The Queen of Quebec

From humble beginnings she rose to be one of the best broodmares in history. An ordinary racehorse, as a broodmare Amour Angus defied all expectations and is now considered one of the best in history.

Pierre Lévesque had a large chicken farm and also bred Aberdeen Angus cattle on his farm in Stanbridge Station, Quebec. In 1961, he also decided to buy a few standardbreds to race. Four years later he bought the entire stable of Leon Sauteur, including stallion Champ Adios and several broodmares.

“I told Leon Sauteur I wanted to buy Champ Adios, who at that time was a free-for-aller in Montreal. At first my plan was to race a few horses, but it got a lot bigger,” Lévesque smiles. “He told me if I didn’t have broodmares I didn’t have a business, and I ended up buying all of his horses. It was a bit crazy, because I didn’t have a barn for horses. I got that built as soon as I could, but for a little while they were in the same barn as the chickens,” he adds with a chuckle. “Over time I added horses here and there and at some point I had 15-20 race horses, around 80 broodmares and 55 yearlings. We also had several stallions including Bye Bye Pat. He was a very good stallion for us.”

Preferred the breeding side

One of his many horses was Kenwood Scamper, a daughter of Texas bought for $20,000 at the 1983 Harrisburg auction. Lévesque hoped she would be a useful racehorse, but an injury in training prevented her from making it to the track at all. The closing of one door would open another one, though, and Kenwood Scamper would turn out to be one of the broodmare jewels of the Angus farm.

“I didn’t mind that much that she didn’t have a racing career. To be honest I liked getting my money back from racing, but I enjoyed the breeding side even more. So when she was injured she became a broodmare. I actually had an offer from the breeder to buy her back, but I really liked her pedigree. The best trotting mare in Quebec was Grades Singing, whose owners were friends of mine. Grades Singing was also a daughter of Texas, so I liked the stallion. There weren’t many daughters of Texas available plus I really liked to breed young mares. I always believed in that,” Lévesque explains.

A home-made mix

When picking a stallion, the French-Canadian didn’t look far. He bred Kenwood Scamper to his own stallion Magna Force, a son of Florida Pro and the excellent Rosemary. Magna Force had been a $225,000 yearling, largely helped by his 2-year-old brother Spellcaster winning in 1:58.3 at The Red Mile the day before the auction. However, the duo didn’t have much luck on the track; injury forced Spellcaster into retirement after two unbeaten starts while Magna Force only started once. “Magna Force had trained in Florida with Billy Haughton, had been injured and didn’t cost me much money. I liked the breeding of the colt and he was also a really nice horse, very easy to handle. Unfortunately he died relatively early from colic,” Lévesque points out.

The mating between Magna Force and Kenwood Scamper produced a filly named Amour Angus, who was a natural trotter.

“Amour Angus was a really nice horse to handle and came to her speed easily. I drove her myself a few times on the farm and she was a pleasure to sit behind”, Lévesque recalls. Trained by Gerald Woodberry, Amour Angus won three legs in the Quebec Sire Stakes at 2 and was a nice, uncomplicated filly. “Benoit Côte usually drove her. I remember the first time he sat behind Amour Angus, it was in a warm-up, and he was very happy with her. She wasn’t super-talented but she did it very easily and her heart was good. In her races, she liked to leave fast and often sat in front,” he explains.

Amour Angus had to retire midway through her three-year-old season after winning 5 of 16 career starts. “She got injured in her last start. They had done a bit of work on the track, it was not perfect and she injured herself because of that. Amour Angus was sitting in the lead but broke and finished sixth. She went offstride a few times before that, too, but only when she was lame or for a good reason, otherwise she was all trot. So that was her last race.”

A fantastic first foal

When it was time to pick a partner for Amour Angus the following spring, Lévesque picked a local stallion he had a lot of belief in. “Garland Lobell was in Bedford, just a few miles from the farm, and I knew him. He was a good trotter and a really nice individual. I liked him a lot.” The mating produced a mare born in February 1992 who got the name Fontaine Angus.

“I told Dustin Jones she might be a good mare,” Lévesque says with a grin. “I guess I was right about that. She did really well and won everything at 2,” he adds about the mare whose name by then had been changed to Emilie Cas El. Winning all 13 starts at 2, she was named two-year-old trotting Filly of the Year and overall Horse of the Year in Canada. Emilie Cas El had more mixed success in the following seasons before she became a very good broodmare, highlighted by her son Trixton winning the 2014 Hambletonian.

An offer from Kentucky

What Lévesque didn’t know at the time was that both Emilie Cas El and her sire Garland Lobell were closely monitored south of the border. At Walnut Hall Farm in Kentucky, Alan Leavitt had taken notice of Garland Lobell’s excellent start at stud in Quebec. In 1995 he bought Garland Lobell. He also wanted to buy several mares who had produced well with his new stallion and reached out to Lévesque to inquire about Amour Angus.

“He called me the day my mother died, but called back a month later and we eventually agreed a deal. At first he just bought Amour Angus in foal to Garland Lobell as I wanted to keep her foal. But Leavitt came back and inquired about the foal. And you know Americans, they can be persistent and they sure know how to write a check,” he explains and laughs. “I always knew Amour Angus would be a good broodmare. After selling her I told my accountant that we’d just sold the best broodmare in Canada.”

Still, to Lévesque the deal made perfect sense. He didn’t see a bright future for harness racing in Quebec and wanted out: “I decided to quit the game when the I saw that the government wanted to protect the casinos and didn’t care about us. It a shame our government killed our game, because it was a good game. The industry was doing good in Quebec.”

A spectacular broodmare

Canada’s loss was USA’s gain. Leavitt paid $50,000 for Amour Angus in foal to Garland Lobell and her foal Impair Angus. The latter was renamed to Conway Hall and became a stellar trotter and later stallion. Conway Hall is also the only North American-bred trotter to ever defeat Varenne. His son Windsong’s Legacy established a prolific sireline both in America, through his son Chapter Seven and the latter’s son Walner, and also in Europe, through his Italian son Nad al Sheba. The foal Amour Angus was carrying would eventually become Angus Hall, second in the 1999 Hambletonian and third in the Kentucky Futurity. Later Amour Angus produced yet another star in Andover Hall, winner of the 2002 World Trotting Derby. Conway, Angus and Andover Hall were all top stallions and produced combined winners of over $300 million.

Year	Name	Sire	Career	Other info
1992	Emilie Cas El (f)	Garland Lobell	55: 29-7-6 3,1:57.1f (1.12,8) $ 245,199
1993	Garnelia Angus (f)	Garland Lobell	62: 10-4-14 4,1:57.1f (1.12,8) $ 79,898
1994	Hautain Angus (g)	A Worthy Lad	19: 5-3-2 2:03 (1.16,4) $14,671
1995	Conway Hall (c)	Garland Lobell	29: 13-7-5 3,1:53.4 (1.10,7) $ 818,884
1996	Angus Hall (c)	Garland Lobell	26: 8-7-7 3,1:54.3 (1.11,2) $ 830,654
1997	Amour Hall (f)	Garland Lobell
1999	Andover Hall (c)	Garland Lobell	22: 11-5-2 3,1:51.3 (1.09,4) $ 870,510
2000	E L Stewart (c)	Garland Lobell	72: 3-10-9 1.12,6 (1.56.4) € 46,674
2001	Adams Hall (c)	Garland Lobell	64: 14-14-12 1.10,2 (1:53-Europe) SEK 3,637,323
2002	Angelina Hall (f)	Striking Sahbra
2002	Armed Hall (c)	Striking Sahbra	22: 3-7-4 BT 1.15,4 (2:01.2) € 17,040	Embryo foal registered in Estonia.
2004	Allstar Hall (c)	Like a Prayer	26: 6-1-0 3,Q1:56.1 (1.12,2) $ 38,349
2007	Advantage Hall (g)	Tom Ridge	2,2:00.1 (1.14,7) $ 4,508
2008	Absinthe Hall (f)	Tom Ridge
2009	All in Hall (c)	Tom Ridge	3,2:00.3f (1.14,9) $ 9,826
Note: BT indicates “Best Time”, but not a winning time.

From 1995 to 2005, Walnut Hall Farm sold six of Amour Angus’ foals at yearling auction for a total of $1,632 million. It was a remarkable return on their investment for a mare Leavitt knew nothing about. In fact, he bought the mare unseen, but later remarked to Trot Magazine that “The best way to describe Amour in one word was beautiful. She was beautiful. She was the perfect size, not too big and not too small and she was very laid back. She was an absolutely fantastic mother to all of her foals. She was a prized possession, you probably will never see anything like her again.” In an interview with Hoof Beats he stated that “if you were doing a movie and asked for the most perfect Standardbred specimen, Central Casting would send you Amour Angus … She has a beautiful head, sharp eye and nice ears. She is perfectly proportioned. She is easy to work with, sensible and pleasant with the other mares, too.”

Amour Angus had to be euthanized in early 2009 after an accident on the ice in her paddock at Walnut Hall. She was inducted into the US Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2020. Her breeder, Pierre Levesque, was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2008. Angus Hall was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2019.

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