More difficult than ever, unless you’re Chad Milner
Chad Milner is about as nice a person as one could meet in harness racing, but he has contributed to a serious bout of depression in the game.
In the big scheme of things, the Campbellville trainer is a bit player training a small number of horses although one of them is trotting filly, Kadabra Queen. She is the reason why many trainers have a bit of a defeatist attitude these days.
With $215,000 earned to date, she is the best two-year-old in Ontario.
She also happens to be one of the smallest quality Standardbreds in recent memory. Because of her stature, Milner and her owners realized over a year ago that she would have commanded very little had she been sold at a yearling auction. Some have speculated that $10,000 would have been an exceptional price despite a market that saw the demand for Ontario sired horses reaching near record levels.
What has happened is that she has not only raced but absolutely clobbered all the high priced rivals. For those who shelled out big bucks in the pursuit of what they perceived as the best quality they could afford, it has been sobering to say the least.
In fact with only a handful of exceptions, Ontario-based trainers as a group have had miserable seasons. It is really quite extraordinary and the f allout may start to be noticed. The Lexington Selected Yearling Sale in Kentucky is a touchstone in the harness racing industry. This is like the National Hockey League junior draft where untried athletes are being secured on potential with no guarantees they will ever make the big time. But it is a nec- essary evil for many owners and trainers who want to have that champion. Traditionally, the trip to Lexington has been a ritual for Canadians but there are strong headwinds this year. As one trainer put it: “I just don’t have the bullets because the year has turned out so badly. My owners do not have limitless amounts of money to spend so while I may buy some horses there, it will not be in the numbers of past years and certainly not for the same dollar amount as last year. I’ll be scrounging trying to find value for money.”
This one sale offers up 88 Ontario sired horses but after that comes the new London Selected Yearling Sale followed by The Black Book in Pennsylvania. There are a lot of Ontario sired horses that are to be sold and as always every horse will find a home but at what price. The general feeling is that there will be a marked decline in prices.
No one is holding anything against Milner for the success of Kadabra Queen. But watching the filly pound her f ar pricier rivals leads many to hang their heads in despair. Milner discovered the needle in the haystack and he knows it. He also appreciates the frustration of his counterparts who are now pondering what to do when the Lexington auction begins Tuesday night. Some have already decided they are not even venturing south and limiting their buying to the London sale, which on paper is a vastly inferior catalogue but given the exploits of Kadabra Queen, who could be described as a bargain bin horse, should that matter?
Everyone in the game will all admit that luck plays such a role in racing horses, which is why some declare yearling selection to be as much art as science. Either way it is not an inexpensive venture.
That is unless one happens to be Chad Milner.