French Thoroughbred horse trainer.
He began riding horses at a young age and competed in show jumping and cross-country equestrianism. He began his professional racing career driving horses in harness racing then after serving as a flat racing apprentice, obtaining his license as a trainer in 1964.
François Boutin was the trainer for the stables of Jean-Luc Lagardère and for the Stavros Niarchos family. During his more than thirty year career he was the leading money winner in France seven times (1976, 1978–81, 1983–84). Although victory eluded him in France’s most prestigious horse race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Boutin won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains on six occasions and most every other important race in the country multiple times.
Racing outside of France, Boutin’s horse Sagaro was the first to win England’s Ascot Gold Cup three years in a row. Boutin is best remembered in the United States as the trainer of the Hall of Fame filly Miesque who had back-to-back wins in the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 1987 and 1988 and for Arazi, whose breathtaking victory in the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile was followed by his shocking upset in the 1992 Kentucky Derby.
François Boutin died of a heart attack in Neuilly sur Seine at 7:55am on 1 February 1995. The Prix François Boutin at Hippodrome Deauville-La Touques race course in Deauville is named in his honor.
Link to Wikipedia biography