‘Aardie’ unearths another diamond in the rough
Canadian harness racing enthusiast, Mike Tanev, is riding one helluva wave when it comes to horse ownership.
Like a lot of things the used car salesman has thrown himself into, the man they called ‘Aardie’ harking back to his days on the baseball diamond, keeps coming up trumps.
Tanev has adopted the nickname into his moniker for his racing stock coming up four years now, where thousands of hours spent watching harness racing from the other side of the world has translated into some serious thrills and excitement.
Where many might assume Tanev to be buying his way to success, the opposite rings true.
Tanev has relied on doing his homework extensively and as he puts it “soaking up knowledge like a sponge” to put together an impressive stable of horses in work in the Southern Hemisphere, often at bargain prices.
At the upper end of the spectrum was the acquirement of eventual G2 Southland Oaks winner Aardiesexpress, who Tanev secured for what now appears to be a paltry $30,500 of Gavelhouse as a weanling. The daughter of Always B Miki looked like being last season’s champion filly before injury derailed her season.
Add to the list the rising Open Class trotter, Aardiebythehill (Muscle Hill) whom he outlayed a reasonable $15,000 for as a weanling from clients of Derek Balle.
One of the great buys in terms of return on investment thus far has undeniably been Aardiebytheseaside (Downbytheseaside) who Tanev secured for just $1500 at the 2020 All Age Sale as a weanling. The 2x G1 placegetter has already exceeded her sale price 60 times over with three wins and five placings as a juvenile.
Last Thursday night, Tanev added to his impressive CV with an even cheaper purchase, in the form of Aardie’s Peak (Peak). While it may have been a lowly maiden win at the back end of an extremely wet Auckland Thursday night, it did little to dampen the mood of the man watching on in the early Ontario morning hours.
“I didn’t have any expectations of a performance like that on debut, I was just hoping she was going to trot the trip,” said Tanev.
“Especially with the weather that night, it was horrendous, and you have a filly making her first lifetime start from the unruly under the lights and on a sloppy racetrack. Everything was against her, so I am very thankful to John and Robert who have done a masterful job with the horse and hopefully she can continue on with it in the future,” he said.
The daughter of Peak was impressive under the circumstances alluded to above. Alexandra Park can be an imposing beast at the best of times for horses on debut, nevertheless a maiden trotting filly.
John Dunn whipped her out and around the field with a circuit to run and was forced to sit parked for much of the last lap and was too good for a field that had more than its fair share of quality.
Tanev purchased Aardies Peak from the same All Age Sale that he secured Aardiebytheseaside.
Where others may have been turned off by Peak who was developing a reputation of leaving some talented but often headstrong individuals, Tanev rolled the dice and backed his judgement after liking what he saw.
“I was familiar with Peak being from North America, I understand some of the European horses and had seen a lot of Peak’s career before he went to New Zealand and raced,” he said.
“Harness Racing New Zealand has a great website that allows you access to the maternal backgrounds and the foals every mare has had. When I looked at the second dam, I saw Prime Power (Monarchy), and he was a very good trotter.
“And look, as much as I didn’t mind the breeding, I really liked the price,” he laughed.
“For the money the horse was going for, it was as good as free. You can’t breed them for $1200. Sure, I was going to have to pay training fees and other costs to try her. But nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
Unlike Aardiebytheseaside, Aardie’s Peak has been much more of a work in progress having all but been sacked by her original trainer who didn’t feel she would make the grade.
Tanev made the decision to send her south on the float with Aardiebythehill and slowly but surely has seen the two trotters he has in work flourish as so many trotters have on the shores of Woodend Beach.
“She was very big for a two-year-old and obviously with trotters that usually means they will take more time. As things started to tick along, RJ said she had a little bit of feistiness which I believe is a good thing because it means they have some heart, right?
“About six weeks ago, he told me that the filly may actually make the grade. She had started to show signs of trotting well and improving.
“We shipped her up North on the advice of RJ who said she works better right-handed. In her first qualifier at Pukekohe, she galloped and lost about 40 meters on the leader before catching up and winning. And at her second attempt, John Dunn just sat with her until the last turn and went past the horse she was following like it was tied to a pole,” he said.
That was the first time Tanev admits he started to believe he might have a better than average trotter on his hands, and when discussing the immediate plans with the horse, it’s clear the training partnership of Robert and Jenna Dunn might think so too.
AARDIE’S PEAK REPLAY
“Robert asked me if the horse was paid up for the Sires Stakes. When I told him she was, he asked me how I knew that she was. When I told him I had paid her up when I bought her for $1200 off Gavelhouse, he almost had a heart attack,” he laughed.
“Once we got over talking about that, he said that was the route she would pursue which is great. I leave everything up to the trainer, they are the captain, I just like communication being halfway around the other side of the world and that’s all I can ask for.
“I’m not an idiot, I didn’t fall of the back of a truck, but I know a good horse from a bad one and I’m not saying she is going to be a world beater or anything like that. But I know one thing, if I retire her tomorrow, she is undefeated,” he laughed.
Adding to the excitement levels is the fact that Tanev gets to welcome back to racing the two aforementioned ‘Aardie’ daughters, in Aardiesexpress and Aardiebytheseaside in the not-too-distant future.
Both have unfortunately been sidelined from recent racing whilst recuperating from injuries suffered last season, however it won’t be long until they get a chance to make up for lost time.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I am waiting for both horses to come back with great excitement. It’s hard enough having one injured let alone two running into problems. I really want another shot at Millwood Nike with ‘seaside’ over the longer trip later in the year where I think she will be more suited. We spent a lot of last year racing her with distinction and it will be fun to see how we measure up there.
“Express is going to the trials on May the 31st and likely again on June 7th. In the meantime, we have done an embryo transfer with her. Robert Famularo who has my mares called me and asked whether I wanted to take an embryo off her and I didn’t even know what he was talking about. When I did my research and discussed it with some people up here about it and how long she was out, it made a lot of sense given she was going to be sitting around in a paddock doing nothing anyway.
“She has a surrogate mare carrying a foal by Bettor’s Delight and we are trying to breed a ‘super horse’ with her obviously. I own her dam Tatijana Bromac and have a colt foal by Downbytheseaside and she is back in foal to him also, but we are going to breed her to Captaintreacherous next season,” he said.
“I am just going to continue with that racing line in the future and stick to it for my down under breeding endeavours,” he said.
With around 12 horses in work in North America and similar numbers in New Zealand, Tanev has quickly established himself as one of the prominent owners in our sport.
And while he is realistic about the fact that he will unearth as many slow horses as he has fast ones, at this stage of his journey, he is well and truly on the right side of the ledger.
It’s a wave he is intent on riding for a while yet.
“Am I lucky, of course,” he said.
“But I use a saying a lot that Columbus took a chance and look what happened, if you never take a chance on anything then you are never going to know.”
