At long last, Natalma, the mother of Northern Dancer, will finally be inducted into Canada's Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
The induction in August will come 22 years after her death and 43 years after Northern Dancer became the first Canadian-bred thoroughbred to win the Kentucky Derby and launch one of the greatest breeding dynasties in the world.
"She's in the pedigree of a kazillion thoroughbreds,'' said Bernard McCormack, director of sales and marketing for Windfields Farm, which bought Natalma as a yearling at Saratoga many decades ago. "It's a nice honour.''
He added, however, that Natalma's influence on the breed is so vast, that she could have been named to the Hall of Fame, even without considering Northern Dancer.
One of her daughters, Arctic Dancer, was a stakes-placed filly, who ended up foaling La Prevoyante, unbeaten at 12 starts as a 2-year-old while running in stakes races in the United States. La Prevoyante was so speedy and overpowering as a racehorse, that she would have been voted Horse of the Year in the United States, except that she was born in the same season as a famous colt, Secretariat, who took the honours.
One of Natalma's other offspring, Raise the Standard, ended up producing a powerful line in France that included Machiavellian, sire of 60 stakes winners, Dubai Millenium, and Street Cry, the sire of this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Street Sense.
It's also not surprising to see top racehorses that are inbred to Natalma. Street Sense is one of them.
Canadian industrialist E.P. Taylor and his band of advisors, was astute in searching out Natalma as a yearling. He took the $40,000 (U.S.) won by his Nearctic in winning the Michigan Mile in Detroit, and bought Natalma for $35,000 from one of the top U.S. nurseries. She was a half-sister to Cosmah, which turned into one of the top broodmares in the United States and both were descended from Mother Goose, one of the top foundation mares in racing history. It proved money well spent.
For Taylor, Natalma won two of five races as a 2-year-old. She won the Spinaway Stakes, but because she impeded another filly during the race, was disqualified and placed third.
The Spinaway Stakes was a rude awakening for Natalma, said by some to be rather sour in temperament. Jockey Bobby Ussery had hit her once with the whip, and the day after the race, she refused to go out onto the track to train, associating it with pain. Trainer Horatio Luro had taken a holiday in France, and by the time he returned week later, and gradually coaxed her to get back onto the track, the major stakes races were over for the season.
Natalam returned at three, had surgery on a bone chip in her right knee, which kept her out of the Kentucky Oaks. When she returned and was being prepared for the Coaching Club American Oaks, the knee problems resurfaced and Windfields farm decided to breed her instead of race her again.
But it was late in the season, McCormack said. They would have liked to have bred her to Victoria Park, which had run third in the Kentucky Derby. But they decided to breed her to Nearctic, which had a habit of getting all of his mares in foal. She would have only one breeding with him, and it if didn't catch, they'd have to wait until the next year.
But Natalma was pronounced in foal, and a year later, she had her first foal, Northern Dancer. Natalma hadn't been bred to Nearctic until July, way too late in most breeders' books. Northern Dancer was born three weeks early on May 25, 1961.
Natalma retired from breeding at age 25, and at age 28, she died and was buried at Windfields' farm in Chespeake, Md., alongside Fleur, the dam of The Minstrel and Nijinsky II, two other great European stars bred by Taylor.
Windfields sold the Chesapeake farm many years ago, but McCormack says the new owners treat the marked graves with great dignity.
However, Natalma won't be alone when she's inducted at ceremonies in Mississauga on Aug. 23. She'll be joined by five other horses: Bettor's Delight, a pacer that won the Little Brown Jug and more than $2.5-million en route of Canadian Horse of the Year honours in 2001;
Jammed Lovely, the 1967 Queen's Plate winner, and the only filly in the 14-horse field;
L'Enjoleur, winner of back-to-back Horse of the Year honours in Canada after winning the Laurel Futurity in Maryland as a 2-year-old, then winning the Queen's Plate, and the 1975 Manitoba and Quebec Derbies;
Cathedra, a top 2-year-old pacing filly with 14 wins in 16 starts, and later the mother of two millionaires, Cathedra Dot Com and Cabrini Hanover;
Canadian Champ, an unrecognized winner of the Canadian Triple Crown, which hadn't been formed when he accomplished the feat in 1956. Canadian Champ retired as the richest Canadian racehorse in history.
Among people that will be inducted are: Russ and Lois Bennett of Kelowna, B.C. leading breeders for 20 years in British Columbia; standardbred breeder Jack McNiven of Killean Acres in Ingersoll, Ont., and jockey Chris Loseth, who spent much of his career in British Columbia where he once rode eight winners on a card at Hastings Park and twice won Sovereign Awards, once as an apprentice rider and again as a journeyman.
Some of Loseth's 3,669 wins came aboard Travelling Victor, a horse bred by the Bennetts.