Wonderful Wando
by Jennifer Morrison-Learn
Gus Schickedanz's homebred son of Langfuhr finish one-two in the Queen's
Plate, with Wando emerging as the star of his class.
It was no surprise
to see Gus Schickedanz in the winner’s circle following the 144th
Queen’s Plate on June 22, accepting the Plate trophy from The
Honourable Adrienne Clarkson, Governor-General of Canada.
The German-born
resident of Schomberg, Ontario, had the two favourites, Mobil and
Wando, for the 1-1/4 mile Canadian classic, after all, and both colts
had done little wrong leading up to the race.
But it was Wando,
thought by some, including jockey Todd Kabel, to be the second best
of the twosome, who had jaws dropping throughout the Woodbine grandstand
as the coppery-coloured three-year-old strolled to a nine-length victory
in the $1,000,000 Plate.
Kabel, who had
ridden four of the 12 Plate starters at one time and was the regular
rider of both Mobil and Wando, selected Mobil as his mount, leaving
Wando for Patrick Husbands, a four-time Sovereign Award winning rider
in search of his first Plate win.
The only folks
that were confident that Wando, trained to perfection by Schickedanz’s
longtime employee Mike Keogh, was the superior colt were the betting
public, who hammered Wando down to the 7 to 5 betting choice.
By now, the logistics
of the Plate have been well documented: the race unfolded the way
many predicted with Wando and Husbands taking advantage of a slick
racing surface that was kind to speed types and escaping with a clear
lead by the time the field hit the backstretch.
Mobil, who had
bobbled at the gate, was having trouble keeping in touch with his
speedy stablemate and was being scrubbed on by Kabel heading into
the final turn.
By then, Stronach
Stable’s improving Rock Again, a son of 1997 Plate winner Awesome
Again, was launching a bid, but the race was over.
“When I got
to the wire (the first time) I had a really good hold of him,”
said Husbands. “Then I just turned him loose. Nobody wanted to
go with me because everybody wanted to get a check. I got everything
my own way from the three-quarter pole and then it was just a matter
of how far he’d win by.”
Wando’s winning
margin was the largest since Alydeed’s 11 length romp in 1992
and his time of 2:02.48 was just three ticks off Izvestia’s Plate
record.
Schickedanz, who
has never been a man of many words, has been revitalized by the success
of his two homebred sons of Langfuhr, his own stallion who resides
at the Vinery in Kentucky.
The 74-year-old has suffered several strokes in recent years and began
to cull his impressive broodmare band last fall, but there was no
mistaking that grin when he met the press following the Plate.
“This is
a wonderful day for us, one - two,” said Schickedanz, “What
more can I say. Now we’re going to go back to the barn and have
a party.”
Schickedanz pocketed
$800,000 from the purse, not including the breeder awards that will
follow.
It was the second Plate win for the Schickedanz breeding program.
Woodcarver, a son of Woodman, won the ‘99 Plate for the team
as one of the favourites.
Wando, a chunky,
muscular and compact colt had won the Woodstock and Marine Stakes
this spring but had not raced in the five weeks leading up to the
Plate.
No horse in the
modern history of the race had won after such a layoff.
To add to the mystery, Keogh and company weren’t certain that
Wando would excel at the Plate distance while Mobil, a long striding
dark bay, was accelerating at the end of his win in the Plate Trial,
a 1-1/8 mile race.
But if you talked to Husbands following the race, the 30-year-old
Barbadian would have you convinced he knew he was on the Plate winner.
“I knew he
was the best horse in the race,” said Husbands, who collected
his first Plate win since coming to Canada nine years ago. “All
the smart people on the backstretch knew this horse was a winner from
the time the entries came out.”
Husbands has won
many major stakes races including events that some Woodbine riders
have never captured. He rode Exciting Story to victory in the 2000
Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont and Numerous Times in the 2001 Atto
Mile, but it was the Plate that was foremost on his wish list. Husbands
was so excited that he started pumping his fists and waving his whip
in celebration long before the wire.
“I’m
so happy, this is my biggest achievement, it was always my goal,”
said Husbands. “Every time I go back home to Barbados, everybody
asks if I ever rode in the Queen’s Plate,” said Husbands.
“They ask me if I’ve ever won it and I’ve had to say
no. So I’ve always had my fingers crossed to win the Plate.”
Husbands has had
a mercurial rise in the North American jockey ranks since he came
to Canada in 1994. A boy-wonder in Barbados - he became the youngest
jockey to win that country’s biggest race, the Cockspur Cup,
at age 16 - it took him a few months to prove himself, and get accustomed
to the Canadian climate. But in less than five years, he was in the
top three in the Woodbine jockey standings. In 1999, Husbands collected
a career-best 173 wins and picked up his first Sovereign award for
outstanding jockey in Canada. He topped those numbers the next year
and topped that the next year with 178 wins and $8.1 million in purse
earnings and another Sovereign. Husbands repeated as champion jockey
for the next two years including his remarkable 2002 campaign that
saw him ride the winners of over $9.2 million, ranking him 14th in
North America.
“When I first
came to Canada, it was so cold,” said Husbands, whose brother
Anthony talked him into the trip. “I called my brother all kinds
of names and told him I was going to go back home. It was pretty tough
starting out.”
It may have been a tough start for Husbands but now he has the prized
Plate trophy to add to his impressive collection.
Crowning Jewels
by Jennifer Morrison-Learn
It has been 10 years since Peteski captured the Canadian Triple Crown
and 25 years since Affirmed won the American counterpart. Have these
prestigious prizes become unattainable goals?
Canada’s Triple Crown
has not been around as long as its American counterpart but it has
arguably had a much more colourful and unusual history in the 44 years
since its inception. The American Triple Crown (now sponsored by VISA)
was christened in 1930 by Daily Racing Form correspondent Charlie
Hutton while reporting about Gallant Fox’s victories in the Kentucky
Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.
Gallant Fox was actually
the second horse to collect wins in those three events, as Sir Barton
accomplished the feat in 1919.
The Canadian Triple Crown
has only been officially known as such since 1959. Coincidentally,
that was the year that E.P. Taylor’s New Providence won the Queen’s
Plate (in front of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II), Prince of Wales
and Breeders’ Stakes, the three races that make up the Canadian
Crown. Two of the events are run at Woodbine and the middle leg is
contested at Fort Erie racetrack.
All three races have gone
through various distance and surface changes. At one point, both the
Prince of Wales and the Breeders’ were both run on the turf but
in 1988 the ‘Wales was switched to the main track and shortened
to 1-3/16 miles, the same distance as the Preakness.
“The Triple Crown
is designed to test not only speed and ability over both turf and
dirt courses at varied distances but also endurance,” wrote Muriel
Lennox in E.P. Taylor - A Horseman and His Horses. “The three
races take place during a four-month period, from June to October.
During this time the trainer must keep his charge fit and in top condition,
neither racing him too much or too little.”
Taylor’s Canebora,
his fourth Plate winner in five years, won the series in 1963 but
it would be 26 years before the feat was accomplished again.
Breaking the Bank
In an effort to boost the profile of the Canadian Triple Crown, the
Ontario Jockey Club introduced the Bank of Montreal as the series
sponsor in 1989 on a three-year deal. The Bank of Montreal put up
a $1 million bonus for a series sweep.
The series had undergone
some changes by this time, including the shortening of the ‘Wales
and moving it back to the dirt. The races were also moved closer together
on the calendar with a span of late June or early July (the Plate
was held in July in the Bank of Montreal’s first year) to late
August.
In what has to be considered
a Canadian racing phenomenon, With Approval battled his way through
the Triple Crown winning the Plate by a nose, the Prince of Wales
by a neck before trouncing his turf foes in the Breeders’ under
regular rider Don Seymour.
The Kinghaven Farms homebred
became just the third Canadian Triple Crown winner and went on to
become a Grade 1 turf performer in North America.
Incredibly, in 1990 Kinghaven
Farms unleashed another grey whiz, Izvestia (a ‘cousin’
of With Approval), who ran one of the fastest Plates ever and won
by almost 13 lengths in a stakes record time.
Following a similar romp
in the Prince of Wales, “Izzy” sped to Triple Crown glory
in the Breeders’, again with Seymour in the saddle. It was an
unprecedented double for Kinghaven and its superior breeding program.
The story got even more
bizarre when along came a lanky bay filly named Dance Smartly, a product
of Ernie Samuel’s Sam Son Farm’s impeccable breeding program.
“Daisy” rolled
through wins in the Canadian Oaks over the girls and showed no mercy
on the boys with handy scores in the Triple Crown events. The best
was yet to come for the daughter of Danzig as she wrapped up an undefeated
campaign with a win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill
Downs.
So, three unusually talented
three-year-olds in consecutive years collected a $1 million bonus
– a coincidence? Perhaps, but in ‘93, two years after the
sponsorship and bonus were dropped, a robust chestnut colt owned by
Earle Mack came along. Under the care of trainer Roger Attfield, Peteski
made it look so easy as he galloped to lopsided wins in the Plate
and ‘Wales; in the Breeders’ despite his saddle slipping
up virtually to his neck, Peteski rolled to victory to become the
fourth Triple Crown winner in five years.
Near Misses
Five three-year-olds were denied the Triple Crown in the Breeders’
Stakes since 1959. Almoner finished second to the filly Mary of Scotland
in 1970, L’Enjoleur was third, also to a filly, Momigi, in ‘75,
Golden Choice lost out to Kinghaven’s filly Carotene and Sam-Son
Farm’s Scatter the Gold was injured when third to Eugene Melnyk’s
Lodge Hill in 2000.
Some, like Archers Bay,
won the first two legs of the Triple Crown but by-passed the Breeders’
because of the turf.
Three Sides to this Trophy
Plus a Bonus
The Triple Crown trophy is a three-sided gold trophy. In 1999, the
Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society introduced a $500,000 bonus for
the owner of a three-year-old that could accomplish the sweep. That
bonus remains in existence for 2003.
Creating a Classic Winner
There is a great deal of random chance involved when we cross tens
of thousands of genes between a sire and dam. But a closer look usually
shows some rhyme and reason operating there.
This year’s Kentucky
Derby is a case in point. The top finishers, Funny Cide, Empire Maker,
and Peace Rules, are all Mr. Prospector line colts, and Funny Cide
(by Distorted Humor) and Peace Rules (by Jules) are both by sons of
Forty Niner. Funny Cide and Empire Maker are both out of granddaughters
of Northern Dancer, reinforcing the golden cross between Mr. Prospector
and Northern Dancer.
Further back we find the
deep linebreeding patterns that so often mark the top racehorses.
Funny Cide shows linebreeding 5x6x6 to Native Dancer, while Empire
Maker shows linebreeding 7x7x7x7x6x7-Discovery. Peace Rules is 5x5x5-Native
Dancer and 6x6x5-Nasrullah, while the fourth-place finisher Atswhatimtalknbout
shows Bold Ruler-4x5x5, Nasrullah-5x6x6x6, and Princequillo-5x6x6.
Such “deep linebreeding” offers many of the advantages of
closer inbreeding, (concentrating the finest genes), with fewer of
the dangers associated with inbreeding. Linebreeding through multiple
strains of Nasrullah and Native Dancer is now particlarly effective,
and this group certainly reflects that.
Race favourite Empire Maker
is out of the outstanding broodmare Toussaud—herself a multiple
stakes winner. Remarkably, she has produced four Grade One winners
and a Grade Two winner from just her first six foals, including Chester
House and Honest Lady. Looking deeper into Toussaud’s pedigree
we find a very deep pattern of linebreeding to Discovery. Discovery,
in turn, was the broodmare-sire of Native Dancer, Bold Ruler, Intentionally
(sire of In Reality), and Hasty Road, and Toussaud’s 6x6x5x6
linebreeding to Discovery comes precisely through these four sires,
making a textbook case for the power of deep linebreeding in a pedigree.
Getting back to the Mr. Prospector male line, it is worth noting the
cross with Tom Rolfe and his son, Hoist the Flag, that has produced
so many top winners. Forty Niner himself is out of a Tom Rolfe mare,
while the fine stallion Cryptoclearance is by a son of Mr. Prospector
out of a Hoist The Flag mare.
Last year’s Breeders’
Cup Classic winner, Volponi, was not only by Cryptoclearance, but
featured 3x4 inbreeding to both Mr. Prospector and Hoist The Flag!
Last year’s million-dollar earners Street Cry (Machiavellian)
and War Emblem (Our Emblem) are both by sons of Mr. Prospector who
had second dams by Hoist the Flag. Tom Rolfe and son Hoist the Flag
are both Ribot line, and it may well be that this adds a measure of
stamina and endurance to the more brilliant Prospector blood.
Republished with permission from Canadian
Thoroughbred
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