He may have resisted it
at first, but Steve Mahar figures that drastically scaling back on his duties
as a full-time “catch-driver” two years ago, to focus mostly on training, may
have been the been the best decision he ever made.
On the same day that
his colt, Varadero Hanover, was announced as a nominee to the $1 million Pepsi
North America Cup, the sophomore pacer won the fastest division of the second
leg of the $18,000 Youthful Series at Woodbine Racetrack in 1:52, his first start
of the season. Watch the race here.
With that dominating
win this past Thursday night, Varadero Hanover may have established himself as
a legitimate contender for Canada’s most prestigious harness race on Saturday,
June 15 at Woodbine.
Varadero Hanover is a
three-year-old son of Somebeachsomewhere-Vaudeville Margie, co-owned by Reginald
& Louise Petitpas of Shediac Bridge, NB and Geoffrey Louzon and Dr. Ruth
Irving of Russell, ON. Irving is the daughter
of Dr. George Irving of Irishtown, NB.
Of course, Petitpas is famously associated with the colts sire and it was
this connection that led him to acquire Varadero Hanover as a yearling in the
fall of 2011.
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| WEG / New Image Media Photo |
Mahar had been prepping
the colt for his three-year-old
campaign in Pinehurst, North Carolina this spring, where he resides with his wife, Twila, during the winter months.
With 5,076 lifetime
wins and over $7 million in career earnings, the Blacks Harbour, NB native, who
used to call Exhibition Park Raceway in Saint John, NB his home track, is the
one of six Maritime-born drivers with more than 5,000 wins. That exclusive club also includes Wally
Hennessey, Paul MacKenzie, Jody Jamieson, Billy O’Donnell and Mark MacDonald.
Long considered one of
the Maritime’s premier reinsman, Mahar has won 200 or more races in a season five
times and had recorded 100 or more wins for 24 straight years from 1983 to
2006.
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* * *
Steve and Twila Mahar were
first introduced to the beautiful resort area of Pinehurst by Bruce MacDonald, an
Ontario horseman who also got his start in harness racing in Saint John.
A few years ago, MacDonald,
who has been working for Marvin Chantler and his Mardon Stables for a number of
years, asked Mahar to come to North Carolina one winter to help him with some
horses.
The next year, when
MacDonald decided not to return to Pinehurst, Dr. Garth Henry, who was a friend
of Chantler and is married to Dr. Ruth Irving, contacted Mahar about training
some young horses for him at Pinehurst during the winter months.
At the time, Mahar had
a number of horses racing in Maine but agreed to come down to Pinehurst with
the idea that he would return to the Pine Tree State to race in the spring.
However, when Henry
asked him to consider working for him on a full-time basis in Ontario the
talented teamster, who had spent much of his life as one of the Maritimes and
Maine’s busiest drivers, knew that his career may be heading in a new direction.
“My family was saying
that I had been driving ten races a day, seven days a week for all these
years. Maybe it was time to back off
that type of schedule,” Mahar said. “So
I told him that I would let him know.
“I took some horses
back to Maine and I was there a month when I decided that I would go to work
for him.”
Henry is a practicing
veterinarian who owns a large horse breeding farm and training track in
Russell, Ontario, just outside of Ottawa.
He owned a broodmare with Reginald Petitpas and also bred a few mares
for him as well.
Henry also co-owns a
training center with Richard Moreau that is located a few minutes from Mohawk
Raceway. It is there where Mahar took
up residence to begin his new career working full-time for Henry. He would break some homebred colts for him in
the fall, head to Harrisburg and then on to Pinehurst for the winter. In the spring they would take the horses back
to the training center to race that summer on the Ontario circuit.
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* * *
Varadero Hanover was
originally purchased for $17,000 by Blake MacIntosh at the 2011 Lexington
Selected Yearling Sale as Hip#180 but after the sale Petitpas offered him $20,000,
which he accepted. The price was well
below the $63,184 average for a Somebeachsomewhere yearling at that sale.
“They had announced at
the sale that he had some OCD’s taken out from his hocks, so he may have been
considered a bit of a gamble by some,” Mahar figured.
Petitpas gave the colt
to Mahar to train prior to selling shares to Lauzon and Irving.
“That was an easy
decision,” Petitpas told Woodbine Entertainment Group last summer of giving the
horse to Mahar. “Steve is a very capable trainer and I’ve known him a long
time.”
Mahar said Varadero
Hanover was a natural right from the start.
“He was a great horse
to break. He paced right away and he
probably could have gone in 3:00 on day one,” he said admiringly. “He is big and has a great attitude on the
track but you had to watch his manners around the barn.
“He can be a handful
and it can take two or three people to paddock him but you can put up with that
if they can go fast enough…and he can.”
Mahar knew training
down that Varadero Hanover could be a special horse. “He was perfect to train,” he explained.
“Whatever you wanted to go, he could go, and he wanted to go more and loved doing
it.”
He trained down to 2:07
in the jog cart at Pinehurst and then was shipped to Ontario later that
spring. Mahar said he trained him a few
more times at the training center before he decided to try him over the
seven-eighths mile track at Mohawk.
“By then I knew he was
going to be a pretty good horse,” he said.
“I went to train him over the big track in the bike for the first time, just
to see what he could do. I had him over
the half in 1:05 and he went a mile in 2:01.
I just tapped him to go on and he did the last half (56 seconds) by
himself.”
By the first week of
June last year Varadero Hanover had won a qualifier in 2:00.2. He then won his first career race as a two-year-old
at Mohawk in 1:55.1 for driver Sylvain Filion and followed that effort up with
a second-place performance.
He started six more
times in various stake races, taking on some of North America’s top
freshmen. He raced in the Dream Maker
series and then finished fifth to Apprentice Hanover in the Metro Pace elimination,
where he was race-timed in a seasonal best of 1:51.3. He finished fifth again in the $100,000 consolation.
“He was still very
inexperienced when he raced in those starts,” Mahar said. “He is so big. The driver (Filion) would have to grab into
him and sometimes he would try to run over horses in front of him.
“Every start he did
race better though and he would always pace a little faster than the start
before.”
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| Some of the Varadero Hanover team - Reg & Louise Petitpas, Bill Kirwan, Steve Mahar, Dr. Ruth Irving, Twila Mahar |
At the end of his racing season, Varadero Hanover was turned out at Henry’s farm in Ottawa for a couple of months before shipping down to Pinehurst late last year to resume training.
“He trained down this
spring every bit as good as he did last year,” Mahar said “I trained him in 2:03 in the jog cart and
after I backed him up for a few trips, I put the bike on him and he went a mile
in 1:55 off a half in a minute.
“I never even spoke to
him. He did it on his own.”
It was then that Mahar
knew his colt was ready and he was shipped to the training center where he is now
under the care of another native of Saint John, Lynn Cameron, in the Richard Moreau
stables.
He finished second for
Filion in a qualifier on March 28 before winning his season’s debut this past
Thursday night.
Looking ahead, Mahar is
hopeful that Varadero Hanover can compete with some of North America’s top
sophomores.
“I’m looking forward to
finding out what he can do but I know how this tough this business can be,”
Mahar cautioned. “He is eligible for the
North America Cup, Breeders Crown and some other big races including the Little
Brown Jug.
“I have never raced him
on a half-mile track yet, though he has trained on one quite a few times, but no
real fast miles. He is so big and I
didn’t want to put any pressure on him last year. He is a year older and I’m sure he will race
over them all right. I do plan to try
him at Flamboro between stakes races just to get him used to going fast on a
smaller track.”
* *
* * *
Steve Mahar calls his
transition two years ago from being a full-time “catch driver” for over 40
years to a full-time trainer, a ‘semi-retirement.’ Though he always maintained a stable of
horses during those times, he was primarily a much sought-after driver right up
until the time he moved to Ontario.
“I admit that when I
first made the decision I really wasn’t sure I wanted to do it,” he said. “I knew the time was coming where I would
have to change my lifestyle somewhat. So
when this opportunity (with Henry) came along I took that month to think about
it because I wasn’t sure I was ready to give up driving on a full-time basis.
“The more I thought
about the having the opportunity to do this type of job and still be in a
business that you like, the easier the decision became to me. They still want me to drive some and I do
drive at the smaller tracks in Ontario but when you are at Woodbine and Mohawk
you need to use the best (drivers) that are available.”
So does he miss the
challenge of driving on a regular basis?
“No, not really,” he said. “I did
the first month or so but as time went on I did get over it.”
Looking ahead to his 65th
birthday later this year, Mahar says he wants to stay in the horse business as
long as he is able to.
“I want to do it until
I can’t do it.”
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* *
Steve Mahar Career highlights
1997 Inducted into
the Saint John Sports Hall Of Fame
5,000th
Career Win 17-Jul-2010 Bangor Raceway M G GIRL
4,500th
Career Win 28-MAY-2005 Bangor Raceway GOOD LUCK CHIP
4,000th
Career Win 26-MAY-2001 Exhibition Park Raceway FAMILIAR FACE
3,500th
Career Win 25-JULY-1997 Connell Park Raceway CLONMEL PATTERSON
3,000th
Career Win 03-SEP-1993 Exhibition Park Raceway FRENCH IRISH
2,500th
Career Win 03-SEP-1990 Fredericton Raceway BRITE JENNIFER
2,000th
Career Win 18-JUL-1988 Exhibition Park Raceway NEWPORT SKIPPER
1,500th
Career Win 13-JUL-1986 Bangor Raceway ENGLISH COLONY
1,000th
Career Win 21-JUN-1983 Monticello Raceway NO NO ANGEL
1st Career
Win 1969 Exhibition Park Raceway WISK BROOM DIRECT
Some
of the Major Races Steve Mahar has won
1981 Evening Patriot Gold
Cup & Saucer - Henry Butler
1985 Walter Dale Memorial - Gemini Risk
1985 Alexander Memorial - Gemini Risk
1988 Walter Dale Memorial - Courtney Bay
1990 Alexander Memorial - King Tyler
1992 Walter Dale Memorial - King Tyler
1993 Monctonian (held in Fredericton) - Ryan Flyin
1996 $65,000 Barrieau McIsaac Memorial Stake - Alfred Alfred
1997 Anah Temple Shrine Trot - Cha Cha Laroo
1999 $60,000 Barrieau McIsaac Memorial Stake - Familiar Face
2002 Walter Dale Memorial - Familiar Face
2002 Atlantic Breeder's Crown 2 YOPC - Clinton Debriefed
2002 Atlantic Breeder's Crown 3 YOPC - Black Bowtie
2003 Atlantic Breeder's Crown 2 YOPF - Charlottes Trick
2003 Walter Dale Memorial - Black Bowtie
1985 Walter Dale Memorial - Gemini Risk
1985 Alexander Memorial - Gemini Risk
1988 Walter Dale Memorial - Courtney Bay
1990 Alexander Memorial - King Tyler
1992 Walter Dale Memorial - King Tyler
1993 Monctonian (held in Fredericton) - Ryan Flyin
1996 $65,000 Barrieau McIsaac Memorial Stake - Alfred Alfred
1997 Anah Temple Shrine Trot - Cha Cha Laroo
1999 $60,000 Barrieau McIsaac Memorial Stake - Familiar Face
2002 Walter Dale Memorial - Familiar Face
2002 Atlantic Breeder's Crown 2 YOPC - Clinton Debriefed
2002 Atlantic Breeder's Crown 3 YOPC - Black Bowtie
2003 Atlantic Breeder's Crown 2 YOPF - Charlottes Trick
2003 Walter Dale Memorial - Black Bowtie
2006 Windsor Fair -
Yankee Anthem
1977 - Bound To Be - Former Track Record Holder at Woodstock – 2:00.4
1989 – Seltzer Blue – Track Record Holder (two-year-olds) at New Brunswick Downs – 1:57.2
1992 - King Tyler - Former
Track Record Holder at Fredericton Raceway – 1:58
- Stats courtesy of Patrick Eastwood
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