Last chance to buy Going Commando yearling

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 18/08/2022 (762 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The last Going Commando yearling ever to be sold at public auction goes through the sales ring Sunday, and she’ll carry a piece of Charlie Fouillard with her for the rest of her life. She was bred and born at Fouillard’s farm in St. Lazare, Man., and spent her early days romping around the Fouillard fields with mom.

The annual Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale takes place on Sunday on the Red River Ex Grounds beginning at 2:30 p.m. and the last Going Commando is Hip No. 28, consigned by Manitoba’s leading breeder, Ziprick Thoroughbreds. Viewing begins Saturday morning at 10 a.m.

Going Commando has been Manitoba’s leading sire for the past 10 years and he’s now retired. He’s been plying his trade for Ziprick Thoroughbreds and Charlie Fouillard at Fouillard’s Farm ever since he arrived in Manitoba, with Fouillard handling most of the breeding and foaling duties while Cam and Sherisse Ziprick raise the yearlings.

That’s proven to be a match made in heaven, with both Ziprick Thoroughbreds and Fouillard more than capable of handling everything required to raise top quality thoroughbreds such as millionairess Escape Clause and champions including Hidden Grace, Melisandre and Why So Blue, among numerous other local stars and stakes horses in Manitoba.

Both Cam Ziprick and his wife, Sherisse, and Charlie Fouillard and his wife, Karen, had kids in hockey and being on the road for days at a time led to the couples helping each other with the horses when one or the other couldn’t be home. It was a perfect situation, and as good as it gets in the horse business. Horses require daily care, and if you can get quality people who know how to take care of them when you can’t be there, you’ve scored.

Fouillard grew up on a dairy farm in St. Lazare and now owns the tire shop in the same town, as well as a farm in the area where the Assiniboine and Qu’Appelle rivers meet. He’s owned horses all his life and started out breeding high-quality quarter horses before switching to thoroughbreds more than 15 years ago. He claimed a mare with fellow breeder Larry Falloon, which led to breeding to a stallion at Ziprick’s farm in Russell,Man., Battle Cat, and there’s been a steady stream of stakes winners from the Fouillard-Ziprick partnership ever since.

Hip No. 28 is a bay filly by Going Commando-Talkn Til Midnight by Broken Vow, and she is sure to attract attention from buyers, as the last of four Going Commando yearlings in the sale. Before she goes through the sales ring, buyers will have the opportunity to bid on the last Going Commando colt ever to be in a yearling sale (Hip No. 8), and two other fillies (Hip No. 10 and Hip No. 27).

There are 34 yearlings in this year’s sale by eight different stallions for 15 different consignors, and any one of them could be a runner. It seems there’s always a bargain somewhere in the sale and finding them could be as easy as a Seabiscuit glance from a horse that catches your eye. It pays to do your homework, but don’t ever underestimate your instincts and intuition either.

Over the past few years, racehorses have become hot commodities that can not only earn money in racing, but also go on to successful careers in the show ring and otherwise. The local CTHS has a very lucrative bonus and stakes program for Manitoba-breds, and Canadian-breds have millions of dollars in restricted stakes they can compete for.

This above combined with the excellent purse structure in place at Assiniboia Downs — thanks to incredible wagering numbers and loyal fans — are the signs of a healthy and improving industry, and the 2021 yearling sale set new records.

The yearlings by Going Commando are going to have many lookers, as they should. They’ve been raised right by Fouillard and the Zipricks. Grain every day summer and winter, all the hay they can eat, fresh clean water that springs from the depths of a healthy Manitoba landscape — even during a drought — along with shelter and companionship from both humans and horses. You’ll see it when you look at them, and it’s the reason Ziprick Thoroughbreds have been the leading consignor at the local sale for too many years to count.

But other Manitoba breeders know how to raise a good horse too, and if we had to pick just one that we just have to see besides the Going Commandos it would be Hip No. 16, consigned by Kelly Halliday, who also has Hip No. 15 in the sale. Hip No. 15 is a bay half-brother to game local champion Langara by proven sire Kentucky Bear. Hip No. 16 is a filly by Kentucky Bear that features the same pedigree pattern that produced Langara.

When you look at the horses, think about the blood, sweat, tears and love that went into raising them. When we visited Fouillard’s farm last week and he walked out into the field with the broodmares and babies, they gathered around him like he was their quarterback. He belonged there.

And they win for him.