It was deep into the 2011 Woodbine racing season, just a week before the lengthy meeting closed when a potential star rose from the autumn darkness. Maritimer, an impressive looking dark bay colt, owned and bred by Toronto’s Howard Walton, had just surged to a 5 1/2-length victory in the Display Stakes, recording a very fast time and sending buzz and vibrations throughout the racing world.
The colt’s 91 Beyer Figure was a hefty number for a two-yearold colt and immediately, Walton’s phone began to ring off the hook. “I was getting a lot of offers, but most of them were not enough money,” said the former president of Norseman Plastics. It would not take long, however, for the price to be right for Walton, however, and in January, 2012, the president of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, paid about $1.6 million for the colt.
Kadryov, who has only recently begun to pick up high priced racehorses from North America and the United States, sent the colt to trainer Herman Brown in Dubai after the horse spent some time in quarantine.
For Walton, it was certainly the biggest coup since he began breeding and racing thoroughbreds under his Norseman Racing Stable banner. The owner raced Maritimer’s dam, Highland Mood, and she was an unbeaten Highland Ruckus stakes winner.
Maritimer arrived as the product of a breeding between Highland Mood and Stormy Atlantic, a hot Kentucky sire. In the early days of training with Sid Attard at Woodbine, the colt showed exciting potential. By the time he made his debut outing, the entire racing community knew Attard was handling a good one and he appeared on the track as a heavy 3 to 5 favourite. While the colt won by just a head, the stage was set for improvement.
Three weeks later, on July 31, Maritimer’s stablemate Buiongiorno Johnny edged him in the restricted Vandal Stakes after his rally came up a head short. The colt went the grass racing route soon after: first the Summer Stakes prep in which he was second to the top filly Hard Not to Like, and then fourth in the Grade III Summer Stakes itself.
It would be his brief fall campaign that would bring Maritimerto the head of the class. In the important Coronation Futurity, the biggest race for Canadian-bred two-year-olds, Maritimer galloped away to a 2 1/2 length victory under Luis Contreras, solidyfing his role as the top male juvenile of the year.
He put an exclamation point on that thinking in the Display. “This is a special horse,” Walton said. “I don’t think there are any limitations as far as distance. I think he has erased that (by winning the Coronation and Display). I think we deserve to be 2-year-old of the year, and I also believe we should be the early favorite for the Queen’s Plate.”
Maritimer was indeed named Canada’s champion two-year old colt as expected, but was not made eligible through the first payment to the Canadian Triple Crown.
On March 31 at Meydan racehorse on Dubai World Cup night, Maritimer made his three-year-old debut in the UAE Derby but faded to finish 11th. Future plans for the colt had not been released but Canadian fans may get to see their star come Plate time in June.
