Oh Sweet Baby's victory in the $300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final for two-year-old trotting fillies capped what has been another excellent year for Montreal owner Richard Berthiaume
.
"We're nearly at $1 million. It's one of my best years," said Berthiaume, proprietor of a marine clean-up business in Montreal and one of Quebec's leading standardbred owners for more than two decades.
Oh Sweet Baby's win, only her second in 11 starts this year, raised her earnings to $243,530.
That ranks her second in the Berthiaume string behind five-year-old Voelz Hanover, runner-up to Dreamfair Eternal at 54-1 in the $300,000 Breeders Crown final for pacing mares and a five-time winner this season. The Astreos mare has collected $254,380 so far to raise her lifetime earnings to $916,514.
Stablemate Yursa Hanover also had a productive campaign. The four-year-old trotting mare won the $150,000 Conway Hall Stakes at Vernon Downs and finished third to Buck I St Pat in the $250,000 Breeders Crown. She made $160,225 to boost her career total to $907,389.
Both Yursa Hanover and Voelz Hanover will be back racing next year, and Berthiaume expects one or both to be his first millionaires by this time next year.
"With the money they're making, it makes more sense to race than to breed them," said Berthiaume, who currently has 22 horses after picking up four yearlings at auctions this fall for $184,000.
Berthiaume, who attributes his recent success to trainer Benoit Baillargeon and the horse-picking expertise of his longtime advisers Claude and Normand Bardier, expects big things next year from trotter Talespinner. The Conway Hall colt looked like a world-beater after winning his first three starts at age two, including the $50,000 final of the Bridger Trotting Series at Mohawk Racetrack, but then made repeated breaks.
"We're hoping it was just growing pains. I rejected a phenomenal amount of money for him," he said.
Ontario-bred trotting filly Highland Strikes will also be back after contributing $157,745 in winnings this year, and Berthiaume has another potential star in Odysseus Blue Chip, a Cams Card Shark two-year-old that took a mark of 1:54.2 at Mohawk last summer.
(A Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)