by Bruce Murray, media/communications, the Woodbine Entertainment Group

Toronto, ON — Beyond all of the surprising upsets in last Saturday’s Canadian Breeders Championship races, there was another unique occurrence at Woodbine where father and daughter competed on the same card.

Both the talented two-year-old pacing filly Borderlinegorgious (race eight) and her charismatic millionaire sire Rambaran (race 10) were in action within 40 minutes of one another. While the CBC represented the final start of a standout season for Borderlinegorgious, her famous father, who’s had many such campaigns, is making a successful comeback between annual stallion duties at Mac Lilley Farms in Dutton, Ontario.

For the second straight week, Rambaran was a fast-closing third for driver Paul MacDonell in a mile of 1:51.2, just a length back of winner, Rampage Hall. The striking 10-year-old son of Western Hanover-Idylwood Bonnie, whose first start back was in late October, showed he still possesses some of the old magic as evidenced by his blazing :26 final quarter.

Co-owner Paul Johnston said he and his father Pete have been asked for their reasons behind bringing Rambaran back to the track after already accomplishing so much over his splendid career.

“The bottom line is that we enjoy racing him and he still loves it,” Johnston said of his prized homebred, who is also co-owned by Watkins Equine.

“There’s no pressure in that racing him now isn ‘t going to make a difference in his stud career. It doesn’t matter if he never wins another race. We love to race him and not a lot of people seem to enjoy that nowadays. When you get into the paddock at Woodbine, the mood is different than it used to be.”

Johnston added that Rambaran displayed a change in attitude this year when the harness first went back on.

“In the previous couple of years when he’s come back from stud, he didn’t seem like he wanted to go back into training as much,” recalled Johnston. “This year though, he had a different attitude. Dad started jogging him just to keep him in shape and he acted like he enjoyed it. One day he turned him and went a mile and it just went from there. If he had acted like he didn’t want to do it, or wasn’t sound, we’d have stopped with him.

“The worst thing with studs is that once the breeding season is over, they stand around doing nothing and get fat. Then, when they get older, they can founder (a rotation of the coffin bone in the foot that can be fatal). We started jogging him to keep the weight off and he enjoyed it.”

When a horse ships as often as Rambaran has from the Johnston’s Peterborough farm to race, they even learn the route.

“When we load him and drive him to the track, he doesn’t move a muscle,” said Johnston of the 38-time winner of $1,113,314 in earnings. “You can make right turns, left turns, it doesn’t matter. Then, as soon as you turn into Woodbine you can feel the trailer start to shake. He starts squealing and kicking and knows he’s there.”

In addition to the aforementioned Grassroots champion Borderlinegorgious, Rambaran has had a significant impact on the Ontario Sires Stakes program from just two crops old enough to race. He has also sired stakes winners like Flashy Baron, Fabulous Flori, Keltic Sarah, Keltic Baron and Ram Of The House.

“He means so much to us and he’s fun to be around,” said Johnston, sounding every bit like a proud father. “Every year when it’s time for him to leave the farm and to go back to stud, it’s pretty quiet around here. He’s such a character and personality around the barn. I talk about him like he’s my kid, but when he’s racing I have tunnel vision. I couldn’t tell you what anybody else in the race is doing.”

With the beginning of the 2005 breeding season still more than two months away, the Johnston’s plan on giving Rambaran a few more starts as long as he remains healthy and competitive. His next outing is scheduled for Woodbine on Saturday where he will kick off the program in race one.