CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – The Atlantic breeding season is kicking into high gear with mares across the region expected to foal in the coming days and weeks.
The Atlantic Sires Stakes has a healthy roster of 22 stallions paid into the program for this year’s breeding season with an all-time low of just two trotting stallions to choose from. Meridian Farms of Milton is the only game in town for the trotting breed with Armbro Barrister and Tad The Stud the lone choices in the program.
Tad The Stud is turning into the dominant trotting sire in the region with three of the top three-year-olds in the Atlantic Sires Stakes program, including the undefeated Pappy Go Go and top stakes competitors Wicked Nick and Majian Tango. Red Shores at the Summerside Raceway and Charlottetown Driving Park two-year-old track record holder Buckaroo is also a son of Tad The Stud with the sophomore now prepping for his 2018 campaign for trainer Marc Campbell. Tad The Stud bred 37 mares during the 2017 breeding season.
Armbro Barrister is heading into his fifth year as a stallion on the East Coast after breeding 19 mares in 2017. Amrbro Barrister just had his first crop hit the track in 2017 as two-year-olds with his credits including triple crown winner Windemere Dontuworry and talented rookie Ticked, who passed away late in the season.
Missing from stallion action on the trotting side, after being paid into the program in 2017, are Striking Lindsey and Black River.
Stood by Garth and Sandra Cole of Kensington, Black River bred two mares in 2017 and 2016. The now 21-year-old Black River previously sired some of the top competitors in the Maritimes Stakes circuit with horses like Maple Leaf Noble, Dunmore TCB, Maple Leaf Quix, Dunmore Alpha and Dunmore TKO.
Striking Lindsey stood his inaugural season on the East Coast in 2016 breeding eight mares and having a resulting six foals that will be show up at the yearling sale this coming fall. Striking Lindsey stood at Blaine MacPherson’s Howmac Farm in North Wiltshire but bred just two mares in 2017 and is no longer apart of the program.
We will take a look at the more populated pacing side next week.
P.E.I. Scene
The P.E.I. Standardbred Horse Owner’s Association annual awards banquet is set for Saturday, April 14, at the Murphy Centre in Charlottetown.
The guests of the evening will be U.S. horse people Hannah and Erv Miller. Erv is perennially one of the top trainers in North American harness racing with more than 5,100 wins and $80 million in purse money, while his daughter Hannah is a top international amateur driver with 95 wins and $400,000 earned in prize money. Erv Miller’s son, Marcus Miller, was in P.E.I. in August representing the United States in the World Driving Championship.
The awards banquet has a reception at 6:30 p.m., with dinner and awards to follow at 7 p.m. Tickets will be available at the Charlottetown Veterinary Clinic and from any board member.
Nicholas Oakes' column appears in The Guardian each Friday. He can be reached at [email protected].
