The manager of the “La Maison de la Pipe” tobacco shop in the Arceaux district of Montpellier is also one of the owners of a mare who takes part for the fourth time in the Grand Prix d’Amérique this Sunday, January 30. This is the last time she will be able to compete as she is 11 years old. A long story between the tiercé enthusiast Tahar Aït-Hamouda and the animal Bahia Quesnot.
He first saw her grow up with her breeders, the Lefebvres, at Haras Quesnot, in Brix in Normandy. He finds her beautiful and buys her in 2012 when she is 1 year old. “It was bought for 5,000 euros at auction. I waited a few days, called them and made them a more decent offer.” He pays 11,000 euros for the young mare. Shortly after, she was taken to Chaumont, still in Normandy with trainer Cédric Herserant. She started competing a year later. “She ran modestly but she often made mistakes.” Until Bahia is sent to a veterinarian in Switzerland. “She had a problem with her ovaries. She was infiltrated.” It is after her operation that she will become a competition mare. “She started to win many races until she reached 500,000 euros in prize money.”
A risky bet
In 2018, Tahar Aït-Hamouda and his associates sent him to another coach: Guel Pas, in Fréjus. “So that she discovers the sun, the heat and another way of working.” Very quickly, the mare gains momentum. “She arrived on a Tuesday evening, on Sunday she was winning a competition against a very good competitor.” She goes on, “America Prize, Paris Prize…” She excels in the harnessed trot. Harnessed trotting is a race in which the driver (not the jockey) sits in a cart behind the horse.
There, potential buyers are scrambling to buy the champion. “Wealthy people offered me 300,000 euros. They even asked me what my price was” But Tahar’s wife has flair: “She told them she was not for sale. That she was surely the mare of my life.” A choice that the family does not regret. “She made us dream. She won big competitions.” Bahia Quesnot won twelve victories and brought in more than 1.6 million euros for owners, trainers and associates of Tahar.
“Wealthy people offered me 300,000 euros to buy her back. My wife told them she was the mare of my life” – Tahar Aït-Hamouda, owner of Bahia Quesnot
The stars in the eyes, the manager of the tobacconist particularly remembers the Prix de Cornulier 2021. “We were in full confinement. My family and friends couldn’t come. I was alone in the stands.” Bahia wins this world mounted trotting championship. “I cried. Especially since on the road it was snowing. I was driving. I hesitated to go back. But I went because very few small owners like me can race it. So when it won, I was on cloud nine.”
– Morgane Guiomard