Spare Time Rozie Passes

Trot Insider has learned that former Canadian record holder Spare Time Rozie has passed away at the age of 18.

“I’m not really sure what happened,” said owner Darryl Laver. “She was lying beside the feeder [Thursday] morning, I fed at six that morning and she was standing up then. I walked her in the dark over toward the other gate and the leg was just dangling. She broke the bone above the hock.”

The severity of the injury forced her connections to euthanize her, and it proved to be double the loss for Laver.

“She was in foal to Lookslikeachpndale and was due in May,” added Laver. “But we there was nothing we could do in trying to save the foal.”

Spare Time Rozie gave her connections a long list of fond memories, however, and she achieved those feats despite being somewhat of an ugly duckling.

“She was tough, she was very tough,” said Laver when asked to talk about what made her special. “She never came in heat and she never had a race where she didn’t try because she was in heat. If you saw her as a yearling in a sale you wouldn’t give $500 for her. She stood terrible, crooked-legged and stood over her knees. Nobody would have bought her. But she was a beautiful mare at home, and she was all business at the track. She knew when it was time to get her game face on. She always gave you 150%.

“She raced in the Breeders Crown and she still has the track record at Dresden from 2006,” he added. “It’s the overall track record of any trotter, and she did it as a three-year-old filly. She won the Lifetime Dream Series – she swept it – and she won two legs of the Don Mills Series and then finished third in the final from the ten-hole. She won six-in-a-row at Woodbine; she was just a good mare.”

She had a penchant for record-setting performances, in fact, and at one time had her name in the track record portion of programs at a handful of tracks across North America as well as the Canadian record for trotting mares, her 1:52.1 lifetime best that at the time equaled the mark of Hall of Famer Peaceful Way.

“She held a track record at Mohawk, she had one in Harrington and she had one at Georgian Downs for a bit, too,” recalled Laver. “She had four at one time. And her one two-year-old [Muscle Time] has the gelding record in Clinton. I’ve had two mares I’ve bred out of her. Petro Hall made $200,000 so far and she won a Gold event as a two-year-old.”

The loss is a significant one for Laver and his family, but he’s hopeful Spare Time Rozie's legacy can live on through her final foal.

“I’ve at least got an Angus Hall yearling out of her in the barn,” he said. “Maybe that will be my ‘Rozie’ horse. I have more feelings for my horses than a lot of people. She’s been here and pretty much put me on the map. I can look at things at the farm and think ‘Rozie’ bought that for me. But that’s the ups and downs of the game.”

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the connections of Spare Time Rozie.