(PHOTO - THE DIAMOND SIDE won the Fort Erie Maturity at Fort Erie racetrack in 2011 during a championship year)
Fate intervened a decade ago when Erik Lehtinen sent his broodmare Pritzi Diamond to JEH Stallion Station in New Mexico to be bred to first-year stallion, The Down Side. A Grade 1 winner and Superior racehorse, The Down Side was an exciting new stallion in North American Quarter Horse Racing in 2006. The Lehtinens were given the opportunity to buy a breeding to the stallion from a shareholder, who elected to wait one year to breed his own mare to the stallion.
The following March, Lehtinen and his wife Joyce and daughter Miranda, successful owners and breeders of Ontario Quarter Horses in the name of JEM Farms (
http://www.jem-farms.ca/) in Uxbridge, welcomed a “very pretty foal who looked the part."
Tragically, in June of that year, The Down Side and five other stallions perished in a barn fire at JEH. Thus the Lehtinens had one of very few offspring of the promising sire.
"The fellow we bought the season from never got a chance to breed his own mare to The Down Side," said Lehtinen. "We got a foal from the sire's only year at stud."
Named The Diamond Side, the beautiful bay gelding showed early on that he had talent to match his looks. Broken to saddle as a yearling by jockey Helen Vanek, The Diamond Side finished a strong second in his career debut at Remington Park in Oklahoma in 2009 and charged into Ajax Downs as one of the most exciting juveniles of his year. He won the Legacy Futurity and was second in the Alex Picov Memorial Futurity.
As a 4-year-old in 2011, The Diamond Side won two stakes races including the Fort Erie Maturity and he was named the AQHA Canadian Champion at the awards ceremony in Oklahoma for that season. He also earned Superior racehorse status from the AQHA, a first for the Lehtinens.
The Diamond Side could have continued racing as a 5-year-old in 2012 but the Lehtinens had arranged with the couple’s exercise rider, Cheryl Langevin, who wanted to retire the horse for riding.
The Diamond Side ended his racing career with eight wins in 22 starts and over $197,00 in earnings.
““He was just so nice to be around,’ said Lehtinen about one of his all-time favourite horses. “He always tried his best and did everything right. "I have had a few important horses in my life – Jet Overdrive was a special broodmare for us – he was one I always liked.”
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