Entering 2024, trainer Mark Etsell was poised for yet another strong year. Fresh off winning the 2023 O’Brien Award of Horsemanship and a star trotter set to lead the way in his stable, 2024 proved to be a career year for the conditioner, but it was with a new face leading the way on track.
Trotting mare Adare Castle entered 2024 fresh off back-to-back O’Brien Award winning campaigns, winning six of 20 in 2023 while banking $201,300 in the often daunting four-year-old season. Coming into her five-year-old campaign, the millionaire daughter of Muscle Mass-Pacific Edge appeared poised for another big year, however, it proved not to be in the cards in what would be the star trotting mare’s final season on track.
“Coming into the year, we kind of gave ourselves the option of seeing how she would train down, and we would make a decision on what to do with her from there,” Etsell told Trot Insider. “She actually trained back better than she ever had in her career, we were expecting a big year. It just didn’t work out that way.”
Adare Castle would go on to visit the winner’s circle twice from 12 starts in 2024, both victories coming against conditioned company, before she concluded her career with a runner-up finish to Nelsonbriteagle No in the $121,622 Miss Versatility final at the Delaware County Fairgrounds on Little Brown Jug day.
“I wish I would have realized I should have taken her off Lasix sooner and that it wasn’t doing any good,” Etsell continued. “James [MacDonald] and I talked about it this year; she just didn’t seem to have the fight she had always had.”
For her career, Adare Castle ended her time on the racetrack a 22-time winner in 56 lifetime outings, banking $1,416,096. An Ontario Sires Stakes champion at two, Adare Castle was a mainstay on the Grand Circuit for owners Robert Newton, Graham Hopkins and Peter Porter, winning the Casual Breeze at age three, and taking a lifetime mark of 1:52 in a leg of the Miss Versatility at Mohawk during her four-year-old campaign.
Adare Castle was sold during the Preferred Equine Online Mixed Sale on Nov. 18 as a broodmare prospect, selling for $321,127 ($228,000 USD) Tim Klemencic and Klemmer Holdings with plans for a transition into the broodmare ranks in 2025. As for what Etsell hopes to see that champion mare pass onto her foals, there is no shortage of qualities.
“Her confirmation is pretty good, but beyond that I hope she passes on her attitude for sure.” Etsell continued, “She was laid back, but a fighter. She gave you everything she had, she never had bad days, just rough trips. If she passes that on, you'll get a pretty nice individual.”
While excited for his pupil’s prospects as a broodmare, no longer seeing Adare Castle in the barn each day has been no easy feat for the Rockwood, Ont.-based conditioner.
“I had to fill her stall right away because it was easier to look at a different horse than see her stall empty,” joked Etsell, a finalist for Trainer of the Year in 2023 and winner of the O'Brien Award of Horsemanship. “She was a character in her own way, and you miss not being able to interact with her. It hasn’t been easy, let’s put it that way.”
As Adare Castle was taking her bow, another Etsell trainee was stepping into the spotlight in a major way. Three-year-old trotting gelding Highland Kismet took the sport by storm in 2024, highlighted by a 1:51.3 victory in the $225,000 Goodtimes Final on June 15 before making his way stateside to prepare for the Hambletonian. Highland Kismet would go on to turn in a strong second-place effort to Karl in the Hambletonian, before taking on victories in the Simcoe and Bluegrass to his resume.
“I look at last year as a learning experience for Kismet,” Etsell continued. “To take a green horse who wasn’t even expected to race in January and finish second in the Hambletonian with a legitimate shot to win, he accomplished a lot last year.”
The greenness showed at times throughout the year for Highland Kismet, with a tough stretch to conclude the year which included breaks in the Canadian Trotting Classic final and Matron. Despite the bobbles at the end of the year, Etsell remains confident that the kinks will work out in due time for his star trotter.
“He wasn’t mentally prepared for the battles he was going to have to go through on the Grand Circuit and I think you saw that mental fatigue at the end of the year,” Etsell said. “There was no growing period; it was like taking a kid from high school to the NBA in basketball, but I think these things will correct themselves within reason as Kismet matures.”
In all, the son of Father Patrick-Highland Top Hill won eight of 17 in 2024, taking a mark of 1:51.1 in the Canadian Trotting Classic elimination at Mohawk and banking $727,850 for owner-breeder Highland Thoroughbred Farm.
Highland Kismet is joined by the Ontario Sires Stakes Champion, Paquet, as the two nominees for the three-year-old trotting colt division in the 2024 O’Brien Awards.
“I felt like [Highland Kismet] did enough here in Canada to warrant a nomination, to go from racing in a maiden to Grand Circuit competition, I felt like he should be in the mix,” said Etsell.
As for 2025, after enjoying a winter stay in Kentucky, Highland Kismet will begin to train down for his four-year-old campaign with hopes of qualifying in the month of May in preparation for the first leg of the Graduate Series which has been circled as his first stakes test.
Highland Kismet led the way in what proved to be a banner year for Etsell in 2024, as the veteran conditioner achieved career highs both in wins (47) as well as earnings ($1.4 million), as the trainer has now surpassed the million dollar mark in each of the last three seasons. And while his weather-affected experience in Prince Edward Island for the 2023 O'Brien Awards last February was "interestingly fun," Etsell looks forward to attending this year's event in his home province.
The 2024 O’Brien Awards winners will be announced on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025 at the O’Brien Awards Gala, which will take place at the Delta Meadowvale / Mississauga in Mississauga, Ont. To reserve your tickets for the O'Brien Awards, please fill out the O'Brien Awards ticket reservation form and send it to Jade Regina at [email protected].
(Standardbred Canada)