Page 8 - December 2005 The Game
P. 8

8 The Game, December 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Bear Stable: On the Prowl for Stakes Purses
2-year-old Bear Character winning the $132,750 Swynford Stakes on Sept. 25 at Woodbine with jockey Jim McAleney
Michael Burns photo - courtesy of WEG
By Peter Gross
45 year-old Danny Dion is not a man you would accuse of doing things just halfway. It was six years ago he decided to get into the thoroughbred game and there was nothing shy about his first buy.
"A friend of mine had a racehorse and
we were drinking one night and I ended up buying the horse in the bar," says Dion, who moved out west 25 years ago after being raised in Quebec, "I gave him $5000 in cash that night and $2000 the next day. The horse's name was In Pursuit and I still am."
In Pursuit was a low level claimer running for Dion in Alberta and though it didn't make him a rich man, it was the start of what Dion calls a passion.
Two years after his first purchase, Dion bought a horse at a sale.
"It was supposed to be for my wife, Gwen, and she named the horse Bear's Little Angel," he recalls, and that was, essentially, the beginnings of Bear Stable. Danny Dion spent many years as a logger in the bush and says his nickname is Bear because, "I growl like one and I work like one." And now most of his horses, one way or another, have the owner's pet name.
In 2002, Bear's Little Angel gave the Dions a taste of the upper end of the racing game, winning a $60,000 stakes race at Northlands Park in Alberta. Danny wanted more of that and from every subsequent success he would simply take the winnings and buy more horses.
"The last two years I have been in the claiming game," says Dion, "I've probably claimed 30-35 horses. We've been running at Stampede Park in the spring, then Northlands Park in summer and fall."
But claimers are not the long-range game plan for Bear Stable. Right now, Dion has nine horses at Woodbine and all of them were purchased as yearlings or two-year-olds in training. Two of the Bear Stable horses made some big foot-prints within a seven-day span at Woodbine this year.
Bear's Kid shocked the bettors on September 18th, by winning the Summer Stakes at a mile on the grass for 2 year - olds and paying $33.10. Dion was probably less surprised than most about
this score.
"Bear's Kid -
he's a big horse and we don't have the turf access out west," explains Dion, "We thought he'd be better on the turf and that turned outtobeagood decision."
Sure did. The
Summer Stakes
had a winner's
share of $170,000.
Exactly a week later, Bear Stable scored another upset when Bear Character captured the $132,750 Swynford Stakes. Dion was scratching his head over the payoff in that event as well.
"We paid $15 to win," he exclaims, "Even though there were only 4 horses in the race!"
Apparently Dion is getting the message from environmentalists; the money from those two stakes races was immediately recycled into the game. Bear Stable plunked down $250,000 for four yearlings at the Kentucky Auction Sale. Pouring his proceeds back into the sport makes economical sense to Dion.
"I started as a hobby and now I'm making a business out of it. You can't go into this business just halfway. You've got to go all the way or don't do it."
Dion believes the best way to win races is to have horses of strong breeding and put them in the hands of talented trainers and jockeys. Of the nine horses he had running late in the season at Woodbine, Bear Character is a Dixie Union colt by a Forty Niner mare, Bear Kittycat is a Cat Thief filly, Bear’s Kid is a son of Lemon Drop Kid and Bear Attitude was sired by Aptitude.
Three of his horses in Toronto are trained by Northlands based Dale Greenwood, but
Dion has engaged Reade Baker for six others. And when you work with Reade Baker, jockey Jim McAleney is usually your first pick to ride.
"He's from Fort St. John, B.C., so being from the west makes me like him," jokes Dion, "He's a good jockey and a great guy." Dion probably felt that way about McAleney even before he steered the Bear Stable to the Summer and Swynford Stakes wins, but trust us, Jimmy Mac can have his pick of the Bear Stable runners.
Dion is not at all shy about tackling the best horses on the continent. The day before this year's Breeders' Stakes, Dion had Bear Character entered against some of the best two-year-olds in the prestigious Nashua Stakes at Belmont and Dion says the circumstances of the day conspired against his colt.
"New York racetracks make you go to a test barn, so six hours prior to the race you have to change barns," says Dion, "When I took Bear Character from the barn, he thought he was going to race. Then he got all sweaty and on top of that they were in the starting gate for six minutes."
Bear Character was a well-beaten 7th in the Nashua, but Woodbine bettors would be wise to carefully consider every Bear Stable horse that shows up. On Friday November 11th, the two-year-old.........
CONTINUED PAGE 10 - SEE BEAR STABLE
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