Charlie Fouillard, a tire shop owner in St. Lazare and breeder in Manitoba, typically shies away from the spotlight and he certainly doesn’t need the attention. But it’s hard to avoid such when you’re so near quality thoroughbred broodmare gold. Fouillard breeds and raises horses along with Cam Ziprick at his farm in God’s country, Manitoba, just south of Russell near the Saskatchewan border. It’s said that there’s no better place to breed horses in Manitoba.
The mares and foals move back and forth between Fouillard’s setup in St. Lazare and Ziprick’s Russell farm while the weanlings and yearlings spend most of their time running around Fouillard’s pastures.
Fouillard and his wife Karen – they have been married for 30 years – are responsible for raising hundreds of horses along with their four children, Julien, Steve, Damien, and Hannah. The latter will be graduating from nursing school with a Bachelor of Nursing degree while her three brothers are employed at the nearby potash mine.
The boys help out on the form and are getting more involved in racing and breeding with Bearly Regal, an ace who finished second in his only start as a two-year-old last year, and mare Marianda, who is now part of a broodmare band that currently includes the top mares in Manitoba, including High Pioneer, Jungle Storm, and Danger Play.
High Pioneer is the dam of champions and full sisters Hidden Grace and Melisandre while Jungle Storm is the dam of champion Why So Blue and $222,050 earner Lightnin Fast Girl. Danger Play, meanwhile, is the dam of Millionaire Escape Clause, the best Manitoba-bred mare in history. The Manitoba stars mentioned have foaled 16 winners that have triumphed in 97 races and won over $2 million.
All three of them are in foal to Speculating.
Fouillard, who started out with quarter horses before switching to thoroughbreds sometime around 2007, takes care of the breeding at his farm in the spring with Speculating and foals the mares as well. The foaling barn is equipped with cameras and sensors so he is made aware when mares are ready. The breeder is looking forward to the first group of Speculating’s babies due to be born this spring.
“The biggest thrill of breeding and owning horses is seeing the new babies,” he told Canadian Thoroughbred’s G.S. Thompson. “It’s fun watching them grow up and go to the track as 2-year-olds. Just to see how they turn out.”
“Every time you start out a new stallion it’s exciting to see what the babies will look like,” Ziprick added.
The latter can boast responsibility for the retired sire Going Commando and he has every reason to be anxious over the Speculating’s prospects of becoming a top Manitoba sire.
Speculating is the sole offspring of Medaglia d’Oro in Canada and looks very much like his sire, who also produced 26 Grade 1 winners such as Golden Sixty, Songbird, and Rachel Alexandria. He sold for $235,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2017 and was a $345,000 buyback at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
Speculating is also half-brother to Well Armed, a multiple Group/Grade 1 winner, Railbird Stakes winner, and stakes-producer Witty, Grade 1 placed Helsinki, as well as Only In America, a stakes-placed winner, and Life Well Lived, the dam of Grade 1 winner American Patriot.
The pair of breeders are banking on Speculating replicating Going Commando’s success as a sire. In the meantime, they will have three young horses at the track this year with trainer Devon Gittens, plus several more yearlings for the annual Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale.
Surely, bettors in Canada will be keeping an eye out for Fouillard thoroughbreds and should be able to find odds for all of the prestigious races via Ontario sports betting apps.
Fouillard will hardly be able to avoid the spotlight as it’s becoming synonymous with pedigrees. One of the inbound young ones could turn out to be quite the runner.
If you get to the end of Fouillard’s barn, you’ll see his Breeder of the Year and Broodmare of the Year plaques hanging from the wall. You’d probably want to go in too.
“If you really want a story, we’ll go in there and have a drink,” he told Thompson.
“I told him to bring an overnight bag,” Ziprick chimed in.
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