Although it wasn't the Kentucky Derby, Julie Brewster had the incredible opportunity to watch a horse she co-owns dominate the same track where the premier equestrian race is held.Brewster, who lives in Bowden and works at Olds College, co-owns a three-year-old thoroughbred filly named Brazen Persuasion that ran in and won a race at Churchill Downs in Kentucky on May 2, the day before the derby.The race was held on the same day as the 140th running of theLongines Kentucky Oaks, a major race for three-year-old thoroughbred fillies.Brewster said Brazen Persuasion won her race by about five lengths and captured a purse of $70,000 US.The event wasn't a stakes race, she added.“But it's still exciting to be there on Oaks day,” Brewster said. “For us the thrill was being in the paddock at Churchill Downs the same day as all the famous horses.”The woman jockey who rode Brazen Persuasion in the race also won the Oaks race, she said.Brewster's parents, who live in Bowden, have raised and raced horses all her life.She said the opportunity to buy Brazen Persuasion came up a year-and-half ago when a group of people in Central Alberta who race quarter horses and wanted to begin racing thoroughbreds invited Brewster and others to buy some horses.A syndicate called the Bugle Hill Partners came together, Brewster added, and bought three horses.Brazen Persuasion, she said, has 12 owners and lives in Kentucky, although she trains in the winter in Louisiana.“The horse lives a much better life than I do.”Brewster said she had the opportunity to take in Oaks day at Churchill Downs in a box with free food and drinks and “all the southern charm you could ever hope for.”She was ill on May 3, however, and so watched the Kentucky Derby on television from a mansion in [email protected]
