Happy ending to improbable journey for Intimidate
Quebec trotter wins prestigious award in harness racing
From obscurity to an O’Brien award.
Quebec trotter Intimidate completed that improbable journey Saturday when he was crowned Canada’s champion three-year-old trotting colt of 2012 at the annual O’Brien awards gala in Toronto honouring the best in harness racing.
“This is the end of the Cinderella story. This puts the icing on the cake. You realize how prestigious it is when you’re there. It’s the first time I wore a long dress since I got married,” said breeder Judy Farrow, 71, of Hemmingford, who co-owns the diminutive trotter with trainer Luc Blais of Lochaber Ouest.
Intimidate soundly defeated Hambletonian win- ner Market Share in both the elimination and final of the Breeders’ Crown at Woodbine in October, and that sealed the deal for O’Brien voters. Market Share was the other finalist in the category.
Born and raised in Quebec at a time when the racing industry here had been decimated by the collapse of racetrack operator Attractions Hippiques, Intimidate initially competed for small purses at Rideau-Carleton Raceway in Ottawa before venturing to Toronto to face the best threeyear-old trotters on the continent. And his owners risked $62,500, a sizable percentage of everything he’d made to that point, just to make him eligible to start in the Breeders’ Crown.
He ended the year with 13 wins and three second-place finishes in 17 starts and $415,000 in earnings.
And he wasn’t Quebec’s only national champion in 2012.
Lachute native Sylvain Filion, 43, was named Canada’s outstanding driver. Filion, the dominant driver at Hippo- drome de Montréal in its final years, relocated to Ontario when that track closed in 2008. He won 434 races and topped $8 million in purses last year.
“Incroyable,” he said after his name was called at the banquet. “It’s a dream for me. It’s been a dream year.”
Filion said he was proud to see so many Quebecers nominated for O’Briens in 2012. “They suffered so long” after their industry collapsed, he said.
Wheeling N Dealin, owned by Montreal businessman Serge Godin and trained by transplanted Quebecer Dustin Jones, received the O’Brien as outstanding twoyear-old trotting colt, after being similarly honoured in the United States. He won all nine of his races last year, including the Breeders’ Crown final for two-year-olds.
But he lost out in the vote for overall horse of the year to Ontario-based Michaels Power, the champion threeyear-old pacing colt. Michaels Power won the Little Brown Jug and more than $1 million in 2012.
“I was hoping we’d get horse of the year, but Michaels Power had a great year, too,” said Jones, who has now trained three O’Brien champions in his career.
Bee A Magician, co-owned by former Montrealer Herb Liver man, received the O’Brien as top two-year-old trotting filly.
Other O’Brien recipients were Casie Coleman (trainer), Marc Campbell (horsemanship), I Luv The Nitelife (two-year-old pacing filly), Betterthancheddar (older pacer), Captaintreacherous (two-year-old pacing colt), American Jewel (three-yearold pacing filly), Check Me Out (three-year-old trotting filly), Anndrovette (pacing mare). Mister Herbie (older trotter) and Frenchfrysnvinegar (trotting mare).