Seven years ago the smallest horse in the field, Ready Intaglio, won the Canadian Derby at Northlands Park.
Bought for just $1,000 after he went through the Keeneland, Kentucky Yearling Sale without a single bid, seven years later Ready Intaglio’s presence is still being felt after Big Bad Intaglio, a son of Ready Intaglio, unleashed a stretch drive that was truly magnificent and won the $50,000 Alberta Sire Stakes Derby at Century Mile this past Saturday afternoon.
“I thought there was no way he was getting there,” said Big Bad Intaglio’s owner and breeder, Jerry Antoniuk, who was watching from the rail.
“At the top of the stretch I thought he had no shot,” echoed trainer Rod Heggie.
Few did. After all, Big Bad Intaglio was trailing by 14 lengths at the top of the lane.
But then the three-year-old exploded and, with jockey Dane Nelson aboard, caught them all to win by three parts of a length over Lil Zapper, ridden by Mauricio Malvaez, who had set all of the fractions except for the only one that counted - the last one.
Ironically, Malvaez, had first call on Big Bad Intaglio. But he - and or his agent - elected to ride Lil Zapper instead leaving Heggie to go with Nelson.
“It takes a lot to get me impressed,” said Heggie. “I was impressed. I must have watched the replay 10 times that night.”
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Antoniuk who was equally aroused. “When he caught them I thought holy hell. What a move this guy has. It was like watching a leopard pouncing on its prey.”
A new stake that was restricted three-year-olds who are by a stallion that stood in Alberta for the 2019 breeding season, the victory in the Sire Stakes Derby was the second in a row for Big Bad Intaglio, who was exiting one of the also-new $35,000 maiden races for Alberta-breds - a May 6 race where Big Bad Intaglio’s stablemate Rough Customer was second by a scant neck.
“I was high on both horses this spring,” said Heggie. “I couldn’t pick between them. When they ran first and second in their previous starts I boxed them in an exactor that paid $163.50 for a two-dollar ticket so that was a really good day.”
This time Rough Customer was fourth.
The Alberta Sire Stakes Derby victory was good enough that Heggie and Antoniuk are thinking big.
“Derby Trail,” said Heggie. “There’s a seven-furlong allowance race on June 24 and then there’s the Count Lathum after that.
“I mean why not? It certainly looks like he’ll run on. He relaxes nicely and he goes on from there.”
Antoniuk, who now lives in Victoria, B.C., confesses that he’s thinking about the mile and a quarter Canadian Derby Big Bad Intaglio’s daddy won too.
“The farther the better,” said Antoniuk, who has a different plan of getting to the August 26 Canadian Derby at Century Mile.
“He was just getting warmed up going six and a half furlongs. There’s a $50 grander at Winnipeg’s Assiniboia Downs going a mile and then we could stick around for the Manitoba Derby on August 7.”
A lot of trainers and owners are looking at the Manitoba Derby this year now that Assiniboia Downs, Century Mile and Hastings Park announcing a $550,000 Western Canada Triple Crown series.
The Manitoba Derby has a purse of $125,000; the Canadian Derby has a $200,000 purse and then the final leg is the $125,000 British Columbia Derby on September 16. Moreover, there is a $100,000 Triple Crown bonus if a horse wins all three legs.
Antoniuk owns Big Bad Intaglio’s dam, Big Bad Janine, while Robbin Martens now owns Ready Intaglio, who stands just outside of Red Deer.
“Big Bad Janine looked to go long too,” said Antoniuk. “She won a small stake in Winnipeg and then an allowance race at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Arizona.
“She tried every time. She never quit. Around the barn she was so calm that she was like a pet.”
It was Marten’s ex-husband, Eurico, who bought Ready Intaglio. That was in 2014.
“I kept saying to myself ‘Why is is nobody bidding on this horse?’” said Eurico in a Horse Racing Alberta interview after the 2016 Derby. “I kept looking back to the catalogue. Then back to the colt. Then back to my catalogue. I was like, wow, this is a well-bred horse,” noting that Ready Intaglio is a son of the A.P. Indy sired graded stakes winner Indygo Shiner and out of the More than Ready mare, Mama Maxine.
“What is the matter with him? I hadn’t looked at the colt before the sale but I sure liked his breeding.” But, before Martens could make a bid, the gavel came down. “I looked at the veterinarians report and the colt was clean. So I raced back to the barn as fast as I could to find the colt’s owner. I asked the guy ‘How much do you want for this horse? Will you take a thousand dollars?’ “The guy said ‘Yup,’ so I said ‘OK, I’ll buy him.’ “Then I asked the guy If I could take a look at the horse. The guy said ‘Of course, you own him now.’ “So the guy brings out the horse and I said ‘Holy crap, I just bought a midget.’”
“I really didn’t know how small he was until after I bought him. I couldn’t tell how small he was because I was sitting way up high in the sales arena.”
“Ready Intaglio was so small that he looked more like a Saint Bernard,” said Antoniuk. “But he’s grown a lot. And his youngsters are all big. I’ve got a two-year-old full sister to Big Bad Intaglio that is huge.”
Not settling for two thoroughbreds by Ready Intaglio out of Big Bad Janine, Antoniuk also has a yearling full sister as well. “She looks like she’s going to be big too,” said Antoniuk, who said Big Bad Intaglio appears to have the same running style of Ready Intaglio, who rallied from next-to-last in the 12-horse 2016 Canadian Derby field.
It was the same way Ready Intaglio won his two prep races for the Derby. In the Ky Alta he came from eighth place to win in a photo over Hold the Giant. In the Count Lathum he was seventh during the early going in a 10-horse field.
Now perhaps it’s Big Bad Intaglio’s time. “He’s done everything right so far,” said Heggie, who took out his trainer’s license in 1987 and whose father Morris was the racing secretary in Lethbridge.
“I’ve never had a problem with him. Even as a baby. No soundness issues at all,” said Heggie, whose best horse was Brighton Belle, who won four stakes races for owner Dr. David Reid.
“Big Bad Intaglio wintered at Bar None Ranches which in my opinion is one of the best facilities anywhere.
“They had him ready. They had a good bottom to him. He looked good. Shiny.
“It’s so hard to get a good one. I can’t remember the last time I ran for $50,000 never mind win one.
“It’s very exciting.”
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