By: Chris Lomon
David Anderson had no intention of buying at the 2018 Canadian Premier Yearling horse sale. But then he saw “the beast.”
It was one year ago when Anderson, one of the most prominent and successful horse breeders in Canada, found himself at the Woodbine Sales Pavilion, not in the role of buyer, but rather, as an observer.
But the horseman in Anderson, someone who has earned the rightful reputation for having keen judgment in picking out talented horses, meant that at the very least, he’d keep an open mind and open eye for anything that might grab his attention.
Between sips of his drink, he became more and more fixated on a particular horse, a handsome chestnut. Soon enough, the odd glance became a full-on stare.
“I wasn’t in the market to buy anything,” started Anderson, who was less than a year old when his late father Robert (Bob) Anderson bought and moved his family to the spot in St. Thomas, Ontario that would become one of the most prominent breeding farms in racing, Anderson Farms Ontario Inc. “I don’t typically buy yearlings. I sell them. I was sitting on the patio, talking with some people, and out of the corner of my eye I saw this big beast walking in the first barn, off in the distance. I kept looking and I couldn’t take my eye off him.”
Soon enough, Anderson, the man who bred 2018 Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes champ Wonder Gadot, got up from his chair, without a sales catalogue in his hand, and walked over to Arika Everatt-Meeuse, another distinguished horse breeder.
David Anderson
“I remember that I said, ‘Arika, who is this beast?’ She told me, ‘David, this is the most special colt I’ve ever had.’ I asked if I could see him go. I walked away and I said to myself, ‘We’re going to own that horse.’”
Along with partners, father and son team, George P. Ledson and Brian W. Ledson, Anderson Farms purchased the Society’s Chairman-Colbra gelding for $110,000.
Keep On Truckin was named by Brian as a surprise for his father, founder of Cavalier Transportation Services.
“This horse is as close a specimen as I’ve ever seen to Secretariat,” said Anderson in referencing one of thoroughbred racing’s all-time greats. “I mean, I know that’s a really tough comparison, but he is just an absolute beast of a horse.”
The burning question then became, ‘Can the beast live up to his looks on the racetrack?’
Keep On Truckin had an emphatic answer.
Keep On Truckin
The Ontario-bred dropped jaws, in the stands and in the owners’ boxes, in his career bow on July 7 at the Toronto oval.
Sent off as the 3-5 favourite, Keep On Truckin zipped out of the gate, holding a half-length advantage at the three-sixteenths call of the five-furlong main track race. He was 2 ½-lenghts on top at the three-eighths mark, increasing his advantage to 6 ½-lengths at the stretch call.
At the wire, the Catherine Day Phillips trainee was a whopping 11 ¾-lengths clear of his nearest pursuer.
“He was very, very special in his debut,” praised Day Phillips. “He ran better than we had hoped. We expected him to run well, but he certainly ran to that and better.”
Keep On Truckin’s next engagement was the Clarendon Stakes on August 3 at Woodbine.
Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson guided the 3-5 choice to a front-stepping score in the 5 ½-furlong main track sprint.
Down the stretch, Keep On Truckin powered away from his rivals en route to a 7 ¾-length score in 1:03.07.
“You’re never sure what you’ve really got until they come out of the gate,” said Anderson, who headed the highly successful Standardbred division of Anderson Farms Ontario Inc. until his father passed away in late 2010 and the decision was made to refocus on the Thoroughbreds. “We felt that he was a very talented horse right from the get-go. He’s really done nothing wrong. Since those two races, we’ve realized what a special horse he really is, and quite honestly, he just breathes different air.”
Keep On Truckin
“This horse is a beast. He knows what he’s doing,” said Wilson. “Catherine’s said it in interviews before about how laid back he is about everything. I breezed him in the morning the other day and he just did it so easily and today, when the doors opened, he was all business and he went on with it.”
In the final strides of Keep On Truckin’s debut, Anderson found himself at a loss for words, much like the first time he saw the horse.
At the finish, Anderson, wide smile on his face, turned to Day Phillips and shook his head before he could find the right words.
“It brings chills. That first start, I was standing with Catherine and we were watching the race together. He crossed the line and she said, ‘Dave, I’ve never had goosebumps before in a horse race and I have them right now.’ That’s a pretty big statement for all the great horses and great wins she’s had over the years. Here’s a horse breaking his maiden as a two-year-old giving her goosebumps.
“One of the big thrills for me is that he was bred by the Everatts, who are five minutes up the road from my farm. The whole connection from breeding to ownership is all five minutes apart in little old Elgin County. It’s quite fun to think that this horse could go on to be a pretty special one.”
With the 2019 Yearling Sales set to get underway on Thursday at noon – one day after Woodbine showcases six OLG-sponsored Yearling Stakes race – and the opportunity to take advantage of the lucrative Thoroughbred Improvement Program (TIP) (a component of the Ontario Horse Improvement Program, which offers incentives for the breeding and ownership of Thoroughbred racehorses in the province), there are plenty of reasons to consider horse ownership.
When the Enriched TIP is coupled with existing TIP, the total TIP program is worth over $16 million.
Come Thursday, the next Keep On Truckin could be right before your eyes.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” started Anderson. “Catherine and I bought a horse out of the sale a few years ago – her name was Neshama – and she won the ($500,000) Woodbine Oaks. The third purchase was Keep On Truckin. It’s definitely a buyers’ sale, for sure.”
Photos by Michael Burns
*
For more on the TIP Program and horse ownership, visit ontarioracing.com/Become-an-Owner/Horse-Ownership and
ontarioracing.com/Industry/Thoroughbred-Improvement-Program
More Top Racing Headlines