NEWS
LANDMARK 18 shares may be purchased in July 2024.
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LANDMARK RACING STABLE
EXPERIENCE THE THRILL OF HORSE OWNERSHIP
Have you ever wished you could own racehorses but didn’t want to receive monthly bills? LandMark Racing Stable provides you with that opportunity by participating in this ‘fractional ownership’ group.
Shares are $2,000. Multiple shares are encouraged and sharing shares is also allowed. For example, four friends could buy one share.
LandMark will partner with other owners to buy 10% to 33% of four to eight primarily Ontario bred yearlings that will be selected, trained and raced by Steacy Stables (Mark and his sons Shawn and Clarke).
Each year the new group spends approximately half of the funds on the purchase of yearlings and retains the other half to pay all expenses for the first year, including training, veterinary bills, shoeing, stake payments etc. The stable is promoted by Howard Pearce, with assistance from Kathy Steacy (Corresponding Officer) and Mike Steacy (Financial Officer).
All purse money earned by LandMark two-year old horses will be retained and used to pay three-year old expenses. Likewise, three-year old purse money will be used to pay four-year old expenses. Normally, LandMark horses are sold at the end of their three-year old season, except in cases where they are racing very well and expected to make a profit as a four-year old. Hello Love, from Landmark 10, is a good example. At the end of her three-year old season, we decided to keep her and she has made a profit every year since.
Mark and Howard will try their best to operate LandMark efficiently which might include selling a horse before the end of its three-year old season if it is obvious that he/she is an underachiever, or we need to reduce monthly expenses. In the 14-year history of LandMark Stables, shareholders have never had to pay additional funds.
Email updates are sent frequently to the shareholders that includes information about how the horses are training, any health issues, stakes information and when and where they are racing. Every year, we hold an Open House where shareholders can meet their horses, their partners and the Steacy team.
- Payment may be made by cheque or E-transfer. Make cheques payable to LandMark Racing Stable and mail to Mike Steacy, 98 Haig Road, Gananoque, ON K7G 2VG. Or E-Transfer to Mike Steacy. Mike’s email is steacystables@gmail.com
Visit to Winbak farm - Apr 29, 2023
On April 29th, over 60 LandMark members and friends visited the Winbak Canada farm in Inglewood Ontario. Farm Manager Pat Woods provided a wonderful experience for people as they demonstrated a collection from stallion Betting Line, a presentation by Dr. Charles Hall as he performed ultra sound procedures on pregnant mares and a visit to the foaling barn to see mares and their new born foals. It was a wonderful day and we thank Winkbak and all their staff.
Annual draw for free shares
Each year when a new LandMark group is formed, a number of shares are purchased by breeding farms and industry companies that are awarded to lucky winners who have entered a draw. In the past, Glengate Farm, Century Farm, Ontario Racing, Seelster Farms, Winak Farm, Tara Hills Stud, First Line Training Centre and Brooks Equine Feeds have generously participated.
For details on how to participate in the Free Draw program, contact Howard Pearce.
From Ann Straatman – Seelster Farms
Seelster Farms is proud to sponsor LandMark Stables fractional ownership tradition year after year. New owners with an interest or newfound fascination for horses and horse racing, need an experienced and trusted group to help navigate the racing with passion, communication and integrity. For this, there is no one better than Howard Pearce and trainer Mark Steacy. Thank you for all that you do to promote our sport.
MEDIA
In the Two-Year-Old Pacing Colt division, Ace Of Aces and Stockade Seelster are the finalists.
Despite winning just one race in nine tries this season, the Bettors Delight colt Ace Of Aces was competitive at the highest levels, hitting the board seven times overall and totalling $261,203 in purses for trainer Shawn Steacy. He was a runner-up finisher in the Champlain Stakes and finished his rookie season with a third-place finish in the final of the Metro Pace.
James McDonald won his 100th race of 2022 on a LandMark horse fittingly named Century Invader.
James has driven many LandMark horses over the years and we are happy to share this proud moment with him.
Bold beginning in the OSS Gold
harnessracingupdate.com/2022/07/17/bold-beginning-in-the-oss-gold/
Better B Bold may have a bright future for the Steacy family and its connections after a jaw-dropping finishing kick in his first Ontario Sires Stakes event of 2022.
by Melissa Keith
An impressive finish marked a bright beginning last Saturday (July 9) night at Woodbine Mohawk Park. Two-year-old male pacers went behind the gate in their first Ontario Sires Stakes Gold events of the season, with Stockade Seelster (State Treasurer–Soiree Seelster) winning the earlier of two divisions in 1:51.3. Four races later, announcer Ken Middleton excitedly described Write Me a Rose (Sportswriter–Caribbean Rose N) “steamrolling from the backfield” in deep stretch, sweeping past leader Midnight Nation to take the second, $102,200 OSS division in 1:53.3s. It was the colt sitting last on the final turn who really captured Middleton’s attention, however.
Suddenly on the scene strides from the wire, Louis-Philippe Roy’s colt launched into remarkable gear. “Check out Better B Bold! He gets airborne late for Roy! He just missed – what a closing kick!” declared Middleton. After the race, he turned to social media. “Not sure I’ve EVER seen a rookie colt close as quick as Better B Bold did in Race 6 @WoodbineSB in his pari-mutuel debut,” he tweeted. “Flat out flying with monster strides!”
Sent off as 9-5 co-favorite, Better B Bold had previously announced his closing ability in a July 2 Mohawk qualifier for 2-year-old colts and geldings. While his off-the-pace 1:57s win wasn’t the quickest of the day, his :26.3 closing quarter was the bullet last panel for the 14 qualifiers. Two other rookies closed in sub- :28 final fractions to win their qualifiers, colt Nightime Dancer (:27.2) and filly Front Page Story (:27.4), but none quite as bold against the stopwatch as the winner of qualifying race 3.
The Betterthancheddar–B So Lucky colt was a $40,000 Lexington Select purchase last fall.
LandMark 15 is the most recent iteration of a popular fractional group Steacy established in 2005, as part of a successful Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association (SBOA) new owners’ mentorship program. Now independently run and administered by Steacy’s friend Howard Pearce, members pay $2,000 (Can.) per share of a yearling and are not billed for any additional expenses for the duration of each partnership. “My son Clarke Steacy breaks them. We do it ourselves. He’s in charge of that for me,” said the Lansdowne, ON horseman, who is based at his own half-mile track-equipped training center.
Better B Bold was a good student, but not an instant standout.
“He did everything he was supposed to do. He was very ordinary training down. Of course, we don’t make big speed in the wintertime, either,” said Steacy. After the colt’s most recent Mohawk qualifier, his owner/trainer made the understatement that “he went very well.”
It’s a remark that communicates the cautious optimism of a knowledgeable horseman from a family well-known in the OSS program: Mark earned the Ontario Sires Stakes’ Johnston Cup as top trainer in 2016, 2017 and 2018; his son and Better B Bold’s primary trainer, Shawn Steacy, collected his first Johnson Cup in 2020.
“You always like to see them finish off nice, which he did, and you also like to hear the driver come off the track and like them. Louis [Roy] came off that day and he liked him enough that in [Better B Bold’s] first [pari-mutuel] race, he took off another horse that he won in :55 with, to drive Better B Bold,” said Mark. “Even in his only race [July 9], he basically said, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to travel any faster than that one!’”
Mark watched the colt’s first race from outside the Mohawk paddock.
“He was a little antsy that day, but he’s been down there a few times, training before those qualifiers, and he’s always been pretty relaxed,” Mark said. “The closer he got to the races, every time I trained him he showed a little more speed, a little more speed. The last couple of times we trained him before qualifying, he was starting to show not the 26-second stuff, but a little more speed every time we went with him.”
He described the LandMark 15 ownership group as “pretty keen and excited” about the lightly-staked Better B Bold’s future.
“We’ve been doing this for 15 years and we’re planning on doing a LandMark 16… I go out and visit many farms before [the yearling sales], turn them out in the paddock and all that stuff. We try to pick what we can afford. We never buy 100 per cent; LandMark usually partners with some of my owners. That’s the good thing about most of the people: They don’t care if they own one per cent or 20 per cent – they feel like they own one 100 per cent.”
LandMark’s biggest success story to date is Harper Blue Chip’s (3, 1:54.3s; $882,951) show finish in the 2014 Hambletonian, behind winner Trixton and Nuncio.
“And he was Canada’s 3-year-old [male] trotter of the year that year,” Mark said. “We’ve had some other nice ones, but that’s the biggest one.”
Yearlings are selected from within a certain price range in order to keep them affordable and bill-free for fractional owners. “We’re always hoping to get at least a hundred [shares sold per horse], but we would take more, so people can buy one share for $2,000 or 10 shares for $20,000,” said the trainer, who keeps the focus on Ontario-eligible yearlings. “Most people can’t afford to go out and buy a $40-, $50-, $60-thousand horse on their own.”
A brochure provided by Pearce explains the LandMark fractional model: “All purse money earned by LandMark 2-year old horses will be retained and used to pay 3-year old expenses. Likewise, 3-year old purse money will be used to pay 4-year old expenses. Normally, LandMark horses are sold at the end of their 3-year old season, except in cases where they are racing very well and expected to make a profit as a 4-year old.”
Bred by Winbak Farm, Better B Bold inherited his sprinting ability. Mark explained that it’s not a quality that can be trained into a horse, or that naturally develops over time.
“I don’t think he can go a whole lot faster – I think when a horse is going 26 seconds, there’s not a lot faster they can go than that… The big thing with these horses, especially these young 2-year-olds, when they go that fast, is you always hold your breath that they’re going to stay healthy and sound for you.”
Better Be Bold’s schedule reflects that philosophy.
“His second Gold is on Monday. I think he’s eligible to the Champlain, maybe. I didn’t stake him a lot. He’s basically Ontario Sires [Stakes],” Mark said. “I did pay him into the Battle of Waterloo, but that’s not a favorite race of mine; I think it’s a little too early on a half-mile track. I’m just not sure… After this Monday’s race [July 18 at Mohawk], he’ll probably get a week off, to prepare for the next Gold.”
Taking it slow with the precocious speedster, Mark said caretaker Ariana Reeves is helping Better B Bold stay quietly primed for his next start.
“At this point, I’m a little scared to turn him out,” Mark said. “He’s spoiled in the barn. He’s still a stud, but he’s very easy to get along with. Ariana looks after this horse, but she’s only had him for a month. It was my son Clarke and his wife Cara Steacy that did all the work on this horse all winter, developing him until he got ready to qualify.”
Keeping Better B Bold on an unhurried path forward is Mark Steacy’s objective: “We’ll be happy if he’s just a really nice Gold horse.”
The Story Behind LandMark
(Article posted on Standardbred Canada prior to the LandMark 13 Stable – 2019)
Standardbred Canada and the Ontario Sires Stakes partnered for the third consecutive year on the ‘Win A Share in a Racehorse’ contest. Ten contest finalists will be drawn to participate in an on-track showdown on October 5 during the OSS Grassroots Championship night at Woodbine Mohawk Park to determine the ‘Win a Share’ champion.
One OSS Grassroots Championship race will be selected and the 10 finalists will each be paired with one of the starters. The finalist paired with the winning horse will win the “Win A Share” contest and the share in Landmark 13 Stable (valued at $2,000) just in time to go horse shopping at the 2019 edition of the London Selected Yearling Sale on October 19 and 20.
In advance of announcing the contest finalists, SC spoke to one of the co-founders of LandMark Racing, Howard Pearce.
As many harness racing participants know, the thrill of winning in this industry is second to none. But in order to experience that thrill, one must have a connection to the horse. Howard Pearce has brought this connection to new and rejuvenated harness racing fans alike through the fractional ownership venture, LandMark Racing, founded in 2006 with longtime friend and Standardbred trainer, Mark Steacy.
“While working full-time at Queen’s University (in Kingston, Ontario) I began attending races at Kingston Park Raceway in 1982,” reflects Pearce, “it was soon after that when I ventured into ownership with Mark.”
In 2006, the Standardbred Breeders of Ontario Association (SBOA) offered a ‘new ownership’ program where both Howard and Mark were involved. At the completion of that initial program, LandMark was born.
LandMark prides itself on being a unique opportunity to become an active Standardbred owner. It is economically friendly and administered easily for anyone to become involved. In the twelve years of operation there have been several hundred individuals involved with the twelve ownership groups, with group number thirteen currently forming.
As Howard points out, “LandMark groups never own 100 percent of a horse. Typically, the LandMark group gets in on four or five yearlings each year. Our main pitch is that by buying a share or shares with LandMark you will instantly own multiple horses and be able to watch multiple races,” adding, “we also make it very clear that our shareholders never get a bill – our model is very unique in that way.”
“The number of shares each year is about 100, with some people buying one share and others purchasing multiple shares. This year we are hoping to attract between 120-150 buyers but we don’t have an advertising budget so we have to rely on stories being shared on websites, in magazines and by word of mouth,” says Pearce. “We are lucky to have organizations like Standardbred Canada, the Ontario Sires Stakes, Ontario Racing, and Woodbine Mohawk Park to help with promoting our experience.”
LandMark racing is not just an opportunity Howard sells to other people, as he is also an active shareholder as well. “Every year I buy at least two shares in each new group,” he says.
When it comes to LandMark’s success, both on and off the track, Howard highlights three important elements that contribute: a winning horse, communication and an opportunity to see the horse. “Having a winning horse does wonders for keeping everyone engaged and communication is essential. Members love my emails and our Facebook page. Our members also love to visit their horses. Many members visit Mark’s barns in Lansdowne and at First Line (Training Center).”
Through the twelve years of fractional ownership with LandMark 8, one of the stable’s most succesful horses was the trotting sensation Harper Blue Chip, a winner of almost $950,000. The ownership group of Harper Blue Chip had the chance to live every horseperson’s dream. He was a starter for multiple high profiled stakes engagements including the Hambletonian where he finished an impressive third. His resume boasts wins in several Ontario Sires Stakes Gold events, the Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final, and the Canadian Breeders Final. To top it all off, Harper Blue Chip and his connections walked away with the O’Brien award for Three-Year-Old Trotting Colts/Geldings in 2014. (see below Harper’s winning race)
“The following LandMark had for Harper Blue Chip was our biggest ever. I wish we could get one like him every year. There has been no thrill like seeing him in the Hambo or when 56 people were in the winner’s circle when he won the OSS Super Final,” recalls Pearce.
So, what does LandMark have in 2019? Landmark 10 is racing four-year-old pacing mare, Hello Love, who races in the top condition events at Woodbine Mohawk Park and has made over $50,000 to date.
Landmark 11 raced In The Will, Love For Life and Parlay Seelster. LandMark 12 is racing the following two-year-olds: Bellini Seelster, Cute Accountant, Moana and Remember Titans.
“Obviously I am a little biased, but fractional ownership is a great way for someone to be introduced to the wonderful world of horse ownership,” believes Pearce. “Fractional ownership is the future for harness racing success.”