triple dead heat

Northern Dancer continues to inspire...

2013-05-15T15:42:00.000-04:00

Earlier this morning, on Bayview Avenue in Toronto, on the grounds of the Windfields Estate, the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) celebrated the commencement of the construction of the Northern Dancer Pavilion, a landmark building that will allow the CFC to expand its film, television, digital media, screen acting and music program activities.

Groundbreaking moment led by a capped Norman Jewison!

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt, filmmaker Norman Jewison and horse owner Don Ross - - who suggested honouring the 1964 Kentucky Derby winner - - were among a throng of supporters on hand to fete E.P Taylor's star stud.

"I think the little fellow, the 'Dancer', really was the best in the world," said Ross. "He brought honour to his country and he has spread that honour throughout the racing world. I think this will reinvigorate his memory coming up to the 50th anniversary of his record win in the Kentucky Derby next year. His influence around the racing world continues to dominate and I think he truly is Canada's greatest athlete."

The estate is truly hallowed ground for any fan of horse racing.

Located at E.P. Taylor's former home, which was constructed in 1932, the famous philanthropist expanded the property thereafter to include cottages, stables and a gate house as well as a green house/potting shed.

Jewison, considered Canada's most celebrated filmmaker, has an astounding list of film credits including In the Heat of the Night, The Thomas Crown Affair, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck and The Hurricane.

Charles Taylor and Norman Jewison

As one of Canada’s bright lights of film, Jewison was instrumental in founding the CFC and he spoke at length about his efforts in that regard, which ultimately were successful as in 1988, the Taylor family transferred ownership of the property to the City of Toronto for the use of CFC.

Now, with the CFC thriving and in need of expansion, construction of the Northern Dancer Pavilion will allow the institution an opportunity to further develop Canadian culture and communication.

"This is an historic occasion. About 26 years ago, I was looking for a home for the Canadian Film Centre. A place for advanced film studies for this country," said Jewison. "We were behind everybody. The British had the British Film Institute. The French had the Cinematheque. Australia was way ahead of us making big films and training their young directors."

Hoping to make Toronto a permanent location for a national film school, Jewison reached out to Mel Lastman, the former mayor of Toronto, for ideas on where he could build his landmark.

"Lastman said, 'Why don't you go and talk to Charles and Noreen Taylor and present your ideas," recalled Jewison.

The original Taylor home, now home to the CFC

The Taylors invited Jewison to the Bayview Avenue property and promptly wowed the filmmaker with a tour of the facility.

"Taylor took me to a barn and he said, 'This is where Northern Dancer was and this is the paddock where we used to parade him around,'" noted Jewison.

It was also on this property that Taylor held the infamous yearling sales at which Northern Dancer failed to find a buyer at the $25,000 reserve price, allowing the legend to race in the famous Windfields silks.

As the tour continued, Jewison was told much of the vast history of the property that also included a visit from Queen Elizabeth, an avid racing fan.

The visit inspired Jewison.

"There is a heritage here. A heritage of champions. A heritage of excellence," said Jewison.

And Jewison clearly made an impression with Charles and Noreen Taylor who supported the filmmaker’s efforts.

"When we started out, I went to the then Premier of Ontario, David Peterson, and then I went to Ottawa and tried to convince our governments, both Ontario and federal, that Canada had to have a centre to make something wonderful happen in the area of communications. That was the beginning," said Jewison.

His plan worked, perhaps even better than Jewison could expect, as the CFC has grown from a staff of six, and 12 residents, to over 45 staff, running 11 programs and three initiatives for more than 1500 residents since 1988.

The grounds are well kept

At this point, more than $2.6-million of the estimated $3-million total cost of the Northern Dancer Pavilion has been raised and Jewison is hopeful that the facility, in addition to creating jobs, will continue to inspire the creation of great art.

It's incredible to think that the world's most successful 'sire of sires' might soon be responsible for inspiring new and prodigious talent outside the world of horse racing.

"We're reaching out to successful Canadians all over the world to help us push forward and this building is going to be a centrepiece, the jewel in the crown," said Jewison. "I'm so proud it's being called the Northern Dancer Pavilion because Northern Dancer was a champion, a true champion. And that's what we do here, we train champions."

For more on the project:

Follow the CFC on Twitter: @CFCcreates

And read: Government of Canada release: Canadian Film Centre get a beautifying boost

Fipke hoping to unearth a Derby gem

2013-05-02T13:32:00.001-04:00

When 20 horses spring from the gate in Saturday's Grade 1, $2-million Kentucky Derby, two of the jockeys will proudly sport the white, yellow and blue silks of Edmonton, Alberta born owner-breeder Charles Fipke.

Java's War, winner of the Grade 1, $750,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, will be amongst the top choices in the 1 1/-4-mile test, under rider Julien Leparoux.

Perfect Soul will be represented at the Derby by Golden Soul

His other starter, Golden Soul, a son of Fipke's stallion Perfect Soul, will be ridden by Robby Albarado. After failing to win a trio of Derby preps at the Fair Grounds in Louisiana, Golden Soul only backed into the Derby thanks to a pair of defections from horses above him in the points standings used to determine a position in the starting gate.

Despite their radically different paths to the First Saturday In May, one can draw a straight, bold line from both horses back to Fipke as the man who engineered their destiny.

And yet Fipke, who graduated with a Bachelor of Sciences in honors geology in 1970 from the University of British Columbia and was later awarded an honorary Ph.D. in Technology from the UBC Okanagan, is humble in his considerable success both in business and with horses.

"You don't want to get too excited about these horses. As soon as you get too excited, you get cut right down to size," laughs Fipke, whose lone trip to the Kentucky Derby, in 2008, resulted in a fourth-place finish for Tale of Ekati.

"There's a lot more times you lose, than you win," he admits.

Golden Soul, a chestnut son of Perfect Soul out of Hollywood Gold, finished second, sixth and fourth respectively in the Grade 3 Lecomte and Grade 2 Risen Star and Louisiana Derby, in races marred by wide trips and too-late rallies.

It's the fourth time Fipke experimented with this particular mating (of Perfect Soul with Hollywood Gold) after full siblings Hollywood Soul, Soul of Gold and Soul of Hollywood, didn't quite pan out as expected.

"It's a good mating. It if wasn't a good mating, I wouldn't go back all the time," explains Fipke. "We've got this method where we measure distance aptitudes. The mating for Golden Soul, according to our calculations, has the stamina in him to go about 12 furlongs. So, a mile and a quarter (10 furlongs) should be no problem for him. He has natural stamina."

As a well-regarded geologist, Fipke, chairman of Metalex (a diamond exploration company) and Cantex (a gold prospecting company), is a leading figure in the discovery of diamonds and precious stones across North America.

Fipke's silks are familiar to Woodbine racing fans

His patience, both in geology and the world of thoroughbreds, has been well rewarded.

"Mating is not perfectly precise," says Fipke, by way of explaining his repeated attempts at creating a winner with Perfect Soul and Hollywood Gold.

Hollywood Gold, before being purchased by Fipke, did produce a Derby starter in Quintons Gold Rush who was 18th, and eased, in the 2004 edition of the Run For The Roses, won by Smarty Jones.

Fipke makes no apologies for his repeated efforts at making the mating work.

"When its good breeding, you stick with it," he says. "Of course, some of the others haven't done as well as Golden Soul."

Research is the key to Fipke's success in all his business ventures, equine or otherwise.

"I do a lot of mineral research and probes and we've developed a lot of unique methods for looking for diamonds," says Fipke. "We're on the leading edge of that and most of the best diamond geologists in the world will visit me and study my methods. A lot of unique technology has gone into it and that type of
research has paid off in horse breeding too."

Java's War, the more accomplished of his two Derby entrants, finished a closing second to possible Derby favourite Verrazano in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby back in March, before his Blue Grass score.

Java's War, a bay son of War Pass out of Java, found a different route to Fipke's stable as the diamond magnate purchased Java, the mare of Java's War, in foal with the eventual Derby dreamer for $350,000 at Keeneland's November sale, in 2009.

War Pass, undefeated as a two-year-old en route to a win in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, resonates on many levels with Fipke.

"We used to race against War Pass with Tale of Ekati and War Pass cleaned our clock every time we went against him as a two-year-old," he laughs. "However, Tale of Ekati eventually beat War Pass in the Wood Memorial on the road to the Kentucky Derby."

Of course, more than nostalgia went into the purchase of Java and her yet-to-be-born foal.

Fipke was curious, indeed, about the potential of Java’s War’s damsire (1985 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, Rainbow Quest), and, more importantly, he was excited at how that family matched up with another young stallion he is working to promote.

"War Pass, was early maturing, and an American champion at two," starts Fipke. "And when you look at him mated to a Rainbow Quest mare (Java), which is late maturing, you think you just might get it right. But, before buying the mare, there were a couple things we analyzed about the mare. There are literally thousands of mares sold and you have to pick the best one for you."

Fipke believes that Java's family lines compliment Not Bourbon, his Queen's Plate winner of 2008, who stands at Norse Ridge, just north of Toronto. Not Bourbon became trainer Roger Attfield's eight Queen's Plate champion, and Fipke's first, when he held off Woodbine Oaks champ, Ginger Brew, to win the
guineas by a head.

"It was a very good mating to duplicate the bottom lines of Not Bourbon to the bottom lines of Java, so it fit well with my own stallion and it also fit very well with War Pass," says Fipke. "So, the reason I wanted to buy her is that I thought I had a chance at a good horse in utero and also in combination later with one of my own stallions. I get a double whammy!"

On Saturday, Java's War will try to race his way into the history books in the Kentucky Derby. Fipke, mindful of that potential brilliance, is already planning ahead for another potential classic attempt in Canada.

"I have a Canadian-bred Not Bourbon (out of Java), who is one of the best yearlings I own," he says of the yet-to-be-named colt, a half-brother to a potential Kentucky Derby winner.

Breeding great horses, particularly colts, which have tremendous value as stallions after their racing career, is paramount to Fipke's continued success.

Perfect Soul, who stands for a $7,000 stud fee at Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky, is a perfect example of a racehorse earning his keep after a stellar racing career that included wins in the Grade 2 Breeders' Cup Handicap at Woodbine and Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile, at Keeneland, en route to being named Canada's
Champion Male Turf Horse for 2003.

Perfect Soul, a Fipke homebred son of Sadler's Wells, took the Grade 2 Makers Mark Mile at Keeneland as a four-year-old setting a course record in the process. He now stands at Darby Dan along with fellow Fipke stallions, Tale of Ekati and Jersey Town.

"The only way you can recover your losses is by getting good stallions," says Fipke. "If you get a stallion that produces a lot of Group 1 winners, then the stud fees go up and you can make a lot of money. I'm hoping I can recuperate some of my losses and maybe one of these two horses in the Derby will be my real pot of gold."

But Fipke is not getting too far in front of himself, on the eve of the Derby.

"I'm not counting on winning. The competition is fierce," says Fipke. "Orb has the stamina to do it and he's a wonderful horse. There are a lot of wonderful horses in the race. You can get high on your own horses, but you have to be realistic. I was in the Derby once before with Tale of Ekati and came fourth. I was quite disappointed at that time. And this time I don't want to be disappointed. I just want to do the best we can."

Fipke is hopeful that Golden Soul, who closed to be fourth to Revolutionary from 18 lengths off the pace on March 30th in the Louisiana Derby, might be ready to step forward.

"Golden Soul is a very good horse. He hasn't raced for five or six weeks and he's really in good shape now," offers Fipke. "He's by Perfect Soul, whose offspring are a little later maturing. So, he's just starting to peak right now. Hopefully he'll peak at the Derby. He might surprise everybody."

And Fipke is realistic about the chances of Grade 1 winner Java's War, Kentucky-bred but Canadian-owned, in a field full of graded stakes winners.

"I hope Java's War doesn't bounce as it's only been three weeks since he won the Blue Grass," says Fipke.

Is another Churchill Downs upset in the cards for Fipke?

As storm clouds threaten to rumble Saturday's Derby, it's hard not to be reminded of Fipke's coup de grace at the 2011 Breeders' Cup with another offspring of Perfect Soul - - champion turf filly, Perfect Shirl.

Sent to post at odds of 27-1 in the Grade 1 $2-million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, Perfect Shirl saved ground in the early going of the 1 3/-8-mile turf test under John Velazquez, before tipping out late in the stretch to launch a winning five-wide rally to score by three-quarters of a length over Nahrain.

A nose, and two heads separated the second to fifth place finishers in what was a thrilling finish.

And yet, Perfect Shirl, trained by the Woodbine-based Attfield, almost didn't make the race.

"It had rained a day or so before the race and we didn't think our horse liked a soft turf. So, Roger went around the course that morning and said, 'It's not really hard, but it's not really soft either. It's moderate. We've come this far, we might as well go in'," recalls Fipke. "So we did, not thinking we'd succeed, but we won."

Fipke, an animated sort, rushed to find Perfect Shirl in the winner's enclosure following the race and planted a kiss on the filly's two-million dollar nose.

"I was in a daze, it was so wonderful. It was like being in heaven," he recalls. "They're wonderful animals and you admire that they put out such effort. And to win a world championship was something else."

The weatherman is calling for a 40 per cent chance of rain in Louisville on Saturday, but regardless of the condition of the track, Golden Soul will leave the starting gate at odds greater than that of Perfect Shirl in her Breeders' Cup win.

Fipke, who has been down this road many times before, remains undaunted by the challenge, "It's when you least expect it that it happens."

From Canada's ocean playground to the Woodbine 'Poly'

2013-04-25T18:14:00.000-04:00

Listed at 20-1 in the morning line in Friday’s sixth race, it would be easy to overlook a four-year-old filly by the name of Katya.

Through four races, the stout daughter of Mobil, a Dr. Jalal Hosein homebred, has yet to finish better than eighth. And yet, her story is intriguing as she is a rare thoroughbred foaled in Nova Scotia.

Katya representin' the East Coast!

Katya is trained by 72-year-old John Coryat and the conditioner's journey to training a Nova Scotia-bred bay started in the 1950s at Santa Rosa Park, in Trinidad.

“I grew up in Arima, in Trinidad, and the racetrack was from here to the training track from where I lived,” gestures Coryat, from his tack room in Barn 20 of the Woodbine backstretch. “I always would hear the ‘clack, clack, clack’ of the horses in the morning. When I played in the savannah in the afternoon, the horses would be on the track and walking around and it all just got to me.”

Even before he became a teenager, a young Coryat found a job working with the horses each morning.

“I spent some time in the paddock and that was a, ‘no no’, at that time,” grins Coryat. “But, it was the early 1950s and I used to help a guy with a horse each morning, head to school in the afternoon and then back to the track again to help in the evening.”

One morning in particular is burned in Coryat’s memory.

“This one horse was giving trouble after training and the horse had a rope as a shank, so I hit the horse across the shoulder with the rope and put him in the stall,” says Coryat.

The horse, a rambunctious sort named Gold Candy, didn’t appreciate Coryat’s powers of suggestion.

“When I came back from school in the evening to care for the horse again, he picked me up with his teeth and threw me across the stall,” says Coryat, lifting up his shirt to reveal a nasty scar.

“In those days, I weighed about 80lbs,” says Coryat. “And when that horse picked me up and threw me in the corner, the other grooms, who were there playing cards, rushed in and helped me out.”

Many years pass and, in 1975, Coryat makes way to Woodbine and embarks on a career in racing working with a number of trainers including Jerry Meyer and Bobby Fisher, eventually taking out his trainer’s license about a decade ago.

Coryat and Katya

By chance, the late Daily Racing Form writer Wally Wood stumbled across Coryat on the backstretch one morning and the resulting story, complete with a photo of a young Coryat sitting atop a bale of hay, is published.

The story makes its way into the hands of Dr. Hosein, a native of Trinidad and some ten years Coryat's senior, now practicing medicine in Nova Scotia.

Dr. Hosein, recently in the possession of a young racing prospect, reached out to Coryat and asked if he might remember an old racehorse the Hosein family used to own back in Trinidad named Gold Candy!

“I said, ‘Of course I know him. He’s left his mark on me!’” laughs Coryat.

Dr. Hosein has his wife, Martha, to thank for getting him into the racing business.

The couple raises Dutch Warmbloods in Halifax, but one of his wife’s shopping trips brought some new blood to the farm.

“My wife came home from a sale about 14 years ago in the U.S. with two horses. One is still alive, a Dutch Warmblood. The other one was a thoroughbred called Pour Le Sport,” he says.

Pour Le Sport, a granddaughter of Nijinsky, was a useful race horse winning seven of 27 starts while earning some $35,000 racing primarily at Laurel Park and Philadelphia Park.

At Martha's suggestion, Pour Le Sport was bred to Imperial Gold and the resulting foal was an unraced Nova Scotia-bred filly named Eve.

“John used to look after Eve but she never raced,” explains Dr. Hosein. “She had a little chip so we brought her back to Halifax and then bred Eve to Not Impossible and got a filly called Lady Jane.”

Lady Jane put together a pair of seconds and a trio of thirds through 23 races at Woodbine and Fort Erie.

Eve then went to multiple graded stakes winner A Fleets Dancer and produced a colt, soon gelded, named Don Diego. He managed one second in 14 starts before retiring to the east coast.

Despite the lack of success, thus far, through 41 starts with his Nova Scotia-bred horses, Dr. Hosein remains enamoured with the sport he came to love in his native Trinidad.

“I love horses but it’s a rich man’s game, you know, and I’m not a rich man,” he laughs. “Still, I love my horses.”

Katya will leave from Post 8 in Friday’s sixth race and Coryat is hoping to see a much-improved filly.

“She’s training very well,” says Coryat. “I got her last year in September and I didn’t have much time with her. It takes time to develop a horse, but I rushed her into a few races last year as she was a three-year-old maiden and I thought she started to show a little promise.”

Cotyat's a long way from Santa Rosa!

Adding bluntly, “It did not quite work out as I would like.”

After a winter in Ontario, Katya has come back to Woodbine a mature filly.

“She was still backward mentally last year, but I have the same exercise rider (Alex Hou) this year and we both have noticed a vast improvement mentally and physically with her. In our opinion, she’s in good shape and the way she’s training is very encouraging.”

Even if Katya doesn’t come good first time out off the layoff, racing under champion rider Todd Kabel, Coryat will continue to work hard with his lone trainee.

“She’s non-descript, an unknown,” admits Coryat. “But, at my age, 72-years-old, one horse keeps me active. It’s my physiotherapy and it keeps me thinking. If she shapes up to be a nice horse, that would be a plus, and if she doesn’t that’s okay too. Right now I’m enjoying it and savouring it.”

Katya’s 20-1 on the morning line, and she might be double that come post time, but if the Ontario-sired miss, by way of Nova Scotia, finds her way to the winner’s circle there will be no one happier than Dr. Hosein.

“If she wins,” laughs Dr. Hosein, still surprised at the smattering of attention for his star filly. “I want you and John to lead her in.”