When Larry Chappell bought his first horse three years ago he had low expectations, which certainly didn't include a Breeders Crown victory, but that's exactly what R Es Mary gave him Sunday afternoon at the Charlottetown Driving Park.
R Es Mary, a two-year-old pacing filly, is owned by the partnership of Peter and Don Smith, Gerald Morrissey, and Larry Chappell. Don is founder of Metro Building Supplies, and his son Peter is the president of the company. Chappell is the owner of Chappell Construction and is one of Metro's main customers.
Chappell joined the ownership group in 2005 and R Es Mary was his fifth purchase. She went for $12,000 at last year's Atlantic Classic Sale. She was bred by Bob Connelly and Don Smith.
Kona Queen (R Es Mary's dam) has only produced race winners and that made Chappell believe that R Es Mary was a good buy.
"It's batting a thousand right. Why would you think that the next filly was going to be a dud," said Chappell. Earl Smith was assigned the task of training R Es Mary and was originally unsure of how the filly would perform.
"She was a nice big mare but everyone didn't know what N Xample ('Mary's' sire) was going to be like for a sire. He turned out to be a good sire," Earl said.
Earl said that she was slightly hard to handle at first but she grew out of it. Earl's assistant trainer, Ryan Perrot, said that the filly wasn't mean, she was just easily scared. "You got to be careful with her on race nights. She can still get spooked easy," Perrot said.
Don Smith was happy with how the filly looked training down. "This mare trained extremely well. She looked very impressive early in the spring," Don said.
R Es Mary battled sickness early in the year, missed some races and didn't originally have enough points to make it into the Atlantic Breeders Crown final. Going into that race she had earned $12,925 on the campaign.
She drew the dreaded Post 8 in the $5,000 consolation race, but then season leader Oceanview Kitty became sick and was unable to race. The group was then faced with a decision to either keep the mare in the consolation or race in the tougher $25,000 final. They decided to skip the consolation and race her in the final. She drew Post 3.
Earl was confident in the filly's ability and thought she had a legitimate chance. "I thought she was good enough for the top three. She can race from behind or on the front."
In the final R Es Mary left from Post 3 and was used hard to the quarter in :28.3 to pass Camco Wineette (driven by Danny Romo). She then set up fractions of :58.2 and 1:29.2 the fought-off a late charge by Southview Spirit (Gilles Barrieau) to win in a close photo in 1:58.4.
The victory was the first Atlantic Breeders Crown win for all four owners, although Morrissey missed the race, as he was harvesting his potato crop.
Chappell was expecting to win the race because of the filly's progression through the year. "I told Kenny (driver Kenny Arsenault, who was slated to drive Darko) 'you better be happy with a second, kid.' I was convinced she was going to win from the word go," Chappell said.
Although Chappell was unsurprised, he was still ecstatic to win the Atlantic Breeders Crown. "It might be a once in a lifetime thing. That's the race you go for all year long. It's a pretty important race."
R Es Mary has a possibility of three more races this year (the Maritime Breeders elimination and final in Truro, and a Lady Slipper division on PEI). She did not make the final for the Island Breeders series.
R Es Mary drew Post 6 in an elimination for the Maritime Breeders final at Truro Raceway this Sunday, October 19.
The group is hopeful they will have as much success with their latest purchase in R Es Wade, a brother to R Es Mary sired by Fit For Life.
(Nicholas Oakes is a journalism student at Holland College, and a columnist with Atlantic Post Calls)