Woodbine filly favoured at Breeders’ Cup

Year-old Catch a Glimpse is owned by three friends, including trainer Mark Casse

Jeff Begg knew he was going over his budget when he raised his arm to buy a one-year-old racehorse at a Kentucky sale last September.

The price of $75,000 (U.S.) for the filly was steep for the thoroughbred owner and breeder from Mono, Ont., so he went looking for partners.

Mike Ambler, owner of a cleaning supplies business, came to mind. The Toronto-born sports fan had been in racing on a small scale and had recently boarded his small stable with Begg. Ambler bought one-third and then sold part of his share to his longtime friend Greg Lang, owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Pickering.

Still looking to sell another third in the flashy reddish-coloured youngster with the white stripe down her face, Begg approached Woodbine’s leading trainer, Mark Casse.

“I told him if (he) could sell the piece of her, he could train her,” said Begg, who has raced, bred and sold horses for 30 years. “Gary Barber, one of his biggest owners, agreed to buy into her and another two I had bought.”

A year later, that same filly, Catch a Glimpse — named by Begg’s wife, Annabel — will be one of the favourites to win the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly Turf on Friday, one of 13 championship races run at Keeneland racecourse in Lexington, Ky., this weekend.

The odds that this filly has brought Begg, Ambler and Lang to the biggest racing day in the world are astronomical. Begg originally sorted through 100 of the 3,000 yearlings at that Keeneland sale, narrowed his list to 10, paid more than $1,000 to have each one checked by a vet and then took home Catch a Glimpse.

“It’s what you always dream about in horse racing; going to the Breeders’ Cup,” Ambler said. “You start out with a horse or two, you go along and, one day, it happens.”

Catch a Glimpse was bred in Kentucky but came to Woodbine for her second career start. It was a prep race for the Natalma Stakes, which she won by leading all the way. She came right back and won the Natalma, a “Win and You’re In” event that awarded her a free ticket into the Breeders’ Cup.

“I don’t remember the last part of her winning the Natalma,” Lang said. “I was so excited, I was high-fiving myself.”

Begg is a little more accustomed to big races, since he and his late father Jim won the 1999 Queen’s Plate with Victor Cooley. Begg has since sold the farm and bought a smaller property for his scaled-down horse business.

“There is a lot of excitement,” Begg said. “The guys love the action and our filly worked pretty good for the race.”

Catch a Glimpse will start from post position three — but wear saddle towel four due to Wednesday’s scratch of Tin Type Gal, who was number one — in the 14-horse Juvenile Turf Filly field. Her 5-1 early odds suggest she is the third-mostlikely horse in the race to win.

“You look at the race, there is not a bad horse in the field,” Begg said.

For Ambler, Lang and their families, just the trip to the Breeders’ Cup — highlighted by Saturday’s $5 million Classic featuring American Pharoah — is a chance in a lifetime.

“I haven’t been able to sleep for a couple of weeks,” Lang said. “In my wildest dreams . . . I had no idea I would ever get here.”

The Juvenile Filly Turf is race eight on Friday, with a post time of 4:50 p.m. The Classic has a post time of 5:35 p.m. on Saturday.