Jackpots hit on and off the track

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This article was published 25/08/2022 (755 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jackpots were hit by more than one person over the past week at Assiniboia Downs, and not just at the betting windows.

Breeder Kelly Halliday sold the sales topper in last Sunday’s Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale for $25,000 and had his best sale ever with all six of his yearling selling for a total of $65,750. Halliday, who lives on a farm in Manitoba east of Yorkton, Sask., has been breeding horses for decades, and his father was doing the same before that.

Many can still remember when Halliday would bring yearlings to the local sale that brought less than $1,000 or no bids at all.

“There were a few lean years,” said the 46-year-old Halliday, who rents his farmland out and works full time as a technician at Access Communications. “My wife Kim and three boys (aged five, 12, 16) help me with the horses, and if it wasn’t for Cam (Ziprick) and Charlie (Fouillard) I don’t know if I could have kept going in the breeding business. They’ve been very good to me, selling me their older mares over the years and helping me with advice. Most of the mares I have came from them. I’m humbled, grateful and thankful.”

All of the yearlings Halliday sold at this year’s sale were by Kentucky Bear, a son of multiple Grade 3 stakes winner Mr. Greely, who also showed his class by finishing second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint. Already a proven sire, Kentucky Bear is owned by Ziprick Thoroughbreds and Charlie Fouillard and stands at Fouillard’s farm in St. Lazare along with their new stallion Speculating. A son of multiple Grade 1 winner Medaglia d’ Oro, Speculating’s first crop of weanlings looks dynamite and are currently beautifying the landscape of Western Manitoba with the stamped looks of their grandfather.

Ziprick Thoroughbreds led all consignors at the sale, selling six of their eight yearlings for a total of $75,500 including three of the last four yearlings by Manitoba’s leading sire for the past 10 years, Going Commando. This sale was the last chance to buy a yearling by Going Commando, who has now been retired after the best stud career ever seen in Manitoba, siring numerous stakes winners including Canadian champion mare and millionairess Escape Clause.

Hip #8 was the only Going Commando gelding in the sale and he was bought back by consignors Jerry Lambert and Lynn Matthews, but the three Going Commando fillies consigned by Ziprick Thoroughbreds, Hip #s 10, 27 and 28 sold for $7,000, $17,000 and $20,000 respectively. Arnason Farms bought Hip #10 and #28 and Hip #27 was purchased by A2 Thoroughbreds. Barry Arnason, the owner of Arnason Farms and one of Manitoba’s top owners and breeders, also bought Hip #33 from the Halliday consignment for $6,750.

Hip #15, the sales-topping gelding by Kentucky Bear, was purchased by Manitoba breeder Gary Naherniak and partners for $25,000. The half-brother to Manitoba champion Langara is also a full-brother to Monday’s $40,000 CTHS Sales Stakes winner I Love My Life. Trained by Lise Pruitt, owned by Arnason Farms and bred by Cam Ziprick and Charles Fouillard, I Love My Life sold as a yearling in last year’s sale for $16,000. Halliday bought his dam Midnight Shadow from Ziprick and Fouillard when I Love My Life was still a weanling.

Seventeen of the 32 yearlings offered at the sale sold for total receipts of $170,150 and an average price of $10,008, compared to the 2021 sale, in which 22 of 34 yearlings sold for total receipts of $209,800 and an average of $9,526.

There were a number of stakes and overnight stakes over the past week that also included a racing rarity when Manitoba-bred champions and full-sisters Hidden Grace, a six-year-old mare, and Melisandre, a four-year-old filly, ran 1-2 in the $20,000 Distaff Trial on Wednesday evening. Trained by Lise Pruitt, the sisters are by Going Commando-High Pioneer by Pioneering, and were bred in Manitoba by Cam Ziprick, Charles Fouillard and Barry Arnason. Between them they have now earned over $500,000 from 34 victories including numerous stakes.

In other stakes action, Itsthattime won the Elite Mercedes Overnight Stakes on Tuesday for trainer Mike Nault and True North Thoroughbreds with Chavion Chow up; Spun Line won the Portales Overnight Stakes on Monday for trainer Jared Brown and owners Ira Donald and Kane Kachur, with leading rider Jorge Carreno in the irons; and Manitoba-bred McKague took the 47^th running of the $40,000 Phil Kives Stakes for trainer Carl Anderson and owner/breeder Nearco Ltd., with Stanley Chadee Jr. in the saddle. The 5-year-old gelding has now earned over $100,000 from a record of 6-5-5 from 17 starts, benefitting from exceptional management by his trainer and owner.

On the betting side, one lucky ticket holder took down the whole Jackpot Hi 5 pool on Monday night at the Downs with a 20-cent ticket that cost them $22.80 on the Twin Spires betting platform. The winning ticket paid US$78,873. How good would it feel to cash a ticket like that for twenty bucks? Someone will likely be taking a nice holiday this winter after that windfall.

That’s exactly what Kelly Halliday plans to do with his family after the best sale of his life, and why not, he earned it, grinding it out in the breeding trenches for decades.

“His father would be very proud of him right now,” said his wife Kim.