Page 10 - June 2008 The Game

10 The Game, June 2008
Trainer Desruisseaux off to a fast start at the Fort
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
BAy Harlan Abbey
s a youngster, Cathy Carter showed hunters from her father’s “hobby farm.”
She met Allen Desruisseaux in high school and
“When I claim a horse I’m not necessarily trying to improve him (up the claiming ladder), but just maintain him being competitive at the same level,” Desruisseaux said. “But I buy the best bred yearlings I can for the money I’ve got, and I especially like to buy from Gardiner Farms. Last year we had three two-year-olds: two ran and one won. Getting two of the three to the races is doing good.”
after they were married and the question of horse ownership arose, he declared “If we have a horse, it should be one that makes money.” Horse show ribbons wouldn’t put food on the table or provide other necessities for a young couple starting out in life..
For more than 20 years, Desruisseaux helped whichever trainer was racing their horses, in addition to working at other jobs (including rais- ing 1,000 pigs at a time). Cathy, a self-taught artist, specializing in dog and horse portraits, helps out early in the morning before leaving for her job as Fort Erie’s entry clerk.
“We lived next door to the farm of trainer Lawrence Langley (‘I used to baby-sit his daughter Laurie, who’s now a pony girl at Fort Erie’)” Cathy recalled. “I galloped his horses on the farm and at the track and he helped us with our rst horse.”
(left to right) Groom Carrie McDonough, Exercise rider Sarah Collicutt,Tough Cinelle, and trainer Allen Desruisseaux
Allen explained that Dance To Music cost the young couple only $500 because she was abandoned at a nearby stable after running up an unpaid board bill. He added: “In her rst start for us I bet $100 to win on her. She won and we sold her right after the race for $2,000 as a broodmare. That, coupled with our purse winnings and my winning bet paid for all the furniture for our rst apartment. I don’t bet more than $5 or $10 on one of my horses nowadays.”
Dan Taylor trained for them the last several years and last year Allen (who became an assistant trainer in 2004) felt he had enough nancial security to work at the track full-time. He passed the head trainer’s exam and this year got off to a great start by nishing second in the rst race of the 2008 Fort Erie season with Belle of the Brawl, then winning the seventh race on opening day with Better Than Bitter, who had broken her maiden at Woodbine. Just Fine, owned by Hugh Blackmore, won on the meet’s second day and Tough Cinelle won the next week -- and, as the great Damon Runyon used to write: “A story goes with it.”
paid $200 for the gray scrawny weanling and Davies bought two others. “Norm has a two horse trailer and we put all three of them in -- and had room for three more, that’s how thin they were,” he remembers.
The young couple’s luck continued. They bought Gusty Dance, who was running at Finger Lakes for trainer Max Bidner, and he won three races. Amber Bearing, a gift, didn’t win, but made enough purse money to allow them to claim another horse. Miss Frenchie won ve races and, with Pattitakesthecake, became the couple’s two broodmares. They have a couple of two-year-olds and a couple of yearlings out of their mares however they now prefer to buy yearlings with better long-term potential.
Tough Cinelle was a weanling when the SPCA con scated a group of neglected/starved mares and foals at a farm near Toronto. The horses later were auctioned off, but even after SPCA care many were far from being in proper condition.
Other horses in the barn include D’Wild Knight, a three-year-old; Fantom Executive; Matty Gazoo, a maiden; Trajectory Mist, a three-year-old who made her rst lifetime start in a stakes (for another trainer); and Just Fine, owned by Centennial Farm.
Not all the foals received bids and after- wards SPCA of cials begged horsemen
“I’d never like to have too big a stable,” Desruisseaux said, “just have horses with more ability. The hardest part of racing is getting good help, and I’ve been very lucky with Carrie and Lisa McDonough and Sarah Collicutt.”
in attendance to buy the left-overs, rather than having to send them to a slaugh- ter house. Desruisseaux was at the sale with his fellow trainer, Norm Davies. He
Allen Desruisseaux is currently ranked third in the trainer standings at Fort Erie with 4 wins, 2 seconds, and 1 third in 12 starts with purse earnings of $29,587. (Figures as of May 26)
Tough Cinelle lived up to her name, Now a four- year-old, she’s nearly 17 hands high, and is Cathy’s favorite, “She’s beautiful and sweet and I ride her
at home. She’s so quiet I even used her as a ‘pony’ when we broke the yearlings. I think she’s grateful.”
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Best of the Bests out of Imperial Miss (Imperial Falcon) 2 days old
- March 20/08 Chestnut colt by Strut the Stage - Shining Night (Ascot Knight) mare back to Weather Warning
- April 10 Bay colt by Best of the Bests - Nykee (Ascot Knight) mare back to Niigon
- April 14/08 Bay lly by Jump Start - Yukon Lady (Saint Ballado) mare back to Teu esberg - May 8/08 Chestnut colt by Best of the Bests - Imperial Miss (Imperial Falcon) mare back to Weather Warning
Jump Start out ofYukon Lady (Saint Ballado), 3 days old
Strut the Stage out of Shining Night (Ascot Knight), 3 days old
Longview Farm Foaling Report 2008
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