Page 33 - August/September 2008 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Windfields Farm, Agent 2008 Yearlings
Hip No. 79 is a Chestnut Colt by One Way Love - Sinhouse,
by Deposit Ticket. This is the second foal out of dam from the family of Parental Pressure. This colt’s full brother is a yet to race 2-year-old, Sinful Love.
Hip No. 118 Chestnut Colt by One Way Love - Wooden Ships, by Archers Bay.This is the rst foal out of a dam who is a full sister to Multiple Stakes winner Questuary.
Hip No. 83, Dark Bay or Brown Filly by One Way Love - So Say all of Us, by Gold Meridian. This lly is out of a dam of 7 foals to race with 6 winners
including Stakes Placed Dr. Gold ($209,235).
The Game, August/September 2008 33
‘Big Brown’s heart not broken’ -- Belhumeur By Harlan Abbey Julie Belhumeur began showing horses at age 12 in Quebec, but when the
speed of barrel and relay racing took hold, she decided to come to Ontario
and become a jockey.
Julie with Sea Rider, owned by Pierre Major
After galloping for more than a year at Fort Erie for Nick Gonzalez and
Ed Freeman and breaking babies in Florida for Barbara Minshall, “I found
that the jockey doesn’t really get to know the horse, doesn’t get to make
suggestions regarding the horse’s training, and I decided that training would
be a better goal,” she said recently at her stable at Fort Erie, which contains
11 Thoroughbreds and her former Western pleasure Quarter Horse Stricker
Wild N Free, now her pony.
Belhumeur passed her trainer’s test late in 2006 and last year trained just
two horses: “No wins, but a lot of seconds.” By mid-July of this season, her horses had three wins, ve seconds, three thirds and a number of fourths in 24 starts. She owns two horses outright, one (Bernaise) in partnership with Benoit Roch, a groom for Gonzalez, and the rest are owned by residents of Quebec.
Her winners so far are Pretty Peso, a four-year-old mare who prefers ve furlongs and loves the turf; Sea Rider, “who I broke when I worked for Barb Minshall in Florida;
he has a big heart;” and Athenais, whom she claimed from Scott
Fairlie.
“I ride the horses I train at least once,” she said, “to get the
feel of them. I think that’s important. I regularly gallop the
ones I won’t get in trouble with,” she added, continuing: “With
Thoroughbreds, you gallop them a mile and a half or two miles,
and if something needs correcting you can’t do anything about it
until the next day. With show horses, you stay on them until the
problem is solved.
“I love the way Eddie Robinson rides, he gets every horse quiet
and relaxed. Martin Ramirez is the same, but he’s often riding
at Woodbine. Sunny Singh usually rides Athenais. It’s important
that the jockey gets along with the horse.”
Belhumeur says the best horses she rode for Gonzalez in the
morning were Benz Boy and Tap Show but the best one she’s
worked with was Kentucky Derby-Preakness winner Big Brown:
“We had him at Eddie Woods’ farm in Florida after he was
broken. Unfortunately, that was after I had quit galloping so I
never rode him. But at that time he had a skin disease so I gave
him a lot of extra attention. He was nice to work around, he
enjoyed what he was doing and wouldn’t try to bite you or jump
around.
“But I would never claim that I knew
he’d win such big races. All the horses
there were of top quality and he wasn’t a
stand-out by any means.”
Despite Big Brown’s disaster in the
Belmont Stakes, Belhumeur believes
that “if he gets xed,” meaning the horse
continues to train as he did before the
Derby and Preakness, and returns to the
races, “he’ll be what he was. He has a big
heart... I don’t think it was broken.”
Regarding her ambitions as a trainer,
she stated: “To win with every horse I’m
training, and to hit the board every time
we run.”
Our New Website Launches Mid-October www.thejocksroom.com
Drop by the store or check us out on-line for all your Trainer, Jockey
or Exercise Rider equipment:
• Clothing • Boots • Gloves • Jackets •SafetyVests •Saddles•Bridles
For all your galloping needs
• Crops • Stall Plaques • Saddle Towels w w w • . I t c he B e o j o o t s c & k Ms u r c o h o M mo r e . ! c o m
thejocksroom What Winners Wear
Woodbine Backstretch Store
416-674-3865 or 416-399-4552
Hours: Mon - Sat 9:30am - 1:30 pm
2 Locations
GAIL WOOD
P.O. Box 164, Hillsburgh, ON N0B 1Z0 519-855-4915 www.woodlandsfarm.com
Broodmare Farm: • Boarding
• Lay-Ups
• Broodmare Care
• Foaling
Training Farm: • Sales Prep/
Representation • Bloodstock
Consultation • Training
Little anch EQUINE
TREADMILL POOL
Designed to rehabilitate, condition & prevent injuries while giving the horse an enjoyable experience. For more information call:
403.990.0537
Now Offering Winter Layup with the option of
Swim Therapy
Stacie Chisholm 4 km north of the Carstairs exit
on the east side of the #2 highway. Didsbury, Alberta, Canada littlesranch.com
The Game AUGUST 2008.indd 33
7/29/08 4:08:17 AM