Considering the devastating fire that claimed the lives of 43 horses earlier this year at Classy Lane Training Centre, the fact that trotting mare Elegant Serenity is set to return for her four-year-old season is tinged with divine intervention.

There is an abundance of talent and horsepower in the bulging 79-member Stable That God Loves, and multiple stakes winner Elegant Serenity is one of its rising starlets who is getting ready for her return to the races.

The royally-bred, four-year-old daughter of Kadabra out of the superbly talented Elegantimage, Elegant Serenity graced the winner's circle in six of her dozen trips postward in 2015, and earned a pair of seconds and thirds, for a whopping $425,652 in earnings making her the top money-earner of her division in Canada. She will face tough assignments in this year’s campaign against some of the best aged trotting distaffers on the continent.

Elegant Serenity is owned by her breeder, Woodstock, Ont. horseman Doug Millard, who longtime friend and horseman Harry Rutherford describes as “a special kind of guy, who is no stranger to helping horsemen down on their luck.”

Following impressive stakes victories in last year’s Casual Breeze and Simcoe Stakes at Mohawk Racetrack where she took a mark of 1:53.2, Elegant Serenity displayed her toughness strutting to victory lane in an Ontario Sires Stakes Gold Series division, staving off rivals and stopping the clock in 1:55 for a half-length tally. She is a special kind of trotting mare, and one that any trainer would love to have in his stable. Each time she heads postward, she brings home an average of $35,471.

“She is so easy to work with and she knows how to win,” said her trainer/driver Roger Mayotte.

Following the Breeders Crown on October 24, 2015, Millard decided to send her to Florida’s Gilcrest Training Centre, where she was turned out for two months before being put back into training by Sandra Burns. If she had been left with veteran horseman Roger Mayotte at the Classy Lane Training Centre, she could have been destroyed in the disastrous fire that claimed the lives of 43 horses on January 4, 2016.

Elegant Serenity is now back at the Classy Lane Training Centre and in training with Mayotte. Apart from Elegant Serenity’s natural gait, gameness and natural ability on the trot, it was Mayotte who brought her along and developed her good manners and adaptability on the racetrack since the very first day he sat behind her as a two-year-old, and liked what he saw.

“She is the best trotting filly that I have trained,” said Mayotte.

A horse’s four-year-old year is often difficult racing against older campaigners, but Mayotte feels that Elegant Serenity will continue to mature and grow stronger as the year plays out, and she will tell him when she is ready for maximum effort. She is entered to qualify on Monday at Mohawk Racetrack.

Elegant Serenity’s dam, 22-year-old Elegantimage, was bred last year but did not catch, according to Millard.

As a member of the Stable That God Loves, one per cent of Elegant Serenity’s 2015 purse earnings will be donated to support the excellent work of the Standardbred Racetrack Chaplaincy of Canada, a non-denominational, non-profit charity dedicated to providing for the emotional, physical, spiritual and human needs of the horse racing workforce in southwestern Ontario.

Stalls are always available in the Stable That God Loves. Every trotter, pacer, Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse is welcome and guaranteed a stall. Please send requests for stall space to Ken Middleton at [email protected] or Norm Clements at [email protected]. For regular up-to-date postings on the Stable That God Loves, follow along on Facebook and on Twitter @StableGodLoves.

(with files from the Stable That God Loves)