NIRMAL K.BETCHOO
The racing community is pained to learn about the demise of top trainer, Mr Philippe Henry, this week. As a stable owner and trainer, Philippe Henry has been the most prolific trainer since the 1970s to date given the record that he has maintained in competition over the years. His profile as a trainer is extraordinary with regard to the titles he won as champion stable and the number of classics and semi-classics he won during his career. At a time, he was the leading trainer with 650 wins just to be surpassed by late Gilbert Rousset who crossed the mark on staying much longer at the Champ de Mars.
Philippe Henry’s legacy will stay for long among the community of racegoers at a time when the racing passion drove nearly 10,000 spectators and punters per racing day and much more during classic race days. Philippe’s dominance, during his time as a trainer, was simply overwhelming where his horses won most of the major race cards of the day and showed how powerful and prolific trainer he was. Such dominance was unmatched seen from certain race days where most of his horses were favourites although they carried the top weight. Despite these hurdles, they entered the paddock as winners.
Philippe Henry was a gentleman rider in the 1970s when such races were held after the normal race days. For some three to four meetings, one could see amateur riders mounting horses up to 12 stones (84 kilos) and in such low-paced races, Philippe could bring a couple of winners among the popular riders like Jean Jouanna, Carlos Naneena and Etienne Perrier. In 1982, he became the trainer of Philippe Rousset stable, and he brought his first winner, Bronze Leader, accompanied by his wife who was the deserving person behind his great success in racing.
Philippe Henry became first champion in 1985 with Philippe Rousset stable where his collaboration with young Australian jockey, Peter Barnett, owned him more than 30 wins during that season. This was followed by spectacular seasons as from 1987 onwards where he had excellent riders like Robbie Sham and Karl Neisius. During these times, he trained champions like Wild Amber, Lines of Power, Flying Herald, Chequers, St John’s Wood and Domino Principle.
In the early 1990s, Philippe Henry brought champion South African jockey, Jeffrey Lloyd, to ride for his stable and this was the start of a fruitful collaboration where they were champions. Incidentally, the stable ceased its operations winning a last classic with Jungle Sands and was succeeded by Longchamp stable.
Philippe’s return in 1998 sparkled attention from racegoers who believed that it would henceforth be more difficult for him to reign in competition as he did earlier. His brother Serge Henry was triple champion with jockey Glenn Hatt and other prominent trainers like Gilbert Rousset, Soon Gujadhur, Guy Fok, Patrick Merven and Alain Perdrau were equally doing quite well.
Philippe won a single race when he took over and that was Bawan Sooful who won with Great Memories. It was the next season where Philippe got a full engagement as a trainer. Starting timidly with Stuart Randolph, Philippe Henry sought again Jeffery Lloyd as the perfect rider in times of increasing competition challenge. Lloyd responded favourably and although he was older, he rode in the same way as expected. There were wonderful wins with Epic Drama, Tub Thumper, Rhythmically, etc. During some racing days, it was customary to see Henry’s horses winning the first three races of the day while there were still five races remaining. During his tenure, Lloyd won 57 races in a single season, a record still not beaten.
Philippe Henry retired in the early years of 2000 and stayed as member of the board of judges. He supervised the training of Man to Man in 2012 where Rai Joorawon won for late brother Serge Henry the covetous Maiden Cup.
Philippe Henry had a wonderful association with his stable members who remained faithful to him during his career namely Bernard Lincoln, Denis Hardy, Mukesh Balgobin and several others. His head groom Gérard Antoinette looked after his horses well. Concerning jockeys, Jeffrey Lloyd stands as his best collaborator along with highly performing riders like Robbie Sham, Karl Neisius, Mark Sutherland and Peter Barnett.
With regard to the numerous horses Philippe trained, Wild Amber and Lines of Power stay as his best trained ones. He had a fruitful association with Domino Principle, Sea Warrior, Rhythmically, Tub Thumper, Top Dog, Mazarin Heights, etc… The double consecutive Maiden Cup wins in the late 1980s with Lines of Power stood as one of his greatest achievements.
There might be several anecdotes that one could personally add regarding Philippe Henry’s fantastic and unbeatable career. One was his ability to observe his horses. Karl Neisius once told that he was questioned as to whether his horse coughed four times during a morning training and that revealed to be true. Philippe once hit Rhythmically prior to training as the horse was excited and the latter always reprimanded him for such action.
Every racegoer might have a lot to say on Philippe Henry but his astuteness as a trainer made him comparable to South African great Terence Millard. Some compared him to trainer Paul Clarenc in the 1950s. But seen from the 1970s to date, there is not much to say that Philippe was the greatest trainer with his character of perfection, capability and determination; no time for dubious activities, no desire to mix up with people aiming to spoil the reputation of races. He kept winning, his jockeys won top races for him and his horses heralded as emblems of quality. The legend will live on as horses will strike their shiny iron hoofs on the lush green turf of mythical Champ de Mars.