Bayadère (mare)

Bayadère's contemporary sources are mainly compiled by hippologist and stud farm inspector Charles Du Haÿs (1818-1898),[1] notably in his 1864 work Les trotteurs, origines, performances et produits. Horse historian Jean-Pierre Reynaldo devotes a section to Bayadère in his reference work Le Trotteur français (2007).[2]

Bayadère was born in 1859 at Mr. Tiercelin's kennel in Tournai-sur-Dive, Orne, Normandy.[3][4][5] Her mother, also named Bayadère, died giving birth to her.[6] The filly was bred in Pont-l'Évêque, then trained in Orne by her owners, Mr. Lefèvre-Montfort and Mr. Tiercelin.[7]

Sources differ as to the number of races won and earnings of Bayadère. According to journalist Louis Cauchois (1912) and Jean-Pierre Reynaldo (2007 and 2015), Bayadère's total trotting winnings exceeded 50,000 francs, a sum considered "prodigious" in her days.[6][8] In her 1908 book Le cheval de demi-sang, races françaises, Alfred Gallier cites 41 races won for 53,700 francs in earnings.[9] In 1865, owner-breeder Alexandre Gaume, a contemporary of Bayadère, reported 32 victories in 33 races.[10]

Armand Goubaux and Gustave Barrier's De l'extérieur du cheval (1884, translated into English in 1892 as The exterior of the Horse[11]) mentions 22 victories for the years 1862 and 1863,[12] as does journalist Albert de Saint-Albin, who reports earnings of 27,000 francs for Bayadère in those two years, in his 1890 book Les courses de chevaux en France.[7] According to Reynaldo, in three years of competition, Bayadère won twenty-one trotting races throughout France.[6]

Two defeats are mentioned in Fernand Laffon's Le monde des courses (1896).[13]

Trotting career

The Caen racecourse (here circa 1900-1910), where Bayadère first ran.

According to Reynaldo, Bayadère contested her first trotting race over a distance of 4,000 m on 29 July 1862, at Caen, which she won with a kilometer reduction of 1'46, excellent for a mare of her age.[6] At the same meeting, she took part in another race, over 5,000 m, and beat Yelva, a 4-year-old mare considered the best of her time.[6][14] With these two victories on the same day, Bayadère earned her owners 2,000 francs twice over.[14] She went on a competition tour, racing at Le Pin-au-Haras, Falaise and Avranches.[8] There, she beats her speed record, with a kilometer reduction of 1'45''.[8]

She remains unbeaten in her first 20 races, ridden by jockey Ludovic Bellet.[3][15][16] According to Charles Du Haÿs, her earnings in 1863 alone amounted to 19,000 francs.[15] Bayadère repeated the feat of winning two races on the same day.[17] In 1864, according to Charles Du Haÿs for the magazine La vie à la campagne, she won 10 of 11 races (still ridden by Bellet), with earnings of 14,700 francs.[18]

Bayadère was beaten once, by Électeur,[3] at Caen on 2 August 1864[6][19][20] (other sources incorrectly describe her as "unbeaten").[8] However, she weighed 68 kg, and Électeur 65 kg.[19] This defeat caused quite a stir.[6] Bayadère usually finished her races several hundred meters ahead of her rivals.[8] On 15 August 1864, in Deauville, she easily beat her three rivals over 4,000m.[21]

She raced not only in Normandy, but also at racecourses in the north and south of France.[8] She sets her speed record at 1'42.[8][22] Her average time over 4,000 m is 7' to 7'15.[23] According to Alexandre Gaume, she has carried up to 96 kg in mounted trotting.[10]

Bayadère is a bay[3][7] or bay-brown mare.[26] According to Charles Du Haÿs, her size is "barely approaching average".[27] She is reputed to have had perfect tendons, joints and breathing.[10]

According to Charles Tiercelin, son of one of Bayadère's two owners, she is rarely confined to the stall, the door remaining open to allow her to roam freely in the farmyard.[3] Her box companion is a cat, and she only agrees to stay in the box if the cat is with her.[3]

According to Charles Tiercelin, the mare's character is said to be very gentle, although she is alert and lively.[3][6] She is also playful, and enjoys jumping over roadside embankments when out for a walk.[3][6] She also appreciates being petted, and Charles Tiercelin, as a child, testifies that he used to enjoy riding Bayadère by leaning on her head to scratch her back.[3]

Bayadère is one of the rare examples of trotter-galopeurs, racehorses that competed at both trot and canter.[8]

The Norfolk Phœnomenon, the father of Bayadère

Bayadère is a daughter of The Norfolk Phœnomenon.[3] The latter sired other trotting horses of the time, including Électeur and Yelva.[28]

Bayadère's dam, born to her owner M. Lefèvre-Montfort in the Pays d'Auge, is also called Bayadère.[29] She ran in trotting races, although she was injured by a crop.[8][14] Bayadère is her only filly, dying after her first foaling.[14]

Bayadère-mère's sire is a Thoroughbred named Ramsay, and her dam is a Norfolk Trotter mare named Marquise,[6][9] born around 1835.[30] According to Albert de Saint-Albin, Marquise was one of England's finest trotting mares.[7] She is presumed to be a daughter of Old Phenomenon (also known as The Norfolk Phenomenon).[8] Apart from Bayadère, Marquise had three other offspring in France: Ouvrier, Talma and Fridoline.[9][30][31] The thoroughbred Ramsay was a racehorse unbeaten in four races.[32]

Bayadère's origins are mainly marked by the Norfolk Trotter, which accounts for three-quarters of her pedigree.[6][8] Her other origins are Thoroughbred.[8]

Although Bayadère's foal and two fillies all run on racecourses and perform honorably, none has the qualities of their dam.[25] As Mr Tiercelin died in 1870, Bayadère's offspring ran under the sole name of Mr Lefèvre-Montfort.[3] Roquelaure achieves a kilometer reduction of 1'50, Galathée 1'49, and Orpheline 1'53.[3] Galathée races, among others, in 1873.[33]

Bayadère's two fillies became breeders in their turn, but none of their descendants achieved a kilometer reduction of less than 1'37.[3] By 1917, Galathée's descendants appeared to be extinct in the trotter lines.[3] On the other hand, Orpheline's descendants were maintained that same year by Madame Edeline, the only breeder at the time to own descendants of Bayadère, who trotted at around 1'40".[3]

Commenting on Bayadère's performance in 1863, Charles Du Haÿs declared that France had succeeded in establishing a national trotting breed through its dams.[15] Stud inspector Éphrem Houël cited Bayadère as[34] one of the trotters capable of competing with the best English and Russian horses of her days.

Horse historian Jean-Pierre Reynaldo calls her the "first star of French trotting" and France's most famous trotting mare in the 19th century, at a time when horses' careers were short and the media almost non-existent.[4] She was named after the Prix Bayadère, a trial prize for fillies.[3]

• Cauchois, Louis (1917). Une héroïne du trotting français : Bayadère (in French). La France chevaline : journal des intérêts hippiques, haras, remonte militaire, concours, courses, foires : moniteur officiel des courses au trot.
• Du Haÿs, Charles (1864). Les trotteurs : origines, performances et produits des individualités, qui ont le plus marqué dans les courses au trot (in French). CH Tanera et Ve Parent & fils.
• Reynaldo, Jean-Pierre (2015). Le trotteur français : Histoire des courses au trot en France des origines à nos jours (in French). Éditions Lavauzelle. ISBN 2-7025-1638-6.
• Sport universel illustré (1912). Une trotteuse-galopeuse il y a 50 ans (in French). La Vie au grand air : revue illustrée de tous les sports. pp. 16 May 2021.