No more than a dream eight years ago, success in the Thoroughbred breeding business is now a reality for Bill and Susan Stewart.
by Archie McDonald
For Bill and Susan Stewart, the dream unfolds on a small television screen on the
kitchen counter in their farmhouse high above the Thomson River not far from the town
of Ashcroft.
Three thousand miles away, Free Vacation, a filly they raised, is pulling away down
the homestretch in the Breeders' Stakes at Woodbine. "I had just had a hip replacement
and I'm dancin'," says Susan. "I'm thinking, if my surgeon could see me now."
While most British Columbia breeders are counting their diminishing dollars and
running for cover, the Stewarts, who operate under the name of Black Canyon
Thoroughbreds Ltd., are counting their blessings and running to the bank to deposit
another mortgage payment. They have enjoyed a grand parlay of successes on the track
and in the sales ring.
Later in the day of the Breeders' Stakes, Susan drove to Kamloops, one hour and 15
minutes away, where they had a horse running on the B circuit. That illustrates the
inherent mystery of the business. Breed two horses with the same lofty sense of
purpose and one ends up winning a $325,000 Canadian classic at a mile and one half on
the turf and the other ends up running in the hinterlands for a few hundred dollars.
Friends in the Kamloops crowd offered congratulations. You mean for Free Vacation? No,
they meant Colors of the Wolf, another Stewart-bred horse, who had captured the 35,000
Mr. Prime Minister Handicap for three-year-olds at Hastings Park. Colors Of The Wolf
had been purchased by restauranteur Nick Felicella for $40,000 at the 1997 B.C. summer
yearling sale.
Black Canyon Thoroughbreds also made headlines in the sales ring. A colt by Katahaula
County, out of Aim For The Stars, by Regal Intention, brought a sales-topping $88,000
at an otherwise anemic B.C. sale in early August and a half brother to Free Vacation,
by the fashionable Silver Deputy, fetched $275,000 US at the Keeneland Sale September 14.
To put the Breeders' victory into a West Coast perspective, consider that the only other B. C. bred to win a Triple Crown race in Ontario was Rushton's Corsair, hero of the 1974 Prince of Wales Stakes, who hailed from Dr. Fred Spohn's Clearbrook Stock Farm. The Stewarts have made their mark in sprinting time. They bought their first mares in 1992 and prudent choices gave them a jump-start into the market. They purchased Star Like Tara at the Ontario fall sale and she produced 1997 B C. Derby winner Bobbin For Stars
and stakes placed Aim for The Stars.
A month later at Keeneland, they bought the Vice Regent mare Color Me Beautiful, dam of Colors of the Wolf and now granddam of graded stakes winner Easy Lover. The following year they added Miami Vacation, by Far North, who was in foal to Mining. The resulting foal, Exit to Rio, won a stakes race at Turf Paradise in phoenix and is now campaigning in allowances in California. The second foal was Apusara, by Meadowlake,
who has earned about $200,000 in , Japan. Then came Free Vacation, by former two-yearold champion Fly So Free.
Because her bloodlines predisposed her to turf, the Stewarts elected to sell Free Vacation at Keeneland, where she enticed a 50,000 bid from trainer Roger Attfield. Getting a horse in Attfield's barn is always a bonus. The Breeders victory was only her third start on turf, but Attfield thought enough of her grass ability to pay a $12,500 supplemental nomination fee.
Susan had raised running dogs -- Salukis, Russian wolfhounds, deerhounds, -- and Bill had raised purebred Herefords but they knew little about thoroughbreds when they began their grand adventure. They sought expert advice and got it from Bernard McCormack, the general manager of Windfields Farm, who proficiently steered them to their broodmare purchases.
"I'm a talker," says Susan. "I ask a lot of questions." She has been getting a lot of right answers, not only from McCormack but also from veterinarian, Dr. Denton Moffat, and from Crown West Farms proprietor, Brian Kozak, who prepares the yearling for B. C. sales.
Bill has a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture ('74) and an MBA in international business ('75) from University of B. C. so he was not exactly coming unprepared to the shifting economics of racing.
He spent three years after graduation in the banking business and in 1979, the year his father tumed 70, he was asked to take a more active role in the family business which included the Chataway Ranch at Ashcroft, a feed lot, and other investments.
Along the way he met Susan, a physics and math grad from the University of Victoria,and they were married in 1986. In Bill's words, they became attached to thoroughbreds by "osmosis".
"We stood along the rail at Hastings Park and the horses just grabbed us by the heart." They made the decision to get into the thoroughbreds in 1988 but didn't take the plunge until four years later. They bought the property next to the Chataway Ranch. It encompasses 1,000 deeded acres, plus various leases and grazing licenses.
They agreed to buy the best breeding stock they could afford. "It is not in our nature to do things half-heartedly," says Bill. Their timing was inadvertently perfect. The market had bottomed out in 1992 and they bought in at bargain prices. "We were very lucky," says Bill.
"The cattle market was going down while the horses were going up. Our hobby started paying for our business. If you add up what all our first foals sold for they more than paid for the mares.
They currently have 11 broodmares and do not want to increase that number. Not all mares have come up to expectations and they have been culled. "We let the market tell us what we keep," says Susan. "To be practical, we should be located in Ontario," says Bill. "Our trucking bills are horrendous, but we want to stay in B. C. We think this is a fine place to raise horses. The climate is good, there is no pollution, and the rolling terrain toughens them up. We are able to leave the horses out 18-19 hours a
day."
It requires three days to van a horse from B. C. to Kentucky. The first day takes them outside Winnipeg where there is a 24-hour lay over before moving to the Blue Grass State.
The Stewarts attend the sales in Kentucky and spend a lot of time looking at stallions. They put a lot of value in conformation and they also are leaning more to durability in race records.
"We both see things quite differently," says Bill. "Susan is more forgiving. She looks at the whole picture and tries to live with the faults. I pick out the faults first."
Sales agent Kozak feels that they are successful because, "They pay a tremendous amount of attention to detail and they are very realistic. Their understanding of the business is really quite advanced. They recognized they didn't possess all the expertise and they got advice, but at the end of the day, they made the final decision and were prepared to stick with it."
Canadian Thoroughbred Fall 1999