Bay colt by Artsplace – Precious Beauty – Jate Lobell


BREEDERS: James Avritt, Lebanon, KY

OWNERS: Steve Calhoun, Chatham, ON; West Wins Stable, Cambridge, ON & Southwind Farm, Pennington, NJ

STATISTICS:
2010 3 0 1 1 $20,000
2009 8 7 1 0 $875,411
Totals 11 7 2 1 $895,411

LIFETIME MARK: 2, 1:49.2, Mohawk

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS & NOTES:
Purchased for $50,000 at Harrisburg Sale in November 2008

At two:
• Won first seven races, including Nassagaweya August 22, Metro elim, August 29, $1,000,000 Metro final, September 5 in career best 1:49.2 and Champlain on October 12, all at Mohawk
• Finished second, a head behind All Speed Hanover, in Breeders Crown, October 24 at Woodbine
• Named top two-year-old colt/gelding pacer in Canada and the United States

At three: • Finished a closing second in season opener May 29
• Finished fourth to Cup rival Kyle Major in Burlington division June 12
• Finished third, despite being parked for almost the entire mile, just one-half length behind Rock N Roll Heaven and Kyle Major, in first and fastest Cup elim
• Leading money winner in Cup field with $895,411

ELIMINATION QUOTES: Casie Coleman, Trainer

“It’s been a pretty stressful week, that’s for sure. It wasn’t Sportswriter’s fault. He had some bad trips and wasn’t tight enough. He’s had his feet issues...one thing after another that just hit us the last couple of weeks. To happen right before a $1.5 million race is unreal. But we’re in it. He needed that race to tighten up. He’ll be good next week.”

“I’ve had some nice horses in it (American Ideal and Art Colony) before but I think he’s the best horse with the best shot. But this is also the best field that I’ve been in with a horse like this. It’s a wide-open field.”

“Actually, last week, when he only paced a mile in 1:51, he was blowing real hard that night. Tonight, (following his elimination) he isn’t nearly as distressed and you wouldn’t even know he just raced.”


Trainer – Casie Coleman
Age: 30
Career wins through June 20, 2010: 1,357
Career earnings through June 20, 2010: $25,659,569

• Coleman capped off another outstanding season in 2009 with her third O’Brien Award honour. Her numbers were terrific, 276 wins and $6.6 million in purse earnings last year, following up her personal best $5.1 million
• In 2006, her stable star American Ideal was retired to stud after sustaining a career ending injury. He helped her land her second consecutive O’Brien Award that season as Canada’s Trainer of the Year.
• In 2005, Coleman was thrust into the North American spotlight when American Ideal raced in the Pepsi North America Cup and the Meadowlands Pace, making Coleman the first female trainer in Harness racing history to enter a horse in two $1 million races in one season. After another stakes win in a division of the Oliver Wendell Holmes, American Ideal became the fastest three year old pacer in history via his wire to wire win in 1:47.4 in a division of the Bluegrass Stakes. Coleman was rewarded for her standout 2005 campaign by receiving an O’Brien Award as Canada’s Trainer of The Year (the first time a female had earned the award)
• In 2004, Coleman rose from relative obscurity and made an instant impact in her first season as a regular trainer on the local circuit. In December of that year, Coleman passed 100 wins and $1 million in season’s earnings, and in the process became the youngest female trainer in Canada to reach such milestones.
• A native of British Columbia, Coleman re located to Ontario a few years ago when her parents, Linda and Phil, moved their stable to the Flamboro Downs area. The stable star was the talented open class pacing mare, Fast Lane Cruizin. After doing some of the driving for the family operation, Coleman started her own stable and has since concentrated on training.
• In 2001, Coleman suffered serious burns in a fire that required her to get skin grafts on roughly 22 per cent of her body.


Driver – Mark MacDonald
Age: 31
Career Wins through June 20, 2010: 4,612
Career Earnings through June 20, 2010: $57,795,279

• A native of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Mark MacDonald calls Cambridge, Ontario home these days and is one of the leading drivers on the WEG circuit.
• He ended 2007 with 310 wins and a career-best $7,603,845 in purses, placing him fourth in the WEG driving colony in purses earned and fifth in number of wins and UDRS, despite having had to take time off to rehabilitate an injured shoulder.
• While he’s had decent seasons in 2008 and 2009, he is a monster in 2010 with 246 wins already this year, including 117 on the WEG circuit.
• MacDonald scored his first Breeders Crown win in 2007, steering Moving Pictures to victory in the Open Mare Pace. It was also the first Breeders Crown for trainer Casie Coleman.
• MacDonald scored a double when he triumphed in the 2007 edition of the Canadian Breeders’ Championship for three-year-old pacing colts and geldings with Domitian Hanover, and the CBC for sophomore trotting colts and geldings, with Guilford.
• He also enjoyed a profitable partnership in ’07 with Casie Coleman trainee, Chancey Lady, who won the Ontario Sires Stakes $300,000 Super Final for two-year-old filly pacers, as well as a Breeders Crown elimination at the Meadowlands. He also drove Coleman’s American Ideal to a world record for three-year-old pacing colts, when they crossed the wire in 1:47.4 in a division of the Bluegrass Stakes at Lexington’s The Red Mile.
• Like many drivers, MacDonald was raised in the business and acquired his first horse at the age of 14. He first tried his hand at driving on the matinee tracks in PEI, then made the journey to Ontario when he was 16. Beginning as a groom, then dabbling in training, MacDonald found his true calling as a driver, becoming a dominant force first at Windsor Raceway and later at London’s Western Fair Raceway. He continued to work his way eastward, racing at Flamboro Downs in 2003 and then taking a shot at the tough Woodbine circuit, where he quickly established himself as one of the elite linesmen.
• He won his first Little Brown Jug in 2006 with Mr Feelgood, the first Canadian-sired horse to ever capture the legendary race. But probably just as dear to his heart is his pair of wins (2003 and 2004) in the Gold Cup and Saucer, in his native PEI, with Sand Oils Dexter.
• MacDonald was the recipient of two consecutive O’Brien Awards, as Canada’s driver of the year, in 2005 and 2006 (edging out Paul MacDonell and Jody Jamieson, respectively).