The connections of Tajma Hall have announced that it looks like their highly regarded veteran pacer will be hanging up his racing shoes and focusing on
stud duty in Wetaskiwin, Alta.
Trainer J.F. Gagne told Trot Insider that the 11-year-old son of Cambest -- Beverage will stand for $1,500 at his farm.
“He’s not retiring because he needs retirement, it's because of the way racing has gone here in the province. He’s kind of been forced into retirement,” said Gagne.
“There’s only six weeks of racing in Edmonton this fall so it's not going to be worth it to put him back on the track for those six weeks. I couldn’t start shipping this horse all over the place to race on B tracks. It really didn’t make sense for me to keep racing an 11-year-old over such bad circumstances. It had nothing to do with him, I think he was ready to go for three more years.”
Tajma Hall demonstrated his vitality with a win in his last start on February 7 in the Open Pace at Northlands.
“There was only a couple of weeks left in the meet and the class wasn’t filling so he never had the chance to race again. We totally quit with him [after that], but he looks like a million bucks. Everything couldn’t be better.”
Tajma Hall has won 62 races in his career earning $764,245 for owners Brian Buckley of Calgary and Peter Van Seggelen of De Winton, Alta.
The bay started his career winning his first 10 starts for trainers Scott Cisco and Serge Masse, which included victories in the Primary Stakes Series at Stampede Park, the Presidents Pace, Silver Buckets final and Western Canadian Pacing Derby at Northlands. Since switching into Gagne’s care, Tajma Hall has been racing at the top conditioning levels week in and week out making a brief appearance on the WEG circuit at the end of his five-year-old year.
In 2008 at the age of 10, he took his mark of 1:50.3 setting the current track record at Northlands and was named the 2008 ASHA Horse of the Year and Aged Horse of the Year.
With limited stud duty already under his belt, Tajma Hall has produced seven starters with earnings totaling $266,534, including Tajtoo ($110,172) and Tajwon ($80,329).