Hockey and horse racing has gone together in Canada like maple syrup and beavertails for a century. The most famous such relationship was that of Conn Smythe, longtime owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs and builder of Maple Leaf Gardens whose racehorses won the Queen’s Plate twice and formed strong pedigree lineage in Canadian racing.
Saturday’s $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, the premier race for Canadian-bred 3-year-old fillies first run in 1956, once again brings together two very Canadian sports as two of the race favourites face off for their hockey owners.
The British Columbia-bred filly INFINITE PATIENCE, undefeated in her home province in 2019 and third in her first Ontario stakes race recently, competes for Edmonton Oilers star player Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who co-owns with breeder William DeCoursey. Nugent-Hopkins has been a horse racing lover since he was a teenager, purchasing his first horse at 18 in B.C. and he has enjoyed success from the beginning with horses such as stakes winner Yukon Belle.
Now 27, Nugent-Hopkins has his first horse on the big stage in Canada with Infinite Patience starting in the Oaks.
CURLIN’S VOYAGE, the lean chestnut filly who was named Champion 2-year-old in Canada in 2019 is the latest equine star for the 3-year-old Windsor Boys Stable, a group of eight men from, you guessed it, Windsor, Ontario, who formed their partnership thanks to fellow Windsorite John Sikura Jr., master of the famed Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms in Kentucky.
Sikura, who played hockey briefly for the Windsor Spitfires with Joel Quenneville, who has gone on to be a 3-time Stanley Cup winning coach, currently with the Florida Panthers.
“It all started with John and Joel,” said Faheem Hasnain, a biotech entrepreneur from Windsor now living in San Diego and part of the syndicate. “About three years ago John was gracious enough to suggest we get a bunch of our friends of Windsor who love horse racing to create a syndicate and buy into one of his horses.”
The Windsor Boys are Angelo Gentili, John Quenneville, Joel Quenneville, Kim McMaster, Faheem Hasnain, Tim Faubert, Mark Liptok, Steve Zack and John Sikura Jr., who owns Hill ‘n’ Dale.
The friends, hockey buddies or high school chums or both, created Windsor Boys and had immediate success with the second horse they bought into, Moonlit Promise, the Champion Filly & Mare Sprinter at the Sovereign Awards in 2018 and a 5-time stakes winner. The Malibu Moon mare was bred by Sikura’s Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings.
This year they campaign stakes winner Share The Upside, an Ontario-bred by MacLean’s Music and, with Glenn Sikura of Hill ‘n’ Dale Canada, own graded stakes placed Painting, who goes for her first stakes win Sunday at Woodbine in the Grade 3 Seaway Stakes.
The Oaks is by far the biggest race they have been a part of and as Curlin’s Voyage, trained by Hall of Famer Josie Carroll, will be heavily favoured in the 9 furlong Oaks which drew a field of 10, the excitement for Hasnain and the Boys has reached new heights.
“Oh my goodness, we are beside ourselves and extremely excited,” said Hasnain. “We would have had so many people there Saturday for the race but obviously we can’t do that this year so I will be watching with my family on the television.”
Curlin’s Voyage went from a closing second in the Fury Stakes to a win in the Star Shoot Stakes in her latest and stretching out to a route distance is what she prefers to do. Patrick Husbands rides.
“Curlin has been a fantastic filly and we are really looking forward to this. The whole thing has been very, very fun.”
Hasnain, who attended Standardbred races in Windsor with his parents, says half the group are very much students of the sport of horse racing, studying pedigrees and speed figures and workouts. “I’m learning as I go but some of the guys have a great deal of knowledge of the sport.”
The Windsor Boys spend a lot of time texting and virtually meeting about the horses before a race and after and so far, purse winnings have paid all the monthly bills.
“It is a testament to the quality of horses John has produced. We don’t take it for granted; we know the risks of owning a racehorse but we do it for the friendship, bringing all of us together, sharing the joy when it happens.”
$500,000 WOODBINE OAKS PRESENTED BY BUDWEISER
Post – Horse – Jockey – Trainer
1 – Curlin’s Voyage – Patrick Husbands – Josie Carroll
2 – Pilot Episode – Luis Contreras – Shug McGaughey III
3 – Bayou Belle (S) – Rafael Hernandez – Kevin Attard
4 – November Fog – Simon Husbands – Sarah Ritchie
5 – Afleet Katherine – Justin Stein – Kevin Attard
6 – Mizzen Beau – Steve Bahen – Norm Casse
7 – Merveilleux – Rafael Hernandez – Kevin Attard
8 – Lasting Union – Kazushi Kimura – Michael Matz
9 – Justleaveitalone (S) – Davy Moran – John Mattine
10 – Infinite Patience – Emma-Jayne Wilson – Lorne Richards
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