FENCES

FIRST FOALS ARRIVING AT NEW HILL ‘N’ DALE CANADA

One of the first things you may notice when you visit the brand new Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in King City, in addition to the immaculate barn and horse-living quarters, is the presentation of a deep respect and passion for the sport of horse racing.

Memorabilia and photos grace every corner of the main barn, a fresh and bright two-floor horse palace with lots of space and big windows.

Glenn Sikura has owned Hill ‘n’ Dale Canada since the passing of his father, John, in 1994. Hill ‘n’ Dale Canada had been in Aurora on St. John’s Sideroad for about 30 years until it was put up for sale and the operation moved into its new digs late last fall. Sikura also has a smaller property in Whitchurch-Stouffville that he purchased about 12 years ago and brother John owns Hill ‘n’ Dale Kentucky in Lexington, home of 13 stallions.

A long driveway with a slight decline greets visitors and before you drive up to the main barn you will see a small building being refurbished into a two-horse home for a couple of lucky residents. The main house is off to the right as you pass between spacious paddocks.

Large photos of famous horses, such as a key Hill ‘n’ Dale (Kentucky)-bred Rahy, grace the entrance to the barn while a very cool bench made out of hockey sticks (the Sikura family has deep roots in Canada’s greatest past-time). On the second floor is the main office overlooking the paddocks and it is beautifully furnished with unique items such as a long table made out of old fence boards from the Aurora farm, made by Sikura.

Like a lot of the true, passionate racing fans, Sikura has a litany of neat keepsakes placed about the farm including race cooler-blankets, halters of famous horses, books and artwork. A giant poster of the great Northern Dancer, plucked from the trash, is splashed on a wall of  a feed room in the barn. You will see a lot of barn items with the old Knob Hill Farms logo as that farm’s late owner Steve Stavro granted stall plaques among other things to Sikura.

The first crop of foals at the new farm  – for Sikura, his partners and various boarders – have been arriving this spring. Hill ‘n’ Dale shares its foaling events on social media, complete with photos taken from any number of its dedicated staff including Michelle Horvath, farm manager Ericka Rusnak, broodmare manager Tova McKane and Lorie Sikura, Glenn’s wife and another hard working member of the team.

There are many offspring of first year sire ATREIDES, a brilliant son of Medaglia d’Oro who won 4 of 5 races from 6 furlongs to 1 mile including his lone stakes start which he took by 17 1/2 lengths. Atreides stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale, Kentucky.

The list of top racehorses bred by Hill ‘n’ Dale Canada is a long one and include: champion Serenading, Grade 1 winner Granacus, graded stakes winners Anguilla, One for Rose and many more.

Recently, Sikura has been forming small syndicates with friends to pass on his love of the sport to others. One of the first partnership horses was the talented Villaine’s Passion and this year the group have a 2-year-old filly from the exciting young mare Anne’s Purse (owned by Sikura and her first foal was 2016 stakes winner Lokinforpursmeonee). Thoroughblog offers photos from a trip to the new Hill ‘n’ Dale:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main barn (below) with new trees and grass still to come. At right is  a photo of the main house, taken from the main office

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A poster of Northern Dancer on the wall of a feed room. Here is the classy stakes winner BEAR’S GEM and her first-ever foal, a colt by Atreides

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

KENTUCKY DERBY PICTURE – 

Another virtual unknown horse won a Kentucky Derby ‘prep’ race on Sunday hence the bizarre list of Derby contenders seen below. In fact, his name is HENCE and the son of Street Boss zoomed up to number 5 on the list by points after a win in the Sunland Park Derby yesterday, a race worth a whopping $800,000.

Canadian-bred STATE OF HONOR is reportedly going to keep trying the Derby trail as he is scheduled to race Saturday in the Florida Derby at 1 1/8 miles. The big colt has been posting solid Beyer Figures this season while showing speed in his races. He will have blinkers off in the Florida Derby.

THUNDER SNOW, winner o the UAE DERBY, was given a 94 Beyer Figure for his Meydan win

FAST AND ACCURATE, the surprise winner  of the $500,000 Spiral Stakes, earned a very low Beyer Figure for his win on the Polytrack at Turfway Park.

In the Spiral, Gary Barber and Wachtel Stable’s Canadian bred KING AND HIS COURT had his second straight outing in which he was eased up and the stakes winning gelding, made 2nd choice in the early Queen’s Plate odds, would appear to be off the Plate trail.

 

KENTUCKY DERBY POINTS

Rank          Horse Points             Owner(s)                    Trainer    Non-Restricted    Stakes Earnings

1. $-Thunder Snow (Ire) 100 Godolphin Saeed bin Suroor $1,621,063
2. Gunnevera 64 Peacock Racing Stables LLC (Solomon Del-Valle, Guillermo Guerra & Jaime Diaz) Antonio Sano $1,042,800
Mastery 60 Cheyenne Stables LLC (Everett Dobson) Bob Baffert $480,000
3. Tapwrit 54 Bridlewood Farm (John & Leslie Malone), Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners (Aron Wellman) & Robert V. LaPenta Todd Pletcher $295,570
4. J Boys Echo 53 Albaugh Family Stables LLC (Jason Loustch) Dale Romans $255,000
5. Hence 50 Calumet Farm (Brad Kelley) Steve Asmussen $481,129

6. Malagacy 50 Sumaya U.S. Stables Todd Pletcher $540,000
7. $$-Fast and Accurate 50 Kendall E. Hansen Mike Maker $320,712
8. Girvin 50 Brad Grady Joe Sharp $249,800
Epicharis (Jpn) 40 U. Carrot Farm Kiyoshi Hagiwara $851,195
9. Practical Joke 34 Klaravich Stables Inc. (Seth Klarman) & William H. Lawrence Chad Brown $766,000
10. Untrapped 34 Michael Langford Steve Asmussen $210,000
11. Classic Empire 32 John C. Oxley Mark Casse $1,493,820
12. El Areeb 30 M M G Stables LLC (Mohammed Al-Gadhi) Cal Lynch $330,000
13. Gormley 25 Mr. & Mrs. Jerome S. Moss (Jerry & Ann Moss) John Shirreffs $284,000
14. State of Honor 22 Conrad Farm (Manfred & Penny Conrad) Mark Casse $119,564
+Conquest Mo Money 20 Judge Lanier Racing Miguel Hernandez $296,000
15. McCraken 20 Whitham Thoroughbreds LLC (Janis R. Whitham) Ian Wilkes $285,048

16. Master Plan 20 Al Shaqab Racing, WinStar Farm et al Todd Pletcher $214,700
17. Iliad 20 Kaleem Shah Inc. Doug O’Neill $200,000
18. Sonneteer 20 Calumet Farm (Brad Kelley) Keith Desormeaux $186,000
19. Blueridge Traveler 20 Horizon Stables Kenny McPeek $95,000
Note: One spot in the Kentucky Derby starting gate is an invitation to the “Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby” point leader. The invitation order of
preference is Epicharis-JPN (50 points), Mont Saint Legame-JPN (40 points) and Adirato-JPN (20 points).
20. Cloud Computing 20 Klaravich Stables Inc. (Seth Klaraman) & William H. Lawrence Chad Brown $60,000

+Not This Time 18 Albaugh Family Stable (Dennis Albaugh) Dale Romans $430,210
21. Wild Shot 17 Calumet Farm (Brad Kelley) Rusty Arnold II $132,200
22. Guest Suite 15 William S. Farish & Lora Jean Kilroy Neil Howard $144,040
23. Petrov 13 Rialto Racing Stables LLC (Catherine Adams Hutt) & Southern Spring Stables (Ron Moquett) Ron Moquett $195,000
24. Irap 13 Reddam Racing LLC (J. Paul Reddam) Doug O’Neill $144,000
25. Lookin At Lee 12 L and N Racing LLC (Don Nelson) Steve Asmussen $328,600