Page 10 - November 2016 Thoroughbred Highlight

He’s the Cat’s Meow at Woodbine
Is there a certain level of popularity when one can of cially be given celebrity status?
When you have fans sending gifts from North Carolina and New York or fans dropping by with fancy bow-ties, decorative collars, treats and catnip.....yes I said catnip.....I would have to say that Gator, the personable Woodbine barn cat, is a celebrity.
Sarah Ritchie is responsible for the musings of Gator, a two year old neutered male cat who under the handle @Gatorkitten Woodbine’s resident handicatter, has compiled a Twitter following of close to 1500. Gator sends out tweets almost daily such as:
Born in Toronto, Sarah has been working at Woodbine for more than 11 years, the past six of her seven years with trainer Mark Frostad as his Assistant.
When she was ten, Sarah’s family moved
to Beeton, Ontario which is where she began riding and competing in hunter and eventing on
a Thoroughbred cross horse. Sarah went to school for travel and tourism and was working in the industry until the agency where she worked closed down. A friend was exercising horses at Woodbine and suggested that Sarah could groom horses at Woodbine temporarily while she looked for a new job. Sarah never left.
Today she lives in Brampton with her boyfriend of 9 years, Victor James, a groom for Josie Carroll who rubbed Champion Inglorious as well as multiple stakes winner Amis Gizmo. Both usually travel with
the horses to Florida for the winter months which is where Sarah was given Gator.
A kitten had been
left behind at Calder
Raceway when
Calder shut down
a portion of the
backstretch during
the Gulfstream
West race meet late
last year. Sarah
was working for
Mark Frostad at Palm Meadows and a friend
was looking for someone to take the hungry, abandoned kitten. “He must have been feral at one point due to his clipped ear,” said Sarah, “But someone must have been feeding him at Calder because he wasn’t afraid of people.” By January of this year the newly named Gator was settling in to his new life with Sarah.
Sarah immediately realized that her new kitten had quite the personality and his hijinks prompted her to start posting photos of his
Besides his fame on social media, Gator has been talked about on TVG, Woodbine and Talkin’ Horses Broadcasts and has now been interviewed for a feature in the Toronto Star.
Thoroughbred Highlight - Page 10 - November 2016