Society marks 100 years of work for horse industry

Woodbine will celebrate its 50th anniversary this season, but there is another important group in Canadian racing that is also in a milestone year.

One hundred years ago, on May 29, 1906, the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society was incorporated under the Animal Pedigree Act.

The mandate read that the society was formed to "keep a record of pedigrees of Thoroughbred horses and to collect, publish, and preserve reliable and valuable data concerning the breed."

The CTHS initially had less than 100 members under its honorary president, Sen. Hewitt Bostock of Victoria, British Columbia.

William Hendrie was the first full-time president of the organization. It was Hendrie's stallion Martimas, winner of the prestigious Futurity Stakes at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y., in 1898, who was the first stud to appear in the CTHS sire directory.

Today, through its lucrative Thoroughbred Incentive Program (which doled out more than $5.3 million in 2005), the CTHS provides breeders' and Ontario-sired awards, a program that is easily one of the most impressive in North America.

The organization also conducts yearling and breeding-stock sales and supports many charities, including LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society.

This year's Canadian-bred yearling sale will take place on Sept. 5, 8, and 9 at the Woodbine sale pavilion.

The group will seek a long-term deal with Woodbine to continue to hold the sale on the track property, where it has taken place for decades.

More than 570 yearlings have been entered for the sale, and inspections will begin on April 30.

Queen's Plate winner may become pony

Regal Discovery, the 1995 Queen's Plate winner for Leslie and Anne Shaddock's No. 1 Stable, has recently been gelded and could begin a new career as a stable pony.

A bay son of Regal Classic, Regal Discovery stood at stud in New York and, until recently, at Gardiner Farms in Caledon, Ontario. He had modest results.

The horse was turned over to his former exercise rider, Eric Coatrieux, now the private trainer for Robert Krembil's Chiefswood Farm.

Coatrieux, who worked for Regal Discovery's trainer, Roger Attfield, accompanied Regal Discovery on a trip to Dubai during the horse's racing career - a trip that soon landed Coatrieux a training job with Godolphin Stable.

Regal Discovery is in training to be a stable pony at Chiefswood Training Centre in Loretto, Ontario.

Bear Stables picks up nine juveniles

Plenty of Ontario horsemen picked up juveniles at the Florida 2-year-old sales this winter, but none collected more than Alberta's Danny Dion.

Dion, whose Bear Stables burst onto the Ontario scene last summer by winning stakes with Bear's Kid and Bear Character, both juveniles, bought seven out of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. auction on March 21 and 22.

Dion also purchased one each out of the Adena Springs 2-year-old sale on March 20 and the Fasig-Tipton February sale.

Of the nine new Bear Stables babies, four are by the popular young sire Dixie Union, the sire of Bear Character.

Carlo and Lou Tucci, who sold their multiple champion mare One for Rose for a whopping $875,000 at the Keeneland January sale, spent some of their money at the Adena sale.

The Tuccis paid $175,000 for an El Prado filly out of Valid Symmetry and $100,000 for a Storm Boot-Oogalah filly.