"It Was The Most Surreal Evening"

Judy Farrow became a racehorse owner reluctantly. Now she’s having the time of her life.

A small standardbred breeder in Quebec for more than a decade, Farrow suddenly found herself with a couple of unsellable Quebec-bred yearlings when the provincial racing industry collapsed.

One of them, a three-year-old Justice Hall gelding called Intimidate, almost stole the $246,521 Simcoe Stakes for her at 26-1 at Mohawk Racetrack on Saturday, finishing second by a neck to Little Brown Fox in a sizzling 1:51.4. Behind her unheralded Quebec-bred trotter came two of Ontario’s finest, Knows Nothing and Prestidigitator.

Farrow, 71, who’d never been to Mohawk before, was standing right at the finish line when they flashed past.

“I still haven’t come down. It was the most surreal evening, one of the most exciting days of my life. You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I didn’t sleep for two nights afterward,” said Farrow, a resident of Hemmingford, Que.

Intimidate and his stablemate, four-year-old trotting mare Onthemoneyside, are co-owned by Farrow and the trainer, Luc Blais. Their base is Rideau Carleton Raceway in Ottawa, where they’ve been fixtures over the past two years. Intimidate’s nine lifetime wins have all come at Rideau, and so have all seven for Onthemoneyside. Together, they’d collected more than $88,000 at Rideau in 20 months, which Farrow was more than happy with even before Saturday’s $61,630 windfall.

“I never really had a racehorse before these two. I kept them because nobody wanted them,” she said. “I’m really lucky.”

Intimidate was actually being considered for a new series for Quebec-breds at Hippodrome Trois-Rivieres until his career-best 1:56.1 victory at Rideau on August 26. Blais decided then to try the Simcoe instead.

“Luc told me then he was ready," Farrow said. "All along, he kept saying 'this is a very good horse.' Until the Simcoe, he’d never had his plugs pulled in a race. Luc did a great job getting him ready. It’s a credit to him; he’s so careful and conscientious, such a hard worker.”

(A Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)