Page 17 - July 2005 The Game

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, July 2005 17
Canadian Breds
the Triple Crown. Trained by Jim day for the Sam-Son Farms, Dance Smartly completed a perfect 8 for 8 season with a dramatic win in the Breeder's Cup Distaff - another milestone as this was the first time a Canadian Bred had won a Breeders' Cup race. Dance Smartly retired with earnings of $3,263,835, a world record for a filly or mare.
Morrison: "When I watched her coming down the Churchill Downs stretch, with her head cocked to the outside as she normally did, it was an emotional moment for anyone involved in Canadian racing."
Attfield: “Eight for eight as a three-year- old, triple crown, Oaks, Breeders' Cup, over $3 million in earnings when the purses were nowhere near what they are today - great broodmare - she's fantastic."
4: Bunty Lawless
Bunty Lawless is one of the great stories from the earlier years of Canadian racing history. She won three races as a two-year- old in 1937, and the next year took the Queen's Plate as well as the Long Branch Championship (pre-curser to the Canadian International). Bunty Lawless continued to race through his 6th year in which he won a second Long Branch Championship. In 47 races, Bunty Lawless had 19 victories, 15 seconds and three thirds. His offspring were a veritable who's who of racing's elite over the next twenty years; sons Epic and McGill each won Queen's Plates and another son, Windfields sired Plate winner Canadian Champ. In 1951 Bunty Lawless was voted Canada's Horse of the Half Century and in a sad touch of irony, 'the little guy's horse' died in 1956, a mere three days before the opening of the New Woodbine.
3: Nearctic
Nearctic is considered the fork in the road concerning E.P. Taylor's quest in the 1950's to breed world-champion race horses. At the 1952 Newmarket sales in England, Taylor paid the ungodly sum of $35,000 for the mare Lady Angela. He bred her to Nearco and the foal, Nearctic, was born at Taylor's National stud in Oshawa. Nearctic, a jet- black colt, won the Saratoga Special as a two-year-old and at three set track records for 61/2 furlongs and a mile and a sixteenth. At four he won Horse of the year honours, winning seven races including 4 stakes. His lengthy career took him to the post 47 times, and into the winner's circle 25 times. But as wonderful as he was on the track, Nearctic created international equine history thanks to a romantic moment he shared with the mare Natalma that produced a little horse who would become the greatest stallion of all time.
Cauz: "Nearctic was a brilliant race horse on both sides of the border but he will be known forever as the sire of Northern Dancer."
2: AwesomeAgain
If you could only see one horse race in your life, it should be the 1998 running of the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. In the dying light of a long afternoon, Canada's Awesome Again, urged on by Pat Day, powered up in the final strides to beat Silver Charm by a length. The field in the mile and a quarter Classic that day is considered the greatest group ever to contest a race. Awesome Again finished ahead of European Champion Swain, two Belmont Stakes winners, Victory Gallop and Touch Gold, and Horse of the year Skip Away who had won the Classic in 1997.
Awesome Again, who was bred and owned by Frank Stronach is the only horse to win the Queen's Plate (1997) and the
Breeders' Cup Classic. And when Stronach's Ghostzapper won the 2004 version of the Classic, it made Awesome Again the only horse to have won the race and to be sire of a winner. On the same day that Ghostzapper won the Classic, Wilco, another son of Awesome Again, galloped home first in the Juvenile.
Awesome Again had a perfect 6 for 6 season as a four-year-old and retired with nine wins in twelve races good for $4.3 million, most ever earned by a Canadian Thoroughbred. And so far, judging by the early evidence, Awesome Again looks to be a sensational stallion.
Morrison: "Awesome Again, I remember, was listed as "unnamed" when the Queen's Plate winterbook odds came out in his 3 year-old. He hadn't raced and no one knew who he was."
Attfield: "A great racehorse, wonderful sire of Ghostzapper, etc. and I believe he has only just started"
1: Northern Dancer
How do you argue against the Dancer? The son of Nearctic out of Natalma, once considered too small as a yearling, Northern Dancer has profoundly affected horse racing around the globe. His three-year-old season in 1964 is unmatched by any other horse. Northern Dancer won the Flamingo Stakes, the Florida Derby and the Blue Grass Stakes. Then he galloped into history with a stirring win over Hill Rise in the Kentucky Derby. With Bill Hartack on board, the gritty colt hit the wire a neck in front in the brilliant time of 2:00, a record that stood until Secretariat bettered it 9 years later.
Northern Dancer won the Preakness two weeks later, and then finished third in the Belmont. Apparently that didn't take much out of the Dancer who romped by 71/2 lengths in the Queen's Plate, making him the only horse on the planet to win the Derby and the Plate.
The Queen's Plate would be Northern Dancer's final race. A bowed tendon ended his racing career, but that didn't turn out too badly. Northern Dancer has set the bar for stallions around the world. His offspring won 146 stakes races, which makes Northern Dancer a spectacular sire, but because of the domination throughout the world of the product of his sons he is considered the world's greatest sire of sires.
Cauz: "It would be redundant to add any more glowing superlatives on the greatness that the Dancer passed on through his sons, daughters and grandsons. It is ironic that while Northern Dancer put Canada on the global map with his incredible career at stud, no son or daughter ever won the Queen's Plate. Northernette came close when she lost by a half-length to Sound Reason in 1977. The closest kins were L'Enjoleur, the 1975 Plate winner who was out of Fanfreluche, a champion daughter of the Dancer, and Norcliffe the following year, who was out of Drama School, another Dancer mare."
Ok, now you can discuss this amongst yourselves, but one thing you have to admit....this country must have produced some amazing thoroughbreds to leave out (with apologies) New Providence, Canadiana, Kennedy Road, Kingarvie, Ace Marine, Canebora, Terror, Wando, Viceregal, Viceregent and Queensway.
11: Izvestia
In 1990, it was deja vue all over again for trainer Roger Attfield. After saddling With Approval to a Triple Crown sweep in 1989, Attfield found himself with Izvestia who won the Heresy and Plate Trial Stakes and kept on going, taking the Queen's Plate, the Prince of Wales and the Breeders' Stakes and running his winning streak to eight races with a score in the Molson Export Million. Izvestia's time of 201 4/5 for the Queen's Plate still stands as the record for the mile and a quarter race. In 1990 he was voted Champion Three-Year-Old and Horse of the Year. Sadly his career lasted only eleven races, during which he accumulated $2.7 million.
Attfield: "One of my three Triple Crown winners, Izvestia was the most dynamic on both surfaces. He won off in all his races by many lengths, running the Queen's Plate in record time. He then came back to beat win- ners of the American Triple Crown in the Molson Millions. I thought he was destined to be a great sire. His tragic death in the Rothman's International is the most devastating thing that has happened to me in my career as a trainer."
10: Deputy Minister
In 1981 Deputy Minister was awesome again and again winning eight of nine races as a two-year-old. Among those wins were the Grade 1 laurel Futurity and the Young America Stakes at the Meadowlands. Those two wins staked Deputy Minister to an Eclipse Award as best colt in North America, a trophy he put right beside his Sovereign as best two-year-old in Canada. After an injury-plagued sophomore season in which he raced just four times, Deputy Minister came back in 1983 to capture Gulfstream's Sprint Handicap in a display described by the Daily Racing Form as "awesome". He also won the Tom Fool at Belmont and in the years since has developed a reputation as an impressive and prolific sire, Awesome Again being his most notable offspring.
9: La Prevoyante
In a head-spinning tour de force as a two- year-old in 1972, La Prevoyante won the My Dear and Princess Elizabeth at Woodbine, the Colin at Fort Erie, the Fleur de Lys at Blue Bonnets, the Schuylerville and Spinaway at Saratoga, the Matron and Frizette at Belmont, the Selima at Laurel and the Gardenia at Garden States. This comprised a perfect 12 for 12 season with ten stakes wins at seven different tracks. As a five-year-old La Prevoyante won three straight sprints at Saratoga in the summer of 1974. She started 39 races, and won 25 times, but, sadly, died of a ruptured lung on December 28th following a turf race at Calder.
8: Overskate
Not a big horse, just a horse who did big things, Overskate raced 42 times and posed in the winner's circle 24 times. He was Canadian Champion two-year-old in 1977, Champion Three-Year-Old and Horse of the Year in 1978, and Champion Grass Horse in Canada for 1978, 1979 and 1980. On his trophy shelf is hardware from The Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont, the Laurence Armour Handicap at Arlington, the Grade II Stars and Stripes in Chicago and the Grade III Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga. Overskate also set the track record winning the Manitoba Derby at Assiniboia Downs.
Cauz: "One race I attended, the Bernard Baruch Handicap at Saratoga in 1979, he was up against one of the truly great horses in American history, John Henry. Overskate was top weighted at 128 pounds. However, due to heavy rains the race was switched to the muddy main track, prompting the scratching of John Henry. The compact, chestnut colt, however, still had to tote top weight even though the race was off the turf. The odds were against Overskate, as not only had he drawn the outside post, he was giving away 20 pounds to longshot Timbo. With a dramatic rush at the top of the stretch he sped through the sloppy going to edge Timbo and Native Courier."
7: Sunny's Halo
The only Canadian horse, other than Northern Dancer to win the Kentucky Derby, Sunny's Halo hit the wire first at Churchill Downs in 1982 for trainer David Cross and owner David 'Pud" Foster. Sunny's Halo was more than just a one-hit wonder, though. He won nine of 20 career races, and eight of those victories came in stakes. He also captured the Rebel Handicap at Oaklawn, the Group One Arkansas Derby, the Louisiana Super Derby at The Fairgrounds and was the first Canadian bred to win a million dollars in one season.
Cauz: "He was a better race horse than a stallion. A lot of credit should go to David Cross for getting this horse ready for the Derby."
Morrison: " He made the cover of Sports Illustrated, hey, only Smarty Jones has done that since."
6: With Approval
1989 was a very good year for the Roger Attfield trained With Approval. After taking the Marine and Plate Trial Stakes, he defeated all comers in the Queen's Plate, the Prince of Wales and the Breeders' Stakes to become Canada's first Triple Crown winner in 36 years. As a four-year-old, he won the Bowling Green Handicap at 1 3/8ths at Belmont, smashing the world record as he hit the wire. He set another track record when he scored the Tidal Handicap at Belmont that same year. With Approval retired with winnings of $2.8 million and is clearly passing his speed and endurance on as a sire.
Attfield: " With Approval really did not like running on the dirt, but was good enough and courageous enough to overcome that. On the turf he was exceptional. He still holds the track record for a mile and 3/8ths set at Belmont. He had a devastating quarter of a mile kick and I still feel he should have won the Breeders' Cup - typical trainer. With Approval is a very solid sire of over $30 million including 2004 Breeders' Cup winner Better Talk Now."
5: Dance Smartly
The star marking on her forehead was no mistake. This daughter of Danzig and grand- daughter of Northern Dancer was destined for brilliance. After an impressive two-year- old season - three wins in five races, Dance Smartly bloomed as a three-year-old in 1991, opening eyes with wins in the Star Shoot and Selene Stakes. Then she won the Canadian Oaks and topped that a week later by beating the boys in the Queen's Plate making her just the fourth filly to win the Oaks and the Plate. But by going on to take the Prince of Wales and the Breeders' Stakes, Dance Smartly stands tall in history as the only filly to sweep