(PHOTO - ROBERT BAILEY poses his horse ONE KOOL WAVE following a win in September at Ajax Downs. Belinda Taggart (second from left), son Wiliam (far left) and trainer Don Reid are also on the team of the 'Grey Ghost' - New Image Media)
If you ask anyone involved in Quarter Horse racing in Ontario to name one of the best horses to have raced over the new Ajax Downs surface, chances are most of them would say One Kool Wave.
A darling of the Ajax fans when he burst onto the scene as a 2-year-old, One Kool Wave won all eight of his races, set track records and became the first, and only juvenile to be named Horse of the Year.
And One Kool Wave is the horse that changed the life of his co-owner Robert Bailey and his partner Belinda Taggert who celebrated the gelding’s 21
st career win this September at Ajax Downs.
“He was only the third horse that I bred,” said Bailey, who owns the amazing grey with DK Trainng Centre.
It was a long line of mares bred by Belinda that led to the birth of One Kool Wave. Her homebred Kool Kinda Star, a multiple stakes winner in 1999-2001, produced the immensely talented One Kool Bud, who won the Alex Picov Memorial Futurity and All Canadian Futurity in 2005 and the All Canadian Derby in 2006.
Bailey and Taggert sought out the best mate for One Kool Bud in 2007 and picked Wave Carver, a champion fresh off the track standing in Oklahoma.
"Belinda and I went down to Okalhoma to check out Wave Carver," said Bailey. "He was epxnsive, for us, at $10,500 (US) but we went for it."
When One Kool Wave was born, Bailey said they knew he was going to go on to big things.
"We knew that he was special," said Bailey. "But we also had another one we liked; One Kool Wave turned out to be the runner."
One Kool Wave's incredible juvenile season was the start of a long career that has seen the gelding win at least two races every season. His career totals of 21 wins in 35 strats and $344,731 in earnings, remarkable in the local Quarter Horse industry.
"He is a one of a kind horse, the kind everone dreams of. I could breed 30 or 40 more and never have one like him again
And he’s a character, he has own little quirks but the good ones usually do."
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