The Real One has certainly been the real deal for owner Hélène Fillion.
The five-year-old pacer recently returned to her Quebec farm for a winter break with an extra $289,080 to show for his 2015 campaign at Yonkers with driver/trainer Patrick Lachance.
The Mach Three gelding now is only $1,755 shy of $500,000 in lifetime earnings, remarkable for a horse who did a lot of his early racing for modest purses at Hippodrome 3R and Rideau-Carleton Raceway, had limited stakes success, and cost her just $10,000.
“He’s a special horse, the first good one I’ve hit, the kind you dream of having,” said Fillion, 49, who figures she’s owned about 10 horses over the years. The daughter of long-time Ottawa-area horseman George Fillion, she grew up in the sport and trains a 10-horse stable with partner Bertrand Ayotte.
The Real One, bred by prominent Quebec owner Richard Berthiaume, began his career in the stable of Ontario-based Benoit Baillargeon, but didn’t look like much early on. Fillion, however, noticed the way he finished his races, and when she saw him listed for sale on the Standardbred Canada website early in his two-year-old season, she made her move, without actually seeing him in the flesh.
The gelding turned out to be a steady performer for her in Trois-Rivieres and Ottawa at two and three, but his four-year-old campaign is when he really began to shine.
“He was a small horse, good on a half-mile, and he kept getting better, so we thought Yonkers might be a good fit,” Fillion said. "Andre Lachance (brother of Michel) mentioned Patrick (son of Michel), and that’s where we sent him (in the summer). We wanted him to go to someone who’d treat him like a member of the family, not a number. He’s a happy horse who likes his job. It’s worked out perfectly. Patrick has done great work with him, and drives him like he owns him.”
The Real One collected $130,000 in his first six months in the U.S., taking a mark of 1:50.1 in his only appearance at The Meadowlands.
Raced exclusively at Yonkers this year, The Real One won nine times and had 23 top-three finishes in 32 starts, most of them in the open class. His last race of the year was also his fastest, a 1:51 victory on Dec. 12.
“He’s been on a break ever since but I’ll start him back training next week,” Fillion said. “He’ll probably be back at the races in March. At Yonkers, of course.”
(Trot Insider Exclusive by Paul Delean)