OTTB: Kemp Road Cavalier

You would not know it by looking at him, but Kemp Road Cavalier turned 22 in 2015. The gorgeous, Ontario-foaled roan gelding knew how to win on the track and now he is winning in the show ring.

The son of the modest stallion Evzone was named the 2014 Reserve Champion in Western Pleasure at the Durham Saddle Club, collecting 21 points to claim the title when the final standings were tallied in November.

That’s not all. ‘Kempy’ has won classes and ribbons in Western and English horsemanship and dressage since he left the racetrack for good six years ago. He is getting geared up for another run at championships this year.

Scroll to continue with content

“He’s just a really cool guy,” said his owner Jean Milligan, who manages Camelot Stables in Richmond Hill, ON with her partner Ron MacKay. “He doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In fact, his legs are some of the best in our stable.”

Bred by George Yemec, Kemp Road Cavalier did most of his racing for Shale Wagman, Sherrie-Lee Hawley, Eliot Feder and trainer Scott Fairlie. He raced hard and for many years, making his final start at the age of 10 in 2003 at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia. The gelding was a gentle, popular fellow in Fairlie’s Woodbine barn and the trainer wanted to keep him in his stable. He asked Milligan, his assistant trainer, if she would be able to work with ‘Kempy’ and teach him to neck-neck rein, which is needed to become a track pony.

Since Milligan was an accomplished rider before she came to the track to work, she was eager to climb aboard the gelding. In a matter of months, she had Kempy ready for his new career but she was also moving on with hers.

Milligan left Kemp Road Cavalier and Woodbine in 2006 for brief stints at Fort Erie and Mountaineer before she left the racetrack altogether in late 2008 to work at Camelot Stables with MacKay.

It had been almost four years since she had seen “Kempy” when Camelot owners Dick and Carol Helmstadter suggested Milligan get a horse of her own.

An immediate phone call to Fairlie, who still had the gelding working as a pony, resulted in a reunion that would make any heart melt.

“I can’t thank Scott enough for allowing me to give Kempy another life,” said Milligan. “He sent him to me on the condition that he may need him back to work at the track if his other stable pony (another retired racehorse, graded stakes winner Mr. Epperson) retired. That was six years ago now.”

The transition for Kemp Road Cavalier to farm resident in March 2009 was virtually seamless. “He was a little anxious for the first day or two. It was the first spring that he was not at the track,” said Milligan.

The first day Milligan equipped him with western tack, however, the gelding “dropped his head as if to say ‘I remember this.’”

In their very first show together, the first time Kempy ever was asked to perform calmly and collected in a small ring, was a success. The pair won Reserve Champion for English and Western Pleasure for the day.

“It was like he had done it his whole life,” said Milligan. “I think I was more nervous than him.”

The pair have competed in a handful of shows each year and along the way, Kempy has learned dressage, obstacle courses and jumping. His muscular physique and huge jowls cause many to mistake him for a Quarter Horse, especially when he is dressed in his western tack.

In recent years, Milligan has concentrated on showing Kempy in English and Western Pleasure and Horsemanship shows and is aiming for five events this year and another Durham Saddle Club title.

When he is not showing, Kempy is a babysitter to other horses in his paddock at Camelot, a teacher for small children and one happy “retired” thoroughbred.

“He truly is an amazing horse,’ said Milligan. “I am very grateful to have him here.