2011 Sovereign Awards: Champion Three-Year-Old Male Pender Harbour

Pender Harbour was one of the feel-good stories of 2011 in Canadian racing as the three-year-old gelding’s exploits touched many people in places far and wide.

Owned by Albertans Denny Andrews, Sandra Lazaruk and Bob and Roberta Giffin, Pender Harbour was guided through a stellar campaign by Caledon, Ontario resident Mike DePaulo and ridden by Mexican-born Luis Contreras, who joined the Woodbine jockey colony just two years earlier.

The chestnut son of young Ontario sire Philanthropist – Uproar, by Hail the Ruckus won two-thirds of Canada’s Triple Crown, finished third in the Queen’s Plate and collected over $800,000. Foaled at Gardiner Farms in Caledon East, Ont., Pender Harbour was a stakes winner as a two-year-old, taking the Kingarvie Stakes at 1 1/16 miles late in the 2010 season. ‘Before he ran, he was breezing well and looked like the type of horse that could run from day one,’ said DePaulo, who was on hand to purchase the horse, along with Gail Wood, as a yearling for $20,000 at the C.T.H.S. (Ont.) sale in 2009.

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DePaulo earned his training fees early in 2011 when Pender Harbour, who had surgery at the end of his juvenile campaign to remove a chip from a knee, was playing catch up with his rivals. It was not until May 11 when the gelding made his sophomore debut and the result was not pretty: he finished 10th in a six furlong sprint. DePaulo was willing to toss that race out as the gelding was noticeably too eager and then pulled himself into a traffic jam before jockey Emile Ramsammy had to check him.

A month later, with Luis Contreras on board, Pender Harbour finished fourth in the Victoria Park Stakes beaten by two lengths. Satisified that the horse had improved, DePaulo and the gelding’s owners took their chance and sent him in the Plate just two weeks later. The gelding finished a gallant third behind Inglorious and Hippolytus.

Then it was time for Pender Harbour’s coming-out party.

Showing great determination and stamina, Pender Harbour edged American invader Bowman’s Causeway by a nose in the Prince of Wales at Fort Erie on a traditional dirt surface. He then won a thrilling stretch battle, again by a nose, over a bog-like grass course in the Breeders’ back at Woodbine on Aug. 7. He provided jockey Contreras with the first ever Triple Crown for a rider on two horses.

The Pender Harbour team took their gelding on the road but their one big shot, in the Grade II Pennsylvania Derby, went out the window when the gelding reared up in the starting gate before the break. He finished eighth.

Back on his home track on Oct. 22, Pender Harbour romped in the restricted Bunty Lawless Stakes at one-mile on the grass and then finished second against older horses in the Grade II Autumn Stakes.

Co-owner Robert Giffin is a lifelong horse enthusiast, who rode steeplechasers in his native Ireland until he was 19. He emigrated to Canada, more specifically, Alberta, in 1953 and went on to become an Executive Director with the Premier’s Office.

Giffin, along with his wife, Roberta, has been a thoroughbred owner for 20 or so years. He has enjoyed success in the past, including added-money winner Whomsoever Proud and Native Brass, the first filly to win the Canadian Derby in 34 years, taking that Grade III event in 1999.

Denny Andrews, a native Albertan, has seen success both as a breeder and owner. He got into the ownership side of thoroughbred racing in 1991 and currently races horses at Woodbine and in California. Andrews bred, among others, Native Brass, one of his all-time favourites.

Andrews, who initially invested in quarter horses, is also a major shareholder of stallions Old Forester and Philanthropist.

Pender Harbour is expected to compete again as a four-year-old in 2012.