2-YEAR-OLD PAYMENTS DUE MAY 15

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1 2-YEAR-OLD PAYMENTS DUE MAY 15 PREVIOUS PAYMENTS MUST HAVE BEEN MADE TO BE ELIGIBLE. BREEDERS CROWN No. 24 To race Saturday, October 9, at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs Elimination heats, if necessary, will be raced Friday, October 1 -$600 - Entrance Fee: $5,000 FOX STAKE NO. 84 -$450- Open. To be raced Friday, August 20, at the Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis, IN One heat only. Entrance Fee: $1,200 THE RALPH WILFONG NO. 73 Formerly the Horseman Stake -$400- Open. To be raced Friday, August 20, at the Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis, IN One heat only. Entrance Fee: $600 HOOSIER STAKE NO Year-Old Pacing & Trotting Colts & Fillies -$100- To be raced Friday, August 20, at the Indiana State Fair, Indianapolis, IN Entrance Fee: $200 KENTUCKIANA STALLION MANAGEMENT PACE 2-Year-Old Filly Pace $200,000 Est. in $400- To race Saturday, September 25, at Indiana Downs NOTICE: USTA Rule 11, Section 3 provides, Failure to make any payment required by the conditions constitutes an automatic withdrawal from the event. The Hambletonian Society will construe payment of nominating and sustaining fees to require that cash or check duly honored upon presentation to be received at the time specified in USTA Rule 12, Section 4. If a check is not duly honored upon presentation, the horse becomes ineligible to race, or if it races, to participate in the purse. KENTUCKIANA STALLION MANAGEMENT TROT 2-Year-Old Filly Trot $200,000 Est. in $400- To race Tuesday, August 24, at Indiana Downs MATRON SERIES 2010 Early Closing Event for 2-year-olds $915,501 Total 3-Year-Old Purses In $500- To be raced at Dover Downs 2-year-old Colt & Gelding Trot on Saturday, November 13 2-year-old Filly Trot on Saturday, November 13 2-year-old Colt & Gelding Pace on Saturday, November 13 2-year-old Filly Pace on Saturday, November 13 Eliminations, if necessary, for the above races will be conducted the previous week Entrance Fee: $1,000 TESTING WAIVER AND CONSENT: As a condition of participation in the 2010 Breeders Crown, which are private events owned by the Hambletonian Society, Inc., the owners of all horses declared to start will grant to the Hambletonian Society the absolute right and authority to: 1.Conduct one or more physical examinations of their declared horse at any time prior to the Breeders Crown, regardless of where it is stabled; 2. Draw blood and collect other specimens one or more times from the horse for immediate testing; 3. Freeze or otherwise preserve split-samples of the specimens for future testing and send such samples to a laboratory designated by the Society and; 4. Require, at the sole discretion of the Hambletonian Society, the horse to stable on the grounds of the track where the Breeders Crown is being contested or other designated premises for a reasonable period of time prior to the Breeders Crown which will be specified by the Society. After declaration and until the day of the Breeders Crown, the detection of evidence of blood doping agents including, but not limited to, the following: human recombinant erthropoietin, darbepoetin, Aranesp, Oxyglobin, or Hemopure, in the horse shall be considered a violation of the conditions of the race and will result in scratching or disqualification of the horse from the Breeders Crown and forfeiture of the Starting Fee. For more information including the complete conditions consult the USTA Stakes Guide, or contact the Hambletonian Society. Complete conditions for these races are available in the USTA Stakes Supplement Guide or call the Hambletonian Society. Payment forms for early-closing events available from The Hambletonian Society and in PDF format at Make checks payable and send all entries to: THE HAMBLETONIAN SOCIETY 109 South Main Street, Suite 18, Cranbury, NJ (609) Fax: (609) Questions? callie@hambletonian.org

2 IMPORTANT NOTICE TO BREEDERS The Breeders Crown No. 25 Yearling Payment of $ for foals of 2009 is due on May 15, This payment makes yearlings by the following stallions eligible to race in the Breeders Crown as 2-year-olds in 2011 and 3-year-olds in 2012, subject to the conditions and payments in those years. A J'S TYCOON ACES UP ALLAMERICAN INGOT ALLAMERICAN MERLIN ALLAMERICAN NATIVE ALLSTAR HALL AMERICAN IDEAL AMERICAN MIKE AMERICAN WINNER AMIGO HALL ANDOVER HALL ANGUS HALL ARMBRO DEUCE ART MAJOR ARTISCAPE ARTSTANDING AS PROMISED ASHLEE S BIG GUY B J'S MAC B J'S SUPER STAR BADLANDS HANOVER BETTOR'S DELIGHT BLISSFUL HALL BROADWAY HALL C J'S SECRET C R COMMANDO C R EXCALIBUR C R RENEGADE CAMBEST CAMCRACKER CAMLUCK CAMOTION CAM'S CARD SHARK CANTAB HALL CASH HALL CHARLEY BARLEY CHIP CHIP HOORAY CHIVA'S MERIT CHOCOLATIER CLASSIC PHOTO CONWAY HALL CREDIT WINNER CURRENT CAST Stallion Nominations For Breeders Crown No. 25 DON BOSS VITA DONATO HANOVER DR NO DRAGON AGAIN DREAM AWAY DROPPIN'THEHAMMER DUKE OF YORK E DEE'S CAM ELECTRIC STENA EQUINOX BI EXPRESS IT FAME N FORTUNE FAST PHOTO FEELIN FRISKIE FORTUNA WINNER FOUR STARZZZ SHARK FOX VALLEY BARZGAR FROM ABOVE GARTH VADER GIANT HIT GLIDEMASTER GOLIATH BAYAMA GRINFROMEARTOEAR HERE COMES HERBIE HOLY GUACAMOLIE I AM A FOOL IN CONCHNITO INCREDIBLE FINALE IN-DIX-HUIT INFINITIF INTERNATIONAL CHIP INTREPID SEELSTER ISLAND FANTASY JAILHOUSE JESSE JATE LOBELL JENNA S BEACH BOY JEREME S JET JUSTICE HALL KADABRA KEN WARKENTIN LIFE SIGN LIKE A PRAYER LIS MARA MACH THREE MAC'S CROWN K MAJESTIC SON MALABAR AQUA MALABAR MAN MALABAR MILLENIUM MANTACULAR MASTER GLIDE MATT'S SCOOTER MCARDLE METROPOLITAN MILLION DOLLAR CAM MODERN ART MR LAVEC MUSCLES YANKEE MUTINEER NO PAN INTENDED NORTHERN KID OAKLEA JULIAN OUTRYT ABILITY P FORTY SEVEN PANPACIFICFLIGHT PEARSALL HANOVER PEGASUS SPUR PERUVIAN HANOVER PLEASURE AND POWER PLESAC POLITICAL BRIEFING PONDER POWERFUL TOY PRO BONO BEST QUICK PULSE MINDALE RAFFAELLO AMBROSIO R C ROYALTY REAL ARTIST REAL DESIRE RED RIVER HANOVER REVENUE S RICHESS HANOVER RIVERBOAT KING ROCKNROLL HANOVER ROCKY BALBOA RODDY S BAGS AGAIN ROYAL ART ROYAL MATTJESTY RUSTLER HANOVER S J'S CAVIAR SAGEBRUSH SAND VIC SHANGHAI PHIL SHARK GESTURE SHOTGUN SCOTT SIERRA KOSMOS SIR LUCK SOUTHFORK SPORTSMASTER SQUAW S FELLA STAR CHALLENGE STONEBRIDGE REGAL STRIKING SAHBRA SUPER PLEASURE TAGLIABUE TAURUS DREAM TEJANO TELL ALL THE PANDEROSA THREE OLIVES THUNDER ROAD TOM RIDGE TOTALLY WESTERN VALLEY VICTOR VAPORIZE VARENNE VIKING KRONOS VILLAGE JOLT VILLAGE JOVE WESTERN CYCLONE WESTERN IDEAL WESTERN MAVERICK WESTERN TERROR WHELAN WILLIE WINDSONG'S LEGACY YANKEE CRUISER YANKEE GLIDE YANKEE SKYSCAPER The above list is subject to omissions and corrections. Foals of 2009 by the above stallions will be eligible to the open division (for 3-year-olds and older) of the Breeders Crown in 2012 and to the Breeders Crown open division in subsequent years upon payment of the advertised fees for the specific year s open event. Owners of eligible 3-year-olds will have the option of entering either or both the 3-year-old and the open event by making the 3-year-old payment due February 15, Conditions for Breeders Crown No. 25 are available from The Hambletonian Society website: or in the 2010 U.S.T.A. Stakes/Futurities Nomination Booklet. Owned and serviced by THE HAMBLETONIAN SOCIETY, INC. For more information contact: BREEDERS CROWN at (609) Checks payable to and mail to: THE HAMBLETONIAN SOCIETY, INC 109 South Main St., Suite 18 Cranbury, New Jersey

3 Please print legibly or use the fillable pdf form available at ww.hambletonian.org THE HAMBLETONIAN SOCIETY-SERVICED SERVICED RACES Trotting & Pacing Stakes FOR FOALS OF 2009 NOMINATION ON FEES DUE May 15, 2010 NAME N OF YEARLING Y SEX SIRE S DAM (If Changed, Give Original Name Also) NOMINATE TO ALL 14 TROTTING STAKES FOR $295 NOMINATE TO ALL 15 FILLY PACING STAKES FOR $310 NOMINATE TO ALL 18 COLT PACING STAKES FOR $370 P A C I N G S T A K E S Adios... *#1003 $10 Arden Downs... #1006 $10 Breeders Crown... #1007 $100 Cane Pace... #1009 $25 Cleveland Classic... #1012 $20 Fox Stake***... ** #1026 $15 Historic Series... #1045 $15 Landmark Stakes... #1048 $10 Horseman # #1050 $15 Hoosier Cup***... #1052 $25 Hoosier Stake #75... #1053 $15 Messenger Stakes... #1058 $25 Max Hempt Memorial... #1060 $10 Progress Pace***... #1065 $20 Reynolds Memorial... #1069 $10 Art Rooney Pace... #1072 $25 John Simpson Memorial Stakes. #1073 $10 Tompkins-Geers Stake... #1075 $10 Arden Downs... # $10 T Breeders eder rs Crown... n...# $100 R Currier rier & Ives...# $10 O Dexter Cup Stakes...#1024 $25 T Hambletonian... n... #1033 $25 T Historic Series...#104 #1045 $15 I Landmark Stakes...#1048 $10 N Horseman #103...#105 #1050 $15 G Ralph Wilfong #74***...#105 #1051 $15 Hoosier osier Stake #75...# $15 S Reynolds Memorial...#106 #1069 $10 T John Simpson Memorial Stakes..#1073 $10 A Tompkins-Geers Stake...#1075 $10 K Yonkers Trot... #1081 $25 E S *Codes office fi use only *** No Separate Filly Divisions s For Added Convenience e nce You May Write ONE Check For all Your Entries PAYABLE TO AND MAIL TO: The Hambletonian Society, Inc., 109 South Main St., Suite 18, Cranbury, N.J OWNER OR AGENT: STREET: CITY, STATE, ZIP: PLEASE INDICATE IF THIS IS A CHANGE OF ADDRESS: PHONE FAX: Tel (609) Fax (609) or callie@hambletonian.org website: Supporting portin and encouraging ng the breeding of Standardbred ardb horses for over 80 years For Office fi Use Only CHECK # BATCH # DOC# PAY# NOM# TOTAL HORSE STAKE

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5 alking Their Own Path Steve and Marilyn Gillard have discovered a way to make it in the horse racing game with a nice niche for themselves and a passion for their horses. By Harold Howe When Steve Gillard s father first visited Canada during World War II for flight training he vowed to some day return because of the lack of class system and the feeling that anything was possible. Some 60 years later his son has proven his father to be correct. Steve is in the horse business. He s not a big name player yet has managed to carve out a niche for himself doing it his way. Call Me Yours is a five-year-old homebred pacing mare that he sent to New York for the winter. While she may not have run the table, she still managed to bank $75,000 through April giving her just over $300,000 lifetime. Any trainer will take a barn full of that type. Century Hill Farm is an idyllic piece of land located just west of the tiny hamlet of Hickson and minutes north of Woodstock, Ontario. Twenty-four years ago Gillard and his wife Marilyn bought the 80 acre former dairy farm and over the last two decades have put their own stamp on the place. It s never been overrun with horses and it shows which is part of the master plan. It is a remarkable accomplishment for an English sailor turned fireman turned horseman. My father finally made it back to Canada in 1956 when I was four and half years old. It came after marriage and three kids but he got here which is what he always wanted, recalls the now 58 year-old Gillard. We had family in Kitchener so this is how we came to this part of Canada. My father always held down a couple jobs. He was a musician and part of a band that might play 250 nights a year to raise the family. He was a busy guy. Son Steve was anything but busy when it came to school. I was a horrible student on purpose. My biggest effort would be to be first into class so I could get a seat by the window. When I turned 17 my father signed his approval to have me join the Canadian navy. That was the best thing that happened to me. After six years in the armed forces he felt he d achieved all he could but with no regrets. The navy taught me discipline and it allowed me to get away from home and find myself. I was in accounting which meant arranging food and parts for four ships (1,400 people) because when you re at sea you have to have everything you would need, he explains. But once you are at sea what do you do then? They decided I should be a fire fighter on the flight deck so I more or less

6 WALKING THEIR OWN PATH Photo by New Image Media fell into that career path. After six years I just could not see myself in a sailor suit until I was 35. The Kitchener-Waterloo Record newspaper had a policy of mailing its Wednesday and Saturday editions to the local boys who were part of the Canadian militia. That was where 23 year-old Steve saw that a new fire hall was opening and 27 men were needed. I had some background to me then and thought that I had a good chance to get hired and did. I was there 23 years and do not have a bad word to say about my experiences. I reached the position of station captain and really had a charmed working life. In 1999, at the age of 47, he chucked it all in for the horses. The pension fund for the firemen had grown too large and the government served notice that if it was not utilized it would be taxed. So the fund administrators lowered the retirement factor to 75 (age plus years of service) and I took it, he explains. Lots of people worried about what I was doing far more than I did. I think some worried about me making the mortgage payments on this farm more than I did. The star of the Gillard stable recently has been the five-year-old mare Call Me Yours, a daughter of their stallion Your Nemesis. She has $301,251 earned lifetime and just returned from a successful stint in New York earlier this year. They could not understand me choosing the horses over the department but that was where I wanted to be. The lure of horses is an all too familiar story in the racing game but Steve was unique in that he did not grow up in that culture. The man to blame for it all was Roger Hogan of Cornwall, Prince Edward Island, who was a shipmate in his navy days. When I was 12 I was first exposed to horses but it was western type horses. I got a chance to be at a farm doing all the grunt work of cleaning stalls but liked the social part of it. This was right up until I joined the navy. Roger loved horse racing as many Prince Edward Islanders do. Every chance he got he was off to the track with me tagging along. My first time at the track was at Sackville Downs when we were stationed in Halifax. I remember a light went on that night because they were actually competing for money rather than ribbons. The purses were only $200 to $300 but I got thinking that maybe one could get involved and have the horses pay the way. That set me to dreaming and scheming. Over those years in the navy wherever they were, Roger and Steve would seek out a local racetrack and that included Blue Bonnets Raceway, Truro Raceway and of course Charlottetown Driving Park for the Gold Cup & Saucer week. In the Maritimes everyone seemed so passionate about racing and it was easy to get caught up in it. But even then my interest was more in the breeding. I wanted to know why some horses were better than others. It was around this time (1974) that he met his wife Marilyn. Amazingly, she was from Kitchener vacationing in Halifax, her tough luck, he quips. When Steve left the service he and May 2010 The Harness Edge

7 Delaware, Ohio Grand Circuit Events Yearling Nominations Due May 15th, For Foals of Little Brown Jug & Jugette $50 Nomination Old Oaken Bucket & Buckette $25 Nomination Arnold C. Green Memorial Standardbred Series (4)...$25 Nomination Two-Year-Old Events To To Be Raced Grand Circuit Week Arnold Standardbred C. Green Colt Pace Memorial (Sponsored Standardbred by Arnold C. Green Colt Memorial) Pace....$80,000. Est. Arnold Standardbred C. Green Colt Trot Memorial (Sponsored Standardbred by Arnold C. Green Colt Memorial) Trot.....$70,000. Est. Arnold Standardbred C. Green Filly Pace Memorial (Sponsored Standardbred by Arnold C. Green Filly Memorial) Pace....$60,000. Est. Arnold Standardbred C. Green Filly Trot Memorial (Sponsored Standardbred by Arnold C. Green Filly Memorial) Trot.....$60,000. Est. Name Three-Year-Old Events To Be Raced Grand Circuit Week The Little Brown Jug 3-Year-Old Colt Pace $700,000 Est. The Jugette 3-Year-Old Filly Pace $400,000 Est. The Old Oaken Bucket 3-Year-Old Colt Trot......$125,000 Est. The Buckette 3-Year-Old Filly Trot $100,000 Est. Street City State/Prov. Zip /Postal Code Phone Horse Sire Dam Sex Gait STD Jug Jugette Bucket Buckette Make payment to: The Delaware County Fair U.S. Funds only & mail to: Tom Wright, P.O. Box 1560, Powell, Ohio Call or write for complete conditions of each event. Office (614) Conditions available online at

8 Marilyn and Steve Gillard with Your Nemesis. Marilyn relocated to Kitchener where they bought a house, a move he came to soon regret. After 10 months I was mad at myself for not thinking it through better. I knew I wanted to raise my own horses but didn t have the smarts to get started with a farm. Finally, it sunk in and somehow we managed to convince a banker to fess up with the money to buy a 22 acre property near Bright. Then we got him to give us the money to build a new barn which was amazing because in 1976 I was making the grand total of $9,000 a year as a fireman. I guess the bank must have thought we were okay because they kept giving it to us. Through word of mouth Steve and Marilyn, who is every bit as keen on the horses as her husband, began to board horses for Ontario horsemen Cliff Sheppard and Lyle MacArthur. That aside I am one of those guys who has to fail at something before I get the message and the horse business was the same. Everyone told me that I did not want to be standing a Tar Heel stallion but I knew better. That s how I came to get Bergstein Hanover who I came to love but he was not stallion material. However, it was part of the learning curve and that led to getting involved with Greystone Al. This was a son of Dallas Almahurst bred and raised by Jim and Jean Caddey of nearby Embro, Ontario. Twenty-six years ago he was a big player on the Ontario Sires Stakes scene for trainer Wayne Langille and when he could no longer race Gillard got the chance to stand the horse. That was a good experience for me because he had a bit of popularity for awhile. I think one year he served 59 mares. He had a couple stakes winners out of his first crop and we bred Midnight Motion from him and she was an OSS winner. There is nothing quite as satisfying as seeing a horse that you bred and raised go on to win a stakes event. By now the Gillards had sold their Bright farm and moved to their present location. They had investigated the property one year earlier but the asking price turned them away, for a while. We loved the setting being on a hill looking down into the valley but more importantly it s great for the horses. I m

9 The undefeated Breeders Crown champion is now a leading sire in the breed BROADWAY HALL 2, 1:56.4 ($583,762) Conway Hall - B Cor Tamgo - A Go Go Lauxmont Broadway Hall proved again in 2009 that he's one of the leading trotting sires in North America when his progeny won two Breeders Crowns, a Hambletonian Oaks, and many Grand Circuit and Sires Stakes races throughout Canada and the U.S. Leading the way:» Broadway Schooner 3, 1:53.3 ($895,130)...Hambo Oaks and Breeders Crown Champion.» Pilgrims Taj 2, 1:55.2f ($746,939)...Breeders Crown and PASS Champion while never finishing worse than second in ten starts. From only 3 crops of racing age:» Total progeny earnings over $9 million - over $5 million in 2009 alone. Broadway Schooner» 23 $100,000+ earners; 9 $250,000+ earners.» Fashion Feline 2, 1:54.3 ($321,332)...Grand Circuit winner in Lexington and PASS Champion.» $56,257 average earnings per starter. Fee: $12,000 (U.S.) 625 Street Rd., New Hope, PA (Tel) (Fax)

10 WALKING THEIR OWN PATH very convinced that it plays a role in their physical development. Gillard s next venture involved the Willow Wiper stallion Gypsys Hellion p,4,1:55.1f ($358,690). He stood the horse for five years at the farm. I didn t know a lot about the horse other than he had left a nice sort of horse in Gypper Lee (p,2,1:56f $320,250) from a shedrow breeding at Greenwood Raceway. So I called the owners and managed to lease him for five years. And I did all right from that deal too. I got two breedings a year. There were several notables from that arrangement for Gillard. Rhiannon O Rhye p,3,1:57h ($257,545) won approximately $145,000 before being sold to New Jersey interests. Ten Red p,3,1:53.4 ($68,826) and Pure Hellion p,1:57.1 ($52,903) were two more that he developed for sale and then there was Your Nemesis. Hellion never bred a large number of mares and he obviously was not a commercial horse but he suited my purposes. I had Ten Red and Pure Hellion from that first crop and knew I could not sell them at auction unless I wanted to give them away so I decided to train them myself, says Steve. I rented a couple stalls at Woodstock Raceway even though there was plenty I did not know but I was comfortable with that. Years before I d trained horses on the road so I felt I could handle it, I didn t have any problems because I m very patient. It took eight months to get them ready and if it was time to go in 2:15 I would go in 2:20 never pushing them to where they felt stressed. I m convinced so much of racing and raising horses is psychological. Then in the spring of 2000 his big break came with Your Nemesis. He was another by Gypsys Hellion and almost immediately Gillard knew he really had something. He was the perfect horse. From day one he had it all and there was never any bump in the night through the entire time we owned him and that is pretty amazing. He will always be special to us. We qualified him once and that got the interest of Norm Clements (of Cam Fella fame) who wanted to see him qualify once more. So we did but by then there were other people keen so we bumped the price and Clements and company It would be good business to sell her but we ve already turned down a number of offers. I think she is a keeper because it s not about the money for us. We both have a real passion for the horses. Steve Gillard bought him. We hated to sell but with two kids in university and both of us taking early retirement it would have been foolhardy not to sell. Still it was very difficult to see him loading into someone else s trailer on Monday morning for a Friday night race. But fate played a role in reuniting the Gillards and Your Nemesis. By the fall of 2003 the racing days were over for Your Nemeis who had earned $427,000. Steve saw that the horse had not raced since May so put a call through to the owner. I had two racehorses to sell and asked if he was interested. He checked them out and said he was. We reached a deal and then I said he had to send Your Nemesis back to me as part of it. He agreed and that s how we got him. When he arrived I took him to Dr. Dan MacMaster at Mohawk Racetrack to go over him to see how he was. He came back and said the horse was absolutely perfect except for the one bad ankle which eventually will be a real problem for him, but now he's living the life of Reilly. He s very kind and likes people. Throughout his life he s made a number of people look pretty smart. You might say he was destined to come back to us but getting him was not entirely for sentimental reasons. Because he was so perfect as a racehorse we believed and still believe that he is a sire worthy of covering mares. The pedigree may not spell that out but based on what has happened so far he s looking okay. Your Nemeis has done remarkably well. He has left just six foals all of which have raced and all but one have raced for Gillard. These include Its About Motion p,4,1:52.3s ($137,374), Ocean Of Motion p,3,1:56h ($58,798) and of course Call Me Yours p, 4, 1:51.4s ($301,251). He is not a commercial sire but his numbers are pretty good. I believe so much of it is the way we raise and develop these horses because these are not the most fashionable bloodlines we are working with and that doesn t interest me. I m not rushing to the mailbox to see if a yearling catalogue has arrived. I may go to a sale out of curiosity but it really doesn t hold a lot of interest for me. When I go I see some yearlings that look like three-year-olds and I don t like their body language. It s not for me, he explains. There are some key points we work with here. We want May foals born outside on good grass and we have quality grass here. The mares are all good milkers so there is no excuse there. As I said before running up and down these hills is great for bone development; I like seeing them burning up the pastures. We try to keep them as close to nature as we can with a little help. We wean later than most people do but then put them back into the herd environment after the mothers have established they are not feeding them any longer. We supplement with minerals and kelp. I m a great believer in kelp and we don t overfeed. I like to see a little rib rather than fat yearlings and to the best of my knowledge we have never had a horse with an OCD on the farm. They are out all day and in at night during the winter. We develop a working May 2010 The Harness Edge

11 relationship with these horses. I start driving the yearlings the first week of October and there never is any great wrestling match to get them going which is the way it should be. As this magazine was being completed Call Me Yours was on her way back home from Mark Ford s training center near Middletown, New York. She d achieved what her owner had hoped for and maybe a little more. As a two-year-old she showed much promise in four starts before breaking a coffin bone. Gillard nursed her back to health for a sophomore campaign but she found it tough going. She was one of those inbetweeners. She was better than a Grassrooter in Ontario but everything had to go her way to do well in the Gold. Strangely, she was one that did not get sold. Instead Gillard kept her and raced her with a cautious approach at four in I was very careful with her because I was looking long term which is odd for me. I was concerned she d get beaten up in the transition year so I just raced her 21 times with an eye to this year. I felt she had the potential to be an open class mare in time. Gillard was convinced her strength was on the half-mile track which led to the decision to send her to Yonkers Raceway and Mark Ford s barn. I know some would question my decision to send her there versus keeping her at Woodbine but that big track does not step her up like it does some horses. She s best on the half-miler. In her 12 appearances in New York she missed only two cheques. The plan always was to pull the pin after the Matchmaker Series and get her home on the best grass of the year. So she ll be out May, June and part of July to recover before I start preparing her for the Forest City Pace at Western Fair Raceway this fall. Then she might go back to Mark Ford for the winter meet at Yonkers again. It would be good business to sell her but we ve already turned down a number of offers. I think she is a keeper because it s not about the money for us. We both have a real passion for the horses. It s clear in spending time with Steve Gillard that he steps to his own drummer and is not greatly concerned about what others may think. We don t dream commercial. Neither of us come from money but we ve become self-sufficient. We breed two mares a year and train whatever comes from those matings. As someone once told me people need to be tougher than the horses to survive the business, says Steve. Everything has been done on our own including the building of the track here. Carl Jamieson told me how to do it and then I bought an older grader and it s worked out great. Our young horses are pointed to the baby races at Mohawk in June and if the right money comes along horses get sold. But for the most part we re a bit on an island on our own. The work is endless and I give Marilyn credit for working harder than me but that s the way it is in the horse business. At no time do I miss the fire hall even though I never had a bad day there. This still beats it. PARK INSURANCE IF YOU RE RACING WITH THE BEST, WHY NOT INSURE WITH THE BEST? Ray Bednarz Equine athletes are always at risk and like any other valuable asset, they need to be protected. Park Insurance has the knowledge and experience to help you protect those investments with the best possible coverage at competitive rates. Call Jeff Ruch or Ray Bednarz for a free no obligation quote. Jeff Ruch Park Insurance A Division of 260 Nebo Road, Hamilton, ON. L8W 3K The Harness Edge May 2010