bayama by Mach Three.

“The worst part is the trucking,” he said. “You have to go all over to race for the Grassroots and the Gold races. It’s very time consuming. That’s something I didn’t have to do much here.”

Having a horse like Rebeka Bayama in the trailer makes up for some of the inconvenience. Filion plans to race her again this year.

Tony Infilise, president of the Quebec Jockey Club, would love to see her and other Quebec horses and horsemen excel again in 2013. Their successes in 2012 have helped raise the profile of a sport still in the early stages of rebuilding by the QJC after the collapse of previous operator Attractions Hippiques in 2009.

“It’s a testament to how deeply rooted the business is here and how competent and knowledgeable people are about it,” he said.

The Jockey Club’s inaugural meet at Hippodrome Trois-Rivieres last fall drew large and enthusiastic crowds with a surprising number of young faces, he said. And the turnout on Quebec’s fair circuit was such that the QJC is boosting the budget and increasing racing dates from 10 in 2012.

“There’s a groundswell of interest and support for the business,” Infilise said. “People are still passionate, even after what’s happened in recent years. This business never should have died. There’s no good reason why it did. The level of interest, and the skill sets, are still here. We have them in spades. It’s something important, worth keeping. Our buying Hippodrome Trois-Rivieres is not why Serge Godin won the Breeders’ Crown, but the root causes of both are the same: tremendous passion, commitment, and support for this industry.”