Career Year For Kolthammer

Connie Kolthammer must be excited coming off of a career best year in 2011, where she would share Alberta's 'Horseperson of the Year' honours with Hall of Fame horseman Keith Clark, 'Trainer of the Year (Under 200 Starts)' award and the 'Owner of the Year' award going to her and partner Jim Rogers' Outlaw Stable

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In 2011, Kolthammer started 193 times as a trainer, notching a summary of 28-33-30 with $225,642 earned. On the driving side, she started 184 races and amassed 27 wins, 31 seconds and 27 thirds with $208,015 banked.

Kolthammer says she's very keen on getting the young horses back at it for the upcoming stake season.

"We just turned Smooth Criminal, 1:55.4 ($54,416) and Outlaw Beacon, 1:57.2 ($28,194) together today," says Kolthammer. "They've been jogging and playing around on the track up to now and we just wanted to change things up a bit for them. They've both grown in size quite a bit and we're hoping they come back strong again this year."

Reflecting on 2011, Connie says she was in unfamiliar territory more than a few times, but managed to find her way when going behind the gate.

"I guess it was more the feeling of never wanting to screw up," she says. "It was all just so exciting because we had never been there before. We had some nice young horses going for some nice stake money. Super Final day for us was incredible."

On Super Final day, the Outlaw Stable would sent out six starters and pick up four 'in-the-money' stake finishes with Smooth Criminal (2nd), Outlaw Highvoltage (3rd), Outlaw Star Maker (3rd) and Outlaw Pot Of Gold (2nd) with Connie training and driving those four to purse earnings of over $35,000 on the day. A good day at the office indeed!

When asked if Kolthammer felt she had some decent stock going into 2011, she felt there was some talent. "We never really get high on our young horses, but once the two-year-olds started their stake races we felt we had some contenders."

Kolthammer says she can't take all the credit for the successful season just passed.

"Jim (Rogers), at 83, is one of the hardest working guys in the business - especially at his age," she says. "His work ethic is huge and I know he was very, very pleased with our success last year. The two of us do all the training down and I'm not about to let him retire just yet," she chuckled.

Fulltime caretaker Theresa Burke, along with weekend warrior Jackie Beelby were in the trenches as well for Team Outlaw, through 2011, while groom Susan Getty has been a welcome addition recently.

In spite of all the excitement Kolthammer experienced through 2011, she still looks back on Rustle In The Wind's Stake Final win at Northlands, in the Spring of 2004, as one of her finest moments in the sulky.

"I had just started driving that year - that win will always be right at the top of my list," she says. "And of course there was the Smart Shark track record (1:51.3) at Lacombe in 2009 - that moment was pretty special too."

(with files from Northlands Park)