Celebrating breeders - Howie Walton

Article by Bill Heller

Howie Walton has spent his life in Toronto loving horses, riding, racing and breeding them.

“He absolutely loves his horses,” one of his trainers, John Mattine, said. “When someone has that passion for the game, you want to do well for him and succeed.”

Walton succeeded beyond his wildest imagination in business, starting his own plastics company, Norseman Plastics, and selling it for millions. That allowed him to follow his heart and make good on a promise to himself. “As a kid, I always loved horses. I said if I ever did well, I’d buy a horse.”

He bought a riding horse, Lakeview Noel, who lived to be 31 years old. Then Howie bought Quarter Horses, doing quite well with them, and switched to Thoroughbreds—making an enormous impact on Canadian racing.

“He’s great for the sport,” another one of his trainers, Jamie Attard, said. “He really is. He’s a breeder’s breeder and an owner’s owner. He’s been supporting Ontario racing for so many years.”

There are rewards for doing so, specifically for Ontario-breds and its rich supplement program. “The bonuses for Ontario-breds are fairly high,” said Walton. “I’ve always raced at Woodbine. I’ve been there a long time.”

Along the way, his concern for his horses has never wavered. “We had a horse,” recalls Attard. “His name was Buongiorno Johnny. He broke his maiden in a stakes race (winning the $150,000 restricted Vandal Stakes July 31, 2011), then he had an issue down the line. We lost the horse for $32,000 (on June 25, 2014). Three years later, he was in some bottom-level claimer (a $4,000 claimer at Thistledown). Howie paid them double the claiming price and retired him on his farm. He always lets you do what is right. If it’s the little thing, he’ll send him to the farm for some time off. He retired a six-year-old we had and gave it to my girlfriend. The horse always comes first. His heart is as big as the grandstand.”

Jamie Attard’s father, Canadian Hall of Famer Sid, also trains for Walton and echoes his son’s opinion: “If a horse is not right, he doesn’t want to run him. If I call up saying his horse has a problem, he’ll say, `Scratch him.’”

Howie Walton (blue jacket) receives the 2022 Recognition of Excellence Award at the recent 39th Annual CTHS Awards from CTHS Ontario President & National Director Peter Berringer.

There are worse calls ro receive. Sid and Howie know first-hand. Their two-year-old home-bred filly, A Touch of Red, a daughter of Howie’s top horse and now leading stallion Signature Red, won her debut by five lengths at Woodbine in a maiden $40,000 claimer last September 19. On October 10, she won the $100,000 South Ocean Stakes for Ontario-breds by a neck as the even-money favorite.

“She was breezing seven days before her next race,” Sid said. “She worked by herself that day. She’s going five-eighths. Good bug boy on her. He noticed something wrong. He pulled her up. She started shaking. She died. Looked like a heart attack. She was such a nice, nice filly. Beautiful. Big. Strong. I was never so shocked in my life.”

Sid called Howie and told him the tragic news. “I said, `Howie, I’m very, very sorry.’”

Walton replied, “Sid, don’t worry about nothing. It’s nobody’s fault.” 

He and Sid have another talented filly who just turned three, another home-bred daughter of Signature Red, Ancient Spirit. She won a maiden $40,000 claimer by four lengths, the $100,000 Victoria Queen Stakes by 2 ½ and concluded her two-year-old season with a second by a neck in the South Ocean Stakes to her stable-mate, A Touch of Red. The torch has been passed on.

A couple months after A Touch of Red’s death, Walton said, “In this game, you have good-luck and bad-luck horses. She won a stakes race and had a heart attack and died.”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Howie then endured the removal of his gallbladder. ”It wasn’t fun,” he said. He leaned on his family, his wife of 47 years Marilyn, their adult sons Benjamin, who is 43, works for his dad with his apartment building investments; and 42-year-old Michael, who is in the plastics business. The Waltons have four grandchildren and a standard poodle named Riley. “A house isn’t a home unless you have a dog in it,” Howie said. “Poodles are as smart as hell.”

So is his owner. “I was a pretty smart guy; I went to the University of Toronto, and I was a chemical engineer. I did well with plastics.”

He did incredibly well with the company he started. “I had it for 30, 40 years,” Walton said. “It got pretty big. It was quite an operation. I had 500, 600 people under me. We had plants around the states. I had big clients: Pepsi Cola, Coca Cola, all the milk companies—you name them. It turned out to be a $230 million company. I started at zip.”

How did he do it the first time? “I worked like hell; I wasn’t married. We used to run 24 hours, seven days a week. I don’t know if I could do it again.”

Marilyn isn’t surprised that her husband succeeded. “When he does something, he puts 150 percent into it. He makes up his mind, and he’s very focused. He was a born salesman. He knows how to talk to people, how to treat people.”

She also knows how resourceful Howie can be.

Marilyn and Howie lived near each other but hadn’t met. “We used to pass each other going to work on the same day. Then one day he wrote down my license plate. In those days, you could do that and look a person up.

“We met. We were engaged in three months and married three months after that; and we’ve been married 47 years.”

Marilyn was impressed with Howie’s horsemanship. “It started with the Quarter Horses. What I really loved about it was he was not the person who goes to the races and just watches. He went to the barn and used to clean their feet after the race. He really cares for animals. He is a true animal lover. He loves dogs. Same thing with Thoroughbreds. He truly, truly loves them. He always had a passion for them.”

Signature Red (rail side) wins the 2011 Highlander Stakes.

The horse Howie Walton is most passionate about is Signature Red. “John Mattine’s dad, Tony, picked out Signature Red," recalled Howie. (Red is Howie’s favorite color.)

John said, “My father trained for him. He was basically his first trainer. My dad bought everything for him before. Most of the good broodmares he has trace back to my dad.”
          Racing from the age of three until he was six, Signature Red, a son of Bernstein out of Irish and Foxy by Irish Open, won six of 27 starts, including two consecutive runnings of the Gr. 2 Highlander Turf Stakes in 2010 and 2011, and earned $630,232.

Buongiorno Johnny before his 2011 Vandal Stakes win.

He stands at Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs in Aurora, Ontario, for C$5,000 this year and has now sired the winners of 168 races through the end of 2022. His progeny has earned more than C$6.2 million.

“I think he’s the best value stud in Canada,” says Walton. Accordingly, he has continually sent his best mares to Signature Red. “I believe in him.”

He also believes in the value of Signature Red’s offspring. That’s why at last year’s CTHS Ontario Premier Yearling Sale, he bought back three Signature Red yearlings as well as a filly by Red Explosion, a son of Signature Red, for a combined total of C$290,000. “Not really a hard decision,” said Walton. “My stock is very high quality. I believe in my stock. I believe in my stud.”

Howie has become friends with Adena’s farm manager Sean Smullen and farm owner Frank Stronach. “In 2002, he started putting some horses in here—layups. We developed a good relationship over the years. The man—he loves his animals. No matter what’s wrong, he’ll do it to save the animal. There’s no expense too big to care for his horse. He wants to give it a quality of life. He’s very loyal,” says Smullen.

Walton cherishes his friendship with Frank Stronach. “I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a dynamic guy. Anyone building an electric car plant at the age of 90 … there aren’t many guys like him. As a businessman, I admire that. I told him that. He said, `I guess I’ve made a few billion in my life.’ He’s quite a guy. I hope he lives to be 200. When he’s gone, I don’t know who’s going to run his operation. When he had his tiff with his daughter, he told me, `Howie, it’s only money. I’ll make more.’”

One of Walton’s home-breds made quite a bit of money out of just six starts before being sold. Maritimer, trained by Sid Attard, won his maiden debut by a head and then finished second by a head to his stable-mate Buongiorno Johnny in that 2011 Vandal Stakes. Maritimer then finished second in an allowance race, a late-tiring fourth in the Gr. 3 Summer Stakes and first in two stakes: the $250,000 Coronation Futurity by 2 ½ lengths then the $175,000 Display by 5 ½ lengths. After being sold, he went winless in four starts, including fifth in the Gr. 2 Autumn Stakes at Woodbine. He failed to hit the board in three starts in Dubai, including an 11th in the Gr. 2 U.A.E. Derby.

Though he concentrates on Thoroughbreds, Walton still has Quarter Horses. “What attracted me was the horse. They were big. They were strong. They were smart and beautiful. Not as edgy as a Thoroughbred. I still have a few.”

He treats them the same way he treats Thoroughbreds. And the same way he treats people: love, loyalty and a laser-like focus. “I am a loyal guy,” he said. “If I don’t like you, I’ll tell you.”

Marilyn put it this way: “What you see is what you get.”

Howie Walton and trainer Sid Attard with Generous Touch and jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva.

Donato Lanni - X-Men Racing

Article by Bill Heller

Thoroughbred bloodstock agent Donato Lanni cherished trips to the racetrack with his father, Giuseppe, who grew up in Italy and settled in Montreal, making a career as a construction contractor. He did well enough to pursue his passion. “My dad had a love and a desire for horses and horse racing,” Donato said. “He had some claiming horses.”

They were harness horses and Donato and his father shared evenings at Blue Bonnets Racetrack. “I grew up around it,” Donato said. ”As a kid, there’s something inside you that gets alerted. You catch the bug. I don’t think that’s a myth. I was eight or nine.

“Summertime, I got more involved. I spent all my time at Blue Bonnets going to the barn. I became a groom when I was 13 or 14. There I got to meet some really cool guys—some of the most legendary guys in harness racing: Andre LaChance, Sylvan Filion and Duncan MacTavish. Andre never talked and was not very pleasant to be around, but he was a hell of a horseman. He took a liking to me for some reason. I drove in qualifier (non-betting) races.” Donato was 16 when he bought his first horse.

Though Donato graduated from Concordia University in Montreal, he realized that he wanted to head south—far south. Taking advantage of a summer program at Concordia, Donato got a temporary visa to work in the United States, fixating on Kentucky.  

“I didn’t see a future in Canada,” he said. “I asked, `How am I going to make a living with horses?’ I thought I had to go to Kentucky and see what it was like. I left Canada, knowing I was never going back.”

But he had no connections in America. “You take a chance and go to work,” Donato said.

And when you can’t find work? Running out of money, Donato bought a tent and camped out at the Kentucky Horse Park.

He got a huge break when he met John Cashman of Castleton Farm, one of the premier harness farms in North America. “I got a job with John,” Donato said. “He was very nice to me. I became the yearling manager in 1996. I was 25. I kept working. Grind, grind. Eventually doors open and you meet people.”

He counts himself lucky for meeting and then working for John “Big Johnny” Jones, the founder of Walmac International Farm in Lexington, where such super stallions as Nureyev and Alleged stood. Jones was also the founding partner of Four Star Sales. Initially, Donato landed a job with Walmac selling stallion services. 

“If there was one person most responsible for any success that I had, it was Johnny Jones,” Donato told Murray Brown in his October 2021 story in Harness Racing Update. “Johnny was a noted bloodstock agent who ran Walmac International. It was from him that I learned my craft. He sold and bought horses. Eventually, so did I. While I was at Walmac, Johnny supported me on my first route towards becoming an American citizen.”

While with Walmac, Donato got to know Thoroughbred owner and movie theater magnate George Krikorian. He told Donato to let him know if one yearling caught his eye at any of the sales. One did—Starrer. She sold for $35,000 and won multiple Gr. 1 stakes on the way to becoming Donato’s first millionaire. In an article in Blood-Horse magazine, Krikorian said of Donato, “I don’t know anyone who had a better eye for horses than he does.”

Eventually, Donato worked for John Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm as director of Bloodstock Services, and became friends with Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. “I met Bob 20 years ago at a sales,” Donato said. “He took me around and showed me what to look for. We’re still pretty close. I learned my craft through Bob Baffert. He’s a great horseman. He’s the best.”

Donato has paid Baffert back by selecting two Horses of the Year: Arrogate (2016) and Authentic (2020).

In 2006, Donato reconnected with Canadian horsemen, specifically trainer Kevin Attard. Attard trained Leonnatus Anteas, a yearling colt Donato picked out for Nob Hill Farm. The following year, Leonnatus Anteas won all three of his starts and was named Canadian Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. “That was the start of our relationship together,” Kevin said. “He sent me a couple horses over the years. For me to be associated with him has been a boost to my career. He respects me as a trainer.”

A few years back, Donato decided to start a new team. He convinced several Canadian horse owners and hockey fans to form X-Men Racing and then partnered with SF Racing and Madaket Stables. Lanni nicknamed the partnership “The Avengers. We put a fund together and bought a dozen horses,” Donato told Murray Brown in his story. “They’re all guys that are in the horse business—some of them with Standardbreds. But what they all have in common, besides being friends with me, is that they’re all lucky.”

One of the original dozen X-Men Racing horses was Moira. All the filly did in August was defeat colts while taking the $1 million Gr. 1 Queen’s Plate by seven lengths in track-record time. Less than a month later, their two-year-old filly Last Call won the Gr. 1 Natalma. 

Through all the ups and downs, all the twists and turns of his colorful career, he never lost that feeling he first experienced when he went to the track with his father. “They’re majestic animals,” Donato said. “They’re beautiful to look at. You go work with them; it’s very challenging and it’s fun. We got started because we love the horse.”

Go Canada - innovations to support breeders and buyers in Ontario

Words - Ken Snyder

With apologies to patriotic Canadians everywhere, the “O” that begins the nation’s stirring and beautiful national anthem might be adopted and altered by the Ontario horse industry to “Go Canada.” A reason?  Divide 173 race days (133 at Woodbine, 40 at Fort Erie) by approximately $65 million CAD in purse money. Go Canada indeed.

“If you have a good horse, there is an opportunity to make significant money here in Ontario,” said Peter Berringer, president of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society and also someone with “skin in the game,” as they say.

He is a trainer with both a small string stabled at Woodbine and broodmares and stallions at his farm, Aurora Meadows in Rockwood Ontario, west of Toronto. He, like other Canadian trainers, is in the hunt for purse money that might surprise those in the horse industry. Statistics for 2021 from The Jockey Club (TJC) show that 1,853 Ontario starters earned $43,612,419 USD ($56,790,117.87 CAD) or $23,536 ($30,646.39 CAD)  in earnings per runner last year. The figure beats the same statistics for California, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.  

Earnings, however, are only a part of the story. Financial incentives to breeders in Ontario through a Mare Purchase Program (MPP) and Mare Recruitment Program (MRP)* make investments in Ontario racing worthwhile both for the present and in the future in breeding and racing. The MPP provides Ontario buyers of in-foal mares at select U.S. horse sales 50% of the purchase price up to $25,000 CAD.  Sales include Wannamaker’s Online Sale; Fasig-Tipton November Breeding Stock, MidAtlantic Winter Mixed, and Kentucky Winter Mixed sales; the OBS Winter Mixed Sale; and Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale and January Horses of All Ages Sale. Additionally, there is a $2,500 CAD incentive for every mare bred back to a registered Ontario sire.

With Ontario horse sales under the recruitment program, mare owners bringing an in-foal mare into the province can receive $5,000 CAD through a Thoroughbred Improvement Program (TIP). The incentive applies to up to five in-foal mares per owner or entity. The $2,500 CAD incentive for breeding back to a registered Ontario sire applies also as with mare purchasing. 

Berringer said a few new stallions annually come into the province but that “the issue is we don’t have a large number of resident mares. 

“Mare Recruitment is trying to help us build Ontario-bred numbers,” said Berringer. “People will foal here and hopefully, with the incentives, people will breed back here. Then, when they have their horses, they’re probably going to benefit the most financially by racing in Ontario because you’re running for 40-percent bonuses if you’re running an Ontario-sired, Ontario-bred horse.” He added that the goal is twofold: to drive the Ontario horse population and increase the quality of the stock running in the province.

PETER BERRINGER

Funding for both the MPP and the MRP is through the TIP and comes from a pari mutuel tax returned by the government to the horse industry. Breeding programs total over $7 million CAD from the TIP, according to Berringer.

Ontario-breds are more than just important to racing in the province, according to Berringer. “It’s pivotal to racing. A strong breeding development program relates directly to our local horse sales and the racing product. We need a strong breeding program to have sustainable racing.”

Government statistics estimate that 45,000 people in Ontario depend on or benefit from horse breeding and racing, but Berringer thinks the figure might be low. “You have to be able to sustain all those farms and spinoff jobs on the farm and farm-related, which are imperative to the economic sustainability of rural communities.”

Berringer, as a farm owner, is sensitive to the impact of breeding and racing on operations and individuals not directly related to horse racing. His introduction to Thoroughbreds was working as a teenager at an uncle’s farm. “It was a multifaceted Thoroughbred farm with usually 60 to 120 horses at capacity in the winter. There were stallions and broodmares, yearlings and racehorses. I was lucky to have exposure to handling stallions, breeding and reproductive exposure, foaling, yearling sales prep, yearling sales, and breaking and training,” he said.

Transitioning to training came in his late 20’s when he was, at that time, the farm’s general manager/trainer. “I started to focus on training and racing because of the action and reducing my farm business to outside clients and a successful horse quarantine operation that I was operating for international horses.” On the farm, he met and worked with successful trainers and owners, and had exposure to top-tier Canadian champions.

Increased responsibilities on the farm along with obtaining a university degree while still working on the farm in the 1980s fed a burgeoning passion not just for the horses but the business.

This passion puts him on the tip of the spear for challenges not just facing his own racing and farm operations, but all Canadian horsemen and horsewomen. Canada’s tax structure for the horse industry is, according to Berringer, “the biggest detriment to our racing program.” It calls for a write-off of $17,600 [CAD] per entity per owner, a pittance compared to the U.S. tax structure that this year allows a 100% deduction of the purchase price of a horse. Lobbying efforts to improve the tax structure in Canada have been ongoing for some time but without much, if any, progress.  

In addition to incentives, there are also efforts on the racetrack to benefit Ontario horsemen and horsewomen. The Heritage Series of eight races for three-year-old Ontario-sired horses—four for fillies and four for colts—is in its second year divided between six races at Woodbine and two at Fort Erie between July and September. The Series provides an obvious boon to Ontario-sired horses to run in restricted stakes races. Last year, the first for the Series, purses for the eight races totaled $750,000. This year purses will increase from $80,000 to $100,000 per race. Horses accumulate points over multiple races with the points leader among fillies and colts earning a $20,000 bonus. Second- and third-place finishers in points earn bonuses of $10,000 and $5,000.

Lastly, if not most importantly, Ontario’s annual Premier yearling sale, this year at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion on August 31, generates interest and sales for Ontario-breds and not just within the province.  Berringer said many American owners with Canadian trainers as well as American trainers who race in Canada shop the Premier sales. “If you’re racing up here, it’s good to have an Ontario-bred horse because it gives you eligibility to a substantial and lucrative incentive program and bonuses as well as a possible place in the Queen’s Plate with a million-dollar purse as well as other stakes races.” 

Probably surprising to U.S. buyers are Canadian exports to U.S. sales. “There are 100 to 150 yearlings that sell every year down in Kentucky that are Ontario-bred,” said Berringer.

If Ontario racing is highly aggressive among racing jurisdictions in its breeding programs and incentives, it is, quite frankly, because it has to be. The COVID pandemic provides a prime example. “COVID really knocked the industry down when there were no spectators. At least in the U.S., spectators were allowed and business went on. We didn’t have any of that.” Adding to empty grandstands, Ontario racing, which usually begins in April, was pushed back to a June start in both 2020 and 2021. American racing, for the most part, continued the same meet schedules in the COVID restrictions.

Of course, Ontario racing right now experiences the same issues facing other racing jurisdictions in the U.S. All have horse shortages. Ontario may be complimented, though, for creating a means to minimize the effect on field sizes and typically producing fields larger than that in the U.S. Berringer points to racing secretaries at Woodbine both adding conditions and combining them to draw more entries into races. A recent Saturday at Woodbine and Santa Anita showed 84 starters for 10 races at Woodbine (8.4 per race) and only 68 starters for the same number of races at Santa Anita (6.8).  

Another issue shared by Ontario with the U.S. is a chronic labor shortage. The situation may be more acute in Canada than in the U.S. with a smaller immigrant base from which to draw. “A lot of the people that come to Canada are from Barbados and Jamaica to work on the backstretch, and it’s getting more and more difficult to obtain work permits. It’s increased over COVID,” said Berringer. The U.S., by contrast, has Central and South American countries with larger populations that have traditionally supplied their horse industry. The impact can be seen, said Berringer, by some U.S. stables who formerly came to Ontario to race, no longer coming north.

Home-grown efforts are underway to address labor shortages. Berringer points to a new program that the Ontario government started this year, which trains people for the horse industry and then provides financial assistance for the continuation of training. He takes a wait-and-see attitude toward the impact it may have. “It’s hard to find people to do this work early in the morning.” That goes for both Ontario and the U.S. 

The one major difference between Canadian racing and American, and where Canadian racing is most lacking in comparison is with new owners. There is just not the population base or large enough body of families historically involved in racing in Canada as in the U.S. “Racing struggles with this everywhere and probably the creation of a large fractional owner syndicate, and introducing people to the sport and excitement of it all, hopefully, will encourage new participants and they’ll purchase more and invest more in the industry once they get a taste for it; but it’s a struggle to find new breeders and owners,” said Berringer. 

He noted that leading Canadian trainer Josie Carroll, along with other top trainers in the U.S., receives horses bought by MyRacehorse, a syndicate offering “micro shares” that has been successful both in terms of business and on the racetrack. MyRacehorse, still in relative infancy, was part owner of the 2020 Kentucky Derby winner, Authentic.

Canada’s horse industry, not surprisingly, is dependent on its larger neighbor to the south, with a much larger selection of stallions. “It used to be a couple of years ago; it was 70 percent local horses produced [in Ontario],” said Berringer. “Now, it’s a fifty-fifty split.” He added that it is a trend more attributable to a decrease in Ontario of local breeding participants than an increase in U.S. stallions. 

Quantity, however, does not necessarily dictate quality. Bigger purses divided by a smaller pool of horses, as cited in the opening of this story, improve the odds for earnings with Ontario horsemen and horsewomen. “You’ve got to put it in perspective. In Ontario, we’re probably producing just over 750 foals a year. Statistically, there’s a lot more money for our foals than a lot of other jurisdictions.”

A point of pride with Berringer and other Canadians in the horse industry is the success of Ontario-breds. Say the Word, Channel Maker, and Count Again, who recently won a Gr. 1 race in California are only three of many Ontario-breds succeeding on the racetrack. Recently retired Pink Lloyd, sired by Old Forester, is, perhaps, the biggest star of Ontario-breds. Career earnings totaled $2,455,430 and included five Sovereign Awards for Champion Male Springer and the 2017 Sovereign Award for Horse of the Year. Incredibly, his wins were in 26 stakes races. Let it not be forgotten as well that the dam of this year’s Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike is Gold Strike, Canada’s Sovereign Award Champion 3YO Filly in 2005.

The issue for Ontario racing isn’t good horses, apparently; it is just the need for more of them. With breeding programs, added racing for Ontario-breds, and the Premier sales, it won’t be for lack of trying. That especially holds true for Berringer, who is quick with a quip: “I still love horses and horse racing and still enjoy going home to the farm every day--ok most days--to work.  

Go Canada.

*Applications for the MPP and MRP by Ontario horsemen and horsewomen are available at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s website, cthsont.com, under “Breed” and then “Incentives.”

Jessica Buckley - Senior Vice President of Racing Operations - Woodbine and Woodbine Mohawk

By Alex Campbell

After the Woodbine Entertainment Group announced a reorganization of their senior leadership team in January, Jessica Buckley—the former president of the company’s Standardbred track, Woodbine Mohawk Park—was named Senior Vice President of Racing Operations for both Thoroughbred racing and Standardbred racing.

Buckley’s role of managing racing operations for two different breeds at the same time appears to be unique in North American racing. And while she has direct experience running a Standardbred racetrack, she also has strong roots in Thoroughbred racing in the province of Ontario. Buckley is the daughter of the late Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee Robert Anderson, who operated leading breeding operation, Anderson Farms, in St. Thomas, Ontario for more than 40 years. Buckley said she has fond memories growing up on the farm that produced the likes of 1992 Preakness Stakes runner-up Alydeed, and Canadian champions Larkwhistle, Prince Avatar and Fifty Proof.

“I couldn’t help but be interested in the horses,” she said. “I always knew how lucky I was to have horses like that in my backyard. It was a really great childhood growing up with the mares in foal. My first job on the farm was doing my homework in the barn, on foal watching in the evenings. I always loved the horses.”

Despite her love of horses, Buckley did not plan on having a career in the racing industry. She graduated from Western University in nearby London, Ontario in 1994, and had aspirations of becoming a television producer.

“I found myself graduating in the nineties in a recession and couldn’t find a job in the field that I was interested in at the time,” Buckley said. “They were hiring at Woodbine, so I took a position for the summer and that’s where my career in racing began.”

Buckley’s summer position at Woodbine in 1994 was in customer service, providing racetrack tours and information on how to place bets. From there, Buckley helped manage the launch of HorsePlayer Interactive—Woodbine’s account wagering service—in 1997.

“I got into the operations of the racetrack and racing and realized how fascinating it was and all of the opportunities that were there,” she said. “It was on the cusp of technology in the nineties, and there were a lot of projects on the go that were new and exciting to be involved with.”

Buckley remained with Woodbine until 2001, when an opportunity came up for her and her family to move to Pasadena, Calif., to join The Stronach Group for the launch of Xpressbet’s account wagering service there. Buckley remained with Xpressbet as the Director of Account Wagering until 2003, when she moved into television as the Director of Marketing for HRTV.

“That was the serendipity to me,” she said. “I had always been interested in television, and then ended up getting involved with the launch of HRTV. I wasn’t a producer, but I was involved on the marketing side and affiliate sales and distribution and getting our product distributed across the United States.”

Buckley remained with HRTV for more than nine years before leaving The Stronach Group in 2011. Her father had passed away in 2010, and she managed Anderson Farms with her brother, David Anderson, for a short period of time before Anderson bought out Buckley’s share in the farm.

Buckley’s father Robert was inducted in 2015 to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

“It was great working with my brother, and it certainly felt like we were closer with my dad and his legacy,” she said. “I was living in New Jersey at the time with my family. My brother was the brains on the breeding side and doing all of the work and making all of the really great decisions that he made back then that have now really paid off for him. He was the one really running with it and making the business succeed, and we just made the decision that he would buy me out and continue on running Anderson Farms.”

Buckley’s husband’s career wound up bringing the family back to Canada in 2013. Buckley was running a children’s winter accessory business when Woodbine offered her the role of Vice President of Community and Government relations in 2015.

“They were looking ahead to some exciting projects that were going to be happening,” she said. “They were working on a lot of things on the property development side and ways to sustain racing and create value and keep racing going for many, many years to come. I started speaking to them about it and then ended up coming back to help them initially with some government relations and community relations work, and things have evolved from there.”

In her role, Buckley was involved in a number of initiatives with all three levels of government as the horse racing industry in Ontario dealt with the fallout of the cancellation of the slots at racetracks program; and the evolving gaming landscape, as the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation sought to modernize their operations. Woodbine Entertainment was also looking to begin several development projects on their properties, including converting Woodbine Mohawk Park into a year-round Standardbred racing facility. In 2017, Buckley became the president of Woodbine Mohawk Park to lead that transition.

“The decision was made to move Standardbreds year-round to Mohawk, and there was gaming expansion happening as well with the new gaming partner,” she said. “We were creating a real destination for Standardbred racing, gaming and entertainment in the Halton Region.” 

Under Buckley’s leadership, Woodbine Mohawk Park successfully completed $10 million in capital improvements to allow for year-round racing, rebranded the track and hosted the 2018 Breeders’ Crown.

This past January saw Buckley change roles within the Woodbine senior leadership team. Buckley was named Senior Vice President of Standardbred Racing and Thoroughbred Racing, and will report directly to CEO Jim Lawson. Buckley said she is excited to be back involved with Thoroughbred racing again.

Training scenario under new regulations.

“It’s been a great challenge to take on the Thoroughbreds as well,” she said. “I’m much more familiar with Thoroughbred racing, and I feel much more comfortable in Thoroughbred racing than I certainly did in Standardbred racing when I first arrived at Mohawk. I had a very steep learning curve, but the people were absolutely fantastic.”

Buckley has been dealing with a unique challenge in just her first few months in her new role, as the horse racing industry and the world have dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. Woodbine Mohawk Park was able to race without spectators for two racing dates in March before having to cancel races indefinitely, while opening day for the Thoroughbreds at Woodbine (originally scheduled for April 18) was postponed. While some tracks, most notably Gulfstream Park and Oaklawn Park, have been able to continue to race during the pandemic, Buckley said a state of emergency issued by the government of Ontario had prevented Woodbine from being able to do the same.

“In the state of emergency declaration, we’re a non-essential business,” she said. “We tried to continue to race as long as we could with all of the safety protocols in place without spectators. We were doing so successfully, but then when the state of emergency was declared, we did close.”

Buckley said 1,100 Thoroughbreds were stabled on the Woodbine backstretch at the time the state of emergency was declared, and the track opted to keep the backstretch open as opposed to forcing horses off of the grounds.

“We made the decision that we would continue to keep the backstretch open for the health and welfare of the horses but that we wouldn’t be conducting any non-essential business activities,” she said. “It has been difficult to strike the right balance, but Jim Lawson has been very focused on keeping people safe, number one; and number two, making sure the horses have the ability to get out of their stalls every day and do some jogging and galloping on the track.”…

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Tony Gattellaro

By Alex Campbell

A love of pedigrees and buying horses eventually led Tony Gattellaro to a training career at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario.

The 33-year-old native of Aurora, Ontario, got exposed to horse racing through family ties to the sport. Gattellaro’s grandfather is owner and breeder Mike Nosowenko, and Tony’s father, Joe Gattellaro, owned horses. Gattellaro got an inside look at the sport of horse racing through his family’s ownership of racehorses as a young child and would even pretend to buy horses himself out of sales catalogs.

“As a kid, seeing the jockeys in colors and being around the racetrack and experiencing all of the excitement, I just kind of caught the bug at a young age,” he said. “My grandpa and my dad would put a sales book in my hand. Literally, I was eight or nine years old and I was playing with a sales book, memorizing stallion names and what not. That’s where I got that side of the bug in terms of pedigrees, sales and purchasing horses. I was doing mock sales purchases and following the horses.”

Gattellaro admitted that he lost a bit of interest in the sport for a brief period of time while growing up, as he spent time engaged in other activities. Gattellaro was participating in several different sports throughout his childhood, including hockey, lacrosse and golf. He would eventually make his way back to the sport in high school, however, thanks to a couple of horses, his grandfather owned, including stakes-placed horses Tacky Affair and Tamara.

“It wasn’t until later in high school that my grandpa had a couple of good horses. I just loved going to the track at that point to watch them and I kind of re-caught the bug that I had a young age. It just never went away from that point,” he said.

After high school, Gattellaro attended Fanshawe College in London, Ontario, and upon graduation he moved out west to figure out what he wanted to do. As the 2009 Kentucky Derby drew closer, Gattellaro decided that he wanted to pursue a career in horse racing, and reached out to a representative from the Canadian branch of Adena Springs in his hometown of Aurora for work.

“I kind of had that ‘aha’ moment where I just said this is what I need to be doing,” Gattellaro said. “That day, I sent an email to Dermot Carty at Adena Springs and said I wanted to get into the game. He asked if I could get there on Monday and I was there on Monday. I just interviewed with them and explained myself. I told them my background and they gave me a chance.”

Gattellaro said he began working with broodmares when he first started at Adena Springs but wound up working in a number of different departments on the farm, including in the racing department, before moving over to the breeding side selling stallion seasons. While working in the racing department, Gattellaro had the chance to work closely with accomplished trainers Sean Smullen and Jim Day, who both had an impact on Gattellaro’s training methodology.

“Both are great horsemen, have unbelievable resumes and have been a lot of places,” Gattellaro said. “Sean gave me a lot of patience. He’s really good at nurturing his horses and dealing with owners. Jim was more aggressive in my pursuit in believing in myself. He saw that I had the bug. When we were done with work, he would spend an hour or two talking about the old days. Even though it was a short time with Jim, I learned a lot from him just based on those talks that I had with him.”

Gattellaro said his main motivation for beginning to train was to have an opportunity to purchase horses.

“Being in Canada, it’s a different market than a lot of other places in the world where bloodstock agents aren’t really commonly used,” he said. “There’s maybe a handful of guys that control the bigger stables and have the bigger clients. My focus was on buying horses, and I had this realization that a lot of trainers here purchase horses for their clients. It was at that point that I shifted focus on learning to train and kind of looking towards that.”

Gattellaro was getting set to move back to the west coast again to work on a project with Andy Stronach when Stronach presented him with an opportunity to get into training.

“It was in a car ride there that we had a discussion,” Gattellaro said. “He presented me with an opportunity to give me some horses to learn how to train. It was a good opportunity because I didn’t want to just step into the deep end here at Woodbine. It’s my belief that you only have one chance to do it right. It was actually a perfect storm where I was able to train horses on the west coast and learn how to take care of horses and build my trade.”

Gattellaro spent three years on the west coast training horses at Portland Meadows, Hastings Racecourse, and Emerald Downs, and recorded eight wins from 115 starts to go along with 19 runner-up finishes and 16 third-place finishes between 2014 and 2016. Among the more memorable horses Gattellaro trained while out west included Dynasheals, who was Gattellaro’s first winner.

Gattellaro’s plan was always to return to Woodbine, and in 2016, he made his way back east after setting up a small breeding operation a few years prior. Among the first horses Gattellaro raced back at Woodbine were a pair of homebreds out of mares he had purchased while working at Adena Springs. Gattellaro’s first Woodbine starter, Hockey Hair, was out of Tetherette, while Fresh Princess was out of Kamaina Rose, a mare Gattellaro had purchased for $800 at the 2011 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society Ontario Division’s Winter Mixed Sale. At the time Gattellaro purchased her, Kamaina Rose was in foal to Macho Uno, and Gattellaro went on to sell that foal as a weanling for $20,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2013. Gattellaro said it was the sale of the weanling that really got his business off and running…

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Niall Collum - Canadian trainer profile

By Alex Campbell

Trainer Niall Collum brings plenty of experience at the highest level of international racing to his training program. The 46-year-old native of Clonmel, Ireland, now based at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada, has worked for major European operations Coolmore and Godolphin, and has traveled with their horses to some of the biggest races in the world, including the Breeders’ Cup, the Melbourne Cup, and races in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Japan.

His journey in the sport of horse racing started off when he was a 12-year-old in Ireland, riding horses at a pony camp. At 14, Collum got his first job in racing as a work rider for Irish trainer Pat Flynn. Collum not only rode horses in the mornings during training but also performed work around Flynn’s yard. It was that first job that kicked off Collum’s now more than 30-year racing career.

“I was offered a job for the summer with Pat Flynn, and I ended up staying there,” Collum said. “I didn’t go back to school and stuck with the horses to my parents’ horror. Back then, it was different too because we did everything. We rode out and we mucked out. You didn’t just ride the horses and go home. We’d have to do everything first hand.”

Collum had aspirations to be a flat jockey, but eventually grew to a point where that career wasn’t going to be possible. Although the flats weren’t an option, Collum continued working with Flynn for a little while longer before making a move to England to pursue a career as a steeplechase jockey.

“A guy who I knew said I would do very well to go to England,” Collum said. “I went to Toby Balding in England. He was a big jump trainer at the time. He said if I put my head down and worked hard, I’d get on there, which I did. I rode a nice few winners for him over the jumps. I rode my winners and everything, but things weren’t really taking off for me.”

Collum returned to Ireland and flat racing, joining Aidan O’Brien’s stable as a work rider. Collum knew O’Brien after spending some time working for O’Brien’s father-in-law, Joe Crowley, and worked with O’Brien and horses owned by Coolmore at Ballydoyle.

“I went back to him and spent five years there working with the best horses in the world and got to travel the world to all the big races,” Collum said. “It was a great experience, and I loved every bit of it.”

Collum spent five years working with O’Brien before looking for his next opportunity. This time, it was Godolphin who was expanding its operations, and Collum took the chance to work with them in both the United Kingdom and Dubai.

“After five years, you’re looking for something to freshen up, and the opportunity came up with Godolphin to go to Dubai,” Collum said. “They were getting big at the time. I got offered the job to go with them, and I did. We would spend the winters in Dubai and the summers in England. I think it was the best thing I ever did to be honest with you because it opened up a whole new world for me.”

Collum was once again a work rider with Godolphin, but his connections in Dubai and his prior experiences in Ireland would help him get into training. Collum worked for Godolphin for six years before making the switch to training and caught on with Eddie Kenneally, serving as an assistant trainer at Belmont Park in New York. He worked for Kenneally for a year before deciding it was time to go off on his own. Collum set up a racing syndicate and purchased horses to train, but ran into an immigration issue that would throw his career into turmoil.

Collum had traveled with his then girlfriend and now wife, Andrea Dube-Collum, to Montreal, Canada for a weekend getaway. Following the trip, Collum was denied entry upon his return to the United States, putting his syndicate in jeopardy.

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In conversation with Jim Lawson - Mr Woodbine

By Giles Anderson

Jim Lawson has literally grown up with Woodbine Racetrack, he was born in the same year that the track opened in 1956. Today Lawson assumes the roles of CEO of Woodbine Entertainment Group, Chairman of Ontario Racing, as well as chairing the board of governors of the Canadian Football League. He recently sat down with Giles Anderson to discuss the future direction and goals for racing and the Woodbine facility in the years to come.

It would be fair to say that you came to racing through a sporting injury and looking back your career may have well evolved on ice.

Yes, I played US College Hockey at Brown University in Rhode Island. By 1978 I was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens. I left school early, I had enough credits to graduate but had an injury-prone two and a half years in their organisation, with many issues. Ultimately, I retired and went to law school, and when I went to law school, like a lot of people, I thought ‘wouldn't it be great if I could do sports law, or be a player agent, or whatever?’ And of course you soon realise that you need that foundation of law and legal contracts, so I ended up  doing commercial law for the most part.

So here I am, 30 years later, being in a position where I am with the Canadian Football League. Even though I was a hockey player, I always had a passion regarding football and horse racing. My dad had Thoroughbred horses from the time I was six or seven years old, so I used to come out here 1965, 1966, when I was 10 years old. He ran a modest stable, but a successful stable. He was a great student of the game and I think he won 67 stakes races here with a very modest stable over the years and he's in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

So I spent my early years around Woodbine and also studying bloodlines.

So how did you end up working for Woodbine?

Mostly because of the clients through my work at a major downtown Toronto law firm and as I'd spent a lot time around Woodbine, the board was aware of me. They initially asked me to come on the board to look after the 700 acres of land that they had here. So I joined the board and then I evolved into being chairman of the board in 2012.

Then in 2015, when the CEO stepped down, the board asked me to step in and, here I am. I've gone from chairman to CEO here now, but I have a big background, as I said, in horse racing and a big part of what we're doing today is real estate development.

How many teams make up the Canadian Football League?

There are nine teams. We're looking to expand it, Halifax to be a tenth team, but there are currently five teams in the west and four teams in the east. Montreal, and Toronto, and Hamilton and Ottawa and as I said, potentially an expansion team in Halifax, so a lot of teams across the country.

“THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE WE HAVE IS TWO-FOLD AND THEY’RE RELATED. AND THAT IS AN AGEING DEMOGRAPHIC IN BOTH SPORTS.”

Why do you think has there not been as much expansion in the last five years as much as there has been of teams in soccer?

Well, that's a good question. In football, the biggest, I think, single achievement is the renewal of capital investment in the stadiums, which has been a big plus. There's been a completely renovated stadium in Toronto, a brand new stadium in Hamilton, a completely renovated stadium in Ottawa, a new stadium in Saskatchewan, a new stadium in Winnipeg. So the biggest achievement, I think, is the reinvestment of capital to keep the league in good shape in the sense that it's very much a gate-driven league as opposed to many other sports, which are television revenue driven. We do have the television contract with TSN and we have good ratings on the sports network, which is a Bell Globe Media property. But I think the biggest thing that the league has done is reinvested itself and set itself up for a strong future.

Do you see a big crossover from what you’ve learned about football into racing?

The biggest challenge we have is two-fold and they're related. And that is an ageing demographic in both sports. Our core customer is probably that 50-year-old to 70-year-old male. I think we're doing a good job in horse racing because of our food and beverage experience and the cost of having a good experience here. We're making great strides in bringing up that younger customer. But our real core wagering customer fits in that 50 to 70-year-old demographic.

Woodbine’s vision for the future

The same is true in the Canadian Football League, it may well be true in the golf world and the tennis world, and so that is a real challenge to see and it is actually of interest for me to see how both organizations from the marketing partnerships approach that. And then secondly the challenge in both sports has been the consumption of the sport and what I mean is that the Canadian Football League is a gate-driven league, while in order to get people interested in horseracing, you really need to get them here and see the horses and feel the horses and just the excitement.

In both cases now, in a large part on the football side the evolution, it's not just overnight, it's the last 15, 20, 25 years depending on your measure of the large screen TVs that sit in everyone's den or family room. People want to consume sports in luxury, and television has done a great job with production, with slow motion and replays and analysis and making that television experience so great, so that a lot of people would rather than sitting out in colder weather, they'd rather sit in home in the comforts of their den or family room, watching television on a big screen TV. The same thing for horse racing, really. We have, for business purposes, made it very accessible to wager on horse racing through the internet. People don't have to come out here any more and that's a challenge.

So we've got a couple of sports there where, because of technological advances and just raising the level the game of how we distribute our content in both cases, you're challenged in terms of getting people interested. People are only going to invest in horses if they are out here and they get the excitement of the game. We need new owners, we need new breeders and you're not going to get that from people who are gambling over the internet, you're going to get that from people who come out here and say, "Wow, I love this, wouldn't it be fun to own a horse."

And the same with football, you need to get them out to the game to experience it and meet the players and see the players. One of the challenges with football, especially in Canada with so many sports coming - soccer has grown huge, or European football, shall we say - I think that one of the things we need to do with football is to get youth playing it and the likelihood of that happening is if they can get out to the games and feel the excitement, and watch it and meet the players.

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Spreading the joy of ownership

By Linda Dougherty

NEW Blood - examples of how farms, tracks and trainers are attracting new owners to the racing world

The lifeblood of Thoroughbred racing has always been its owners, and in recent years there have been many creative ways to attract newcomers to the sport, as well as retain those already in it.

Rather than sitting back and waiting for new clients to seek their services, trainers have taken a proactive role in bolstering their business, often in partnership with farms and racetracks, while industry organizations are increasingly focused on providing a plethora of information as well as assistance to prospective owners.

“From what I see, the number of owners in Thoroughbred racing is staying the same or decreasing,” said Duncan Taylor, president of Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky. “And people that you want to stay in the business often don’t stay very long. They get frustrated with the status quo and there’s an ‘old guard’ in Kentucky that don’t want to change.”  

Taylor, who serves on Keeneland’s Board of Directors and the Keeneland Executive Board, is also a board member of Horse Country, Inc., an organization of horse farms, equine medical clinics and equine attractions, the aim of which is to develop fans and future owners of the sports through tourism. For a small fee, people can sign up for tours of Lexington-area farms on the web site visithorsecountry.com.

“Kentucky is in a prime spot,” said Taylor. “And where Lexington is situated is about a six-to-eight hour drive of three-quarters of the United States population. We have the Bourbon Trail here, and tours of distilleries are very popular. About 2-½ years ago myself, Headley Bell, Price Bell, Brutus Clay and others thought we should have a similar venture for the Thoroughbred industry. We started Horse Country, and we feel Kentucky can be a destination for travelers. Our first year we had about 1,800 people sign up for tours here at Taylor Made, while this year we’re looking at about 9,000, so it’s growing. We could have even bigger growth if marketed correctly.

“Of those 9,000 people, maybe 40 are interested in doing something, so we plant the seeds in people’s minds about ownership,” said Taylor.

Taylor Made has branched out into other areas to attract new owners, including a pinhooking venture with Bloodstock Investments, run by Katie Taylor-Marshall, and Medallion Racing, a racing partnership with the aim of offering an ideal experience for potential owners. Medallion, headed by racing manager Phillip Shelton, buys minority interest in graded stakes-caliber fillies, immediately bringing investors to the graded stakes level.

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Duncan Taylor, president Taylor Made Farm, with California Chrome

Taylor said there have been discussions about doing something, perhaps a syndicate, with progeny of Classic winner California Chrome, who stands at Taylor Made, but there isn’t anything on the table right now. The farm partnered with journalist Geoffrey Gray when he started the “People’s Horse” venture, which had 300 people sign up for $100 each and became “owners” of the Munnings mare Colorful Bride, in foal to the stallion.

The birth of the Chrome foal was broadcast live on a “horsecam” that streamed around-the-clock from Colorful Bride’s stall, with an estimated 1,000 people watching.

Taylor also feels that if the sport wants to get new fans and owners, it needs to treat horseplayers better.

“Years ago, there wasn’t as much competition for the betting dollar,” he said. “Now we’re competing against casinos, which really cater to customer service. Racing doesn’t focus on people who want to bet, and we haven’t been innovative on changing how you bet. Most people that bet the lottery want to put a little money down and have a life-changing experience. We ought to think like that. If we can get on the same web site or platform as sports betting, if someone sees they can bet baseball, football and horse racing, it could help us tremendously. We can’t keep doing business as usual.”

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Trainer Profile: Brad Cox

By Joe Nevills

Between the first of April and the first of July, Brad Cox saw the kind of career progression most trainers spend a lifetime trying in vain to achieve.

April started with Cox picking up his first Grade 1 win after Monomoy Girl conquered the Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. He finished the prestigious meet tied with Wesley Ward as the leading trainer by wins.

May saw the trainer and Monomoy Girl grab global headlines with a game victory in the Kentucky Oaks. In June, Cox found a new gear, adding another Grade 1 win with Monomoy Girl in the Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park, and another Grade 1 winner when Long On Value took the Highlander Stakes at Woodbine. Cox finished the month as the leading trainer of the Churchill Downs spring meet by earnings.

At age 38, with a stable of about 100 horses spread across four tracks, Cox has laid the groundwork to entrench himself among North America’s leading trainers for a long time to come. What will keep him there is his commitment to training like he’s still got 15 horses in his barn.

“We’re grinding every day,” Cox said. “We have a very good team assembled.”

Louisville upbringing

In the aftermath of Monomoy Girl’s Kentucky Oaks win, much was made of Cox’s local ties to Louisville, Kentucky. The story has become almost boilerplate when writing about the trainer at length: Cox grew up just two blocks from the Churchill Downs property, in a white house at 903 Evelyn Avenue in Louisville’s Wyandotte neighborhood. His father, Jerry Cox, a forklift driver at a local factory, took his son to the track as a child and the younger Cox caught the racing bug so severely, it became a career path.

The trainer admitted he does not often drive by to check on the house, just a stone’s throw off of Longfield Avenue, even though he is at the track nearly every day. His parents moved out a half-decade ago. Jerry died in 2016, and Mary resides in another part of town. However, the trainer’s reasons are less about sentiment and more about logistics.

“It’s kind of by Gate 10 (an entrance to the track’s parking lot]) and I go in and out of Gate 5 (the backstretch entrance),” he said.

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What makes Cox’s success somewhat unique is that he is not a generational horseman. His father was noted in many stories for his affinity toward betting on Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day, but no one in the family had hands-on experience with horses to pass on to Brad. When he made his way on to the Churchill backstretch for the first time as a teenager, Cox started with a built-in handicap.

Cox made up for the lost time in spades by paying attention and being punctual. He hotwalked and worked as a groom for a handful of trainers on the Louisville backside, including Frank Brothers and William “Jinks” Fires. He relished the grunt work, slowly gaining the trust of his bosses and working his way up their ranks.

“It’s a tough business,” Cox said. “As far as coming to work every day, I enjoyed it. I had no problem getting up in the mornings. It wasn’t a job for me, and it’s still not a job for me. It’s something I love to do. I’ve always said getting up seven days a week is half the battle.”

Years later, Cox is now an equal to the trainers that gave him his start. Fires said he speaks with Cox regularly and considers him a friend.

“He’s gone on and become successful,” Fires said. “He pretty much did it himself. He had that work ethic to go on, and that’s what people do. When they want to, they go on, and he did it.”

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Norm McKnight - Woodbine's Leading Trainer

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