Page 12 - June 2009 The Game

12 The Game, June 2009
The One Hundredth Queen’s Plate By Gary Poole
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
behind one signi cant offspring that would ensure his name would live on in pedigrees for years to come.
His daughter South Ocean, born in 1967, won the 1970 Canadian Oaks at the direct expense of the great lly Fanfreluche. That effort earned her a mating with Northern Dancer and she was bred to the great stallion more than once. In fact every one of her twelve named foals was sired either by the Dancer or one of his descendants. Her rst daughter was the exceptional lly Northernette, a gallant second to the boys in the 1977 Plate.
South Ocean’s 1978 Northern Dancer colt, Storm Bird, a champion in England and Ireland, became
a top level stallion, siring horses like Preakness
winner Summer Squall and the outstanding lly
Indian Skimmer. By far his most signi cant offspring in the long haul was his son Storm Cat, one of the
most important sires worldwide in the late twentieth and early twenty rst centuries. He has acquired the relatively unique distinction of being a sire of sires and is achieving the even rarer feat of becoming a sire of the sire of sires. His name is found in the best pedigrees everywhere and therefore so is that of New Providence.
That’s not bad for the winner of a race better known at the time for the panoply surrounding it and the person making the presentation. However that’s quite in keeping with Plate tradition as despite the restrictive nature of the race (open only to Canadian foals) it has had an impact far beyond what its conditions would suggest. The one hundredth edition was no exception to the rule.
As we celebrate the one hundred and ftieth renewal of the Queen’s Plate, the oldest continuously run
race on the North American continent, it might be a good time to look back at the even more signi cant centennial edition which took place in 1959.
For that particular running the prime focus was not so much on the horses but rather the special guest as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 was in attendance
to make the presentation. Toronto’s population then was mostly of British descent and the monarchy and especially the current sovereign were wildly popular. E. P. Taylor, very much the dominant force in the Ontario Jockey Club, was the host to royalty that afternoon. He also would be the somewhat unexpected recipient of the race trophy in the Woodbine winner’s circle. The magni cent new track that Mr. Taylor had built in the then wilds of Etobicoke, was in just its fourth year of operation.
A Kentucky Derby sized eld of twenty went to
the post as nearly every owner of a Canadian foaled sophomore with or without a reasonable hope, wanted to exercise whatever faint chance she/he had of receiving the signature bag of fty guineas from the beautiful young queen. Surprisingly in such a bulky eld there was an odds on favorite, Mr. John Evans’ Winning Shot. The colt, a fast winner of the Plate Trial, was ridden by Avelino Gomez, the amboyant, iconic rider whose statue now greets visitors to Woodbine.
Gomez was absolutely certain of victory and he kept his con dence a secret from no one. As often happens such premature assumptions of success came to naught and the Senor’s mount had to settle for third after
making up a ton of ground in the mid stages.
The winning horse was Taylor’s homebred colt New
Providence, named for an area in the Bahamas where E.P. maintained a winter home. The three year old
was a son of Bull Page, a stallion with Calumet Farm connections that Taylor had imported from the U.S. He would go on to much loftier heights as the sire of the great lly Flaming Page, also a Plate winner (1962). She foaled Nijinsky, the one and only English Triple Crown winner from the mid 1930s to the present day who also achieved great international fame as a stallion. New Providence’s dam Fair Colleen would also leave her mark in breeding as the fourth dam of Canadian Triple Crown winner Wando.
New Providence was ridden in the race by top American rider Bobby Ussery whose skills played a big part in the victory. He made a decisive move with his charge on the backstretch, opened up a commanding lead but kept enough in reserve to hold off the hard charging Major Flight from the ever dangerous Conn Smythe stable. New Providence later become the rst of cial winner of the Canadian Triple Crown, capturing after the Plate the Prince of Wales and then the Breeders Stakes. Overall he was considered a good but not great horse by Canadian standards of the time. However
in the racing world at large he was regarded as just a ‘provincial’ horse, no pun intended.
At stud New Providence stood in the shadows of younger more accomplished Taylor stallions such
as U.S. classics placed Victoria Park and of course
the legendary Northern Dancer. He had a solid but unspectacular stud career for the most part but did leave
Trainer Nick Gonzalez - “We’re feeding 65 horses a day at Woodbine & Fort Erie. This is our fourth year using Pro Sport and Phase 3 and since starting on the feed we have been doing good over that span & even better each year. We’re going to stay on the feed. All of the horses are happy campers.”
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Carl Norman Anderson wins 1,000th race
Alacazar’s win on May 20 at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba was the 1000th win for trainer Carl Norman Anderson.
Marquis Downs Derby
Deputy Country winning the 2004
Carl has been training since 1977, and has purse earnings of $4,071,007 which includes 127 stakes wins. He won his rst stakes race with Foncier in the 1979
Breeders’ Gold Cup Stakes at Assiniboia was one of his biggest wins as well as Albarino winning four stakes races at Assiniboia, including the 2005 running of the same race.
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That Jockey Gary Boulanger, a former Woodbine jockey, and three- time leading rider at Calder Race Course in Florida, made his debut as a trainer in the 11th race on April 26 at Calder. His trainee Tinkerbuck nished second in the race.
Gary was forced to retire from race riding in 2005 after suffering , very serious injuries in a spill ay Gulfstream Park.
He had originally taken out his trainer’s license in 2007 however a farm accident in late that year prevented him from becoming a full-time trainer until now. He spent the last year teaching riding lessons in Davie, Florida.
Did You Know....
That the Breeders’ Cup Ltd. trophy will be made of hand blown crystal, replacing the traditional Ecorche horse design.
Steuben Glass of New York, a division of Schottenstein Luxury Group (since 1903). The customized trophies are presented to winning Breeders’ Cup breeders, trainers and jockeys. The winner owner of each “Win and You’re In” quali er will also receive a crystal Breeders’ Cup Challenge ticket.
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