Breeding a King's Plate Winner

Jesse Korona is very familiar with what it takes to get an athlete to perform at their absolute best. The Etobicoke, ON resident is a professional fitness trainer, helping people realize their health and exercise goals.

Considering Korona is also an animal lover, in particular a Thoroughbred fan, it is fitting that in less than six years since he purchased his first racehorse, the 43-year-old has already bred his first classic winner.

Caitlinhergrtness, a three-year-old filly who was purchased in utero by Korona at the Keeneland November Breeding stock sale for $40,000 in 2020, won the 165th King’s Plate at Woodbine this summer, putting Korona on an elite list of Canadian breeders.

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“It was amazing seeing her win,” said Korona, who claimed his first horse, a filly, just six years ago. “I watched it at home with my family and we were screaming.”

Caitlinhergrtness, who is owned by American-based Siena Farm and WinStar and trained by Kevin Attard, came back from her big win to finish a good third in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Keeneland on the grass in October.

Like most Thoroughbred racing lovers, Korona was introduced to the sport through family; he had an uncle who loved to bet the races.

“I would hear him talk about horses and racing when I was six or seven years old,” said Korona. “My parents frowned on me going with him to the track, so I watched it on TV all the time. My first memories were watching Sunday Silence and Easy Goer [in 1989] and in Canada, With Approval and Izvestia.”

Korona was a talented baseball player from a young age. He played college ball and at the higher levels, often against players who went on to the major leagues. Korona studied at the University of Toronto, majoring in history with minor degrees in geography and politics.

Jesse Korona with Caitlinhergrtness.

Korona opened his own business, Target Training, in 2009 to help people create their own fitness program and to assist professional athletes improve and maintain fitness. He also loved animals and began breeding canaries for shows, but he never took his eye off horses and racing.

“I love competition and I love animals. I thought, horse racing is the best of both those worlds.”

It was an uneventful trip to his local barbershop that hooked him up with one of Canada’s most successful trainers, Reade Baker.

“There were guys in the barbershop who loved racing and they knew Reade. In fact, he lived in my neighbourhood. So I called him and said I wanted to claim a horse.”

Korona had already immersed himself in reading books on racing and studying pedigrees, but through Baker he found out a lot more about the commercial aspect of breeding racehorses.

His first claim was the filly Court Central, by Court Vision, who won a low-level claiming race for Korona before he sold her. Another purchase, House on the Hill, by Quality Road, was sold privately to interests in Turkey. “That first couple of years I ended up with a few too many horses ‒ it was getting to be a bit, much so I had to move some horses.”

After a couple of uneventful years, Korona’s quest to obtain a top-notch mare went into overdrive in November of 2020 when he worked with Baker to find a broodmare at the Keeneland November Breeding stock sale. In particular, he wanted a mare in foal to the exciting young sire Omaha Beach, a multiple Grade 1-winning son of War Front.

The mares that went through the ring seemed to be out of reach, price-wise, for Korona and he had just about given up when Baker called him in a rush with news that a mare, Belatrix, had not reached her reserve and that she could be bought for $40,000 (US). He jumped at it.

And despite getting offered $60,000 minutes later by another shopper, Korona kept the mare and sent her to Curraghmmore Farm in Waterdown, ON.

Belatrix foaled a flashy chestnut filly the following April and Korona elected to sell her as a weanling at the Keeneland November sale. He got $65,000 for her, lower than what he was hoping.

“I think she got a bit tired at that sale, she didn’t take to it too well,”

As a yearling, Caitlinhergrtness sold for $160,000 and in 2023, brought $375,000 as a two-year-old in training in Ocala from Siena and WinStar.

Caitlinhergrtness was sent to one of the world’s top trainers, Todd Pletcher, and she won her maiden in her second career start in a dirt race at Aqueduct. Not a lot happened in a couple of starts after that win and she ended up in Ontario with Attard.

Attard, who has solidified himself as one of the country’s smartest conditioners, had a tight schedule to work with to get the filly to the big filly race, the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks. He watched the filly win an inner turf allowance race on July 6 and then finish a strong second in the Oaks. Despite not being eligible for the Canadian Triple Crown race, WinStar’s Elliott Walden elected to pay the $25,000 supplemental fee and Caitlin went into the Plate.

“I was on the edge of my seat,” said Korona. “Then at one point, I just stood up and yelled ‘she’s going to win!’”

Caitlinhergrtness and jockey Rafael Hernandez wore down champion My Boy Prince to grab the winner’s share of the $1 million purse. Korona had bred a Plate winner, having owned only a handful of horses to that point.

Incredibly, another 2021 foal bred by Korona, the filly Dazzling Move, also looked to be of Oaks calibre, but the daughter of Not This Time never came north.

Korona offered five yearlings at the 2024 CTHS Ontario sale including a $45,000 colt by Improbable, but like other consignors, wasn’t too happy with the health of the yearling market. He has continued to move his horses and last fall sold Belatrix for $11,000 to American seller Sean Perl.

Korona is already looking forward to next year, hoping that a colt he bred with Shirley Camilleri of Camhaven Farm will be a big performer. The colt is by champion Classic Empire from Bola de Cristal by Galileo.

“There is always so much to learn and it is really interesting breeding horses. They are just such majestic animals.”