NEWS
Toussaud named Broodmare of Year
Posted: Wednesday, April 23, 2003
Shadowed by recurring bouts of painful laminitis and scarred by colic surgery, Grade 1 winner Toussaud is too physically fragile to rear the foals she produces for her owner and breeder, Khalid Abdullah of Juddmonte Farms.
Although she cannot give them her companionship in the first months of their lives, Toussaud has passed on in abundance both her talent and the strong will that helps her endure those severe health challenges.
Recognizing her superlative feat of producing four Grade 1 winners from her first six foals to race, including classic hopeful Empire Maker, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders have honored Toussaud as Broodmare of the Year.
"It means an awful lot to us," said Garrett O'Rourke, manager of Juddmonte's base near Lexington. "She has given me and the staff a lot of gray hairs. We've spent a lot of late nights with her; she's taken a lot more work than all the rest of them.
"She demands a lot of you, but she certainly pays you back," he added, his voice swelling with pride. "It is a pleasure to be around the greatest of all time."
Even before receiving her laurels, Toussaud led a life unlike that of the average broodmare. Since her foals are placed with nurse mares, the 14-year-old daughter of El Gran Senor out of Grade 2 winner Image of Reality, by In Reality, spends much of her time with her companion of five years, a goat named Liz.
"They're like the odd couple," O'Rourke said. "The goat throws her two feet into the feed tub and they share their feed."
Liz also assists the farm staff in monitoring the mare's health since "whenever Toussaud isn't feeling well, she'll start nipping at her goat," he said. "It's a great early alarm system for us."
Known even during her racing days for what O'Rourke calls a quirkiness that included refusals to gallop, Toussaud remains very much a unique individual. Although he described her as basically "lovely" and "sweet" with no trace of malice in her personality, she can be highly opinionated, such as when she refuses to leave her stall.
"She'll dig her heels in with her ears pricked, like she has a smile on her face," he said. "You cannot fight her—she is very strong-willed."
That same characteristic has been a hallmark of her offspring in their racing conquests. "When they finally develop their competitive natures, it really, really works to their advantage," O'Rourke said.
Retired to the breeding shed after winning the 1993 Gamely Handicap (G1) and three other graded/group stakes, Toussaud produced 2000 Arlington Million Stakes (G1) winner Chester House and '00 Santa Monica Handicap (G1) winner Honest Lady in '95 and '96, respectively.
Grade 2 winner Decarchy was foaled in 1997, followed by Toussaud's only unplaced runner, the Gone West colt Civilisation in '98, and 2002 Secretariat Stakes (G1) winner Chiselling in '99.
When Empire Maker, a son of Unbridled, was born in 2000, Toussaud suffered an impaction that required surgery and was given a year off from breeding. She produced fillies in 2002 and this year to the covers of Seeking the Gold and Kingmambo, and is booked to A.P. Indy.
"Health-wise, touch wood, she's doing well now," said O'Rourke. "She's been through a lot over the years. … Through all of that, she's just one of the great survivors. She pricks her ears and goes on with it."
Toussaud is the second broodmare of the year owned by Juddmonte as she joins 1997 winner Slightly Dangerous.
In other honors presented on April 23, Juddmonte received the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association Award. William T. Young's Overbrook Farm was proclaimed Kentucky owner and breeder of the year and Alice Chandler, owner of Mill Ridge Farm, received the William C. Coman Humanitarian Award.
Virginia Kraft Payson, breeder of 2002 champions Farda Amiga and Vindication, and Charles Nuckols Jr., breeder of dual classic winner War Emblem with his sons, received the Hardboot Breeders Award. Television Games Network earned the Charles W. Englehard Award and the late Allen Paulson was honored with the P. A. B. Widener Trophy.—Michele MacDonald
