Day 100 of the Woodbine meeting 2024 was a bright, cool and breezy day that lured a good crowd to the races. The track also hosted its Rosé Brunch in the refurbished Turf Lounge (formerly Favourites) in support of Look Good Feel Better Canada for those facing cancer.
Owner ROBYN BROHMAN and trainer SAUL MCHUGH will remember day 100 as the day they won their first stakes race as their homebred mare TAQUANYAH flew home to take the $100,500 Eternal Search Stakes at 7 1/2 furlongs on the inner turf. The Ontario-sired stakes race for fillies and mares is named after one of the great race mares of Canadian racing.
Taquanyah’s victory was a long time in the making for Brohman and McHugh, who along with friend and fellow horse owner Maureen Hewitt-Topp have worked together with a few racehorses for some eight years.
The six-year-old mare by Silent Name (Jpn) – Pretty Bird by Lookin at Lucky was a contender going into the Eternal Search, since she was fourth in the race last year behind the now-graded stakes winner Fashionably Fab.
The public could only see Gabe Grossberg’s speedy filly Olivia Rose as the main player in the race and hammered the three-time stakes winner down to 4-to-5. But ‘on paper’, the race appeared to be top-heavy with front-running types and when Lady in Red sprung out of the gate and was sent hard by apprentice Austin Adams, Olivia Rose dragged jockey Rafael Hernandez into chase mode.
After fractions of 22.87, 46.72 and 1:10.46 for six furlongs, the pair were more than half a dozen lengths ahead of the next runner, but they soon began to run out of gas.
Jockey Leo Salles had Taquanyah cozied up nicely in the back of the field along the rail and when the time came, he gave the signal to the sturdy bay mare. The two gals behind them, Tito’s Calling and Talk to Ya Later, also began to move.
Salles angled Taquanyah off the rail and the mare quickened into the stretch out in the 4 path and charged past the leaders with Tito’s Calling chasing and Talk to Ya Later coming up the rail. That is how they finished in 1:30.04.
It was a perfect training job by McHugh, who had trouble finding races for the mare. In fact, she had not raced since a Tapeta route in August and only had three runs this year.
“No problems at all, we couldn’t get a prep in,” said McHugh, who came to Canada from Ireland via Dubai and Hong Kong in 2013. “So we gave her a couple of six-furlong works and tried to sharpen her up. She’s actually quite an easy horse to train.
“I knew we were coming in with a sound horse and fresh legs.”
Brohman, who owns Taquanyah and co-bred her with McHugh, opened her farm near Hagersville, ON in 2018 and McHugh trains the horses for her and Hewitt-Topp there. “I couldn’t have done this without the support of Robyn and Maureen and the team at the barn.”
It was a couple of years before Brohman opened her farm that Pretty Bird was one of the first horses trained by McHugh, who conditioned the filly for Debmar Farm including Glenn Harvey.
“Taquanyah is our first homebred to make it to this level and it’s huge,’ said Brohman whose farm is minutes away from the Taquanyah Conservation area.
Taquanyah has five wins from 22 starts and earnings of over $248,000. Her dam Pretty Bird is in foal to Collected and will arrive at Brohman’s this week.
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