'She improved like magic': Racehorse no one wanted goes on to win big
A young racehorse no one believed had the genes or drive needed to win races proved everyone wrong this season. Purchased for just $1,000, Stevie Wonder Girl has since climbed her way to the top, winning fifty times that.
Alivia Kettleson and her husband have been involved in horse racing their entire lives. Her husband was at a yearling sale when he came home with the unproven horse.
"I did not want him to buy horses, but he came back with two," Kettleson told CTV News Edmonton.
"When they go through the sales ring, they have to have a minimum bid of $1,000. If no one puts their hands up for that minimum bid," she added, "they just go back to the barn."
"So he was the only one who put his hand up."
As a two-year-old, Kettleson said Stevie Wonder Girl wasn't raising any eyebrows.
"She was looking like she was just a horse," Kettleson said. "Maybe not a dud but like one better than a dud."
Despite training, Stevie Wonder Girl wasn't showing an interest in being a competitive racing horse, her jockey Dane Nelson recalled.
"She wasn't going nowhere," Nelson said. "She was at the back, lie every race in a cheap maiden, she was at the back. Like, come on."
"She started the year off very slow," Kettleson added.
"We (then) put her in a race that was as low as you can go," she explained. "So this is the bottom of the barrel, and she won that day. Then the next time she raced, she won again."
Kettleson said she never expected for Stevie Wonder Girl to get to the level she's at now.
"She didn't really have a proven winning father," she said. "He just hasn't really bred that many horses either."
"It was uncharted waters… You weren't really sure what you were going to get."
Nelson has been riding for 20 years and has won two championships in Jamaica. He's never seen a horse with a trajectory like Stevie Wonder Girl.
"She improved like magic," he said. "Not many horses do that… She just keeps going and climbing."
"She was at the bottom," he added. "To be at this level now, she's truly a wonder horse."
He expects she will only get better next season.
"She's just gaining strength and ability," Nelson said. "She lives up to her name, just like Wonder Woman."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Live updates as Stormy Daniels testifies at Trump hush money trial
Adult film star Stormy Daniels will take the stand a second time Thursday as former U.S. president Donald Trump’s hush money case continues in Manhattan. Follow live updates here.
NEW Why these immigrants to Canada say they're thinking about leaving, or have already moved on
For some immigrants, their dreams of permanently settling in Canada have taken an unexpected twist.
Toronto Maple Leafs fire head coach Sheldon Keefe
The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced that Sheldon Keefe has been relieved as his duties as head coach.
Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study
Studies have shown that ultraprocessed foods can have a detrimental impact on health. But 30 years of research show they don’t all have the same impact.
NEW Capital gains tax change 'shortsighted' and 'sows division' business groups tell Freeland
Forging ahead with increasing Canada's capital gains inclusion rate 'sows division,' and is a 'shortsighted' way to improve the deficit, business groups are warning Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
Ontario man frustrated after $3,500 paving job leaves driveway in shambles
An Ontario man considering having his driveway paved received a quote from a company for $7,000, but then, another paver in the neighbourhood knocked on his door and offered half that rate.
RateMDs violates privacy of health professionals, class-action lawsuit claims
A lawsuit against RateMDs has been given the go-ahead by a B.C. Supreme Court judge who found the claim that the website violates the privacy rights of medical professionals is not 'bound to fail.'
Defence attacks Stormy Daniels' credibility as she returns to the stand in Trump's hush money trial
Stormy Daniels will return to the witness stand Thursday in Donald Trump's hush money trial as the defence tries to undermine the credibility of the porn actor's salacious testimony about their alleged sexual encounter and the money she was paid to keep quiet.
With contactless screening tech, this Toronto startup hopes to catch breast cancer early — and save lives
Amid evidence of rising breast cancer rates among young women in Canada, one Toronto startup is offering a contactless and radiation-free device that can help doctors identify suspicious changes in breast tissue. The company, Linda Lifetech, says this can lead to earlier detection of breast cancer.