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.