Page 12 - March 2017 Thoroughbred Highlight

A Family Day Lesson in Horse Racing History
Spending a day at Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton on the February Family Day weekend led to the discovery of a piece of horse racing history that still has ties to racing today.
Walking through the Hendrie Gardens at RBG we happened upon the headstone of Martimas
and upon further exploring it was revealed
that we were actually standing on the former Hendrie’s Valley Farm. In the spirit of celebrating the 250th Anniversary of Horse Racing in Canada I was excited to learn more about the history of the Hendrie farm and horse that is interned there.
Martimas Headstone in Hendrie Garden at Royal Botanical Gardens is inscribed with the words “Dumb creatures we have cherished here below shall give us joyous greeting when we pass the golden gate sit folly that I hope it may be so” Whyte - Melville
Owned by William Hendrie, Martimas is the rst stallion listed in Volume 1 of the Canadian Thoroughbred Stud Book which was published by The Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society in 1914. Martimas sired King’s Plate winners Kelvin and Shimonese.
Thoroughbred Highlight - Page 12 - March 2017