The Blood-Horse Regionals : Midwest Regionals, Canada

3/3/2012 Midwest/Canada: High Flyer

aspradling — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:49:07 GMT

Mark Casse’s ‘crazy good’ run

By Jennifer Morrison

Mark Casse has referred to his vast Thoroughbred training business at Woodbine racetrack as a “well-oiled machine” that runs smoothly from the early morning hours to late in the day. It’s a system of teamwork that has led his stable to the top at the famed Canadian track for five consecutive years.

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04/09/2011 Midwest/Canada: Friends and Family

aspradling — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:05:53 GMT

A year ago, in April 2010, a fire swept through a broodmare barn at Indiana Stallion Station, and despite the valiant efforts of the farm’s staff, more than a dozen horse perished, including some broodmares with their newborn foals. In the tragedy’s aftermath, owner Joyce Baker was uncertain if the operation could recover from the physical damage or, more importantly, the emotional trauma that results from such a horrific event.

The answer began to appear the following day in the Anderson Herald Bulletin, a daily newspaper serving the community of 60,000 just northeast of Indianapolis. Reader after reader penned notes of sympathy to the farm, many in the form of personal notes to Joyce and her staff, who are well-known in the community not just for the horse farm, but for their involvement in the local 4-H chapter and for giving riding lessons and a variety of other community-based activities.

A few months after the fire Maria Vorhauer, farm manager at Gayle Gerth’s Dana Point Farm in Pennsylvania, added an unexpected helping hand to the Indiana farm’s recovery process. Perusing websites as she researched the Hoosier State’s new owners and breeders incentive programs that had sprung up from Indiana’s approval of alternative gaming at racetracks, something about Indiana Stallion Station caught Vorhauer’s eye. She and Gerth decided that was the place for two prominent stallions owned by Dana Point—Action This Day and Domestic Dispute—who now stand at Baker’s refurbished facility near Anderson and are leading a renaissance for Indiana Stallion Station that seemed out of reach in the charred rubble of a year ago.

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03/05/11 Midwest/Canada: Tree Top

aspradling — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 14:49:28 GMT

When a horse finds its best stride and is good enough to knock down a couple of grade I races, it’s rarely a case of being an overnight sensation. Behind
every “big horse” is usually a breeder or owner that has been doing all the right things for years.

Such is the case with Rudy and Virginia Tarra, who, after being in racing for nearly 50 years, have come up with their homebred “big horse”—Giant Oak. A strapping son of Giant’s Causeway out of the Tarras’ star mare Crafty Oak, Giant Oak has moved beyond being the Illinois-bred horse of the year to the front of the national handicap division with a win in last November’s Clark Handicap (gr. I) at Churchill Downs (via disqualification) and an impressive score Feb. 5 in the Donn Handicap (gr. I) at Gulfstream.

Now both 73 and married for 53 years, the Tarras, racing’s latest “overnight sensations,” began back in 1962 as a young married couple in Orland Park, Ill.

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3/5/2010 Midwest / Canada: North Stars

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:45:24 GMT

The mid-to-late 20th century in Thoroughbred racing is commonly described as the “golden years” of the sport, referring to the strength, stamina, and sheer brilliance of a number of that time period’s champions and stakes winners. If these were in fact the golden years of the Sport of Kings, then Thoroughbred breeding in Ontario, Canada, during this time can be described as a gold mine.

The lineage of a great number of the world’s top racehorses today can be traced back to roots in Ontario. The most recognizable poster children of the Ontario-bred sire club are the three generational stallions Nearctic, Northern Dancer, and Nijinsky II. The highly influential Deputy Minister and Storm Bird were also foaled in Ontario, as were three of last decade’s prominent North American sires—Smart Strike, Awesome Again, and Langfuhr.

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2/6/10 Midwest/Canada: Going Green

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:02:51 GMT

1/2/10 Midwest: Mission Accomplished

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:14:50 GMT

Innovation. Progress. Leadership.

These are just a few of the words used over the years to describe what David Willmot has brought to the horse racing industry in Ontario since he bulled his way
into the business 35 years ago.

Under his aggressive, business-minded guidance, Woodbine racetrack has crawled out of the depths of near-bankruptcy and been transformed into a stable and healthy
business that is the envy of many racetracks throughout North America.

And riding the crest of a pleasing 2009 Woodbine meeting that boasted a 7% increase in all-sources wagering—almost unheard of in a trying economy—Willmot will
hand over the reins and step down as chief executive officer of Woodbine Entertainment Group in June 2010.

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