Page 20 - The Game April 2006

20 The Game, April 2006 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Enjoying unnaturally mild weather for Thoroughbred Horse Tour since 1976 and their farm, with 38 stalls, is
the middle of March, four facilities in King Township welcomed more than 400 visitors to the Schomberg Agricultural Society's Thoroughbred Farm Tour on Saturday March 11.
Map in hand, I started my tour at gorgeous Schonberg Farm, owned by Gus and Ann Schickedanz. The Schonberg Farm, located just south of the 17th side Road on Highway 27 is a luxurious 350 acres. Farm manager Lauri Kenny, 57 has been running the show for 21 years.
"We have at our peak, in the summer time, 80 plus horses here," he tells me, "We keep 12-15 at the racetrack in training all the time. Mike Keogh has been our trainer for 11 years."
Gus Schickedanz' commitment to the racing game has created some exciting thoroughbreds in recent years.
"Since Mr. Schickedanz started, there's been over 200 foals produced here," informs Kenny, as he rattles off impressive numbers, "204 winners, 41 stakes winners and 21 stakes-placed horses. We bred Kentucky Oaks winner Gal in a Ruckus - she won it 1995. Langfuhr won the Met mile, the Carter, the Vosberg. Wando won the Canadian Triple Crown. Woodcarver won the Queen’s Plate. Mobil made about $2million."
For the visitors, it's all about seeing the horses. I caught ten-year-old twins Victoria and Bronwyn Brown nuzzling up to the friendly mare Princess Ruckus.
"This is awesome," said a beaming Victoria.
"I love looking at the babies," smiled Bronwyn, gesturing inside the fence at a six-week old colt that had no intention of leaving Princess Ruckus' side.
I followed a few dozen visitors as they walked through the barns and petted horses in their stalls. On one of the walls, a framed presentation practically took my breath away. Neatly assembled in a line are the halters of three famous Canadian horses. The brass plates say Danzig, Langfuhr and Wando.
I felt like Roger Clemens who, before every game at Yankee Stadium, would lightly touch the statues of famous ball-players in the outfield. I brushed my fingers over the halters and felt a chill shoot up my spine.
The second stop on the tour was Fieldstone Farm, owned by Ronald and Ana Delmas and their daughter Analisa. Fieldstone is a mile or so west of Highway 27 on the 17th side road.
Analisa was doing a great job as tour guide, explaining the business to about 20 horse lovers gathered around her.
"This farm is 100 acres," she tells her audience, "We've been here for 35 years and we are exclusively thoroughbred. The majority of our horses have been home- bred. We had our own stallion Compadre standing here. Probably one of best ones would be Kabul. She's won in excess of $700,000. Last year we had our first successful stakes winner at Woodbine - Le Grand Marilyn - that was the South Ocean at the end of the season.
The Delmas family was delighted to have visitors flocking by the carload to
By Peter Gross
presently home to 7 broodmares, 8 yearlings and 16 other horses. Tino was at Woodbine tending to the horse he's training at Woodbine, but his always- smiling wife Carmen was pleased at the turnout.
"It's been very good, said Carmen, "They were coming 15 and 20 at a time. "We've been showing them the horses, the mares and the babies and we're enjoying ourselves."
Carmen told me the farm was down to about 20 horses right now, with many others getting fit down at Woodbine. Inside the stall, she makes a point of steering me to a corner stall where a mare and her tiny colt are staring curiously at their on-lookers.
"This mare is Miss Glitterman," says Carmen, "The colt is by Milwaukee Brew, one of Tino's favourites."
Attard trained Milwaukee Brew during his three-year-old season. Under Attard, Milwaukee Brew won four straight races, including the Marine Stakes and the Ohio Derby. American Bobby Frankel trained Brew to consecutive wins in the Santa Anita Handicap in the horse's 5th and 6th years. Milwaukee Brew won 8 of 24 starts and accumulated $2,872,612 in purse winnings.
Naturally the Attards hope the little colt has some of his daddy's speed and stamina. For me, the participation on the Schomberg Agricultural Society's Horse Farm Tour was three hours of getting close and personal to race-horses without the necessity of placing a bet. Seeing the mares and their foals in their natural environment, it sure was easy to understand the allure, and to appreciate the tremendous expense and hard work that some people are
prepared to invest in these animals.
Don't quite know who came up with the idea for a Thoroughbred Horse Farm Tour, but whoever it was deserves credit for a
lovely idea.
Mayor Black and a black mare
Photo Right: It was a beautiful day for visitors to Schonberg Farm
Twins Victoria and Bronwyn Brown were thrilled to meet the
new foals at Schonberg Farm
their facilities. Analisa thinks this is the perfect way to get a primer on the sport.
"They're seeing all the livestock - the different age groups like the foals and the yearlings all the way up to the racers and the mares," she says, "They're seeing how you put together an operation as far as the facilities; the hot-walker, the trailer and the starting gate. We're showing how the barns are set up even right down to basic things like the automatic watering bowls."
From Fieldstone Farm, I shoot up the 11th concession to Wendover Stables, purchased just last year by Eric and Marion MacDonald. Wendover has one unique set-up that most of the visitors have never seen.
It's called an Equisizer. About 400 feet in circumference, it's a closed-in arena or walking ring structure. It has separate moving stalls that cue the horses to move in a counter-clockwise direction. Farm manager Paul O'Sullivan says the Equisizer is a valuable asset to a large farm operation.
"It's like a treadmill for a horse," says O'Sullivan, "We train them in individual stalls and set the speed dials, so we can jog them in there, walk them in there, even gallop them in there."
By this time it was just past noon and dozens of people, coats open under the bright sunlight were strolling around the 55 acres at Wendover. The Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association had
Carmen Attard and mare Miss Glitterman
generously provided free souvenir toques, which were eagerly scooped up, though no one actually needed to wear one.
King Township Mayor Margaret Black was having as good a time as anybody as she moved from farm to farm.
"It's extraordinary how many horses there are in York," said her Worship, "and it's so generous of these owners to open up their farms to us. I'm a farmer's daughter from King and you really appreciate how important the horses are to our society and our economy."
The Mayor and a mare made for a lovely picture for The Game and Black then told me that since her constituency has at least 34 thoroughbred breeding operations, she wants to have King Township more strongly identified with its horse racing status.
"I want to have it as a brand for King," she says proudly, "that we should be known as the Kentucky of the North."
The facts and figures seem to support Mayor Black. A recent study indicated that there are over 20,000 horses in the Region of York alone. With some 3300 horse owners and capital investment around $500,000,000, this area of Ontario has an extraordinary commitment to the equine industry.
The last stop on the Thoroughbred Farm Tour was Tino Attard's Green Meadow Farm at the corner of the 15th side road and fourth line. The Attards have been here
Peter Gross getting some needed help figuring out the Daily Double
Three famous halters of the family line at Schonberg Farm - Danzig, Langfuhr and Wando