Tee Game might be pegged an outsider, but she’s come to the fore with the most races of any Oaks entrant under her saddle, 11, to be exact. The gallant-looking grey’s six top-three finishes certainly show she’s up to par.
There’s no denying Hendrie Stable’s Tee Game, whose sire, El Corredor, won seven of 10 career starts, including the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in 2000, is a trier. She’s made two trips to the winner’s circle and has only missed a cheque three times: seventh in her career bow on June 6, 2009, ninth in her second start and seventh in her fifth start, on October 2.
So, here she is, a filly who has netted five consecutive cheques, a bona fide battler who never throws in the towel. Tee Game has indeed come a long way since her humble beginnings, a seventh-place finish at 38-1 in her career bow, a 4 ½-furlong ‘Poly’ race, and a ninth-place effort, at 66-1, on July 4. She shrugged off those lackluster efforts to finish third next time out, on August 8, at 27-1, before making her first visit to the winner’s circle two weeks later.
“I thought she would be a good one even before she started,” offered conditioner Michael John Doyle, who won the 1989 Oaks with Blondeinamotel. “Her first two races were disappointing, but she started to put things together after that. The one thing you saw right away was her ability to try hard, no matter what the circumstances were.”
Her maiden score was a decisive 3 ¼-length win over the Woodbine Polytrack in a 5 ½-furlong race on August 22. “She put it all together really well that day,” said Doyle. “She had trained well coming into the race and you could sense that she was sitting on her best race.”
On deck next was the Muskoka Stakes. Dismissed at 22-1, Tee Game, under Slade Callaghan (aboard for all but one of her starts), led late, but was caught at the wire, finishing third, just a neck back of Sound of Thunder.
“I think both races are perfect examples of her willingness to try hard,” said Doyle. “Her best races are when she’s in a good, stalking position. The key is to get her to relax and not get too geared up early. If she can settle into a nice rhythm, she has the opportunity to make a nice, late run.”
Her first two-turn test resulted in a second-place finish, 5 ¼ lengths behind Oaks rival Resentless on November 29 in the Ontario Lassie Stakes, Tee Game’s curtain-closer on her two-year-old campaign. She launched her three-year-old campaign in the six-furlong Star Shoot Stakes on April 10, finishing third, 3 ¾ lengths behind champion Biofuel.
After finishing fourth to Resentless in the Fury Stakes on May 1, Tee Game heads into the Oaks off a fifth in the La Lorgnette on May 23.
The Oaks represents Tee Game’s fifth straight added-money event, a race that will see her travel 1 1/8 miles, the longest distance she has contested to date. As for her best distance, Doyle offers…“There are some nice horses, but she deserves a chance at this. She battles and she’s not one to give up. She’s a straightforward filly.”
Owner – Hendrie Stable (Geordie Hendrie)
It’s no easy task running a successful stable at Woodbine, even more so if your last name happens to be Hendrie. But for Geordie Hendrie, it’s a challenge he’s undertaken with great enthusiasm and great respect for the tradition of his family name.
Some might view it as a daunting task, but Geordie Hendrie, whose great, great grandfather, William Hendrie, was one of the founding members of The Ontario Jockey Club in 1883 and his grandfather, George C. Hendrie, was President of the OJC from 1960-71, is undeniably thrilled to be in the position he finds himself in.
And while it may be a relatively small outfit in comparison to past years, the amiable owner is dedicated to ensuring the Hendrie name lives on at the Toronto oval.
“I’ve grown up around racing my whole life and it’s wonderful to be involved in the capacity I am now,” said Hendrie, in 2002. “My father had a genuine love for horses and that has rubbed off on me. The more involved I’ve become, the more that has become apparent to me.”
As for the highlight of his career to date, Hendrie points to the 1997 Queen’s Plate, when his father, George M. Hendrie, Chairman of the Board for The OJC at that time, greeted Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip upon their arrival at Woodbine.
“There are too many great memories, but that certainly would be the one that stands out. I’ve always been proud of who my father was and what he did, and that day illustrated just what kind of man he was. I’ll always regret the fact that we won’t be able to work together as a partnership, but I’ll always be inspired by his love for the sport,” said Hendrie, whose father passed away in 1999.
Cree Power contested the 2002 Queen’s Plate, after finishing in fourth in that year’s Victoria Park Stakes. Racing under Geordie Hendrie’s name, Regal Valley finished second in the 2003 Simcoe Stakes.
Trainer - Mike Doyle
Born October 23, 1951 in Dublin, Ireland, Mike Doyle has been a fixture at the racetrack since the early 1970s and has enjoyed great success over the years. He’s undertaken a variety of challenges in his nearly 40 years in racing....as trainer, farm and racing manager, bloodstock agent, etc.
He quit training in the mid 1990s to become the racing manager (for several years) of the powerful Frank Stronach Stable, helping to oversee the stable’s success, which included a Queen’s Plate triumph with Basqueian and a Sovereign Award as Canada’s top owner. He returned to training in 1997.
Doyle, who has trained for over 20 years, won a Sovereign Award in 1984 as Canada’s top conditioner. He’s managed several equine stars, such as 1989 Canadian Oaks winner Blondeinamotel, Sovereign Award winners Wavering Girl (1989 two-year-old filly) and millionaire Bessarabian (1986 older filly/mare). He also campaigned Wild Gale, third place finisher in both the 1993 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
In 2000, he won one stakes race, the Selene with Zoftig, finishing with 16 wins and $965,955 in earnings. Doyle had two stakes wins in 2001, Chamul (Star Shoot) and Soundtrack (Ontario Colleen).
In addition to his 1989 Oaks win, Doyle has been close on several other occasions: second with Lady Ice in 1983, third with Platinum Paws in 1991 and Avenare in 1980.
In 2006, Doyle’s Pyramid Park upset in the Cup & Saucer Stakes, returning $108 for the win, a year in which the veteran conditioner posted 87 top-three finishes and nearly $1.3-million in purse earnings. In 2007, Doyle recorded his fourth straight 20-win season and his third straight $1-million campaign, taking the Flaming Page with The Niagara Queen. He also recorded his 800th career win on August 18 with Mighty Fenian. Doyle won six turf contests in 2008 and recorded his highest earnings of his career ($1,467,319 was about $10,000 more than 2002). Last year, he registered his eighth $1-million season in the past nine years and won the Lady Angela with Sans Sousi and the Fanfreluche with Bodua.
Jockey - Slade Callaghan
Earning his riding licence at 16 in his native Barbados, Slade Callaghan, born on August 21, 1970, won his first race aboard Noble Run. However, his riding career soon came to a halt after an accident in which he sustained a major shoulder injury. He eventually came to Toronto for surgery and rehabilitation in 1987.
After a 10-month absence, he returned to the racetrack in Barbados and won his first race on his return. He competed in his homeland until 1993, before coming to watch his brother Brett ride at the Toronto oval. Callaghan fell in love with Woodbine and decided to stay, starting in 1994.
Callaghan, a native of Bridgetown, has enjoyed a solid career at Woodbine.
It was in 1999 that Callaghan had his breakthrough season at Woodbine, finishing the year with 60 wins and just over $2 million in purses. He also won six stakes, including the Connaught and Hong Kong Jockey Club with Incitatus and the Kennedy Road with Great Defender in a then six-furlong track record performance.
He cracked the $2-million mark in purses for six consecutive years (1999-2004). In 2002, Callaghan eclipsed the $3-million mark for the first time, a year in which he had 54 wins, including four stakes scores at Woodbine, highlighted by his Breeders’ Stakes victory aboard Portcullis. In 2003, Callaghan ranked 17th in wins (37) while his horses earned over $2.3 million. In 2004, his best season ever at the Toronto oval, he banked nearly $3.7 million in earnings.
He has two thirds of a career Triple Tiara (Seeking The Ring in the 2003 Bison City at Fort Erie and Misty Mission, who denied Catch the Ring a sweep of the series in the 2000 Wonder Where). His biggest victory to date came in the prestigious, Grade 1, $1-million Woodbine Mile with Rahy’s Attorney in 2008. That same year, the pair also contested the Mile Championship at Kyoto, Japan, with the son of Crown Attorney going on to cop Sovereign honours as Canada’s champion turf male.