story and photo by Dave Briggs
Run The Table was such a game-changing standardbred stallion for Ontario that both he and Killean Acres’ Jack McNiven earned berths in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. But McNiven said if it wasn’t for stallion Dallas Almahurst, Killean never would have landed Run The Table in the first place.
“Dallas Almahurst led to Run The Table,” McNiven said. “The success we had with an unraced horse was what got us a chance to get Run The Table.”
Dallas Almahurst was, indeed, unraced, but he was a full-brother to world champion Oil Burner and was one heck of a looker with a gait to match.
“Delvin Miller told me that he was a better-gaited horse than Meadow Skipper. Meadow Skipper, he said, was too long a gaited horse compared to Dallas Almahurst. Dallas was a perfect-gaited horse,” McNiven said. “Delvin Miller trained (Dallas Almahurst) down as a two-year-old in Florida and then as a three-year-old he went off in the knee. It wasn’t a break or anything, but it was a bit of calcium, they think. They gave him the winter off and brought him back at three and he went lame again in that knee. He would have raced, could have raced, but they didn’t want to cheapen him,” McNiven said.
When McNiven saw Dallas Almahurst at Almahurst Farm in Kentucky he called Don, his brother and partner, and said the opportunity to bring the stallion to stand at their Ingersoll, ON farm was good to pass up.
We bought 80 per cent and Almahurst retained 20 per cent. He was unraced. He had beautiful conformation and an awesome pedigree. I think his stud fee, originally, was $500. I can almost swear to this that no one that came and looked at him that was interested in breeding to him didn’t breed to him. He was that beautiful,” Jack said.
Dallas Almahurst (Most Happy Fella—Dottie Shadow) died in 2003 at age 29 after siring the winners of more than $15 million and putting Killean Acres on the map.
“He had the same stall and the same paddock for 26 years. Not many people have one abode for 26 years,” Jack said.
More For The Love of Racing