MY Canadian experience a few months back took me to two Thoroughbred studs, Canmor Farms and Emerald Acres in British Columbia, a province on the western side of Canada.
Both are located only minutes from the border of Washington, US, and near the Trans-Canada Highway in the beautiful rolling countryside of Aldergrove, which is about a 50-minute drive east of the city of Vancouver.
Encompassing 45 hectares, Canmor Farms stands three stallions – the successful Stephanotis, as well as younger sires Teide and Texas Wildcatter.
The 24-year-old Stephanotis has been a wizard at stud, siring almost 200 winners including 16 stakes winners and 36 stakes-placed horses.
His best progeny was Taylor Said, who was Horse Of The Year and champion older horse in British Columbia, Dearest Princess, a champion three-year-old filly in British Columbia, and P.S. Touch Down, a leading British Columbia-bred galloper.
Interestingly, Stephanotis is a son of Canadian-bred Regal Classic, by Northern Dancer’s Vice Regent.
Regal Classic shuttled to Australia in the late 1990s, spending four seasons at the now closed Muranna, when at Merrick’s North in Victoria.
There Regal Classic sired six stakes winners including the memorable triple-winning group 1 sprinter/miler Regal Roller.
Stephanotis’s stable companions are grey stallion Texas Wildcatter, by Maria’s Mon’s sire Monarchos, and Tierd, a son of Blushing Groom’s Mt Livermore, who sired former Australasian shuttle horses Orientate and Housebuster, as well as imported sire of winners Frisco View.
As well as breeding a few mares of their own, the stud on the picturesque farm has several outside mares residing including Daymaker, the dam of last year’s British Columbia Horse Of The Year Snuggles.
Canmor also prides itself as a training establishment, with a near 700-metre training track, an undercover exercise walker, an indoor arena, and provides about 100 horses with stabled winter agistment.
Canada’s bloodstock industry is organised by the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society, with its 2017 Western Canada Stallion Edition displaying 26 stallions listed including two that stand in Washington.
Among these I found US-bred Balmont, by Nureyev’s Stravinsky, a former Western Australian shuttle sire of two Perth stakes winners, who is now at stud in Alberta.
As well as British Columbia, the publication also listed stallions in Canada’s other provinces, with 43 listed stallions standing in Alberta, seven in Manitoba, 69 in Ontario (home of the nation’s famous and well-known Woodbine racecourse), one in Quebec, and 11 in Saskatchewan.
While some stallion fees are listed as private, the highest fees listed were at $CAN5000, a vast difference to Australian stud fee standards.
Of course we should recall that one of the world’s greatest stallion influences was bred in Canada; Northern Dancer, an iconic sire that appears in millions of pedigrees today.
Two sires at the Emerald Acres stud and training complex
AROUND the corner from Canmor Farms is Emerald Acres, a longtime Thoroughbred establishment which stands two stallions and breeds a few mares of its own.
There’s also a training complex, a small exercise track, and they provide agistment facilities, including winter stable conditions.
It’s been owned and managed by Jim and Sandra Loseth since the 1970s, and the latter doubles as a director of the British Columbia Division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society.
Founded in the late 1950s by Robert and Ann Hall, the property found fame with their galloper George Royal, a British Columbia-bred Canadian Hall Of Fame galloper who graced the paddocks at Emerald Acres.
Breaking in and educating horses is another facet of the property, formerly by Sandra, but now her daughter Christine, who also trains a string a horses at Hastings, in Vancouver.
With his oldest progeny foals, Lent is a son of deceased champion US sire Pulpit, by Seattle Slew champion sire A.P. Indy, the same sire as leading US sire Bernardini, while Emerald Acres’ Pop Artist is by Songandaprayer, a son of former Australian shuttle sire Unbridled’s Song.
