He's been a part of the standardbred scene for decades, but time hasn't diminished Bob Ladouceur's love for his horses or the sport.
Ladouceur, 68, who owns and operates St Lads Farm with his wife Veronica, currently houses more than 80 horses at their home base in Ruscom Station. The breeding farm names their foals using the St Lads prefix.
One of their recent graduates is St Lads Zoom Zoom. The son of Apaches Fame-St Lads Sassy has won eight of nine career starts. His next test comes in the $60,000 Autumn Stakes, this Saturday at Woodbine.
In his elimination, the bay gelding was parked three-wide past the opening quarter with driver Randy Waples, in :26.3, then led his rivals past the half in :55.1 and three quarters in 1:23.4, before edging away from his rivals in deep stretch to score the win in a sizzling 1:52.4.
“That was a pretty impressive mile,” Ladouceur said from his home. “A horse driven by Jody Jamieson (Executive Jet) made a break in front of us which caused us to go wide before making the front. For him to finish the way he did in that kind of time was pretty special.”
St Lads Zoom Zoom has banked $61,725 this season including a victory in the $63,400 Middlesex Pacing Series final at Western Fair.
When St Lads Zoom Zoom was a yearling, he was bought back by Ladouceur from the Forest City Yearling Sale.
“A client of mine, Diane Stephenson, has a number of horses that we look after at our farm and one day her and her trainer Greg Horn came over to look at the yearlings. They both liked St Lads Zoom Zoom and if the horse didn’t bring a certain price at the sale, then I would bring him home and work something out with them.”
Ladouceur bought St Lads Zoom Zoom back for $9,000 and struck a deal with Stephenson and Horn, who are based out of Michigan.
“I loved the colt as a yearling,” Ladouceur recalled. “He was one of the best looking yearlings in our consignment. There was nothing not to like about him.”
Although St Lads Zoom Zoom has had a solid career to date, the process of getting him to the races wasn’t the easiest task.
“Greg doesn’t like to race horses at two, so we waited on him for a three-year-old,” Ladouceur said. “Training down, Greg said he was a bad actor, so he gelded him. I remember getting a report from Greg one day saying that he was starting to learn the ropes. A few weeks before he qualified in July, I remember Greg saying, ‘We may have something here.’”
That blueprint, allowing St Lads Zoom Zoom to not race at two, has paid dividends this season.
“Greg has done a great job with him,” Ladouceur said. “It looks like the patience with him is really paying off.”
St Lads Zoom Zoom will look to continue his winning ways when he begins from post five for Waples.
This division of the Autumn is for Ontario-sired sophomore colts and gelding pacers, who are non-winners of $50,000 lifetime or non-winners of $30,000 in 2012 as of midnight, October 31.
The field will line up as follows:
1. Mississippi Hippy
2. Bandicoot
3. Pass The Deuce
4. Autumn Gottem
5. St Lads Zoom Zoom
6. P L Faststrike
7. True To Mach
8. Curious Phoenix
9. Winbak Carl
10. Fire Up The Mach
AE1. P L Fighter
To view entries for Saturday night's card of harness racing at Woodbine, click the following link: Saturday Entries - Woodbine Racetrack.
(WEG)