The Canadian Sportsman
October 08, 2009
As the bidding kept going skyward, trainer Erv Miller admits he was getting a little nervous.
Sure, the filly in the ring on the opening night of the Lexington-Selected Yearling Sale was the full-sister to Hall of Fame superstar and Canadian media darling Somebeachsomewhere (shown setting a 1:46.4 record in Lexington).
Sure, she looked the part.
Sure, Miller’s owner, John Carver, was game.
But, Someheartsomewhere is an offspring of Mach Three. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but to be fair, there are stallions just in Ontario with better stats.
Plus, Miller is based in Springfield, IL, which is a bit of a haul to Ontario to race.
As the bidding climbed past the $150,000 Miller thought was the top end of what Someheartsomewhere would command, the trainer said, “I kept trying to talk (Carver) out of it a little. I said, ‘She’s a Canadian-bred Mach Three. She needs to go to Canada.’”
Carver and partner Ron Michelson would not be deterred. When the hammer fell at $210,000 (U.S.), Someheartsomewhere was theirs — and, by extension, Miller’s.
Standing in his shedrow in the backstretch of The Red Mile the next morning, Miller said he was thrilled to add The Beach’s little sister to his operation.
“She’s a very good-looking filly. I don’t know if I’d consider her looking just like (Somebeachsomewhere), but she’s a big, strong, well-conformed filly,” Miller said. “She’s a Mach Three, but it didn’t stop Somebeachsomewhere from being a good horse, right? Every part’s there.”
Of course, Miller said he hopes Someheartsomewhere turns out to be stakes-calibre filly, but the upside if that doesn’t happen is she has both the lucrative Ontario Sires Stakes program and a broodmare career to fall back on.
“They were just really excited about the filly because of her residual value as a broodmare, also,” Miller said of the owners.
He said his job now is to avoid letting the success of Somebeachsomewhere influence how the sister is trained.
“My thing is, you don’t want to beat them up too quickly because of that. That’s what seems to happen. Because of that, you put some pressure on and think they can go more than they need to go at the time.”
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October 07, 2009
The latest installment from my weekly Guelph Mercury column…
It’s not exactly the same level of limelight as last summer when Guelph’s Paul MacDonell was driving Somebeachsomewhere, one of the greatest standardbreds to ever pull a sulky, but Fast Pay has been a special horse in his own right.
Fast Pay has been the star of the Ontario Sires Stakes program’s three-year-old pacing colt division, winning all three of the $130,000 Gold Finals on his schedule and besting The Beach in one area…
Click on the words “Guelph Mercury” to read the article in its entirety.
October 01, 2009
The latest installment from my weekly Guelph Mercury column…
When Ron Pierce was just a kindergartner, he and his brother, who was just two years older, would head out after school to forage for food to feed the family. Squirrels, rabbits, fish or a deer, if they were lucky. The driver and his brother did what they had to do to help feed their family at an age when other kids can’t colour inside the lines and tie their shoes.
Click on the words “Guelph Mercury” to read the article in its entirety.
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