Breeder By Chance, Owner By Choice - …

1 Breeder By chance , Owner By ChoiceMary Clark s farm may be named Highland ThoroughbredFarm but it s Standardbreds she s concentrating on primarilythese days, and with some Heather MacKay RobertsA dozen years ago Mary Clark was happilymarried and living in downtown Toronto. Cir-cumstances intervened and today she finds her-self a widow, living in a glorious country settingsurrounded by the animals she loves and man-aging a thriving horse bred by her operation, which hasbeen operation for less than a decade, includethis year s Niatross and Bluegrass winnerMybrothergeorge, the $ million winner GiddyUp Lucky and Icey Breeze and Highland Strikes,both winners of more than $150, the vast majority of those who breedhorses for a living, Mary doesn t have a backgroundin either Thoroughbreds or Standardbreds.

2 Ratherit was the decision to move to the country, precip-itated by her husband s diagnosis with Parkinson sdisease in 2000 that began the journey. We were living on Balmoral Avenue inToronto in a tall, narrow house that had lots ofstairs, Mary recalled recently. When Jack wasdiagnosed with Parkinson s we decided that housewouldn t be a good place for him and made thedecision to move to the country. We thought thatenvironment would be less stressful as well. They moved north to a lovely propertylocated close to the picturesque hamlet of Ingle-wood, Ontario, best known in the Standardbredworld as the long time address of ArmstrongBrothers that point in time the couple had beenretired for several years.

3 Jack, whose given namewas actually John but was always called Jack,had graduated from the University of Torontowith a Mining Engineering degree in 1950. Hefounded the company Jarvis Clark Inc. with hispartner Lyle Jarvis in North Bay. Lyle was a deco-rated World War two pilot and Jack had alsoserved in the war. Jack always joked that his one contributionto the war was a single parachute jump while inCanada and then the war was over, noted Mary. The company manufactured low profilemining equipment that operated underground, explained Mary who met Jack when she visited afriend in North Bay. She was a head nurse atNorth York General Hospital at the married in 1983 in Denver, Colorado.

4 Bythat point Jack and Lyle had sold their company,as Lyle wanted to retire. Jack wasn t ready for thatstep yet and founded John Clark Inc., a miningequipment manufacturer similar to Jarvis Clark. We spent about 11 years in Denver, Maryrecalled. Jack was a real sportsman and we dideverything while we were there. We skied allover the place, did a lot of white water raftingand hiking. I ve had lots of injuries trying tokeep up with him on the ski hills. The couple remained in Denver until Jack sretirement at which time they moved to Torontowhere they stayed until his diagnosis withParkinson s. When we moved to the farm Jack was stillvery mobile and was dealing with Parkinson svery well, Mary related.

5 He became quiteinvolved in Parkinson s research and establishedthe Jack Clark Chair in Parkinson s diseaseresearch at the University of Toronto. After we d been here for awhileJack thought we should be doing some-thing with all of the property we had (136acres). He initially thought of putting incrops but then a friend suggested we trypin hooking horses. Neither one of us hadany idea what that was. To that end the couple bought twoyoung Thoroughbred horses with theintent of selling them the following yearhopefully for a profit. We fell in love with them and theynever left, Mary laughed. They bothraced, but we certainly didn t know whatwe were doing at that point.

6 I still have oneof those horses and gave the other to a vettech I knew would give her a good life. Not long after that it was suggestedthat we try Standardbreds, the plan beingto establish a band of about 10 brood-mares and sell their offspring. ChristinaAnderson, our first farm manager, wasresponsible for purchasing our initialbroodmares. Christina was tragically killed in anair crash in new enterprise did well from thestart. We were fortunate at that timethat the US dollar was so high and thathelped considerably when selling year-lings in the states. That has changed nowobviously. As Jack s disease progressed it wasdecided that the mares be moved tonearby Village Acres, the farm establishedby Charlie Armstrong and operated by hisdaughters and farm manager John Hen-derson.

7 Glen Smith, who is married to Caro-line Armstrong, recommended we movethe mares to Village Acres and it s workedout very well. The staff there are wonder-ful and take such good care of our horses, praised Mary. Their office manager Lor-raine has also been very helpful to me. During that period my time wasdedicated to looking after my husband soit was a relief knowing the horses weresomewhere they were receiving the bestof care. After Jack s death in 2008 Mary haskept her horses with Village Acres. Herown farm houses her retired broodmaresand a couple of rescued horses as well asany of her racehorses that require restbefore returning to their has kept a few of her foals torace in order to promote her mares careers and if they are fillies, to retain thegene pool with long term plans to replacetheir mothers in her broodmare of those is the now four-year-old mare Rockn Highland, a daughter ofRocknroll Hanover from the Cam Fellamare Armbro Ophelia who earned over$107,000 while racing under trainer Mur-ray Brethour s year Mary sold a full brother toRockn Highland at the Harrisburg Sale for$110,000.

8 He was purchased by FrankBellino of New York, who is best known asthe Owner of the $ million winner RockSeptember/October 2011 The Harness EdgeBREEDER BY chance , Owner BY CHOICET here are three houses on the Highland Thoroughbred Farm's property. Themain house, shown above, has panoramic views of the neighbouring country-side. The barns and paddocks for the horses are to the left of the ANDOVER HALL30 MAGIC ROSE, bc ..Miss Madisyn Rose-Mr Lavec*491 LADYFINGER, bf ..Cream Pie-Malabar Man*69 RONAN, brc ..Roisin-DonerailBy ANGUS HALL*591 ANTZINTHEPANTZ, bc ..Lookin At You Babe-Malabar Man*1129 KEYSTONE CASSIDY, bf ..Keystone Chickadee-Sierra KosmosBy BADLANDS HANOVER*853 KEYSTONE REAL DEAL, bc.

9 Keystone Romona-Shady Character*830 KEYSTONE CAMARO, bc ..Keystone Caitlyn-Shady CharacterBy BETTOR S DELIGHT668 DELIGHTED, bc ..Odds On Affair-Artsplace*1015 KEYSTONE CALVIN, bc ..Croquette Hanover-No NukesBy BROADWAY HALL*1087 ARCHERTOWN RD, brc ..Hawaiian Delight-Muscles YankeeBy CAMLUCK992 CATCH THE LUCK, bc ..Catch An Angel-Western Ideal*1130 KEYSTONE RHYME, bf ..Keystone Romance-Keystone OreBy CAM S CARD SHARK459 LIARS POKER, bc ..Camus-ArtsplaceBy CANTAB HALL*269 HIGH BRIDGE, bc ..Madame Volo-Yankee Glide*551 KEYSTONE BOLT, bc ..Keystone Brittany-Lindy LaneBy CHOCOLATIER1045 DAGGET, bc ..Elena Victory-Valley VictoryBy CHRISTIAN CULLEN*889 WESTERN CULLEN, bf.

10 Witchy Western-Western HanoverBy CLASSIC PHOTO1125 ACADIAN QUEEN, bf ..Kendra Hall-Garland Lobell*768 FLASH CRASH, bc ..So Help Me-Super BowlBy CRAZED619 CRAZY OVER YOU, brf ..Meadowbranch Queen-Malabar ManBy CREDIT WINNER*933 ALIEN HUNTER, bc ..Armbro Norway-Speedy CrownBy DEWEYCHEATUMNHOWE419 DOUBLE DIP, bf ..Armbro Dipper-Speedy CrownBy DONATO HANOVER282VC ECLIPSE, brc ..Missy Lavec-Mr Lavec*558 GILDED AGE, bc ..Kosmo Girl-Sierra Kosmos*82 ARCTIC TALE, bc ..Southwind Wake-Muscles Yankee By DRAGON AGAIN94 SUNSHINE PATRIOT, brf ..Sunone-Western Hanover560 KUKALAKA, bc ..Kuklapanandollie-Artsplace832 DRAGON BABE, brf ..Total Babe-Western Hanover*876 REDHOOK BAY, bf.