Five years removed from the harness racing industry, stars aligned for former Western Fair District marketing expert Sarah Imrie to fulfill a longtime dream and take the dive into the unknown of horse ownership.
Imrie is now the proud owner of a pair of promising two-year-old pacing fillies, including the unraced Into The Unknown and three-time starter Beyond The Sea, who will compete in tonight’s $76,500 final of the Whenuwishuponastar Series at Woodbine Mohawk Park.
Well known in the London, Ont. racing community and beyond for her work promoting the industry and entertainment offerings at The Raceway at Western Fair District, Imrie’s love for horses never waned when she left her marketing role to pursue a new opportunity at a growing telecommunications company in 2016. Though she had never worked hands on with horses nor was she involved in horse ownership, her personal interest and experiences while working at the track fostered a strong desire to pursue the opportunity to become an owner when the time was right.
“I have always had an interest [in harness racing] just from the betting sense and thought it would be really cool to be able to own a horse and get involved that way,” Imrie told Trot Insider. “But then the job opened up and I got to see it from a whole different side.”
After volunteering with the broadcast team, Imrie joined The Raceway at Western Fair District full-time as Marketing Coordinator shortly after their rebrand in the fall of 2011.
“I was hands on in a very small sense in that I caught horses once in a while when I had to take a photo with them – that was about as hands on as I got,” she laughed.
Sarah Imrie (seventh from L) presents the 2011 O'Brien Award for three-year-old pacing fillies to the connections of Monkey On My Wheel
Ironically, the opportunity for Imrie to become a participant in the game came to fruition when she was no longer working at the track and when racing was shutdown during the COVID-19 province-wide lockdowns.
Imrie did remain in touch with friends and connections she had established during her time at Western Fair, which ultimately led to her owning the Bob Young trainees Into The Unknown and Beyond The Sea.
“I had met some incredible people. As all of us know, the people in the harness racing industry are pretty incredible and they’re a tight knit group, and I was very lucky to keep in contact with a lot of them,” said Imrie. “In particular, I kept in contact closely with the Youngs. They were close with me and they were great with my kid. And so, Heather and I were great friends and she kept me informed with what was happening in the industry and I've kept an eye on things just from a spectator point of view as well.
“Again, I'd always thought that horse ownership would be a lot of fun...but I was always busy, and you know, it obviously takes a lot of financial commitment and time commitment to really look into selecting the horse and putting a focus on that. I was in events and events never gives you an opportunity to really slow down. Well, coming into COVID, everything slowed down.
“I talked with my family and my parents were on board, but again, we never really took the time. With COVID, we all could take the time to look around and research things and a few opportunities came up in the fall and I couldn't say no. So, we got our ducks in a row at the beginning of COVID to make sure that we had the financial commitment, and they were just too good to be true. These two horses were already ingrained in our hearts from the first pictures we saw of them.”
Imrie, along with her family, developed a deeper bond with the fillies as she tied in her strong connection to music from her performance arts background when selecting their names.
“We thought it was kind of a fun exercise getting the family involved [with naming them], especially with the lockdowns and we couldn't go see the horses. So, it was kind of our way of keeping connected and coming up with something unique based on their personalities that we were getting through pictures. Music has always been really important to me and my family and the names [of songs] just kind of fit.”
Imrie’s introduction to horse ownership has been a positive experience thanks in part to the relationships she developed with the breeders of both fillies, who were purchased privately online.
“The opportunity came up that they were both for sale. We saw the pictures and really connected with them,” she explained. “I really liked their bloodlines and they both come from credible families. And the breeders were incredible. Both of them. Brent Hopper was the breeder for Into The Unknown and Ron Mersky, in particular, for Beyond The Sea has walked me through from the very first day. They knew that this was my first horse and kind of walked me through and made the beginning of the ownership experience just perfect.”
Beyond The Sea, a daughter of Downbytheseaside out of Hot Legs, has since debuted with a fourth-place finish on July 13 at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Following an impressive 1:55.4 qualifying effort, she finished fifth in the first two legs of the Whenuwishuponastar, but broke stride at the start last time out spoiling her chances in that race. She is eligible to the Ohio Sires Stakes and Kentucky program.
“When her brain catches up to her ability, she will be a hell of a filly,” said Imrie. “She has a tremendous amount of speed, but [she] can be a handful at times.
“We haven't made bold decisions on exactly if we will send her [stateside] or not. She’s paid up into some great stakes here on this side of the border as well, so we're kind of playing it by ear.”
Imrie’s other filly, Into The Unknown, is a daughter of Sportswriter out of Platinum Spirit.
“She's a tiny little thing but has so much heart,” noted Imrie. “But she needed to grow a little bit.
“She’s back in training doing really well – she’s trained in 2:25. Bob says she’s going to be a racehorse. That’s all I can ask for at this point. She is a sweetheart and has done nothing wrong from day one.”
While the global pandemic created many uncertainties, one thing is for certain: the timing proved to be right for Imrie to purchase her first horses, especially giving her family something to look forward to when racing reconvened. The remote Snapchat updates from the Youngs and opportunities for socially distanced visits when restrictions eased were also a highlight for her young children Theo, 2, and Korbin, 7.
“The few times that we have gone down [to visit], the kids all came down with us. Korbin loves it. He hasn’t been mucking out stalls yet, but we have threatened that a few times,” said Imrie with a smile. “He has been cleaning up and learning different things around the barn. Theo, the youngest, unfortunately the first time we went to go see the horses, there was a stallion who gave a big roar and scared the bejeezus out of him, so he is not a fan of in the barn but everything about the farm and the track is thrilling to him. He wants to run on the track with the horses.”
While her job no longer involves promoting the racing industry to the next generation, Imrie looks forward to enjoying the experiences of ownership with her own kids.
“There's always things that we can improve on and the biggest thing is we need to get people out to the tracks,” said Imrie. “That's the hardest part is getting people out to the tracks to experience it live because that's where you get, like my kids, falling in love with horses. They feel it, they see it, getting that actual experience is what helps them.”