The best Christmas gift, at least an early one, that owner/trainer Brent MacGrath could have asked for came true when his Weigh The Odds received a favourable post position in one of two $25,000 Valedictory Stakes eliminations set for this Saturday evening at Woodbine Racetrack.

MacGrath, the man who campaigned the incomparable Somebeachsomewhere to superstardom, is hoping Weigh The Odds, a three-year-old son of Bettors Delight, can rebound from an off-key performance in his last race, an eighth-place effort on December 12 at Woodbine.

Getting Post 5 for his Valedictory elim certainly increased his chances at getting back into winning form.

“Well, I think I’ve been a good boy, so a nice post was just what I was hoping for,” said MacGrath, in reference to what his three-time winner from nine starts would benefit most from. “He’s the type of horse who likes to be in the mix early. We wanted him to be prominent early in his last start and it didn’t pan out. It was a brisk opening quarter (:25.4), a horse broke stride in front of him…it just didn’t go his way.”

John and Tom Cancelliere of New Jersey have not only purchased the the full brother to Somebeachsomewhere, they have also collared the highest priced yearling in standardbred sale history.

Hip 203, Detour Hanover – the first full brother to the phenomenal racehorse and sire Donato Hanover, was sold for a record $825,000. The Cancellieres reportedly outbid trainer Staffan Lind on the Andover Hall – D Train colt.

Earlier in the sale the duo obtained Hip 120 Some Of The Beach (Mach Three – Wheres The Beach) for $430,000 – the highest price ever paid for an Ontario-sired yearling. Cancelliere was the underbidder on Hitting The Cycle, the Somebeachsomewhere yearling that sold at Lexington last month for $450,000 – the highest priced pacing yearling colt in harness racing history.

SOURCE: Standardbred Canada

For those that prefer not to wait for mail delivery, the entire catalogue for the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale is now available on the sales company’s website. This year’s sale is scheduled for October 3-7 at Lexington’s Fasig-Tipton Pavilion, and, as always, will be held in conjunction with the Grand Circuit meet at the Red Mile.

PDF files of yearling catalogue pages may be downloaded from the website [CLICK HERE] by individual horse or by sale session. There are also indices by sire, by dam, and by consignor.

Brent MacGrath

Talk about getting out of the gates in great fashion. This past Saturday marked the initial edition of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes (previously called the Burlington Stakes) at Mohawk Racetrack. The Pepsi North America Cup prep race was renamed in honour of the harness rascing great Somebeachsomewhere, who was trained and co-owned by Brent MacGrath.

Somebeachsomewhere, Canada’s Horse of the Year in both 2007 and 2008, kicked off his outstanding three-year-old campaign with a tour de force victory in the Burlington in 2008.

A resident of Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, MacGrath was on hand this past Saturday for the winner’s circle festivities.

WEG’s media department had a chance to catch up with the veteran trainer. To watch the video interview with MacGrath, please click here.

For the purists who passionately follow harness racing the racing season officially gets under way tonight at Mohawk Racetrack.

There will be three divisions of the Somebeachsomewhere Stakes for many of North America’s best three-year-old pacing colts. This marks the first year for the event, which was previously known as the Burlington Stakes; but was changed in honour of one of the greatest — if not the greatest — pacing horse ever.

Someheartsomewhere, a three-year-old full sister to the great Somebeachsomewhere, recorded her third consecutive qualifying victory Thursday, May 26 at Pocono Downs. Owned by Ronald Michelon of Northbrook, Illinois and John Carver of Rapids City, Illinois, Someheartsomewhere (Mach Three–Wheres The Beach) went sent forth to Post 4 during Pocono’s fourth qualifying dash of the morning.

Stu Rath

Stu Rath is a well-known Truro businessman who will be recognized tonight with the Truro and District Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Today is a sad day in Winbak Farm history. Last night the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame and Canadian Hall of Fame mare, Classic Wish, passed away during foaling. She gave birth to a Somebeachsomewhere colt. The colt survived and is doing well.

Classic Wish earned $436,000 and was time-trialed in 1:52 during her race career. After her retirement from the racetrack, she came to Winbak Farm and had her first foal, Bettors Delight, the 2000 Breeders Crown Winner and 2001 Little Brown Jug winner.

TRURO – Stu Rath has been named the Truro and District Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achievement Award winner for 2011. The annual award recognizes a lifetime of accomplishments in the local business and charitable communities.

“Stu Rath is an institution in the local business community,” says chamber president Chantale Hache. “His involvement and success serve as a shining example of what can be accomplished with drive and determination.”

For more than 50 years, Rath’s name has been widely known in the local business community. He has been involved in a number of companies and ventures including the Truro Junior “A” Bearcats, Truro Centre, Halifax Cablevision, Eastern Cablevision and Stuco Holdings Ltd. His community involvement ranges from being on the boards of Nova Scotia Business Inc, the Colchester Regional Development Agency and the Truro Industrial Development Society to being involved with a number of charitable organizations over the years, including the United Way, Camp Triumph, the To Our Health Campaign for a new regional hospital in Colchester and the Ignite the Spirit Campaign for a new civic centre. Rath was also involved in Schooner Stable, which owned the highly-successful race horse “SomebeachSomewhere.”

The award will be officially presented to Rath at the Truro and District Chamber of Commerce’s annual dinner on March 31. The award is presented by the Truro and District Chamber of Commerce with support from the Business Development Bank of Canada.

For more information on the dinner, visit www.trurochamber.com

Ernie Martinez will never ever forget the time he suggested to his friend Stephanie Smith-Rothaug that she have a look at a Beach Towel mare who was in foal to Astreos. They were at the Harrisburg Sales at the time and the well known American harness racing owner and breeder said if the sale didn’t work out he would even buy it off her.

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Stephanie Smith-Rothaug, who owns Rails Ridge Farm, always felt Somebeachsomewhere would be a nice racehorse. “The mare didn’t have a problem foal and he was the prefect colt right from the beginning. He was a very athletic type who as a yearling would bite his two field mates and always want to be vigorous and run around after a workout. He was very intelligent, the sort of horse you only had to teach him once and he could do it,” Smith-Rothaug said.

When she went to sell him at the yearling sales Smith-Rothaug said she would have been happy just to fetch the price of the sire’s fee $7,500. She got $40,000.

via Somebeachsomewhere Stakes Set For Mohawk | Standardbred Canada.

The interview with Dr. Bridgette Jablonsky, Farm Manager for Hanover Shoe Farms, airs at 12:00 p.m. Atlantic Time. Jablonsky provides an update on ‘Beach’ and discusses a few interesting facts about the popular stallion that was named CBC News-Nova Scotia Newsmaker of the Year.

Visit the CBC website for more.

Somebeachsomewhere trainer MacGrath buys son of legendary pacer

TRURO – He looks a lot like his father and Brent MacGrath is hoping Sepia Sands paces like him too.

The Truro resident bought the seven-month-old weanling son of legendary Somebeachsomewhere at the recent Harrisburg Sale in Pennsylvania for $32,000. When the trainer first laid eyes on Sepia Sands, it was almost like déjà vu.

“I really like the look of him. He looks a lot like ‘Beach,” MacGrath said. “His colour and his shoulders, he’s quite athletic looking.”

Arguably the greatest harness racing pacer of the modern era has sired his first foal in New Zealand. A colt by Mach Three stallion Somebeachsomewhere from L’Oiseau De Nuit, by Christian Cullen, found it’s way into the world at Arden Lodge in Tapanui, the property of John Stiven. Somebeachsomewhere served a large number of mares in the US and North America, but down under has a very small number of mares in foal, and is only available via frozen semen through Alabar Stud. The son of Mach Three stands at $16,000 AUS.

Not only will Saturday night’s card at Western Fair Raceway be the richest in the history of the London, Ont. track, it will also be one of the busiest, as several special features have been added to complement the eight $100,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Championship races on track.

A handicapping contest is now underway on the Western Fair Facebook page. The winners will receive the Somebeachsomewhere coffee table photo book.

It’s 34 years ago today that the Meadowlands opened its doors and night-time mile track harness racing was introduced to the Metropolitan area of New York for the first time.

Here’s a brief look at the highlights through the eyes of ‘Hollywood’ Bob Heyden from each year since.

Here’s what you get when you cross one the most heralded pacers in the history of standardbred racing with one of the great broodmares of all time.

Hanover Shoe Farms recently welcomed a bay colt to its nursery – a colt from the first crop of World Champion Somebeachsomewhere, and out of the highly regarded broodmare Rich N Elegant. Worth noting is the fact that both the sire and the dam were inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2009.

The colt, who was foaled on June 5, 2010, is the product of an embryo transfer from Rich N Elegant, who has produced over $8.4 million in progeny earnings with three sub-1:50 performers.

She has produced the 2005 Horse of the Year Rocknroll Hanover p,3,1:48.3m $3,069,093. This colt is also a half-brother to Royalflush Hanover p,1:49.3m $2,182,205, Rustler Hanover p,3,1:51m $971,638, Red River Hanover p,3,1:48.4m $1,394,626, Richess Hanover p,2,1:50.3m $557,537 and BJs Canouan p,2,1:54m $109,412.

Don’t expect another miracle from Weigh the Odds, says trainer MacGrath

Common wisdom tells us it’s one of the most unlikely occurrences; something that happens only to the insanely lucky.

Some say Brent MacGrath had his windfall with Somebeachsomewhere, his legendary pacer that became arguably the greatest standardbred of all time with 20 wins in 21 starts and more than $3 million in earnings.

And the MacGraths would agree with those people.

Brent MacGrath pats his newest horse Weigh the Odds on the nose while taking the two-year-old colt for a walk recently at the barns at Truro Raceway. MacGrath, who trained world champion Somebeachsomewhere, is hoping Weigh the Odds can qualify to race in.

While these two horses will never meet on the track and pedigree predicts they’ll never meet in the breeding shed, the battle for supremacy among two potential future stars of harness racing has already begun.

Hanover Shoe Farms recently posted this video with two highly touted foals of 2010. The first in the video is the Andover Hall-D Train full brother to 2007 U.S. Horse Of The Year Donato Hanover. The second weanling (with the lighter bay colour) is the foal of 2008 North American Horse of the Year Somebeachsomewhere and 2001 U.S. Horse Of The Year Bunny Lake.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For the second straight year, harness racing’s Racehorse of the Decade Somebeachsomewhere’s book is full and closed and features some of the top pacing mares in the sport.

The Hanover Shoe Farms stallion’s highly anticipated first crop of foals are already making headlines. With the talented group of broodmares featured in the second crop, the 2011 foals will likely follow suit.

Mares booked to Somebeachsomewhere in 2010 include millionaires Armbro Amoretto, Bunny Lake, Cabrini Hanover, Galleria, Illusionist, Loyal Opposition, Restive Hanover, Stonebridge Kisses and Tricky Tooshie.

The full list is as follows:

Adela Hanover
Als Girl
Allamerican Cool
Allamerican Hope
Allamerican Toffee
Always Cam
Amber Blue Chip
Anza Hanover
Appleoosa Hanover
Armbro Amoretto
Armbro Ophelia
Armbro Romance
Artaffection
Babe Ruthless
Backstreet Sweetie
Benear
Best Chance Hanna
Best Of Memories
Bette Blue Chip
Binions
Bjs Canouan
Blahjos
Boldnbrash Hanover
Born Storyteller
Born To Rock
Break Of Day
Bunny Lake
Cabrini Hanover
Caitlin Q
Calgary Hanover
Career Artist
Carmelita Hanover
Castaway Hanover
Caviart Cameron
Caviart Sierra
Caviart Sydney
Chaka Blue Chip
Chalons Hanover
Cheyenne Sabrina
Chotat Milk
Cinplicity
Classic Wish
Clover Hanover
Cohiba Mary
Cupcakecraze
Current Hanover
Dark Arts
Dark Secret
Dashaway Hanover
Db Blue Chip
Digga Digga
Docomo
Done Being Nice
Dream-A-While
Dreamlands Latte
Duncans Artsplace
Edra Hanover
Enniscrone
Fanciful Hanover
Fastidious Hanover
Feathery Fame
First Draw
Four Starzzzz Ittt
Galleria
Girly Brown
Grandiose Gal
Gray Major
Hattie
Honey Bunny
Ive Got The Life
Ideal Weather
Illusionist
In For Life
Indochine Hall
Isabella Blue Chip
J Ps Scooter
Jasmine Hanover
Just Add Water
Keystone Treasure
Knock Three Times
Korinna Bayama
Lifetime Member
Lightning Glory
Limestone Cowgirl
Loyal Opposition
Lydia Hall
Mambo Western
Melina Mercouri
Michelle My Gal
Miss Easy Cam
Miss Kitty Hanover
Mommy Robin Q
Must See
My Little Pretty
Natural Paradise
Necessary Element
Neverhaveneverwill
Numeric Hanover
Odds On Beth
Odds On Charmaine
Odds On Ruthless
One Ace Too Many
Pan Hanover
Panned Out
Pasta Lavista
Pilgrims Witchie
R Ellen Hanover
R N Artist
Red Hot Dame
Red In The Face
Restive Hanover
Righteous Renee
Rocknroll Cameo
Sami Cam
Savoya Hanover
Silky
Singnoevil Hanover
Skinny Dip
Smarty Pans
So Artsi
Special Beauty
Speed Date
Stolly Up Bluechip
Stonebridge Kisses
Style
Stylish Artist
Sub Rosa Hanover
Sunone
Sunshine Sister
Sweet Paprika
Sweet Work Of Art
Table For Seven
Tatras
Terri Hall
Thats The Plan
Thong
Tremendous
Tricky Tooshie
Trinity Islands
Twist N Clout
Unblemished
Up Front Gal
Vaudeville Margie
Venusinbluejeans
Vesta Blue Chip
Warrawee Kay
West Of L A
Western Babe
Western Dancer
Western Duel
Western Montana
Western Spring
Whatsupcuz
Wild West Show
Worldly Treasure
Yankee Scandal

It can be argued that Somebeachsomewhere and Bunny Lake are the best male and female pacers of all time, respectively. They both cultivated big followings, with fans tuning in virtually every time they stepped on the track for battle. The two are now celebrating the birth of a foal, which occurred this past weekend.

According to Hanover Shoe Farms, the duo’s offspring, a yet-to-be-named bay filly, hit the ground Saturday, May 8 at the Pennsylvania nursery.

]]> http://www.somebeachsomewhere.ca/sbswblog/2010/05/somebeachsomewhere-bunny-lake-foal/feed/ 0 http://www.somebeachsomewhere.ca/sbswblog/2010/04/from-the-great-white-north-bax-takes-aim-at-elitlopp/ http://www.somebeachsomewhere.ca/sbswblog/2010/04/from-the-great-white-north-bax-takes-aim-at-elitlopp/#comments Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:07:46 +0000 SBSW Admin http://www.somebeachsomewhere.ca/sbswblog/?p=231 From the great white north – Bax takes aim at Elitlopp.

He has made the trip twice before, but traveling to Scandinavia with a top trotter in tow never gets old for Peterborough, Ontario harness racing trainer John Bax. In 1999, he was invited to Sweden for the prestigious Elitlopp with his fabled campaigner Goodtimes, a $2 million-earning son of Balanced Image-Goodtime Kathy, who was second in his Elitlopp elimination and third in the final at the age of eight.

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Assuming that volcanic ash-clouds do not delay his May 8 departure from Toronto’s Pearson airport, Define The World will be using the Oslo Grand Prix, May 16, as a warm-up, and heading to Stockholm two weeks later. Accompanying him will be linesman Paul MacDonell (who enjoyed world attention in 2007 and 2008 as the pilot of Somebeachsomewhere), who will be making the trip to the Elitlopp for the first time.

Courage Under Fire is more than just a champion racehorse and quality stallion. The 14-year-old son of In The Pocket has harness racing fans all over the world, and one such devotee has started up a breeding business named ‘Kourage Kid’s’ in honour of the little pocket battleship.

English-born but Brisbane based Sue Smith fell in love with Courage Under Fire during his racing career, which spanned from 1997-2002.

She now has six broodmares and is trying to breed to other high quality stallions.

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“I have an Artsplace colt from Erin Finn & she is in foal to Somebeachsomewhere. I would like to sell this foal at the Melbourne APG Premium sale, as this would indicate that I am producing top quality foals. If I wasn’t selling this foal I would love the name – Somedreamscometrue – however this will be up to the new owner to decide.

Millionaire Blissfull Hall mare Marnie Hall was highly successful on the racetrack, but now her connections are hoping her prowess for success has been transferred to the breeding shed.

Owned by Daniel Plouffe of Bedford, Quebec and Jean Dessureault of Candiac, Quebec, Marnie Hall p,4,1:49 ($1,234,585) recently delivered her first foal, a Somebeachsomewhere colt, on March 1 at Nandi Farms in Pennsylvania.

The $250,000 Classic Series winner is expected to be bred next to Well Said.

Trot Insider has received photos of the first foal of millionaire pacing mare Illusionist, sired by harness racing’s racehorse of the decade Somebeachsomewhere Owner Dave Lumsden describes the filly, born Monday night, as “absolutely adorable and awesome!” No official name has been selected for the foal, who goes by the nickname Lido.

“Illusionist was as tough as nails on the racetrack but she absolutely loves her baby,” continued Lumsden.