St. Lazare tire shop owner and Manitoba breeder Charlie Fouillard isn’t one to seek the spotlight, and he certainly doesn’t need it. He’s surrounded by Thoroughbred broodmare royalty at his farm in God’s country, Manitoba.
Fouillard breeds and raises horses in partnership with Cam Ziprick just south of Russell, near the Saskatchewan border, at the confluence of the Assiniboine and Qu’Appelle Rivers. If there’s a better place to raise horses in Manitoba, we’d like to see it.
The 56-year-old Fouillard and his wife of 30 years, Karen, have raised hundreds of horses and four children in the Assiniboine/Qu’Appelle River Valley – Julien, Steve, Damien and Hannah. The boys work at the nearby potash mine and Hannah will soon be graduating with a Bachelor of Nursing degree.
The boys help on the farm and are just starting to get more involved in the racing and breeding business now with Bearly Regal, who finished second in his only start last year as a 2-year-old, and the stakes-placed Going Commando mare Marianda.
Marianda joins a broodmare band that already includes the top mares in Manitoba — High Pioneer, Jungle Storm and Danger Pay. High Pioneer is the dam of champions and full sisters Hidden Grace and Melisandre. Jungle Storm is the dam of champion Why So Blue and $222,050 earner Lightnin Fast Girl. And Danger Pay is the dam of the best Manitoba-bred in history, champion and millionaire Escape Clause.
Between them, the aforementioned Manitoba royals have foaled 16 winners that have won 97 races and over $2 million. All three are in foal to Speculating.
Fouillard handles the breeding duties at his farm in the spring with Speculating and also foals the mares. The foaling barn is set up with cameras and sensors to monitor the mares that are ready to foal, and both Ziprick and Fouillard are looking forward to the first crop of Speculating babies this spring.
“The biggest thrill of breeding and owning horses is seeing the new babies,” said Fouillard, who started out with Quarter Horses decades ago and moved to Thoroughbreds about 15 years ago. “It’s fun watching them grow up and go to the track as 2-year-olds. Just to see how they turn out.”
“Every time you start out a new stallion it’s exciting to see what the babies will look like,” said Ziprick, who guided the ultra-successful career of now-pensioned Manitoba sire Going Commando. And there are numerous good reasons to be excited about Speculating’s potential as a sire in Manitoba.
The only son of Medaglia d’Oro standing in Canada, Speculating looks strikingly similar to his famous sire, who has fathered 26 Grade 1 winners including Golden Sixty, Songbird and Rachel Alexandra. Highly thought of as a yearling, Speculating sold at the 2017 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $235,000 and was a $345,000 buyback at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
Out of Notebook Stakes winner Well Dressed, Speculating is a half-brother to multiple Group/Grade 1 winner Well Armed, Railbird Stakes (G3) winner and stakes-producer Witty, Grade 1 placed Helsinki, stakes-placed winner Only In America, and winner Life Well Lived, the dam of Grade 1 winner American Patriot.
Fouillard and Ziprick are hoping that Speculating can follow in Going Commando’s footsteps. While they anxiously await his first crop, they’ll have three young horses at the track this year with trainer Devon Gittens, and many more yearlings for the annual Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale. Look for Fouillard’s name in the breeding lines, it’s melded into pedigrees now, and any one of these youngsters could be a good one.
The mares and foals transfer back and forth between Ziprick’s Farm in Russell and Fouillard’s place in St. Lazare, but the weanlings and yearlings spend much of their time romping around the huge pastures at Fouillard’s place, and the record shows that growing up in heaven is a good thing.
Fouillard had his hands full as he led Speculating past the foaling stalls and the “room” at the end of the barn. Breeder of the Year and Broodmare of the Year plaques hung on the wall in the room, and once you go in there…
“If you really want a story, we’ll go in there and have a drink,” said Fouillard. “I told him to bring an overnight bag,” said Ziprick. Apparently, there have been a few celebrations in the “room” over the years…
All fit for a king.
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