The Blood-Horse Regionals (PDF) : Midwest Regionals

04/25/09 Midwest/Canada Regional: Husky Times

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 13:59:21 GMT

No matter what the industry, trends in America are often said to start in California and move east. But for the horse industry, Iowa, smack in the middle of the nation’s breadbasket, represents a microcosm of what is going on in so many areas, as breeders and owners battle for survival in the face of strained relationships with the local racetrack and government entities.

It was 20 years ago when Iowa horsemen celebrated the opening of Prairie Meadows racetrack in the Des Moines suburb of Altoona. Seven-thousand fans turned out for the opening card, but in just two years the track declared bankruptcy in an effort to lower its debt. Eventually, the facility passed into the hands of Polk County, where it is located, and received good news in 1994 when the state government narrowly approved slot machines at Prairie Meadows, which were operational a year later.

As part of the law, the licensee was charged with paying off the debt, growing and nurturing the horse industry, and providing for community betterment. The debt, which many believed would take 10 years to pay off, was actually done in just 18 months. It is the nurturing and growing of the industry that is a point of contention today between horsemen of the Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association and the racetrack, which is the only horse racing facility in the state.

In the immediate aftermath of the installation of slots, Thoroughbred breeding numbers shot straight up. According to ITBOA president Sharon Vail, foal crops from 1997-2003 numbered between 550 and 650, and the number of racing dates was solidified at around 90 each year.

“Since 2004, we’ve been on one-year contracts where we don’t know until the last minute how many racing dates we’re going to get the following year,” said Vail. “As breeders, it’s very hard to function that way, not knowing if we’re going to have 90 days of racing or 80 or 45. Last year we were around 350-360 foals in the state, our lowest number since the early 1990s, and we don’t want to stay at those numbers. The situation is reaching a head, and we need to be stable and have a long-term contract.”

To that end, there is a public-comment period in April about the future of the sport, and the state’s Racing and Gaming Commission has ordered the 13-member board of Prairie Meadows to develop a long-range plan by the first week of June.

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03/28/09 Midwest Regional: Mastering Michigan

cdawahare — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:03:40 GMT

As breeder/owner Marilyn McMaster looked at splashy photographs of yearlings galloping across lush pastures, her favorite gray mare posing beneath a weeping willow tree, and her intricately self-built log home, memories of her humble beginnings came rushing back.

She remembered a day during the mid-1970s when an acquaintance owed her late husband, Rolland "Mac" McMaster, a significant sum of money and offered a few of his Thoroughbred mares as a means to cover the debt.

At the time, Mac and Marilyn owned a farm in Central Michigan where they kept a few Quarter Horses, a herd of cattle, and offered boarding services. But aside from attending a few races at Arlington Park, they had never been directly involved in the Thoroughbred industry until the peace offering of backyard mares was handed over to them. Three decades later the McMasters' operation has risen to the top of the Michigan market. And even though Mac is no longer present to share the success, Marilyn knows it was their collaborative teamwork from the beginning that has now paid off.

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02/28/09 Midwest/Canada Regional: Fleet Field

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:58:09 GMT

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Sometimes breeders have to wait a long time to see their labor blossom to fruition. On other occasions they have to wait a really long time. But for Mike Carroll and John C. Harvey Jr., the wait was quite worth it when Maryfield came into her own as a 6-year-old in 2007, winning the Ballerina Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga, the Distaff Breeders’ Cup Handicap (gr. II) at Aqueduct, and the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Monmouth Park on the way to capturing champion female sprinter honors on the season.

For their efforts, the two men earned the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Canadian Breeders of the Year award for that season.

Carroll and Harvey co-bred Maryfield out of the Desert Wine mare Sly Maid, whom they purchased for $50,000 with partner Robyn’s Nest Farm at the 1997 Keeneland January sale. Sly Maid was a stakes-placed, five-time winner at the races. Shortly afterward, Carroll and Harvey bought out Robyn’s Nest.

Sly Maid produced six live foals for them, including Canadian grade III-placed Quiet. They decided to send Sly Maid to Elusive Quality, and the product of that mating, Maryfield, was purchased by Jim and Alice Sapara’s Winsong Farms for $80,000 at the 2002 Keeneland September yearling sale out of the Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency, agent, consignment. Maryfield was bred in Ontario, making her the fourth Canadian-bred Breeders’ Cup winner, following Awesome Again, Chief Bearhart, and Dance Smartly.

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01/31/09 Midwest/Canada Regional: "Cam-do Attitude"

Blood-Horse Staff — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:06:06 GMT

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Camelia Casby isn’t the first person in Thoroughbred racing who learned about the game the hard way. However, she stuck it out, found a certain level of success, and possesses a positive outlook that sees the blue sky on the horizon rather than the dark clouds.

Casby, a native Minnesotan who now lives near Canterbury Downs in Shakopee, first put her toe in the water as an owner back in the early 1990s with a Minnesota-bred 2-year-old. While her initial outlay was a mere $800, what followed turned into a seven-figure education.

“I had a trainer who had been a jockey and had no idea what to do,” Casby said. “She only won one race…I learned about the business in self-defense.”

That early experience didn’t sway her from the game, however, and that horse, La Muttering, turned out to be the dam of one of five homebred stakes winners Casby sent out in 2007. Casby’s numbers with homebreds that year led her to being named her state’s Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association award winner.

About La Muttering Casby remembered, “I don’t think she ever got to run the same distance twice; she never even had shoes on her until right before her first race. But now, I’ve got this good stakes filly and we’ve got daughters and granddaughters running out of that family.

“Her daughter is Laurentide Ice,” Casby said. A 5-year-old filly by Intidab, Laurentide Ice has won two New York-bred stakes and has earned $236,151 for Casby.

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11/15/2008 Midwest Regional: Family Ties

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:41:58 GMT