It is the phone call that every horse owner dreads.
What started as an update for Brian Wright on his mare Jilli's Cape, who had just foaled a perky little filly, turned tragic. Veterinarians and staff at the Equine Guelph Hospital were scrambling as Jilli's Cape was having another bout of colic but she could not be saved.
“It was devastating,” said Wright, a soft spoken crop farmer from Bothwell in southwestern Ontario. “They did everything to try and save her for me.
Wright, who works as a millwright when he is not working crops, was just a few years into his lifelong dream of breeding racehorses, a business not for the faint of heart.
Left with an orphaned foal, Wright had a network of people find Iris the Percheron as a nursemare to raise the filly, a daughter of Ontario stallion Dynamic Sky.
That was March 2018.
Two years and thousands of dollars later that youngster, named Jilli Marie and now owned by Wright's friend Kevin Drew, his first ever racehorse, overcame long odds and won a $100,000 stakes race at Woodbine in November.
“This is a Cinderella story,” said Drew, also a crop farmer and factory worker. “My first horse gave me my first win and now a stakes win and I got to share it with Brian; this is what we have in common, our love of horses.”
Wright's horse story began when he was 11-years-old. “Good friends of my mom and dad, Ivan and Chester Thrasher had a farm with Thoroughbred horses. I went there all the time; Christmas holidays, days off from school, every weekend. I loved the horses.”
At the age of 13 Wright was already breaking young horses to saddle and exercising them. He told himself that one day he wanted to raise his own horses.
“First I had to get a real job,” Wright laughs. “I have always farmed crops but I became a millwright and have been working in factory most of my adult life.”
But Wright kept in touch with the racing industry.
“I never stopped following horse racing or the breeding,” said Wright. “I worked at becoming a student of pedigrees. I am not an expert but I love to study the successful matches of mare and stallion.”
In 2013 Wright stepped out and bought his first broodmare but for several years she didn't get in foal.
When she finally did produce a colt for Wright, the horse had to be put down only weeks before he was to be sold at the Woodbine yearling sale when he got stuck under a fence and broke bones in his back.
“It was awful but I wasn't giving up.” he said.
While flipping through a sale catalogue for the 2015 breeding stock sale at Woodbine he fell in love with the breeding of the mare Yes Imatiger and bought her for $2,300. It was through that purchase he met Arika Everatt-Meeuse, owner and operator of the successful Shannondoe Farm in St. Thomas. Everatt-Meeuse would become Wright's mentor in the breeding industry.
Yes Imatiger foaled a handsome colt by the Shannondoe stallion Society's Chairman the next spring and Wright was front and centre helphis mare through the foaling.
“There is no better feeling than standing your own foal up and getting him nursing.”
Named Society's Tiger, the colt won his first career race under the training expertise of Katerina Vassilieva, earning almost $14,000 for Wright. He remains Wright's only racehorse through 2020, now an earner of over $105,000.
“That was a 45-year dream come true, standing in that winner's circle.”
Jilli's Cape came along in 2016. A stakes placed winner of 11 races with $235,000 in racing earnings, the mare had produced four foals for her previous owner. Wright bred her to the newest Shannondoe stallion, millionaire Dynamic Sky, and was excited to greet the foal.
Ten months into the pregnancy, however, Jilli's Cape had her first bout with colic. The mare was sent to Equine Guelph and was successfully operated on by Dr. Marie Dubois.
“She saved the mare and she saved the foal,” said Wright. “I told her if the foal was a filly I would name it after her.”
And Jilli's Cape did produce a beautiful filly but lost her life in the process.
Wright named the filly Jilli Marie and after growing up her first year with Iris the Percheron, went to the yearling sale at Woodbine in 2019
Accompanied by Drew, who had gained an interest in racing on his numerous trips to the track with his friend, Wright watched his filly sell for $15,000. Drew, who was sitting behind him in the sales ring, had bought her.
“When it was all said and done, I had spent more than $30,000 on Jilli Marie before she even sold,” said Wright. “But I was pleased Kevin bought her.”
Drew, who was involved in Standardbred ownership for about a decade, has always been around horses. Like Wright, he has been a farmer his entire life working crops of soybeans, corn and wheat.
It had been 20 years since he had owned a horse, however and Jilli Marie was his first Thoroughbred purchase.
“I started riding at a neighbour's farm a few years ago and it got me thinking about horses again,” said Drew. “I was going to the races with Brian and started following him to the yearling sale.”
Drew spared no expense to prepare his new filly for a racing career and sent her to South Carolina for winter training. In fact, he borrowed Wright's truck drove Jilli Marie to Webb Carroll Training Centre himself.
When the filly came back to Ontario, she went to the barn of Vassilieva and proved to be a fast learner.
She won her first career race Oct. 3 under jockey Steve Bahen and Drew and Wright were blown away.
“That was very exciting,” said Drew, who shares the horse experience with wife Deb Guy. “I was on a high for a month. My phone never stopped ringing.”
On Nov. 14, Jilli Marie trounced eight rivals in the $100,000 South Ocean Stakes, a race for Ontario-sired 2-year-old fillies.
Drew collected some $60,000 while Wright collected breeders' awards provided through Ontario racing's Thoroughbred Improvement Program. Drew has already purchased another racehorse, a yearling he hopes to race in 2021.
For Wright, the success of Jilli Marie fulfilled a dream and stoked the fire of more to come.
“It's taken me a while to get the mares I want but now things are coming together,” said Wright. I have three mares now and one I owned with Katerina.”
He said he may only work in the factory for one more year before concentrating his time on his horses.
“The horses are my family. And yes, the breeding business is the toughest part of racing; it takes several years to go from owning a mare to getting a foal and hoping it gets to the races. That is why the breeders' awards are so important to help us keep our business, our passion going.”
Wright looks forward to the 2021 foals to arrive on his farm and to see how two yearlings he sold at the CTHS yearling this past September including Absolute Jewel, a filly by Society's Chairman who brought a bid of $55,000.
“I consider myself a humble guy and don't really like the limelight,” said Wright. “But it is so thrilling that a small scale breeder like me has now bred a 2-year-old stakes winner.”
It wouldn't be a stretch to say there may be more where Jilli Marie came from.
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Main photo by Michael Burns Photography
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