Manitoba thoroughbred breeder Cam Ziprick is living the dream life at 50 right now — family, hockey and horses.
The leading consignor at the CTHS Manitoba Yearling Sale for the past 10 to 15 years, Ziprick has paid his dues and is now able to spend much more time with his wife of 16 years, Sherisse, and their two boys Keaton (13) and Aiden (10), both of whom are playing hockey at the Triple-A level.
“Keaton is a goalie for a team in Saskatoon and has to practice there every weekend,” said Ziprick. “Aiden is a defenseman with one of the hardest shots in the league.”
Ziprick started out grooming horses at the age of 12 for the late C.J. “Shorty” Gray during the summers at Assiniboia Downs and worked his way up to assistant trainer with Gray before venturing out on his own as a trainer. He also worked at Gray’s 2,500 acre grain farm until 1999, when he bought the farm and began generating an income that served to support the horses.
He started partnering in broodmares shortly after, with Manitoba owners and breeders that included Barry Arnason, Darryl Sundsbak, Al Daley and Charles Fouillard. He began with two homebred mares, Prairie Star and Prairie Oaks, and the partners gradually started buying and breeding better mares to the point where they were getting up to 10 high quality yearlings for the sale every year.
Ziprick also started bringing stallions into the province, many of whom turned out to be leading sires in Manitoba. Beginning with Cognizant and continuing with Circulating, Battle Cat, Crafty Dude, Ran South and Going Commando, Ziprick most recently brought the stallion True Sense to Manitoba.
A full brother to Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (Grade 1) and Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) winner Street Sense, who is off to an excellent start as a stallion, True Sense is a gorgeous animal. He injured himself as a 2-year-old and later popped a splint and was taken out of training, primarily because of his famous brother. Now Ziprick has high hopes for his new acquisition’s first crop of 2-year-olds, which will make their debut on the track in 2016.
To date, Going Commando has been the best sire of the bunch, but Ziprick thinks True Sense might be even better. The True Sense yearlings are big strong horses from better than average mares, many of which Ziprick owns with his partners.
Last year, Ziprick and partners took home an overfull table of trophies at the annual awards banquet, including the title of Breeder of the Year in Manitoba, as well championship honours for Zdeno, Nose the Pose and Yelling Timber.
“It was a bit embarrassing to win so many awards,” said Ziprick, who admits they do their best to raise strong, sound horses, but there are no real secrets. His horses spend a lot of time outside in the fresh Manitoba air in large paddocks with windbreaks and they get a lot of exercise. They get grain and second cut alfalfa every day, which keeps good flesh on both the mares and foals, and the horses are just plain hardy.
Ziprick currently has six family-owned mares, five more in partnership and five weanlings, as well as the aforementioned stallions Going Commando and True Sense.
“Every year I think I’m going to cut back,” said Ziprick, “But then the horses run so well, the Manitoba breeders’ bonuses are excellent, and I buy more mares and keep going. How can you quit when it’s going so well? And I think the crop we sent through the yearling sale last year could be our best ever at the track.”
In a unique twist, Ziprick has three mares carrying Ontario-sired foals that will also be Manitoba-breds when they are born. It’s the best of both worlds. The horses can run for the Manitoba-bred bonuses, but if they are good enough, they can also compete in the rich Ontario-sired programs at Woodbine. Chasing Victoria is in foal to Kentucky Bear. Bear’s Princess is in foal to Badge of Silver and Pillow Book is in foal to Bears Kid.
Yearlings marked for next year’s sale include a colt by True Sense out of Sweet Tizzy Lizzy; a True Sense colt out of Jungle Storm who is a half-brother to stakes winner Jungle Story and a half-sister to double stakes winner Langara by Going Commando, out of the mare Midnight Shadow.
Ziprick and partners will have at least four older horses at the track in 2016 including stakes winners and champions Zdeno, Nose the Pose and Jungle Story, and they also expect True Sense to have 6-8 2-year-olds at the track this year; a crop that will definitely be worth watching.
In the meantime, Ziprick is getting some help from a friend and starting to enjoy some family time, especially when it comes to hockey with the kids.
“Charles Fouillard, one of my breeding partners, knows what it’s like to have kids in hockey and he’s really helping me out right now,” said Ziprick. “I wouldn’t be able to do this without him. He said to go ahead and do it while we’re young.
“When we have to be on the road for months in the spring for hockey with the kids, the stallions go to his farm in St. Lazare and the mares all go there to foal, so that leaves me the time to spend with Sherisse and the kids traveling all over for hockey. Charles used to have four kids in hockey and one of his daughters, Hannah, played for the under-18 Manitoba team that went to the national finals. She’s now on a hockey scholarship in Alberta.”
Ziprick’s operation has been a family affair ever since the kids were old enough to walk, but it’s become even more so as the boys have grown.
“The kids have been working with horses ever since they were little,” said Ziprick. “But now that they’re older, when I get any new mares they want to pick which ones are theirs. They’re learning how to work and what it’s like to own horses, although they haven’t learned about what it costs, yet. We work together and spend a lot of time together. They’re learning some great values, respect for animals and responsibility, but we also get to spend a lot of time together camping and boating at the lake.”
“To be able to do that and also be successful at breeding and racing?
“It’s the perfect life.”
