Skylander Girl returns investment again and again
Walking into the Woodbine Racetrack backstretch kitchen, Alexander Patykewich paused for a second to admire a poster advertising the upcoming Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society yearling auction that will take place on Sept. 8 at Woodbine.
The ad features a photo of his four-year-old filly, Skylander Girl, winning the Hendrie Stakes earlier this year. Three years ago, Patykewich bought his filly from that very same sale for just $3,500 and today she is a graded stakes winner and has earned more than $500,000, according to Equibase, a horseracing statistics database.
Skylander Girl is a poster child for horses bought at that auction that cost very little but win big. She is hoping to add another stakes win to her resumé in one of the Canadian Millions Sales Stakes being run on Sept. 2 at Woodbine.
Skylander Girl showed talent instantly, says Patykewich. As the filly’s trainer and owner, Patykewich won his first stakes race with Skylander Girl after just her second career start when she won the My Dear Stakes as a two-year-old.
From that point on, he says his phone has not stopped ringing with offers for the filly.
But he makes it clear: She’s not for sale. “I didn’t buy her for me,” said Patykewich. “I told them, I said, ‘I bought her for my grandkids.’
“Whatever the horse is going to make, they are going to get the money. They will have money for their schooling.”
Skylander Girl has won two other stakes and been second five times. The other horses in Patykewich’s barn are failing to make the cut.
Patykewich found his way to the racetrack when he took a job in the mutuels department and later started hot-walking horses on the backstretch while running concession stands at Maple Leaf Gardens.
“I worked at Maple Leaf Gardens for Harold Ballard for 26 years,” he said, “and I come back here. I owned my own courier company for 18 years, and I’m still here.”
Patykewich owns all the horses he trains and his stable is small, consisting of just three horses. He does all the groom and legwork on his horses himself. Over the years, according to Equibase, Patykewich’s earnings, with the exception of two years, had not surpassed $100,000. But since Skylander Girl hit the racetrack, he has made more than $200,000 the last two years and has already amassed $195,000 in 2015.
Patykewich selected Skylander Girl (who is named by one of his grandchildren after the Skylander video game) because he “liked the breeding.” But he may have been the only one.
Skylander Girl was bred by Auchmore Stud near Gananoque, Ont. Her dam, Heliotrope, was a Sovereign Award winner, and won more than $650,000, but according to Bruce Henry of Auchmore Stud, she did not produce runners until Skylander Girl. He bought Heliotrope pregnant with Skylander Girl for just $2,000.
“I just got lucky and got her cheap.” said Patykewich of Skylander Girl. “I bid on a few that year and that’s the one I got.”
“John Ross got lucky that year too with (Queen’s Plate winner) Lexie Lou. Harold Ladouceur got lucky with (graded stakes winner) Paladin Bay, we all got lucky that year, because at the sale, there weren’t that many selling and we all got them cheap.”
Patykewich says he turned down an offer for $500,000 for the filly, simply for the chance of owning and training an once-in-a-lifetime horse that could provide some extra savings for his grandchildren.
“The big filly is carrying everybody,” he said.
“I have had a lot of horses, I’ve probably owned 50 horses at least. It shows you what you’re staying around here for . . . to have a nice filly. She does everything for you and made it worthwhile.”