Out of the Woods
By Jennifer MorrisonTHE BLOOD-HORSE December 25, 2004
Making a living breeding, raising, and selling racehorses can be one of the most rewarding occupations, but the road to those prizes is one of hard work, dedication, and plenty of risk.
Gail Wood, whose Woodlands Farm in Hillsburgh, Ontario, has been the first home of many of Canada's top Thoroughbreds during the last 10 years, is well versed in all of those. She has earned success and respect in the industry through her determination
and a love for breeding a solid racehorse. "The most thrilling thing in the world is to pick a mating, get a foal, take it to the sale, sell it, and then have someone make it a stakes winner," said Wood. "The only thing that would be better would be to own it." Wood has experienced many thrills, but also knows how to bounce back from one of the worst disasters that can hit a horseperson. It has been less than two years since a barn fire on her property tragically killed 22 horses. One of four girls born to Dave and Eleanor Barbour, Wood always had horses in her blood, but during her college days, she pursued an education and a career in radio and television. Her direction in life took a detour the day her father, a real estate agent, sold a horse farm to Harry Hindmarsh, a Toronto businessman. One winter, while juggling freelance jobs in broadcasting, Wood worked with the Hindmarsh horses and became hooked on the racing and breeding game. She jumped headfirst into every aspect of Gail Wood at her Woodlands Farm in Ontario; she raises horses to sell and raises horses for clients who breed to race the business-from working long hours in the barns to attending every breeding seminar and horse sale she could find throughout North America. It wasn't long before Hindmarsh hired Wood-she is regarded as the first woman farm manager in Ontario-and built his operation into one of the most respected stallion and breeding facilities in Ontario. In 1990, Wood was named the province's farm manager of the year and later, she took a role as the president of the Ontario Farm Managers and Associates Group. When Hindmarsh died in 1991 and his widow, Lynne, decided to cease commercial operation of the farm four years later, Wood was offered a lease on one of the two Hindmarsh properties. Never one to back down from a challenge, Wood jumped at the chance to try and maintain the same standards Hindmarsh had set. "I guess I thought that it was time to do it, if I was ever going to do it," said Wood. In less than two years, Wood not only offered her first consignment of yearlings at the Woodbine select sale, but sold a sale topper, a West by West colt for $200,000 (all amounts are Canadian) for clients Jean-Guy and Mathilde Gauthier, owners of Haras Du Chevrillard. "In the first six years since we (husband Dan Steeves is also an integral part of the Woodlands operation) have been on our own, we have sold four sale toppers," said Wood. "We have been inordinately lucky, and that luck goes hand in hand with my fabulous clients who have had good horses." Wood parlayed her initial success into purchasing the leased property and then another nearby parcel of land, filling it with a beautiful home, paddocks, broodmare barns, and run-in sheds. She moved into her new property in September 2000, and the Woodlands clientele has increased accordingly. She has even built her own broodmare band up from two mares to 13. "The biggest change that has happened since I started is that I used to sell some 30 select horses at the sale," said Wood. "Now I sell less than 25 and that's because a big part of my clientele breed to race. "This year I have as many yearlings that I have raised here that will go straight to the racetrack as I had sales yearlings. That's entirely different than the way it used to be." Among her clients are William Scott, Denny Andrews, Jim and Alice Sapara, David James, and Bill Diamant, most of whom concentrate their involvement on breeding to race. The 2003 fire, which occurred on a May evening, is something that Wood has had a hard time talking about, but the tragic incident made her even more determined to succeed. She had the plans for a bright, new barn to replace the destroyed barn in the works a few days after the incident. "We were very lucky," said Wood. "There was a lot of loss of horse life but if it had occurred (later) at night, it probably would have jumped to the other barns and to one of the houses on the property. It burned so quickly and so hot, it was engulfed within
minutes. "It never entered my mind (to quit)," said Wood, who was told by the local fire marshal that the cause of the fire may never be known. "The barn burned on a Friday night and by Monday I had called my builders, Thursday we had drawn the rough plans. In two weeks, we started to go ahead." Several horses injured in the fire are now in Wood's own racing stable that she shares with her sister, veterinarian Ruth Barbour. "We kind of got a racing stable whether we wanted it or not. Sometimes the world hands you a lemon and you have to make lemonade. So far they are doing OK for us," Wood said. This past autumn, Wood was again among the leading consignors at both the select and open yearling sale at Woodbine. Woodlands, as agent, sold 12 select yearlings or $380,500, including a $100,000 colt by Southern Halo, and 11 for more than $80,000 at the open session. Wood, who said she doesn't need much sleep, noted that foaling season is the most stressful time for her and Steeves. "Until you have been involved with foaling, you don't appreciate how close you are to death as you are when you're being born," she said. Wood and Steeves, who watch seven surveillance cameras piped into their house during foaling time, brought 41 foals into the world last winter, and are expecting 35 for 2005. Up by 6 a.m., Wood's day includes feeding, clearing messages off numerous phones, and working around the barn until late afternoon. "I'm very hands on; that's the reason I stayed on the farm," said Wood. "I enjoy breaking horses, foaling, sales prepping. I still enjoy all of that." Wood also enjoys a day at the races too, calling it a "great social experience," and often brings her farm help to the track to "see what all their effort is for, and what the end result is." A founding member of the committee that formed the Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association and currently a member of the Jockey Club of Canada, Wood has also gained respect through her ideas on bettering the local industry. Right now, she believes, Ontario breeders are in a precarious position, as the local select sale is set to be moved away from the Woodbine property in 2006. "The commercial breeder is in a terrible situation right now, because of uncertainty," said Wood. "The sale was given to the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society in 2003 and Woodbine Entertainment gave them only two years to find a new location. There are no firm plans right now so the local breeder has no sense of security about where to sell horses." Wood believes it's also a lot tougher to sell a yearling today than it was when her first consignment hit the ring. "When I first got into this business, there was no such thing as Xraying or scoping a yearling," said Wood. "Now the horse has to scope and X-ray to what everyone's idea of perfection is. At the same time, the costs of production, hay, straw, land, taxes, fuel, and labor have gone up dramatically. The commercial breeder is not getting much more in the way of reward, but is expected to produce a perfect individual." One of the more perfect individuals that Woodlands has produced is William Scott's 2002 Prince of Wales Stakes winner Le Cinquieme Essai, a top turf horse this season. This year's Sovereign Award-winning 2-year-old filly, Simply Lovely, a daughter of Bold Executive, is also a Wood project. "I bought her grandmother (Southern Affair) for Garland Williamson's Hillsbrook Farm and then sold Simply Lovely as a yearling for $90,000," Wood said. In November at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky mixed sale, Wood purchased a close relative to Simply Lovely, the mare Ritzy Lady, for $2,200. "I'm a very goal-oriented person-once I've achieved something, I'm already looking at the next thing," said Wood. "Through a lot of my life, things have fallen together. If Mr. Hindmarsh hadn't given me those opportunities, it would have been almost impossible to do it on my own." While she doesn't consider herself "tough," Wood said she is often referred to as an armadillo. "Somebody said to me a long time ago that I'm an armadillo-the softer you are on the inside, the tougher you have to be on the outside. I do consider myself lucky. I've had a lot of fun and I've met some wonderful people in this business." (Open or download the pdf to see the entire Blood-Horse Magazine article complete with photographs from David Landry.) | 