The odds must be astronomical. One mare has produced four racehorses from five foals of racing age. Those four racehorses, full siblings, are all racing on Saturday night.
Doug Belan holding Exonerated; brother Dennis beside driver Mario Baillargeon
Back in 2005, a group of hobby horsemen looking to increase their involvement claimed a pacing mare by the name of Exonerated for $12,000 at Hiawatha Horse Park. The group comprised of twin brothers Dennis & Doug Belan of Oil Springs, Ont. and Brian Fitzgerald of Dresden.
"She was a four-year-old at the time, a young horse. We were new in the business as a partnership," Doug told Trot Insider.
Doug and his brother both worked with the horses but Dennis was the one with the trainer's license. The owners all have full-time jobs so the training came after work. Doug is in sales and Dennis is an electrician. But they did buy a farm and put up a barn on it for the horses, thinking this would be something for the retirement years.
Doug & Dennis Belan's barn, which was moved 20 kilometres and reconstructed. Dennis did the stonework, and Doug built the stalls.
Exonerated (Apaches Fame - Slandered) would go on to win more than $70,000 racing for her new connections, competing both on the WEG circuit and Ontario's B tracks.
"We just jog them up and down the country roads to get them in shape. It worked out good for her, she ended up racing in Toronto and making some money. She took on, what we felt, were some pretty good horses so we thought she'd make a decent broodmare....She could finish her miles and she was pretty good on a half."
She was bred to Camluck in 2008, resulting in a 2009 filly that would be named Apach Of Luck. A return booking to Camluck resulted in a foal that died, and the next mating to Artistic Fella didn't produce a racehorse. So in 2011, Exonerated returned to Camluck....for the next three years. She caught and foaled colts each of those three years.
"Part of the reason we stuck with Camluck was not only his proven stats but how Seelster Farms treated us when one the second filly by Camluck had a devastating farm accident and died," Belan told Trot Insider. "They were true good people, not only to us but for the horse racing business."
Doug noted the widely-known success of the Camluck - Apaches Fame cross, and it has surely worked for him. In five matings of racing age for Exonerated, four Camluck breedings have turned into racehorses.
► 2009 - Apach Of Luck
► 2012 - Camvicted
► 2013 - Next Of Cam
► 2014 - Evil Cam Evil
While they sold Apach Of Luck at the end of 2012, they've always kept tabs on the mare....which brings us to Saturday, August 13. The Belans and Fitzgerald have each of the three brothers entered to race at Hiawatha Horse Park (click here for entries) and Apach Of Luck is slated to race at Northfield Park. Evil Cam Evil has been placed with trainer Bill Brown, while Dennis still conditions the older siblings.
"In our one race on Saturday night, the Hunter boys have a horse in there," speaking of the evening's eighth race with Dale & Dick Hunter's Arizona Seelster racing against Camvicted. "We all live out here in the same area so there's a kind of a little rivalry going on there too. We're right around the corner from them, we all went to high school together."
Not only are all four entered, but with the longest morning line odds for any of the siblings at 4-1 all four have a decent chance of winning.
"One's picked to win and I think the others are picked around second. Camvicted has got some issues; they just can't pinpoint them but he is a monster, that horse. He can fly but he has a hard time getting him to go straight."
Exonerated is no longer owned by the Belans and Fitzgerald as they knew of "an older fellow who was wanting a broodmare." He has her in foal to Warrawee Needy, doubling up on both the Cam Fella and Apaches Fame blood in the pedigree.
The final foal Exonerated produced for these owners is yearling filly Campassion, who Doug calls "a beautiful horse, one of the nicest ones yet out of the mare." Hopes are that she'll become a racehorse and then the next broodmare for the ownership group.