Karma

To even a casual observer of the racing scene at Canterbury Park in 2003, the results of that season's Horse of the Meet balloting seemed more than somewhat askew when it was determined that Skip Maas' She's Scrumpy had been denied what seemed her rightful title to Canterbury Park Horse of the Year honors at the end of her 3-year old racing season. A dominating winner over her own crop when winning the Minnesota Oaks that season, She's Scrumpy also convincingly bested older rivals in the Princess Elaine Stakes and returned to beat older mares in the Minnesota Distaff Classic Championship to cap the season with three consecutive stakes victories.

The wheels turn slowly, but the injustice of the 2003 season came right for She's Scrumpy's owner when her daughter A She's Adorable returned to the track that saw her dam's stellar performances echoed with a dominating triumph in the Lady Canterbury Stakes, the meet's traditional centerpiece event.

Trainer Joey Ruhsam had selected She's Scrumpy for owner Maas from the Minnesota yearling sale in 2001. This writer had enjoyed the good fortune to inspect the daughter of Squadron Leader when invited to step into She's Scrumpy's stall one morning at Prairie Meadows when visiting Ruhsam's shedrow in 2003. Watching A She's Adorable and Jimmy Graham firing through the stretch this past Sunday brought that visit with She's Scrumpy immediately to mind, as the daughter of Johar bears a better than fair resemblance to her remarkable dam.

~ Memory is a paradise out of which fate cannot drive us.

Alexandre Dumas