When horsepeople get nervous before a race you might see them pacing around, unable to stay still or calm. We call it stall-walking. It’s a bit humorous when it comes to owners and trainers, not so much if your horse does it.
RAVI SUGRIM has been anxiously awaiting Sunday’s Woodbine Oaks, but he isn’t exactly stall-walking; it’s more like stall-driving. Sugrim lives in Ottawa and in the past month or so he has been back and forth from his home to Woodbine racetrack by car numerous times. His journey begins at 3 a.m. so he can get to the barn area to see his lone racehorse, Whatsmineisyours, go through his gallops. Then he might stop by Josie Carroll’s barn to give well wishes to his colt’s older half-sister, a filly he bred by the name of LUSTER.
He did the red-eye drive on June 28 when Luster stormed to victory in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes, her third win in four races, and, at Carroll’s encouragement, sprinted into the infield winner’s circle to be part of the official photo.
Luster is expected to be the heavy favourite for the July 19 Woodbine Oaks, worth $500,000 (plus Ontario-bred bonuses), the most prestigious race for Canadian-bred three-year-old fillies. And she essentially has come out of nowhere in the past year to assume that role.
“It has been amazing, I am proud and so happy,” said Sugrim, who is from Guyana and came to Canada as a young man. “My phone has been ringing off the hook.”
Sugrim, who works in construction, comes by his love for horses and racing like a lot of Ontarians; he was a Greenwood groupie, attending the races at the once famous downtown Toronto track.
“I used to sit there and just look at the horses and how they raced. We didn’t have computers or cell phones then, so I would go to my college the next day and punch their names into the college computers to see the horses’ breeding.”
Sugrim desperately wanted to be a part of the horse racing industry, and he formed the Matrix Stables in the early 2000s, racing in partnership with his wife Joannie Dass. He won a few races with claiming horses at Fort Erie before he tried his hand at breeding. He bred just a couple of horses; one of them was the Niigon mare Westlodge Intrigue, who went on to earn over $260,000 for numerous different owners about a decade ago.
“I wasn’t making much money though, but I wanted to stay in the game. I just didn’t know how.”
Always on the lookout for a horse even when he lived in New York and other locations around the world, Sugrim spotted an ad on social media for a mare, Ruby Frost, an unraced New York-bred. Offered by Kent Hersman of Flying H Farm, Ruby Frost traced back to the imposing Chief’s Crown, a champion and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner as well as top sire on her female side. Her sire, The Factor, was a son of War Front, by Danzig, himself by the great Northern Dancer.
“I used to sit outside the Windfields Farm property in Oshawa as a young man hoping to see horses in the paddocks.”
Ravi Sugrim and Luster as a foal at Rolling Ridge Farm. (photo courtesy Ravi Sugrim)
He bought Ruby Frost for $5,000 and kept her in Kentucky with Hersman where she had two offspring by Gormley, a Grade 1-winning son of Malibu Moon. Stonehendge, foaled in 2022, brought $28,000 for Sugrim and Dass at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale.
Then he went bigger. As a fan of the brilliant racehorse Knicks Go, a son of Paynter who won the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) in 2021, Sugrim bought a breeding season to the grey speedster for $30,000. He sent the mare to Ontario and Ron Clarkson’s Rolling Ridge Farm in Mono, ON.
An inquisitive and bold filly was born on February 25, 2023 and Sugrim and his family, at the time living in Toronto, went to visit her regularly. They named her Sweet Selena, after one of his children.
Sugrim had every intention of keeping the Knicks Go filly, but eventually decided to sell her that fall at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Mixed Sale. Carrie Brigden of Machmer Hall, a noted consignor of yearlings, bought her for $50,000.
“I just loved her as a physical [horse],” said Brogden. “She was a beauty, had a great mind and athleticism.”
Brogden in turn offered the filly for sale at the 2024 Keeneland September sale. However, she changed the filly’s name before the sale. “People love to name their own horses when they buy them. So we changed it to Luster because of her silvery coat.” Ben Gowans from the legendary Gainesway Farrm bought her for $80,000.
Gainesway, owned by Antony Beck, was in the market for a few fillies at that Keeneland sale. Beck’s son Andrew, on his first shopping trip at a sale after pursuing other interests early his professional career, said he too liked the looks of the filly.
“We weren’t there to spend a lot of money,” said Beck. “We bought three fillies.”
Sugrim, meanwhile, sent Ruby Frost to Ontario sire Frac Daddy the year Luster was born. That resulting foal is his colt, Whatsmineisyours, in training with Renico Lafond.
On August 17, 2025, Luster made her first career start for Gainesway and the Beck family’s close friend, Andrew Rosen, who father Carol raced Chief’s Crown. She won by almost seven lengths.
“When she raced, I said, ‘there’s my baby winning a race!’. To come that far and breed a winner, incredible. No one knows how much goes on behind the scenes to even get a foal, and then have some luck.”
It was around the time of Luster’s maiden victory that Sugrim sold Ruby Frost to breeder Alison McLeod for $3,500. McLeod tried the breed Ruby Frost, but she didn’t get in foal. By the time Luster came out for her three-year-old debut at Keeneland racecourse in Kentucky for Carroll (she won by five lengths) Gainesway was seeking to buy the mare. McLeod sold her for $50,000.
“I loved giving people chances in this business and I want to get more people into it,” said Sugrim. “At the same time, I like to dream big. I used to say, ‘one day I would like have a 100 to 1 shot in the King’s Plate.”
Instead, Sugrim will be at Woodbine for the 71st Oaks with 15 friends and family ready to cheer on Luster, who will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. “I can’t wait for everyone to be there and experience this, feel the excitement. When she won the Selene Stakes, I wanted to cry. If she wins the Oaks, I just might.”
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