“How’s my horse doing?” said Manfred Conrad on Tuesday across a table of friends and family following the post position draw at Woodbine racetrack the 165th King’s Plate.
Manfred and wife Penny, notable figures in their home region of Kitchener-Waterloo for their work and philanthropy, have two horses in the Plate – Essex Serpent and Midnight Mascot – and either one could be victorious in the $1 million Canadian classic on Saturday, August 17.
But Manfred wasn’t asking about his Plate horses. He was asking LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation chair Vicki Pappas about State of Honor, a resident at the LongRun farm and a horse who won over $400,000 for the couple and raced in the Kentucky Derby and Queen’s Plate. The Conrads gave State of Honor to LongRun (and they have donated other horses to the adoption and retirement program) after the horse lived on their property briefly.
State of Honor is doing just fine, they were told, and that put a smile on their faces. Any time you see Manfred or Penny they are smiling, friendly, and welcoming. And spritely. They may be nearing their 80s and Penny has been battling cancer, but the couple have an infectious zest for life and have enjoyed (and been quite lucky) in their relatively short time in horse racing.
The horses were mostly Penny’s love, having accompanied her neighbour, horse owner and breeder Patricia Martin, to the races. And Manfred enthusiastically joined the ride. They raced their first horse in 2011, and had their first major runner a couple of years later in Theogony, who won $400,000 and was sold for $500,000. They went from a couple of horses to a couple of dozen, hired Mark Casse to train, and had Plate starters and graded stakes winners in 2017 and 2018. It was in 2017 when homebred State of Honor finished second in the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream and took the Conrads to the Derby. In 2019, their filly Shamrock Rose went to the Breeders’ Cup in Kentucky and won the Filly and Mare Sprint. Shamrock Rose, a $120,000 yearling purchase by the Conrads, earned nearly $1 million and then was sold as a broodmare prospect for $2.5 million.
“This is mind-boggling for us, to have two horses in the Plate with such a small stable,” said Penny. “It’s just amazing.”
Essex Serpent is 2-to-1 in the morning line for the Plate off his win in the Marine Stakes (G3), just his third career race. The bright bay with the white stripe down his face is named for a favourite book and TV miniseries of Penny’s.
The Essex Serpent, by Sarah Perry, took place in Essex, England. “All the little villages in that story, Colchester, Essex, those are all places I grew up in for 20 years.”
Essex Serpent, by former US stallion Honor Code and from the mare Eileen’s Girl by Medaglia d’Oro, was purchased in utero by the Conrads for $55,000. The mare has a 2-year-old by Spun to Run named Mattie’s Girl and was sold in 2022 for $7,000.
Midnight Mascot, a son of Army Mule, was purchased as a yearling for $200,000 from the 2022 Keeneland September yearling, very deep in the sale as hip number 3152. Bred by Yvonne Schwabe, Midnight Mascot’s dam is a full sister to Plate winner Midnight Aria.
“I like that guy,” said Manfred. “He was coming on the Plate Trial [when third].”
Manfred, who came to Canada from Germany in the 1960s and met Penny at a local dance in Kitchener, became a prominent local developer. Among the couple’s charitable initiatives was $1.2 million donated to the St. Mary’s General Hospital Foundation for diagnostic imaging at the Kitchener hospital, and the Conrad Theatre of Performing Arts, which was formerly the King’s Theatre and was set to be sold before the Conrads bought it for $900,000 and then gave it to the city. They also joined the 50 Million Trees program and worked with the Grand River Conservation Authority to plant some 60,000 trees on land they purchased.
“We like giving back,” said Penny, who was with daughter Sarah and daughters-in-law Fiorella and Christine, all board members of the family’s Cora Group.
These days, the couple lives a quieter life. They have sold all of their mares and have about six to eight horses in training and one yearling left on the farm. On King’s Plate day, both Essex Serpent and Midnight Mascot will be giving the couple something for themselves and family – memories for a lifetime.
Patrick Husbands guides Essex Serpent to victory in the HPIbet Marine Stakes. Essex Serpent is owned by Manfred and Penny Conrad and trained by Mark Casse. (Woodbine/ Michael Burns Photo)
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