While the fancier and faster Thoroughbreds will get most of the attention this week at Woodbine racetrack, it’s the plucky claiming horses and their small stables who have carried the Rexdale track on a weekly basis this season.
And with purses having gone up a bit, there is more money on the table for the lower-level horses who fill the weekday races.
One owner who just won her first race is NICOLE COLLEE, 28, whose love of her life, CLASSIC DANCER just won in his first start for the Niagara Falls-born horsewoman. And it was a super win, since the six-year-old gelding was moving up from $10,000 claiming to $25,000, stretching out to a mile, an unfamiliar distance for him, and moving to grass, a surface he didn’t appear to like.
But under a chilly ride from Carl Defreitas, Classic Dancer galloped to quite an easy win at 22-to-1, picking up $16,816 for his new owner.
“I really didn’t expect him to win,” said Collee, who has a special bond with the horse that dates back to last year. “We get along so good and I love him so much.”
Collee has only recently returned to doing backstretch work with horses after a serious accident that crushed her foot. A horse with a reputation for running off at the end of his gallop took off with Collee last year and they both fell. “I got up and realized my foot was sideways. I have two plates and 11 screws in my ankle.”
Collee has been working with horses since she was in high school and went to attend a co-op program at Ascot Stud with Chris and Mike Blake.
“The co-op was through St. Michael’s Catholic School. I learned how to put a shank on a horse and all that stuff. I started from the ground up, hotwalking, grooming and ponying.” She worked at Fort Erie racetrack and also got a retired racehorse from the Blakes that she took to a performance horse handling program at the University of Guelph. She still owns that horse, Sardinia, today.
Four years ago, she moved up to Woodbine where she has been working as an exercise rider. She had met Classic Dancer last fall through his previous owner and wintered him at a farm near Niagara over the winter.
“That was his first winter off and I think it really did him good,” said Collee.
Classic Dancer had been well-traveled up to last winter. Originally an $11,000 weanling sold by breeder Mitchell Krusner, Classic Dancer was a $30,000 yearling in the early part of 2021 and then a $110,000 Keeneland September yearling. He raced for John Oxley and leading trainer Mark Casse as a three-year-old and then was sold at a Horses of Racing Age sale in 2023 for $35,000 to Elliott Logan’s TEC Racing. The son of Collected changed hands a few more times before he went to the post under trainer Ray Raghunath with Carl Defreitas riding. By then, Collee was helping out with the horse to the point that no one else was looking after him or riding him.
Unfortunately, Classic Dancer stumbled out of the gate and Defreitas fell off, leaving the fleet gelding to sprint to the lead and ‘win’ the race, sans jockey. They ran him back for $7,500 claiming three weeks later and he won with flair. For Defreitas, who rode him, it was the rider’s first win after being away from horsebacking for a few years. Sadly, Classic Dancer was claimed and Collee was crushed.
“I couldn’t even celebrate his win, I was so upset that he was claimed.”
But when the new owner ran Classic Dancer back for $10,000 claiming just nine days later, Collee put the money up herself and scooped him up.
A month later, when seeking a race for Classic Dancer, Collee and Raghunath pondered the much higher-level race at a route distance on the grass. “We wanted to see him on the grass because he’s bred for it and when it turned out that was it wasn’t a big field, we took a shot.”
Classic Dancer ran the one mile on grass in a good time of 1:35.63 for a super 80 Beyer Speed Figure. Kursner joined Collee in the winner’s circle.
“I was so glad he came by, I really wanted to meet him,” said Collee. Kursner also bred Classic Dancer’s Queen’s Plate-winning half-brother Safe Conduct.
Collee spends each day training, grazing and spoiling her gelding, whom she calls Danny.
“I can’t thank him enough,” said said. “He is so amazing and so kind to me. He is the only horse I have after my accident. I just love him so much.”
So, as the faster, younger horses get ready to race for big money next weekend, keep an eye out for the underdogs, equine and human, of the sport. They are just as exciting.
Classic Dancer romps to victory on the grass at Woodbine on July 25. (Michael Burns photo)
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