Page 25 - The Game February 2006

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, February 2006 25
Sunny Ridge busy during end of the year
Bernie LaFountaine, owner of Sunny Ridge Ranch, Thoroughbred Training Center in Fort Erie
By Harlan Abbey
Sunny Ridge Ranch in Fort Erie usually is a quiet place once the Fort Erie racing season ends.
"Usually, we don't start filling up until February, when trainers start legging up their Thoroughbreds," said Bernie LaFountaine, owner of the facility, which has stabling for 40 horses, a big indoor riding arena and a five furlong racetrack.
But this year, trainer Paula Loescher was using the facility in November and December to keep her distance-loving Awesome Dancer sharp for late-season action.
"He's only had 18 lifetime starts," said Loescher of her five- year-old, late-season claim. "So I wasn't concerned that he would be stale or over-raced if I kept him going. My filly, Bust The Must, probably could have kept racing, too, because she's all heart. But she has a softball-sized ankle and there was heat in it. A horse will go off form or a soreness will develop to tell you it's time for a rest."
Awesome Dancer was second in the two-mile-and-70 yard Tour De Fort (by a head), Fort Erie's closing day feature race on Oct. 31, 2005. But he was able to train on the Sunny Ridge Ranch training track for most of November and then utilized the indoor arena.
"It's 18 times around to keep them fit," said Loescher. "Holly Dapp, my assistant, rode him -- nine times in each direction."
Awesome Dancer shipped to Mountaineer in West Virginia to win a mile-and-three-quarter allowance on Nov. 15, winning by over 13 lengths with regular rider Monique Dionne up. On Dec. 6 he was the 3-to-1 favorite for a similar race, but races were called off because the jockeys decided the weather was too cold. "The track was in fine shape, I think the jock- eys there are prima donnas," Loescher commented. "It's a $1,000 shipping bill each time you go there (for owner Shale Wagman) and a four-hour drive (each way) for me. But the horse loves the surface there, he's 3-for-3, and at Woodbine he was never in the money in six starts."
Another horse Loescher kept going late in the year was Beau Ryder, who had a fourth and a second, by a nose, to a Fort Erie horse, with another Fort horse third," Loescher explained, who was ridden at Thistledown by Dale Hemsley. "He won four races in a row when I got him as a 4-year- old," she commented, "but he's only won twice in the last two years. He's slowed down as he gets older but he tries and hits the board a few times.
"His problems are that he's very crooked legged and he must have the rail. Awesome Dancer's problems are mental. He gets very tense and tends to colic; he's had
surgery twice. I give him a mash -- which is easier to digest -- at every meal. And when we ship him he must have a box stall or he panics and colics."
The daughter of veteran trainer Bill McKibbon, Paula has been around the racetrack for some 30 years and has had a trainer's license the last four years. Lately, she's been active at the auctions, purchasing yearlings at the select and mixed sales. She has four fillies, two of which won as two-year-olds, and three yearlings of 2005.
CONTINUED PAGE 29 - SEE SUNNY RIDGE
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17655 Innis Lake Road, Caledon East, ON