2009 Woodbine Oaks Post Position: 10
* Gore Bay, a town on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, is home to Manitoulin Transport, one of Canada’s largest trucking companies. On Sunday, Chiefswood Stable is hoping its Gore Bay, a daughter of Dynaformer, rolls to victory in Canada’s pre-eminent stake for Canadian-bred three-year-old fillies.
* She’s had three starts, one on the turf and two on the Polytrack, including a maiden-breaking score in her most recent race, a 1 ¼-length victory over 1 1/16-miles at the Toronto oval. And while she’s light on experience compared to her Oaks’ rivals, the Ontario-bred has shown she belongs in the big dance.
* Gore Bay comes into the Oaks hoping to ride the wave to even more success. Under Chantal Sutherland, she rallied under a strong drive in the maiden special weight race. “I really like her,” she said. “She’s the type of filly that always has a little something left in the tank. I think she will appreciate the distance.”
* The dark bay kicked off her racing career over the Gulfstream turf on March 27. Contesting one mile on ‘firm’ ground, Gore Bay, at 12-1, was ninth of 12 runners after the half-mile call, before rallying to finish sixth, 5 ¼-lengths behind at the wire.
* According to her trainer, Eric Coatrieux, Gore Bay might also appreciate the chance to contest a race over the world-renowned E.P. Taylor Turf Course. “I was speaking with Eric and he mentioned that she might be an even better horse on the grass. She’s progressing well heading into this race. It’s a big field and there are plenty of contenders, but I’m happy with the way my filly is coming into the Oaks.”
* Her next start, a 1 1/8-mile test on the Keeneland Polytrack on April 18, resulted in a fifth-place finish, just 3 ¼-lengths behind La Rocca, who finished third in the $100,000 Darley OBS Championship Stakes for three-year-old fillies, in February. Gore Bay earned a solid 80 Beyer figure (Daily Racing Form speed rating) for the effort.
* While the Oaks will be contested during suppertime hours (5:10 p.m. ET), Gore Bay doesn’t just save her best for later in the day. “She’s always bucking and squealing in the morning,” noted Sutherland. “She’s full of herself as soon as the sun comes up. That’s a good sign.”
* Although some Oaks starters have a preferred running style, Sutherland isn’t concerned with where her filly will be in the early stages of the 1 1/8-mile classic. “We can sit and settle with her,” said Sutherland, who will contest her third Oaks. “I know that when I need to call on her, she’ll respond. What we’re looking for is to find a good position and place her in a spot that gives us a chance to be prominent in the stretch.”
* A win in the Oaks would no doubt be music to Sutherland’s ears. “When I first started riding, I would get nervous competing in a big race like the Oaks. But over the years, you learn to relax and you learn to embrace the opportunity. That’s why we have the music blaring in the girls’ jock’s room. It’s about getting pumped up and getting the adrenaline flowing. I’m definitely ready for it.”
* “There was a time when I didn’t think Gore Bay would make it as a racehorse,” said Mark Krembil, of Chiefswood Stable. “But she grew into her body and I think the world of her. I thought Chantal gave her a fantastic ride last time out. I thought she (Gore Bay) might have been running out of gas, but she tends to fall asleep out there. I’m just very excited about contesting our first Oaks.”
Owner – Chiefswood Stable
Robert Krembil of Toronto and his son Mark are the owners of Chiefswood Stable. Krembil, a co-founder and former chairman of Trimark Financial Corporation, sold his interests about 10 years ago and is now heavily immersed in thoroughbred racing, having invested heavily in the sport in the last decade. Their biggest celebration to date was homebred Niigon’s 2004 Queen’s Plate win, the stable’s first stakes victory.
Krembil became an owner in the early 1990s, in partnership with others, before starting Chiefswood on his own about 15 years ago. He had several trainers but decided that a private trainer was the way to go and thus hired Eric Coatrieux.
Years ago, he purchased Rose of Tara, a then six-year-old mare who was in foal to Storm Cat, for $1,950,000 (US). The subsequent foal, a filly named Essential Edge, broke her maiden at Woodbine at three. After slipping while in foal to Kingmambo, she’s had a Gone West filly, a Grand Slam filly (Flaming Rose) and has two foals, including Vulcan Rose, with 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegagus.
Currently, Chiefswood has about 95 horses (30 racehorses in training) in total, including 27 broodmares (23 are in foal). They have a training centre, just south of Alliston off Highway #50, called Chiefswood Stables in King Township, which includes a broodmare and yearling farm. The mares are bred and foaled on the broodmare farm, before the foals eventually get transferred to the yearling farm, then to the training centre, which can handle about 45 horses, an all-inclusive system.
Chiefswood’s Ambitious Cat, whom Krembil paid $950,000 for as a yearling, was voted a Sovereign Award in 2005 as Canada’s top female turfer. “We’ve been focusing our buying on the female side,” said Robert Krembil. “All of them come from good families. Hopefully they will be good racehorses but ultimately they’re destined for the broodmare band. We paid a lot for multiple stakes winner Ambitious Cat (now retired, she dropped a Bernardini foal earlier this year, and is currently in foal to Smart Strike) and Nottawasaga (now retired, in foal to Smart Strike).
Essential Edge and Ambitious Cat were their dynamic duo over the past few years, both winning several stakes.
"One of our most exciting horses this year is Magical Affair,” said Mark Krembil, of the Michael Matz trainee, who finished second in the Edgewood Stakes on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard at Churchill Downs after consecutive victories in the maiden and allowance ranks late winter and early spring.
Trainer – Eric Coatrieux
Born in Paris, France, January 16, 1967, Eric Coatrieux came to Canada in 1987 and went immediately to work for his uncle, trainer Bernard Girault. He then joined up with veterans Tony Mattine and Al Quanbeck before being enlisted by Hall of Famer Roger Attfield in 1993 as an exercise rider and assistant, for whom he worked during the years of Triple Crown winner Peteski (1993) and 1995 Plate winner, Regal Discovery.
In 1996, Coatrieux joined world-famous Godolphin, working for trainers Saaed bin Suroor and Tom Albertrani in Dubai and in England. During that stretch, he also travelled to Kentucky on behalf of Godolphin to look after their horses in the 1998 Breeders’ Cup and 2000 Kentucky Derby.
Coatrieux stayed with Godolphin until 2001, even returning to Woodbine during that stretch with a horse named Cape Cross, who raced in the 1998 Atto Mile. While at Godolphin, Coatrieux also was associated with such champions as Swain, Fantastic Light and Street Cry.
It was in Kentucky where he met owner Robert Krembil and was eventually hired to be the private trainer for Chiefswood Stable.
In 2004, Coatrieux celebrated his first stakes win as a trainer….and it couldn’t have happened on a bigger stage in this country…the Queen’s Plate with Chiefswood’s Niigon. In 2005, the stable won two stakes with filly Fifth Overture.
In 2006, Pipers Thunder won the Plate Trial, while Ambitious Cat took all the spoils in the Grade 2 Dance Smartly. Essential Edge gave Coatrieux his third added-money score of the year, winning the Ontario Colleen.
Two years ago, Essential Edge netted two stakes triumphs, winning the Belle Geste in August and the Grade 2 Canadian Stakes in September.
Although he didn’t post a stakes win in 2008, Coatrieux saddled Born to Be to a second and third, respectively, in the La Lorgnette and the Maple Leaf Stakes. As of May 30, Coatrieux has 71 career wins, including eight stakes, three of which are graded.
Jockey – Chantal Sutherland
Chantal Sutherland won her first career race on October 9, 2000 at Woodbine aboard Silver Bounty, returning $54.50 to win. She won four races, with eight top-two finishes in 20 starts. All her wins returned double digit payoffs and all were settled by less than a length.
Her promise in year one resulted in further success in year two. Sutherland captured 44 wins and 145 in-the-money finishes in 2001. Her stellar year was rewarded with a Sovereign Award as Canada's top apprentice rider.
In 2002, Sutherland stamped herself as a genuine talent, notching 124 wins in 724 mounts. She ranked third overall in the colony and won her first-ever stakes race aboard Biddy's Lad in the Bull Page Stakes. She capped off her campaign with a second-straight Sovereign as the country's top apprentice.
In 2003, Sutherland rode Sovereign finalist (three-year-old filly) Winter Garden to an upset win in the Star Shoot Stakes. She also competed in her second-straight Queen's Plate.
In 2005, Sutherland captured the Grade 2 Tom Fool Handicap with Smokume, Sutherland’s first grade stakes victory. The duo also paired to take the Artax Handicap. Sutherland rode in N.Y. and Florida in 2005, riding for several high-profile trainers, including Hall of Fame conditioner Allen Jerkens and Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher.
In 2007, Sutherland returned to the Toronto oval, winning 69 races, ranking seventh and had the fourth-best in-the-money average among Woodbine regulars.
Last year, Sutherland, who was a prominent face in the reality series ‘Jockeys,’ won 12 stakes races and ranked seventh in the Woodbine colony.
The Winnipeg native was first introduced to horses through jumping and dressage. She played competitive field hockey, competing in the Women's Field Hockey Championships, playing for both the Under 21 Ontario team and the Senior Team, as well as the junior World Cup team. Sutherland graduated from York University in Communications and Psychology. She has modeled and appeared in a 2004 TV commercial for Esquire watches and the 2006 edition of Vogue magazine, photographed by Annie Leibovitz.
Sutherland was selected as one of ‘People Magazine’s Top 100 Most Beautiful People’ in 2006. She has lent her efforts to several marketing endeavors at racetracks throughout North America, including Woodbine.