The Story Behind the Silks: 134th Breeders’ Stakes Edition

For Sunday’s 134th running of the Breeders’ Stakes, four owners/connections of horses in the race spoke about their silks and the meanings behind them.

Hurricane Clair is trained by Martin Drexler and owned by David Rowbotham, Rodney Carpenter, and Tony Boogmans.

The filly runs in Rowbotham’s silks, which are described as: “Gold, with a burgundy cowboy hat, burgundy sleeves, and a burgundy cap.”

Rowbotham has used this set of silks since around 1995.

“I’ve always been a part of these syndicates. I first started racing horses in Alberta and I had various syndicates.”

His silks carry both a personal and regional meaning that highlights his Calgary roots.

“Burgundy was always one of my favourite colours, so burgundy and gold is what I picked.”

“The design was intended to show the cowboy hat, which is symbolic of my connection to Calgary, where I live, and Western Canada. My syndicates over the years have mostly been from Alberta. It was always me as the managing partner and those are the silks we use.”

Roscar, Saccharine (both trained by Rachel Halden), and Side Street (trained by Layne Giliforte) are owned by Chiefswood Stables.

Robert Landry is the General Manager of Chiefswood, a position he has held for 14 years.

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee shared the story of the stable’s silks on behalf of owners Robert and Mark Krembil.

The silks for Chiefswood Stable are described as: “White and green halves, gold yoke, with gold hoops on white sleeves, and a gold cap.”

The stable has used the silks since around 2000.

Landry noted that the focal point for the silks is the green and yellow, which represent the silks’ regional and familial significance for the family-owned stable.

“The green and the yellow goes back to Mr. Krembil’s Saskatchewan roots – those colours in the coat of arms for Saskatchewan.”

Joe Pignatelli is one of the owners (with Spirit’s Path Management and Alan J. McMullen) of Thor’s Cause, trained by Krista Cole.

The owners alternate between whose silks will be used for each race the gelding runs in.

In his last race, The King’s Plate, Thor’s Cause’s ran in Spirit’s Path Management’s silks.

He will be running in Pignatelli’s silks for the Breeders’.

Pignatelli’s silks are described as: “Black, white star on pink spade, pink diamond, heart, and black club on white sleeves, with a pink cap”.

He has been using these silks for about four years.

“One of my hobbies is playing poker. When you’re playing poker, you need a certain amount of skill, but you also need a lot of luck. It’s pretty much the same for horse racing, you need a horse and jockey with some skill, but you also need a lot of racing luck too.

“All sorts of things happen when they’re running out there depending on the pace, set up, and sometimes horses get into a little bit of trouble, or they get blocked. You need that racing luck but at the same time, you still need that skill or talent.”

Pignatelli expanded on the choice of white and pink in his silks.

“The colours in the silks and the symbols come from the playing cards. If you look at a playing card, the face of it is white and then you’ve got the hearts, the diamonds, the clubs, or the spades and they’re either black or red. Instead of red, I went with pink. At the time I first started using them, I had some fillies. So, I thought that when they’re racing, it would be good to have the pink in there for the girls.

“The colours came directly from a playing card. The white, the black, and the pink instead of red. I’m a bit of a risk-taker in things that I do and obviously horse racing is sort of a high-risk type of game, so it’s a very interesting sport for me. I’ve been going to Woodbine since I was about 5 years old. I got interested in horses pretty early in my life.”

Al and Bill Ulwelling own Jokestar and King Rosso, with Kevin Attard as the trainer for both Ontario-bred geldings.

“We made them bright yellow with orange chevrons with A&B for us, the father-son team we’ve got,” said Al. “I thought we needed to add some class and sophistication to them but at the same time, we needed them to be bright.

“At the end of the day, it’s something that my father and I wanted to do together; horses are a bond between my father and I. We’ve worked together and have been in the same business for 29 years. The significance of the A&B on there represents us together.”

Sophie Charalambous, for Woodbine Communications