Leading Saskatchewan Trainer Judy Hunter at Assiniboia

When Judy Hunter walks through the backstretch at Assiniboia Downs, you can feel the weight of racing history moving alongside her. At 65, the former Saskatchewan training champion brings with her not just 21 horses for Perry Pellerin’s Dark Cloud Stable, but decades of hard-won racing wisdom forged on the prairie circuit.

“I wrote my trainer’s test in 1977 for Bert Blake when he was a steward in Regina,” said Hunter, looking back on a 47-year career. “I was 17.”

Born and raised on a farm seven miles south of Moose Jaw, Hunter was “one of those horse crazy kids” whose parents bought her first racehorse when she was about 10 years old. That childhood fascination blossomed into a formidable career that saw her become the first woman ever to win a training title at a recognized track.

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“I think I was 24 the first time I was the leading trainer at Marquis Downs,” said Hunter. While she couldn’t remember how many titles she had won, she easily recalled one of her top horses, Zance, a big gray who compiled a remarkable record of 24 wins from 65 starts including numerous stakes.

“He won them all,” said Hunter. “He made over a hundred thousand scratching it out in Saskatchewan. And you know what? We never ran for any money.”

Hunter stepped away from training in 1988 to become a pharmacy technician but “hated being locked inside,” explaining why the allure of horse racing eventually pulled her back. She was managing the farm in Saskatchewan this winter, and last year, she served as assistant trainer to her niece Jamie Hartmann at ASD. This year, they’ve swapped roles, with Hunter listed as trainer and Hartmann as groom.

Hunter is overseeing a string primarily made up of two and three-year-old maidens, but they have been in training since February on the farm in Saskatchewan. David Horton and Assiniboia Downs jockey Sven Balroop were exercising the horses for Hunter on the farm this winter.

“I could work fifteen head tomorrow,” said Hunter, who is looking forward to the main track opening this week.

For all her accomplishments, Hunter remains refreshingly understated. When asked to pose for a photo, she said, “I don’t need the publicity.” What she does need, what draws her back to the racetrack year after year despite Saskatchewan racing’s demise, is the connection to the animals and the lifestyle.

“Where you’re racing, that’s where you build your home, your life,” she says, capturing in a single sentence why Saskatchewan horsepeople feel so adrift without their home circuit.

Hunter’s team currently includes grooms Christopher Gaskin, Alissa Anslow and Essal Kalim. Hartmann is expected to join her aunt before the live racing meet begins on Tuesday, May 13.

Hunter won numerous stakes in Saskatchewan including the Saskatchewan Derby more than once, most recently in 2019 with Rox Star Believeit. Her career record stands at 459-367-339 from 2,174 starts, good for a 21-percent win clip, with 54 percent of her starters finishing in he money.

Not to be underestimated.