Manitoba thoroughbred breeder Dr. Ross McKague holds the honour of breeding the most expensive Manitoba-bred ever, but his four-decade thoroughbred breeding adventure has always been full of big numbers despite having very few mares.
The record-setting price paid for a Manitoba-bred was for a horse named High Leaguer, a 2-year-old by Cherokee Run out McKague’s mare Ms. Tenacious by Buckley Boy. High Leaguer sold for $280,000 in the 2000 Fasig-Tipton Florida Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
“We choose to concentrate on quality rather than quality,” said McKague, who has bred horses to earn $2,420,000. He’s also sold more than $3 million worth of horses in the past 38 years.
The 69-year-old McKague grew up in on a farm in Ogema, SK and starved his way through vet school in Saskatchewan. “We all did in those days,” said McKague. “None of us had any money. We got through on student loans. You couldn’t do that today, it’s way too expensive.”
Retired for 10 years, McKague started his veterinary career at Centennial Animal Hospital in Winnipeg in 1971 and did some work at Assiniboia Downs before moving to Brandon to establish his own practice with horses. While in Winnipeg he met top Assiniboia Downs trainer Clayton Gray, and was also exposed to some of the best thoroughbreds in Manitoba at Howard and Gloria McBurney’s farm.
One thing led to another and, “I was hooked,” said McKague.
He bought his first broodmare, former New York claimer Flo’s Image (Tinajero—Ice Carnival, by My Babu), and he was in the game.
“She was about as far an outcross as you could get,” said McKague, who became a student of Tesio’s breeding theories and liked the idea of outcrossing as a way of producing hybrid vigor. It worked for him in the early days, as Flo’s Image was an outcross to just about every stallion in Manitoba.
Flo’s image produced seven runners and four winners, three of which were stakes horses, the best being 1989 Lotto 6/36 Classic Stakes winner Prairie Premiere, who earned $70,274 from a record of 9-12-9 in 50 starts.
McKague then started claiming and buying mares.
“Our philosophy was to become market breeders,” said McKague. “We would raise the horses to sell and if they didn’t sell we would run them.”
Around the same time that McKague was starting to buy and claim broodmares, he resigned his position as president of the CTHS and became a board member for the newly formed Manitoba Jockey Club (1993). He also became even more involved in making sure breeders would have a solid place to race their horses at Assiniboia Downs.
“The idea was to claim and buy mares with good families in Toronto,” said McKague. “Then bring them here, enhance their pedigrees with black-type, breed them and sell them or their offspring.”
And that’s exactly what he did, for himself and others. As of 2011, the small McKague operation had produced 83 foals, an average of two per year since he started breeding 40 years go, and the operation absolutely hit the target with regards to quality.
Detroit Miss Handicap winner Katie McLaury (Centrust—Vicki Joy by Real Value) was claimed for $5,000, won a pair of starter allowances the next spring in Toronto, and then shipped to Winnipeg to beat the boys in the 1996 Free Press Handicap. McKague later sold her as a broodmare in Florida for $20,000 and she went on to produce Hirsh Jacobs Stakes winner Abbondanza, who also finished second in the Bay Shore Stakes-Grade 3 and ran in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
McKague bought the mare Alljazz (Stop the Music—Bounteous by Master Derby) in the Ontario Autumn mixed sale for just over $20,000, in foal to Ascot Knight, for Gary Strath of Manitoba’s Stonyfield Farm. She went on to produce 2005 Queen’s Plate runner-up King of Jazz and 2006 Woodbine Oaks winner Kimchi.
The McKague-bred Kalookan Angel (Salt Lake—Sunrise Lady by Far Out East), was sold for $60,000 as a weanling and went on to sell for $115,000 in the 1996 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale before again being sold for $135,000 at the Barretts 2-year-olds in training sale. The talented miss won a Maiden Special Weight and an optional claimer at Santa Anita enroute to earnings $149,640.
McKague says the highlight of his breeding operation to date has been Albarino (Langfuhr—Ms. Tenacious, by Buckley Boy), who won multiple stakes including the Gold Cup. R.J. Speers and Agassiz Stakes on the way to setting a record for single-season earnings at Assiniboia Downs, earning $333,762 and compiling a record of 11-7-7 in 53 starts.
Another McKague-bred named Dawn Edition (Circulating—Vintage Sham by Sham) didn’t even attract a bid in the local sale, yet went on to win $224,270 including the Assiniboia Downs Distaff and a Horse of the Year title.
“We’ve had 75 starters, 70 per cent winners from starters, 63 per cent winners from foals and 24 per cent stakes horse from foals,” said McKague. “(My wife) Brenda did all the book work at the sales and made the notes. But she always had a better eye for the horses than she thought she had.”
And the McKague team isn’t done yet.
Along with 31-year-old stakes-producer Malbec and 22-year-old stakes producer Classic Beth (Regal Classic—Roman Briar by Briartic), who produced Manitoba-bred star Brinello ($255,248, Agassiz Stakes four years in a row 2007-2010), McKague still has the active mare Colorino (Include—Regrets Only by Black Tie Affair) in foal to Breeders’ Cup Sprint-Grade 1 winner Secret Circle. He also has a yearling by Overanalyze, a 2-year-old by Stormy Atlantic, a 3-year-old by Flatter, and a 4-year-old by Broken Vow.
The horses keep him busy in his retirement, but he said the smaller breeders simply can’t wait generations to produce a good horse.
“The industry needs to support the small breeders,” said McKague.
“We just got back from Chile. They have old breeding and raise thousands of horses. Every once in a while they’ll get a freak runner, but those runners don’t pass on their talent to their offspring. The blood is there but it takes years for it to come back again. As a small breeder you just have to breed the best to the best and hope for the best. You don’t have time to breed generations of horses.”
And so McKague’s dream remains.
“I’d like to breed a graded stakes winner,” he said.
