Story by Jennifer Morrison
Alan Hudgins wants to spread the word about the Ontario Quarter Horse racing industry; the provincial program for owning or breeding is the best way for anyone to get involved in the fastest equine sport in the world.
He is also well underway working on a plan to expand the Ontario Quarter Horse pedigree lines by bringing in Thoroughbred blood through his broodmare purchases.
“The best and logical way to get into Quarter horse racing and breeding is through the provincial program,” said Hudgins, who has a small farm in Napanee, ON, about a two-hour van ride from Ajax Downs. “And someone has to breed and raise these horses, so I want to be one of those people.”
Hudgins has not been in Quarter Horse racing all that long but has been working with Quarter Horses, training them for shows and events, since he was a young man.
“I grew up on the farm I am at now, one of four kids, and back then it was a dairy farm,” said Hudgins. “My grandfather bought us a pony for Christmas and since then there has not been a time I have not had a horse.”
Out of high school Hudgins did what most young people do; he got a job, for him factory work in Belleville, and worked long hours to make money. He kept close to his horses, riding all western pleasure events from polebending to barrels.
He also made regular trips to Woodbine and Greenwood racetracks to watch Thoroughbred racing with a fellow worker, often driving east after midnight shifts to watch racing.
Hudgins says a riding accident at a horse show when he broke his leg was a 'lucky break'.
“I was off for six months and the longer I was away from work the less I wanted to go back to a factory job. I just didn't see myself doing that day-to-day grind every day.”
Hudgins immersed himself in the western horse shows, most which would last a week but when his father passed away, he took over the running of the family farm and found the shows too time consuming.
About eight years ago he visited Ajax Down to watch the races as a fan and ran into his neighbour Paul Garrison. “It was funny, I said, 'what the heck are you doing here?' and he told me he was an assistant trainer and I thought maybe I could get into racing too.”
With his partner Krista Smith, a nurse practitioner, Hudgins claimed his first horse in 2013 to “get a feel for the business.”
Unfortunately, Hudgins and Smith entered racing at about the time the industry was rocked by the cancellation of the slots-at-racetracks partner program but the couple forged ahead.
“I began to gather a few mares,” said Hudgins. “I bought a couple Thoroughbred mares out of the mixed sale at Woodbine to breed to Quarter Horse stallions.
“It's a little project of mine to bring some Thoroughbred blood into a Quarter Horse line,” said Hudgins. “I find that the Quarter Horse pedigrees you see are often identical, not a lot of outside blood. Some people have bred Thoroughbred stallions to Quarter Horse mares but I am doing the opposite. I want to try and expand the gene pool.”
One of his first purchases was purely by luck after he drove out to Smiths Falls to look at a horse advertised on the internet. He didn't buy that one but saw another in the field and scooped her up.
“She was just off the track and was a winner at Belmont Park in New York. She was by a son of the great sire Storm Cat [Freud].”
The mare My Smartness provided Hudgins with a monumental moment this year; her son Justgivemeaminute was the first winner for Hudgins when he won his maiden July 22 under jockey Cassandra Jeschke.
“He really loves to run, and I told Cassandra that. When he won, it was so hectic it wasn't until I got back to the barn and everyone was congratulating me that I realized it was my first win.”
Two weeks later, another homebred, Hey There Giorgi Boy won his maiden and later finished second in a Time Trial for the Ontario bred Derby.
Hudgins currently has has seven mares, four yearlings set to race in 2021 and has added a stallion Rushago (
www.rushago.net), a Grade 1 placed runners in Oklahoma who is stamping his foals with his copper colour and splashes of white.
“You know, it takes a couple of years to get going in the industry but once you have a mare and she produces a foal, you get excited to greet one every year. At first you wonder if you are on the right path when you pick your matings but then that first win comes and it feels great.”
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