Bred to be something: Beauts Cabaret evokes hopes and memories

by Melissa Keith

What’s in a name? In the case of Beauts Cabaret, more than meets the eye.

The 2-year-old trotter was originally called Southwind Cera. That changed after she was acquired by Steve Palermo of Etobicoke, ON; Jeffery Ruch of Innisfil, ON; and Steve Bossence of London, ON.

“My friend Steve Palermo actually named her,” said Bossence, who trains the filly.

“One day I get a text and it’s a screenshot showing the registration of a horse. I look at it and it says, ‘Beauts Cabaret,’ and at first, I go, ‹What did he buy now?› Then I see the breeding and I went, ‹That›s that filly that he bought.›»

Bossence was touched by the gesture.

“He knew that we always called my daughter ‘Beaut,’” Bossence said. “My sister and I gave her the name. Right from day one, she was always called ‘Beaut.’ I could probably count on one hand how many times I called her ‘Stephanie.’ I always just called her ‘Beaut.’”

Stephanie “Beaut” Bossence shared her father’s love of racing.

“She worked for me when she got out of school, for about 10 years. She was no bigger than a peanut herself,” Steve Bossence said. “We had some pretty good horses [like] Armbro Continental [5, 1:52.1s; $499,061]. And then there was Southwind Califon [5, 1:54.1s; $481,335]. That was her horse. The pair of them made over half a million [Canadian]. We had another good horse that she looked after, Tacs Delight [7, 1:52.3f; $506,430]. I always tell everybody we beat San Pail with him one time. But I have to tell you… That was the day that San Pail made a break.”

Although Stephanie found a career at Toyota that kept her from working in her father’s barn, she was never far away. When the workday was over, Beaut would return to her saddlehorse and the retired Southwind Califon.

“Ever since she was young, I kept saying to her, ‘Remember one thing: I’ll look after you when you’re young; you’ve got to look after the old boy when he’s old,’” Steve Bossence said. “And she’d say, ‘That’s the deal, Pops.’ She was a good kid, and not because she was mine. Everyone liked her. She had the biggest smile; she smiled all the time.”

Stephanie was eventually diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica (NMO), a rare autoimmune illness she kept at bay with therapeutic plasma exchange treatments.

“She knew, but she didn’t tell us what was going on,” Steve Bossence said. “She didn’t want anybody else to worry about her.”

In August 2023, Stephanie phoned to say she had a terrible headache.

“She said, ‘It’s not in the front or on my temple; it’s at the back, kind of between my ears. That was on a Sunday,” her father said. “On the Monday, her mother took her to the hospital and she never came out. She never came home.”

Stephanie’s illness robbed her of speech and vision.

“She could always hear, but she could never talk; she never got to talk again,” said Steve Bossence, who was himself hospitalized after a truck accident at the time.

When he recovered, he visited Beaut in another hospital to confirm plans for her aging horses as winter approached.

“’Stephanie,’ I said — it was one of the few times I called her that — ‘with Califon, I could send him to Kentucky,” Steve Bossence said. “If you want him to go, squeeze my hand.’ Of course, she squeezes my hand. I said, ‘Now, that buddy he’s been with for a while, if you want him to stay with him, squeeze my hand.’ And she squeezes my hand. So, I said, ‘I think that you want the pair of them to go to Kentucky.’ She squeezed my hand.”

Beaut Bossence passed away on Dec. 14, 2023.

Nearly four months later, Southwind Califon’s unraced half-sister gave birth to an International Moni filly. Southwind Cera, later renamed Beauts Cabaret, developed into a favorite of her trainer.

“She’s bred to be something, and she looks the part,” he said. “She’s a big filly; she looks like she’s about 4 years old. For the size of her, it’s amazing because she’s so light on her feet. Usually, you’re always scared of a big 2-year-old.”

Steve Bossence was only scared of Beauts Cabaret during a freak training accident.

“We were just getting ready to go out with her, and I was already in the jogger,” he said. “She wigged out, and she never does, but something set her off. She backed up a bit and broke the crossties when she went down, and it broke her head halter… She took off and I said, ‘Oh Christ, I’ll just get her stopped outside the barn here.’ Well, I didn’t get her stopped. I didn’t know she had broken the bridle and it had fallen down to her chest. She›s got nothing on her head at all.»

The filly sprinted past paddocks at Dorchester Downs Training Centre, with her trainer a mere passenger.

“Thank God a gate was open,” he told HRU. “She went in there. When she pulled right, she’s still going along pretty good, only now she’s only going 50 miles an hour, not 100 like she was down the laneway. I just said, ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ So, I bailed out and I heard her trotting around. I went, ‘Oh no, don’t trample me, whatever you do.’ All of a sudden, I don’t hear the noise. She went out of the paddock and now she’s going back to the barn… She destroyed everything and I ended up in the hospital for five days. I have three broken ribs out of it.”

Beauts Cabaret finished fourth in her debut qualifier, June 26 at Mohawk. On July 10, she drew away to win her second qualifier by over six lengths in 1:58.1.

“She’s got the breeding,” Steve Bossence said. “She’s got the will, which is the biggest thing. She’s got a beautiful gait, good size. She’s got a license [to win], because when you train horses like that down, they’ve got the blood to go all the way for you.”

The filly broke her maiden at Mohawk on July 20, followed up by a narrow victory in her July 30 Pure Ivory stakes elimination. Beauts Cabaret prevailed by a head despite further equipment issues.

“Right in :55 flat,” Steve Bossence said. “We were having trouble steering her. I bought her a new harness, and I think the head halter was down too low on her. She was wearing a headpole on the inside and I think it was bouncing. It was hitting up against the bit and she was trying to get away from it… I think the driving bit was too tight in her mouth. It was adjusted, just not properly for her, so she was on the left line as soon as she got to the quarter pole… I can’t believe she didn’t make a break.”

Beauts Cabaret did make a break leaving in the Aug. 7 Pure Ivory final.

“She was just keyed-up” Steve Bossence said.

His expectations remain high.

“She’s eligible to everything,” he said. “We’ve got the Peaceful Way, the Simcoe, and if she’s good enough, the Bluegrass and the International, and if she’s good enough, a couple of weeks after that she goes up to Ohio for the Breeders Crown.”

Approaching the Grade 1 Peaceful Way eliminations on Aug. 21 at Mohawk, Beauts Cabaret was feeling good.

“She had Saturday and Sunday out in the field,” Steve Bossence said on Tuesday (Aug. 11). “She’s always a little fresh on Monday from having Sunday off. She jogged along nice and everything.”

While Beauts Cabaret races on, her 26-year-old “uncle” Southwind Califon has an unexpected new career.

“We went to Alan Byler, a person that we got to know down in Kentucky,” Steve Bossence said. “We sold him Tymal Houdini, who he was using as a stud. I told him about Califon and he said, ‘Oh, just send him down, Steve. I won’t even charge anything; you’ve been so good with me about everything. He’s got a home here for life.’”

Checking in, Steve Bossence was surprised to learn that Byler considered Southwind Califon an asset to his farm, where the gelding was turned out with three mares.

“I said, ‘What do you mean?’” Steve Bossence said. “[Byler] goes, ‘Well, anytime I start to see his nose curling up and he’s carrying on, I know one of those mares is in heat and it’s a breeding day. He’s never been wrong yet.’”

The veteran gelding and namesake filly of Beaut Bossence keep her memory alive.

“She loved [racing] to no end,” said her father. “She used to take [Armbro] Continental swimming and stuff like that… She was a good worker. She was one of a kind. She loved those horses.”