In the most meaningful – no pun intended – performance by a partially or fully owned Alberta-owned thoroughbred, Meaning ran second in this past Friday’s $1.5 million Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs.
The Oaks is arguably the most important stakes race for three-year-old fillies in the world.
“It was surreal,” said Alberta’s Adrian Munro, president of Okotoks-based Highfield Investment Group, who owns almost 14 per cent of Meaning, who finished a length and a quarter behind winner Always a Runner. Like Meaning, Always a Runner is sired by top stallion Gun Runner, the 2017 American Horse of the Year winning four Grade 1 races at age four.
Meaning’s dam, Figure of Speech, is by Into Mischief, seven-time leading North American stallion. “I was there with my two sons Dylan, 23, and Tyler, 18 which made it even better,” said Munro. “It would, of course, been nice to get the win but to have the lead at the sixteenths pole in a race of this magnitude was really cool.”
Meaning earned $276,000 for the second; Always a Runner’s owners pocketed $855,600.
“It’s so hard to put into words,” Munro said of Meaning, who had the lead at the sixteenths pole after moving from midpack but was out kicked by Always a Runner. “You’ve got 150,000 people watching and screaming. It all seemed to unfold in slow motion right in front of you. That was the longest 1/16th of a mile hoping the finish line would come up and Meaning would hold on.
“It was like that with Destin, who I had a part of in the 2016 Belmont and lost by a nose to Creator after leading right to the wire. But the Belmont was different. We only owned Destin for three months before the race. Meaning we’ve watched grow from a yearling. We lived and breathed every accomplishment of hers. We’ve got more invested with Meaning,” he said of the filly.
“I had a really good trip,” said Meaning’s jockey Juan Hernandez. “She broke really well and got in a good position. Around the turn, I swung out because the horse in front of me was kind of stopping. When I asked her, she exploded. I thought we had it for a second, the other filly was just a little faster than we were today. She’s going to improve from this race.”
“I thought Juan did a wonderful job keeping her in the pocket,” added trainer Michael McCarthy. “The running started coming through the three-eighths pole, and we were there every step of the way. Shook loose at the top of the lane, and for a second… “Kudos to Chad (trainer Brown). That filly came running, and we were second best on the day.”
“It’s been incredible – a journey and a strategy to get to that stage – for that one race,” Munro said of Meaning, who won two California stakes – the Santa Anita and Oaks and the Las Virgenes – coming into the Oaks.
“It was the race of a lifetime,” Munro said Munro, who is a partner of Meaning with Bridlewood Farm and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners – the latter headed by Aron Wellman, who has been responsible for the syndication of close to 1,000 racehorses including over 250 Stakes winners that includes 33 Grade 1’s, four American Classic winners and three Breeders’ Cup winners.
All running in Eclipse’s baby blue and black silks, Eclipse consists of “many, many” partners and is recognized as the globally leading horse racing partnership.
“We’ve been with Aron since he went on his own in 2011,” said Munro, who also owns or owned horses with Eclipse like Speed Shopper, winner of two Grade 3 stakes this year – the $350,000 Bewitch and $175,000 Christophe Clement; aforementioned Destin, second in the 2016 Belmont; Solo Album, winner of Toronto’s Selene and Quick Suzy, who took the Group 2 Queen Mary at Royal Ascot.
Amazing.
“That’s all Aron and his team,” said Munro, who is president of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (CTHS) Alberta and vice-president of the national CTHS and a Jockey Club of Canada member.
“Aron does a great job of picking horses and has been a great partner,” said Munro, whose Highfield Investment Group has been Alberta’s leading breeder by earnings six times beginning in 2010. “Aron and his team picked out Meaning for $440,000 at the 2024 Keeneland September sale. He’s found some incredible horses over the years.
“Aron put a group together to acquire top fillies. The 2023 fund included Meaning.
In a story that ran on Horse Racing Alberta’s thehorses.com website which I wrote in 2021, Highfield Investment Group’s thoroughbred racing and breeding operation were, to say the least, lofty when it was initially formed in 2004 as Highfield Stock Farm and then, in 2015, changed to Highfield Investment Group.
“We wanted to be world-class breeders that produced horses that could run outside of Alberta,” said Munro, whose father, David, bought a neglected cattle farm south of Calgary in 2004.
They’ve done exactly that.
Highfield has had several stallions including Cape Canaveral and Fed Biz. Now they have Tapiture, a multiple graded stakes winner by leading sire Tapit. A winner of over $1.5 million on the track – winning or placing in 11 graded stakes including a runner-up finish in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile to Goldencents – Tapiture has sired over 40 black-type winners with progeny earnings of over $35 million. He brings fantastic North American bloodlines and proven success to Alberta.
“Last year he had progeny that earned over $7 million U.S.,” said Munro, a third-generation horseman. “He gets runners. He was No. 2 by progeny earnings in Canada last year and was No. 1 in number of winners and black type percentage.”
Highfield has 24 racehorses in Alberta alone. They also have 20 yearlings or weanlings and 16 mares.
One of Highfield’s horses – Relaxgodoitramone – was named Alberta’s champion Two-Year-Old Colt of 2025.
Trained by Tim Rycroft, Relaxgodoitramone won four of his six starts – three of them stakes.
Another is Attack, who won last year’s Manitoba Derby.
“Adrian is the greatest guy for Alberta racing,” said Munro’s No. 1 trainer in Alberta, Craig Smith, who has 15 of Munro’s horses.
“He’s so good for the industry.
“He gets a lot of new people involved. There must have been 10 owners of Attack in the winners circle.
“His favourite saying is ‘the more the merrier,” said Smith, who said Attack is back on the track and doing great. “He’s training lights out.
“He’s got horses everywhere. He bought five horses in Florida this winter. He also recently acquired Abeliefinthislivin, the 2023 Canadian Derby winner.
Highfield also led all consignors to last year’s Alberta Yearling Sale grossing $104,000 from five yearlings sold.
One of the yearlings, Hip No. 37, a filly by Reload, brought $53,000 when purchased by by Stetson Ent. Ltd, Ryan Stetson, Stetson Inc. and Everblack Cattle.
“Adrian is the greatest guy for Alberta racing,” said Smith.
Highfield Investment is now a lot more than just champion thoroughbreds.
“Highfield Investment Group is a diversified, privately held investment company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta,” said Munro. “For more than four decades, we have focused on creating sustainable growth and long-term value across a wide range of industries, including real estate development, land management, commercial and industrial properties, hospitality, energy services, and thoroughbred operations.”
But of all his companies, one thing will always be No. 1: “Horses,” Munro said to Canadian Thoroughbred in a story on the top 25 Influencers in Canadian Thoroughbred Racing.
“We are all in it for the love of the horse,” he said. “They are just incredible animals and they have a way of bringing people together and bringing families together and bringing people from broad backgrounds together.”
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Missed in last week’s story on Alberta champions of 2025 was that trainer Dave Nicholson was named the inaugural Alan Bott Memorial for Sportsmanship and Kindness.
Nicholson is most deserving. Hard working, he regularly checks in with 99-year-old legend Red McKenzie and daily helps out trainer Danny Jones.
I have only seen him get mad once. That was on the 18th hole at Northern Bear golf course. Needing only to make a three-foot putt to win all the money, Nicholson asked if it was gimme, I shook my head no. Nicholson missed and his putter went into the water. The glare he gave me will never be forgotten.
Former Alberta jockey Rasheed Hughes is currently riding at Gulfstream where he won three races last Saturday from just three mounts including the $100,000 Honey Ryder Stakes – his first stakes victory in the U.S.
Aboard Spirit Doll, Hughes was boxed in on the far turn but patiently waited for a hole to open which is just what happened.
Last year Hughes won the Canadian Derby last year with Take Charge Tom for trainer Robertino Diodoro. In 2024 he was the leading rider at Calgary’s Century Downs.
Hughes rode in his Barbados home over the winter and got an offer to ride for Gulfstream’s perennial leading trainer Saffie Joseph.
“He’s smart, positions horses in a good spot and finishes strong,” said Bob Fowlis, his agent in Alberta.
“He liked riding in Alberta. At some point this season we might see him back here.”
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