Golden Choice | |
---|---|
Sire | Val de l'Orne |
Grandsire | Val de Loir |
Dam | Your My Choice |
Damsire | Barachois |
Sex | Stallion |
Foaled | 1983 |
Country | Canada |
Colour | Bay |
Breeder | Windfields Farm |
Owner | Dick Sanderson & Gerry Belanger |
Trainer | Michael A. Tammaro |
Record | 21: 6-3-4 |
Earnings | $504,674 |
Major wins | |
Queen's Plate (1986) Prince of Wales Stakes (1986) Niagara Stakes (1986) | |
Awards | |
Canadian Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt (1986) | |
Last updated on November 1, 2007 |
Golden Choice (foaled 1983) is a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning Canada's most prestigious horse race, the Queen's Plate. Sired by Val de l'Orne, the 1975 Prix du Jockey Club winner, his damsire was Barachois, a son of Northern Dancer. Golden Choice was purchased as a yearling for $60,000 at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society (CTHS) sale at Woodbine.
Racing as a three-year-old, he finished third in the 1986 Plate Trial Stakes and then won the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. The Queen's Plate was the first ever win for Golden Choice, who then defeated the great filly Carotene to capture the Prince of Wales Stakes. However, in the final leg of the Triple Crown series, he finished third to Carotene. Among his other victories in 1986, Golden Choice won the Niagara Breeders' Cup Stakes. His performances that year earned him the Sovereign Award for Champion 3-Year-Old Male Horse.
His co-owner, Richard "Dick" Sanderson, wrote a book about Golden Choice titled The Choice was GOLDEN :The True Story of a Racehorse. Noted ABC sportscaster Jim McKay said of the book: "There are more good stories in horse racing than in any other sport. This is one of them."
The Breeders' Stakes is a stakes race for Thoroughbred race horses foaled in Canada, first run in 1889. Since 1959, it has been the third race in the Canadian Triple Crown for three-year-olds. Held annually in August at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, the Breeders' Stakes follows the June running of the King's Plate and the July running of the Prince of Wales Stakes. At a distance of one-and-a-half miles, the Breeders' Stakes is the longest of the three Triple Crown races and is the only jewel raced on turf.
Izvestia was a Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Canadian Triple Crown in 1990.
With Approval was a Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Canadian Triple Crown in 1989 under jockey Don Seymour. Even though he missed the rest of his three-year-old season due to injury, he was named the 1989 Canadian Horse of the Year.
Richard Anthony Dos Ramos is a Canadian jockey in thoroughbred horse racing. He grew up in Malton, a neighbourhood in Mississauga, Ontario, where his family emigrated when he was young. He began his career in horse racing in 1981, winning the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey that year and again in 1982.
Overskate (1975–1992) was a Canadian Thoroughbred Champion Hall of Fame racehorse. Sired by Nodouble out of the dam Overstate who was a descendant of the great sire Princequillo as well as Man o' War, Overskate was foaled at his owner's farm in Port Elgin, Ontario.
Hansel was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the final two legs of the U.S. Triple Crown races in 1991 and was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Male Horse. Out of the mare Count on Bonnie, his sire was Woodman, a Champion 2-year-old colt in Ireland who was a son of the influential Champion sire Mr. Prospector. Woodman also sired the 1994 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Preakness Stakes winner, Timber Country, as well as the 1999 Canadian Champion 3-Year-Old Colt and Queen's Plate winner, Woodcarver. Hansel's owner was banker Joe Allbritton, who raced him under his Lazy Lane Farm banner.
Runaway Groom (1979–2007) was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse.
Bull Lea was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who is best known as the foundation sire responsible for making Calumet Farm one of the most successful racing stables in American history. In their article on Calumet Farm, the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky wrote that Bull Lea was "one of the greatest sires in Thoroughbred breeding history."
Golden Act (1976–2000) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse.
Carotene is a Canadian Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse who holds the filly or mare record for winning the most Sovereign Awards. Bred by David Willmot's Kinghaven Farms, she was a daughter of the British sire Great Nephew, who also sired Epsom Derby winners Grundy and Shergar. Carotene's dam was Carrot Top, a mare David Willmot purchased in foal from the Whitney family at the 1982 dispersal sale of their bloodstock in the United Kingdom.
Regal Classic was a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse. In 1987, he earned the Sovereign Award for Champion 2-Year-Old Colt after winning the Summer Stakes, Cup and Saucer, Grey Stakes and Coronation Futurity, plus finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. At age three, he started his campaign on the American Triple Crown trail, where he finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby and sixth in the Preakness. He then returned to Canada where he finished second in the Queen's Plate and won the Prince of Wales, the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
A Bit O'Gold is a Canadian Thoroughbred Champion racehorse.
Basqueian is a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning two of the 1994 Canadian Triple Crown races.
Classy 'n Smart was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred and raced by Sam-Son Farm, she won five of nine career starts, including two legs of what would later be known as the Canadian Triple Tiara. Although she was voted the 1984 Canadian Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, her primary legacy is as a champion broodmare.
Kiridashi is a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse.
Longboat was a British Thoroughbred racehorse. A specialist over extreme distances, who produced his best form on fast ground, he completed the "Stayers' Triple Crown" in 1986 when he won the Ascot Gold Cup, Goodwood Cup and Doncaster Cup. In all he won nine of his eighteen races between October 1983 and September 1986, with his other major wins coming in the Alycidon Stakes, Sagaro Stakes and Henry II Stakes. He was exported to Australia where he was retired from racing following an injury. He proved a failure as a breeding stallion.
Giacometti was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In 1974 he became the fourth horse since the Second World War to be placed in all three legs of the British Triple Crown. Regarded by his stable as a potential "world beater", he was unbeaten as a two-year-old, winning his first race by at least twelve lengths and then taking the Gimcrack Stakes and the Champagne Stakes. As a three-year-old he finished second in the 2000 Guineas, third in The Derby and second in the St Leger before winning the Champion Stakes. After two defeats in 1975 he was retired to stud in the United States where he made very little impact as a breeding stallion.
Luis Contreras is a Mexican jockey since 2006. After starting his career in Mexico, Contreras started competing in the United States and Canada during the late 2000s. For his graded stakes race career, Contreras has won thirty six Grade III races, twenty two Grade II races and four Grade I races. At the Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, Contreras won the Queen's Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes, and Breeders' Stakes. His 2011 wins made him the first jockey to use two horses to win the Canadian Triple Crown. In 2014, Contreras came short of another Canadian Triple Crown after finishing tenth at the Breeders' Stakes following wins at the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales.
Mighty Heart is a one-eyed Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse who was named the 2020 Canadian Horse of the Year and Champion three-year-old colt after winning the Queen's Plate and Prince of Wales Stakes, the first two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown. His victory time of 2.01.98 in the Queen's Plate was the second-fastest since 1957, when it moved to its current length at Woodbine Racetrack. As a four-year-old in 2021, he won the Blame, Dominion Day and Autumn Stakes.