There's a spot near the rail at Woodbine where you'll find Ericka Rusnak on race day afternoons, a place at which her long-range camera allows her nearsighted eyes a clearer view of the action.
Those well-worn footprints have seen their fair share of heartache, to be sure, but on Aug. 20, 2023, that is where the longtime horse enthusiast was standing when she achieved the pinnacle of Thoroughbred breeding dreams in Canada. A colt Rusnak foaled, one of just two she bred in 2020, won the $1 million King's Plate, first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.
“I remember watching the other horses come to him on the far turn, and thinking, 'He's gonna get swallowed up here,'” Rusnak said. “Then he just starts pulling away. I remember putting my camera down and just screaming for him, then thinking, 'Oh yeah, I should probably take pictures again!'
“I was crying before he even crossed the finish line. It is beyond belief, really. I kind of look back now, and surreal has become one of my favorite words. It's difficult to find appropriate words to describe not only that day but that moment, because nothing seems powerful enough.”
Rusnak, 44, has managed a 16-stall barn at Hill 'n Dale Farm for nearly 20 years. She was there in the dark hours of the morning to welcome Paramount Prince into the world on Feb. 26, 2020, nicknaming the colt “Maverick” for his rough and tumble personality.
“He was literally the toughest foal I have ever raised,” she admitted. “He just had so much personality growing up, and he was naughty! One of my friends, I have photos of her standing in a hole that he had dug in his paddock. We would fill it in, and he would dig it right out again! He'd break fence boards, chase his paddock friend. He had a sweet side to him, but he was aggressive for sure!”
“Maverick,” born in the age of the camera phone just before the pandemic shut down the outside world, grew up to the sound of the camera flashing in his direction. Prior to his King's Plate victory, Rusnak put together a video with highlights from his first 18 months of life. Among the highlights is a clip of the yearling playing with a stolen hose!
“I'm biased, of course, but he is also beautiful,” she said. “Even now, I follow and take photos of him. He's got a great big engine behind, and a tiny white heart on his neck!”
Rusnak can still recall a childhood ripe with adventurous forays across her aunt's pastures, seeking the company of a handful of Standardbred ex-racehorses and broodmares, as well as the many times her aggrieved parents would have to hunt down their disappeared daughter.
Her father, a police officer, and her mother, a real estate agent, weren't quite sure what to do with the newfound horsey obsession. Finally, Rusnak's parents purchased her a riding lesson. That was all it took; she was hooked.
Admittedly, Rusnak struggled to figure out exactly how to incorporate her love of horses into her life. At first she considered the veterinary profession, then she thought about becoming a police officer, but it was a co-op at a Standardbred farm that really sealed the deal.
Always a hard worker, Rusnak was working in tobacco and at a grocery store at the same time as her employ at the Standardbred operation, all while a rowing coach attempted to convince her to point to the Olympics.
“Rowing was twice a day, every day, but the spark just wasn't there like it was for the horses,” said Rusnak. “They absolutely consumed me.”
In 2004, Rusnak heard that Hill 'n' Dale Farm was hiring.
“I even sort of remember what I was wearing that day, and going up to Glen Sikura's office, and vaguely the interview itself,” Rusnak said. “It was my first job working directly with Thoroughbreds, and he hired me to manage a 16-stall facility. There are mares and foals, sales yearlings, the occasional layup, etc. I'm basically a one-woman show, from wrapping, bandaging, feeding, cleaning, fixing tractors, and even cutting paddocks!
“Glen is more than a boss to me now; his whole family is extended family to me. I'm really fortunate to have such an amazing relationship with him and everyone here.”
Around the same time, Rusnak had purchased a Thoroughbred mare she'd hoped to make into a riding horse. A friend pointed out that the mare, Mood Swings, was a full sister to a stakes winner, and suggested Rusnak breed her.
The first foal, a filly later named Lovin the Mood, went to the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society yearling sale before going on to break her maiden at Woodbine.
From then on, Rusnak aimed to breed one or two of her own foals each year.
Platinum Steel, the dam of “Maverick,” was a purchase from the 2017 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. Rusnak had only bought mares from that particular sale twice before, and she found that everything she'd marked in her catalog was selling way beyond her budget.
“This particular mare, I saw her in the back ring, and I hadn't had her page marked,” said Rusnak. “Just like when you're betting horses, sometimes there's just something about a horse that grabs your attention. She was a chestnut with very little white, and she was a good size. She had a good pedigree, and was a half-sister to a lot of fillies. She fit my own system that's worked out before, so I thought, 'Maybe I can get her.'
“I was just trying to find out a bit more, and I saw that her half-brother Army Mule had won a race at that point. Twenty-five thousand was the absolute max of my budget, I wouldn't have bid again, but I got her. Then her page really improved!”
The Eddington mare was in foal to Kantharos at the sale, and arrived back to Hill 'n' Dale in Canada safe and sound.
“When I bought her, she was irritable and grumpy, so I nicknamed her 'Stella,'” Rusnak said. “She's changed so much in six years; she's a mint monster now, and if I call her out in the field, she comes running!”
Stella foaled a colt by Kantharos in 2018, and Rusnak admits she was perhaps a bit overeager with her aspirations after Army Mule's Grade 1 Carter win in April that year.
“I was a bit too excited for my own good,” she said. “I thought I was gonna go to the 2-year-old in training sale, so I put a high reserve on him and bought him back out of our sale, then sent him to Kentucky to be prepped for the Keeneland 2-year-old sale. Then COVID hit. I don't have deep pockets, and I had gone beyond my budget, so I ended up scratching him and trying to race him. None of it panned out. He had setbacks as a 2-year-old, then as a 3-year-old, and finally he ran second as a 4-year-old. Now, one of my best friends has him as a riding horse and that's cool.”
Rusnak opted to send both Platinum Steel and her only other mare, Stormin Wife, to Society's Chairman in 2019.
“I've always liked the stallion,” Rusnak said. “He doesn't have a lot of mares compared to some stallions in Ontario, and despite that his success has been really impressive. I liked the cross, and I was trying to get to Northern Dancer, just having seen what she'd been bred to and what the foals look like.”
Sadly, Stormin Wife passed away the day after foaling her 2020 filly by Society's Chairman. After that, Rusnak opted to send Platinum Steel to a different stallion, opting for Souper Speedy the next two years and then Silent Name.
She also decided to finally take advantage of the foaling facilities at another barn on the Hill 'n' Dale property.
“I've lost a few to foaling difficulties before, and it's just such a tough business,” Rusnak said. “Foaling my own, it's exhausting. It's a bit unpredictable, because the mares will often give you a lot of signs, but sometimes they won't. I'm a notorious worrier, and I've had some bad luck, so I would lose sleep for weeks around foaling because I would just start to doubt myself.
“I finally said, 'Why am I doing this to myself?' Now, they foal them out at the main farm, so I still get to go and watch, but it's not nearly as taxing. Other than that, I bring them back right away, and I spend all my time with them!”
Rusnak also still owns a daughter of Platinum Steel by Giant Gizmo. The filly, now named Just Imagine, wound up needing to be hospitalized for 10 days as a foal.
“She's really lucky to be here,” said Rusnak. “It's pretty special with everything that she overcame, and she grew into a monstrous 17 hands. She's a beautiful mover, but I wasn't ever able to get her to the races. I decided I'd look out for her for the rest of her life. Now she's on lease and in foal as an embryo transfer mare, but I still own her. I might have to try to breed her myself; I never imagined I'd have another giant pedigree update like this!”
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