“It was a great day,” said Thomson. “I was worried after the first heat. Not just the break but the kind of trip he raced just to make the final.”
Courtly Choice overcame the odds and the trip, and for Thomson it was perhaps the fitting closing chapter on the dam, Lady Ashlee Ann, who died while giving birth to Courtly Choice.
“That’s a story in itself,” Thomson said of the broodmare that graduated from a racehorse his trainer Joe Holloway once thought was close to passing away. “Joe called me and said that he thought she was going to die,” Thomson said. “She had a spider bite and it looked bad.”
Lady Ashlee Ann, named for Thomson’s daughter, recovered and went on to a solid racing career leading to an unlikely and enduring career as a mom. “She had Ashlees Big Guy a horse I remember that was very good when he got a trip,” Thomson said of the $978K winner of the Art Rooney. “Then she had a Breeders Crown winner (Artist’s View 2007) and of course Betterthancheddar.”
Courtly Choice’s success leading the sophomore pacing ranks this year is just one of many notable performances by Winbak-bred horses. The farm will sell 95 head over the five days of the sale that commences on Tuesday, October 2 and concludes Saturday, all night sessions at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion in Lexington.
“It’s been a very good year weather-wise,” said Thomson. “I was out looking over a lot of the horses that will sell and I think collectively they are good sized.”
Thomson’s Winbak Farm has always bred to a wide range of stallions but Thomson for the most part has veered away from some that other major farms support. One of those was the late Somebeachsomewhere, but he still bred a few mares to that champion. “Number 55 is a Somebeachsomewhere that looks fantastic,” Thomson said.
That’s only one part of the equation, but the bloodlines supporting Team Best, the Somebeachsomewhere colt referenced, will likely have buyers lined up with interest. He’s the first foal from Sports Chic, an Ontario Sire Stakes-winning daughter of Sportswriter that’s also a half-sister to the incomparable Rainbow Blue. The dam’s side of this equation has blown up in recent years with Rainbow Blue producing standouts Somwherovararainbow and Rainbow Room, a pair of recent stars. Also from the same immediate family was this year’s freshman pacing sensation and Winbak-bred Zero Tolerance.
Thomson of course is proud of another Winbak graduate this year and that’s Met’s Hall, runner-up in the Hambletonian but a winner in the Zweig shortly thereafter. “We’ve got a Donato Hanover colt that’s a brother to Met’s Hall,” said Thomson referring to Jovial Jerry HIP 69 on opening night.