(PHOTO - A kiss for Hurri Cartel by Nadia Marcoux after he won the Ontario Jackpot Futurity in 2012)
From Matane, Quebec to Georgetown, Ontario, Nadia Marcoux is one of the more recognizable faces in Quarter Horse racing. It was only nine years ago that Marcoux obtained her trainer’s license and she has had a good deal of success in those seasons.
Much of that success came from one of the first horses she bought, a horse that not only was her best runner but a fellow who paced the way for her Quarter Horse career. His name is Hurri Cartel.
A brown gelding with a white blaze, Hurri Cartel was plucked from the Heritage Place yearling sale in Oklahoma in 2011. It was the second horse ever owned by Marcoux who admits she did not know a lot about Quarter Horse racing when she moved to Ontario in 2000.
“I began helping out Joe Tavares,” said Marcoux about one of the sport’s top trainers. “I worked for him for many years and then about five years ago I met [trainer] Clinton Crawford.”
Crawford, one of American Quarter Horse racing’s most successful trainers helped Marcoux improve her racing stable and Hurri Cartel was the initial purchase. The son of Teller Cartel was hip no. 886 at that Oklahoma sale and Marcoux got the youngster for $4,700.
The next year in his first season of racing, Hurri Cartel won five races in seven starts including the Fair Meadows Juvenile. In his Canadian debut in October of that season, Hurri Cartel won the $166,600 Ontario Jackpot Futurity at Fort Erie and his Equibase chart comment read ‘blew ‘em away’. Hurri Cartel won over $130,000 in his first season of racing.
“He was the best horse I ever bought, he won a lot of races that year,” said Marcoux. ”He helped me get started buying more horses and building my stable.”
She sold Hurri Cartel in 2014 and the gelding has since been racing in Mexico City. The success of that special horse came another top runner for Marcoux, Jumping Guitar. That filly won two stakes races in 2014 including the Alex Picov Memorial Futurity and she earned over $62,000. Jumping Guitar is now a top broodmare for Marcoux.
“A lot of horses have touched my life,” said Marcoux. “But Hurri Cartel helped me grow my stable and my broodmare band.”
(PHOTO BELOW - JUMPING GUITAR came into Nadia's life thanks to Hurri Cartel. She is a stakes winner and part of her broodmare band - New Image Media photo)
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