2009 Woodbine Oaks Post Position: 1
* Can this daughter of Grand Slam, who heads into the Woodbine Oaks, presented by Budweiser, off two fourth-place finishes, hit one out of the park in the $500,000, 1 1/8-mile Canadian classic?
* ‘Indigo’ won’t be the only filly wearing the gold, green and white silks of Chiefswood Stables this Sunday. She’ll be joined by Gore Bay, a daughter of Dynaformer, in the starting gate.
* The two have met under race conditions once before, with Gore Bay getting barn bragging rights courtesy of a 1 ¼-length win on May 13. After leading by 1 ½ lengths at the stretch call, Indigo North finished fourth, 4 ¾ lengths in arrears of her entrymate.
* Light on racing experience, Indigo North does have two two-turn tests under her saddle. And she also has the confidence of her connections, including Mark Krembil of Chiefswood Stable. “She trains so well,” he said. “We’ve always thought she has great potential. I’m somewhat surprised that she hasn’t broken her maiden.”
* Indigo North launched her career on April 3 of this year in a 1 1/16-mile Polytrack race at Keeneland. After breaking slowly, the Chiefswood homebred rallied late along the inside to grab fourth spot in the 11-horse field. Finishing 4 ¼ lengths behind Tweeter, Indigo North earned a 76 Beyer figure (Daily Racing Form speed rating) for the effort.
* Then it was on to Woodbine for her Canadian debut, once again in a 1 1/16-mile race and once again on a synthetic surface. Sent off at 4-5 with Gore Bay, Indigo North drew clear in the stretch, finishing fourth at the wire, under the lights at the Toronto oval.
* Now, Indigo North looks to break her maiden in style, giving Chiefswood Stable a victory in their first Oaks appearance. And if she were able to achieve the feat, she would be the first filly whose name starts with the letter ‘I’ to win the Oaks.
* “She’s an attractive, good-sized filly and determined, just like her mother (Turned On),” said Mark. “I’ve always liked her attitude. Her record might not show why I have so much enthusiasm for her, but she trains like a star and hopefully she will carry that in the afternoons.”
* Jockey Tyler Pizarro will get a leg up on Indigo North for the first time under race conditions. The 2007 Sovereign Award winner as Canada’s top apprentice likes what he sees from his Oaks mount in morning training works.
* “She’s really nice,” said Pizarro, who will ride in his second consecutive Oaks. “When I’ve worked her, she always wants to do it so much. She’s all business out there. Based on what I’ve seen, she belongs. The one thing that has stood out in her works is that she gallops out really nicely.”
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 - Tyler Pizarro
Tyler Pizarro has made quite an impact to date in his three and a half year riding career at Woodbine.
On September 2, 2006, Pizarro won his first race aboard Dancer’s Flyer, owned and trained by his grandfather, veteran John Calhoun, in only his fourth mount. He would go on to win 23 races and almost $900,000 in purses during the balance of the year, before a bout of bronchitis prematurely ended his rookie season.
In 2007, he won 124 races, good enough for third overall and over $5.2 million in purses. His accomplishments earned Pizarro a Sovereign Award as Canada’s top apprentice. He was also a finalist for an Eclipse Award as North America’s top apprentice.
Last year, Pizarro continued to excel. He won four added-money events: the Classy ‘N Smart with Bold Corky, the Frost King with Shut It Down, the Ruling Angel with Hello Maggie May and the Sky Classic with Lauro. Overall, he won 90 Woodbine races, to rank sixth, and posted 257 top-three finishes at the Toronto oval.
Born May 8, 1986 in Bolton, Ontario, he’s the son of former rider Jorge Pizarro, while his mother Donna is a trainer at Woodbine. For the past three winters, Pizarro has worked horses in Florida for Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel.