(PHOTOS - ANGELLES BABY TNT was an Ajax Downs winner in 2016 for Angelle Carter (holding the filly) and she is a granddaughter of Sheza Soverign Dash - New Image Media photo; smaller photo is of the grey mare Sheza Soverign Dash, the horse who changed the life of Angelle Carter)
As a new year begins, Angelle Carter is looking forward to her first full season as an owner and trainer at Ajax Downs. Carter, originally from British Columbia, Carter moved to Ontario from her base of seven years in Alberta in 2016 for Ontario.
A successful stakes winning owner and trainer, Carter brought with her a collection of runners descended from the horse who changed her life, Sheza Soverign Dash.
“She is the backbone of the fillies I have now,” said Carter, a former jockey who has been involved in Quarter Horses for 20 years. “I have two of her daughters, one that ran at Ajax (in 2016) and two of her granddaughters also ran at Ajax last year.”
Carter fell in love with Sheza Soverign Dash when she spotted her in 2000 when she was at Lone Star Park in Texas preparing to ride in the Challenge finals.
“The weekend before the Challenge finals I was watching the races and saw this beautiful 2-year-old grey filly with a black mane and tail. I looked at her form and saw she ran three races for allowance with a first, second and third and now she was entered for claiming.
Carter claimed the filly for $6,250 and took her to Alberta where she raced her twice before discovering the mare had chips in both knees. Surgery was performed but the filly never raced again. After riding her as a pleasure horse, Carter bred her and from four foals to make the races, three are stakes horses and one is a winner.
Sadly, Sheza Soverign Dash passed away while foaling in 2011. The foal, by top American stallion PYC Paint Your Wagon also died.
The mare’s lineage lives on, however, as Carter bred one of the daughters of ‘Dash’, Tres Seis Smooches (born in 2009) right back to PYC Paint Your Wagon. Carter also did an embryo transfer with ‘Smooches’ and the same stallion and the result were a pair of 2013 fillies; Fiscal fast and Angelles Baby TNT are both multiple winners.
Incredibly, Tres Seis Smooches, who continued to race after foaling, won an allowance race in her final appearance at Ajax in 2016 and has won eight of 38 races and over $62,000 (US). In one of her 2016 outings, she finished third to her daughter, Angelles Baby TNT who is already a six-time winner in 12 career races.
Carter, whose husband is jockey Ramiro Castillo, is thankful she still has daughters and granddaughters of her special mare. “She holds a huge part of my heart. These fillies will be my future broodmares to carry on her pedigree,” said Carter.
More For The Love of Racing