It was a cloudy and rainy Thursday in November in Rexdale, Ontario when Brachetto made his first career start for his Manitoba owners and breeders Ross and Brenda McKague. It was a six-furlong dash at Woodbine, just six horses had been entered in total and Brachetto, by the exciting young American sire Vekoma out of the McKagues’ wonderful mare Colorino, was 14-to-1 at post time.
Trainer Julia Carey, a veteran trainer at Woodbine, had first set Brachetto down for a work in May, but she slowed down training on the colt for a few months before starting him up again in August. The plan was to hopefully get a race or two for the colt before the Woodbine season ended.
With Ryan Munger riding, Brachetto came flying through the stretch and came within a nose of winning that first start. That may have been a non-descript Thursday afternoon he was racing on, but the McKagues phone immediately started ringing. Substantial offers came in to buy the colt, among them leading trainer Mark Casse, who was calling on behalf of a client.
“There was no way I was going to sell him,” said Ross McKague, a noted equine reproduction veterinarian, founder of the Manitoba Jockey Club and prominent figure in Canadian horse racing for decades.
“What do I need money for? I’m 79, we don’t have kids. This might never happen again for us.”
Brachetto was third in his only other race as a two-year-old and promptly broke his maiden in his 2026 opener on May 10. After a third-place finish in the seven furlong Queenston Stakes, Brachetto caught up to Magical Factor, from the large Chiefswood Stable program, and won the Grade 3 Marine Stakes at 18-to-1. On Saturday, he will go to the track for the 167th King’s Plate as one of the crowd favourites, something that has Ross and Brenda downright giddy.
“We’re so excited that we will be there and not as a big longshot, but with a horse who is one of the favourites,” said McKague. “And if he gets on the board legitimately, that would be just fine.”
The Plate Trial was the first stakes win for the McKagues at Woodbine. The couple have done a lot of their racing at Assiniboia Downs and have raced some of that track’s most well-known stakes horses such as Albarino, Brinello, Trebbiano, among others. They have also always had a runner or two at Woodbine. Brachetto’s dam, Colorino, bought by McKague for $30,000 as a foal at the Keeneland Breeding sale in 2005, made most of her starts at Woodbine. She won four times and earned nearly $200,000.
The jovial couple have enjoyed bringing foals into this world on their Brandon, Manitoba farm for decades. The pair did all of the work and raised horses mostly to sell. But two years ago, with Ross nursing a bad back and Brenda a broken wrist, they were helping one of their mares foal and realized it was time to give that work to someone else. “I was in there with the mare, between her and the wall and we were trying to make sure the foal was delivered okay. When the foal finally came, I found that I couldn’t get up,” McKague laughed.
Today they have a couple of horses, including Colorino and her yearling by Frosted at Woodlands in Hillsburgh, owned by Gail Wood.
But Brachetto is a true blue Manitoba-McKague product and a Manitoba-bred has never won the Plate. There has been one Alberta-bred Plate winner and one from British Columbia. In 2005, three Manitoba-breds in that year’s Plate, King of Jazz, Gold Strike and Get Down, ran second, third and eighth.
The year Brachetto was foaled, 2023, the Jockey Club reports that less than 40 foals were born in the province. McKague is aware of the odds his horse has conquered to just be in the 12-horse field.
“Every single foal we have raised and raced was foaled at our place. Brenda and I watched the foaling cameras and did the farm work.”
And while McKague says he misses having the horses in his backyard, having Brachetto show so much promise has made the transition easier.
“He is doing fantastic,” said McKague. “And all he does is sleep and eat. Before the Plate Trial they had to wake him up.”
A recent honorary from the CTHS for 50 years as members, the McKagues are going to enjoy every second of their trip to Toronto for the Plate. They are also very pleased for Carey, who is also enjoying her big moment in the racing spotlight, which she shares with several family members who help out at the barn.
“The filly [Luster] is a monster,” said McKague. “She doesn’t have to do anything but run the same race she did in the Oaks. And that [trainer] Dale Desruisseaux scares the sh** out of me. He is so good with this horses.” Desruisseaux has Plate Trial winner Highwaytothemoon and stakes winner Dixie Law in the Plate field.
“But I am looking at our horse and I don’t think we have got to the bottom of him yet.”
If Brachetto puts on the same show he did in the Marine, then the McKague’s neighbours in Brandon will surely hear them cheering from here.
More News
