It’s very uncommon when two offspring from the same mare win races on a single program of racing. When three horses turn the trick, it’s officially a rarity. That is exactly what happened this past weekend.
Steve and Vicki Desomer sent out three winners on last Sunday night’s card at Cal Expo, with all three being trotters out of the champion Website mare Charlottes Web.
The three-year-old Claudius Augustus filly Kissed The Boys kicked things off by springing a $68 upset in the first leg of the Alan Kirschenbaum Series in the second race on the program with Steve at the controls.
It was the seven-year-old British Sterling mare Silverlode accounting for the next event as the 6-5 favourite under the 79-year-old Desomer’s direction, while Kissed The Boys’ four-year-old full brother Cadet capped off the barn/driver/broodmare hat trick two races later while returning $9.60 to his backers.
“It was a fun night, to be sure,” Vickie related after posing for pictures. “Steve said that the Charlottes Webs go the same on an off track as they do on a fast track – strong but not very fast.”
Vickie related she had a little talk with her husband after he guided Cadet to his victory for his third trip to the charmed enclosure on the program. “I suggested this might be a good time to retire. You can guess his answer.”
Kissed The Boys was the only member of the cast making her debut in last week’s Kirschenbaum opener and was pretty game getting the job done over a ‘sloppy’ track.
“We named her in honour of my mother, who passed away last year,” Vickie explained. “She used to like to recite that ditty about Georgie Porgie, who ‘kissed the girls and made them cry.’”
The Desomers also have a two-year-old full brother to Kissed The Boys and Cadet named Gold Run that could make some noise by the end of the this season. “He’s Minnesota stakes eligible and Steve likes him,” Vickie noted.
There is also a yearling colt by Claudius Augustus and she is back in foal to that sire.
Cal Expo’s favourite track historian, Robin Clements, has provided the back story on Charlottes Web.
“Charlottes Web herself was the two-year-old trotting filly champion. The week before her first three-year-old stakes race she raced in a race on a very sloppy track. Before the sixteenth pole, ‘Charlotte’ made a break and spotted the field about 15 lengths before she got back on the trot.
“At about the three-eighths pole she made another break spotting the field about 20 lengths before she again got back on the trot, going into the final turn
“She was behind by about eight lengths when she started pacing and Steve had to knock her off stride to get her back trotting again. Again she is about 12 lengths off the leaders by the time she got trotting again and she not only caught the field, but won the race.
“I recall there was a bridge jumper who had bet $18,000 to show on her that night. I took care of Charlotte when she raced that night and I remember right after the race the other grooms and I were talking in awe of what she had just done.
“Charlotte went sore before the three-year-old stakes races and was retired and sent to the breeding shed.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Looking forward to this weekend at Cal Expo, Bettors Promise, One And Only and Jazzmanian Devil head the cast for Saturday night’s $6,000 Open I Pace (Race 3). There will be 13 races contested and first post is set for 6:15 p.m. The trotters and pacers will also be in action on Sunday evening.
(With files and photo from Cal Expo)