By Christina Bossinakis
Al and Bill Ulwelling have certainly made a name for themselves on the Canadian racing scene. In fact, the son-and-father team have had such a presence north of the border that one might be tempted to assume that they are Canadian-based. Simply put, that assessment would be entirely incorrect.
In fact, the Ulwellings appeared on the Canadian racing circuit a decade ago, after having spent the previous decade campaigning horses in the U.S.
While their participation in Canada might signify only a slice of their overall racing history, the Ulwellings have arguably had a greater impact in the province of Ontario.
Highlighting that point, the Ulwellings come well armed to Woodbine Saturday in search of their initial King's Plate victory with a pair of live contenders–Mansetti (Collected) and Faber (Improbable). Both colts are trained by Sovereign Award-winning trainer Kevin Attard.
“Both horses have a good shot,” affirmed the younger Ulwelling, Al. “Mansetti probably has a better chance, but I think if Faber gets the right trip, he can be right in the mix of it late.”
Mansetti won last season's Clarendon Stakes in November and added two more stakes this term–the Mar. 27 Woodstock Stakes and most recently in the GIII Marine Stakes in his first try past a mile June 28. He also finished fifth in Woodbine's Queenston Stakes while facing Ontario-bred competition June 8.
“Last year, Kevin thought Mansetti might be a sprint-only horse but he's matured a great deal from two to three,” said Ulwelling. “When he won the Marine, it opened our eyes, especially in the way he won and galloped out. It got us thinking maybe he can get the mile and a quarter.”
Explaining the uncharacteristically poor Queenston showing two starts back, he explained, “The equipment broke in the Queenston and he basically just stood in the gate. It was just over from the gate. Never got into the race and was never really comfortable. We expected him to win that day.”
Hoping for a cleaner trip in Canada's first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, Ulwelling said, “Mansetti is working just as good or better than any other horse in that race. Kevin has him set on go.”
He continued, “Mansetti has tactical speed, but it will just be a question of getting the distance. In the mornings he's shown it, but now we have to see him put it together on race day.”
Faber hit the board in two of four starts this season, including a pair of allowance optional claimers going a mile at Turfway in March and while adding an extra sixteenth at Woodbine May 31. In his most recent start, he finished fourth in an optional claiming test at Woodbine July 13.
“Faber is a whole different animal,” he said. “He has tons of talent, [he is] laid back in the morning, but he finds trouble in every race. He doesn't have a lot of [early] speed and he has to do so much work at the end of the race that it can sometimes put him in a bad spot. That's why we think the mile and a quarter will suit Faber.”
Like Father, Like Son…
Introduced to racing via father Bill, Al Ulwelling has operated a crane and construction company over the past 30 years in his homebase of Minnesota. Ulwelling's interest in the sport has expanded through the years.
“I have been watching racing since I was born,” he confirmed. “My father was a big horse bettor, I started wagering on them when I was a little kid. We started going to Canterbury Park the day they opened their doors [1985]. As the years went on, we talked about getting a horse, which I knew nothing about. It turns out a friend of mine did know a lot about it although he didn't have the money. So we got into a horse with him and that's how we started 20 years ago.”
He continued, “We're leading owners at Canterbury a couple of times there and we won a lot of races, but it wasn't financially lucrative for us. So we decided to go to Louisiana because the purses were good there. We had some success there too, but once Fair Grounds ended, the purse money wasn't as good. So we had all these horses with nowhere to go. At that same time, we're betting Woodbine and following up there and saw the purses they were offering, we decided to take a shot up there. We've been in love with Woodbine ever since.”
Breaking down the decision to expand to beyond Minnesota, he added, “We were leading owners at Canterbury for a couple of years and we had quite a few horses. We weren't really making money but we really enjoyed watching the races at Woodbine. We thought it was one of the leading tracks in North America, in terms of its inner and outer turf courses, they had synthetic and they ran all year. That's what drew us to Canada.”
“Initially, we went to Woodbine because we thought it was a world-class facility, but now we race there because of people like Kevin Attard.”
“We dipped our toes in with five to 10 horses to start, but once we met Kevin, we were sold from there.”
Since joining forces with trainer Kevin Attard a decade ago, Ulwelling explains that the team's equine holdings have steadily increased from about 10 horses to over twice that currently.
“When we were at Canterbury, I saw this younger guy winning some races with claimers,” he said, explaining his connection to Attard. “Somebody connected me to [Hall of Fame trainer] Roger Attfield, and he was training exclusively for [Kinghaven Farm] at the time and I asked for his honest opinion. I was a younger guy in the game at the time, so he suggested Kevin. He told me he was good with the horses and he was honest. Coming from Roger, that spoke volumes.”
Velocitor winning the 2022 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie | Michael Burns Photo
The Ulwellings retain about 12-15 horses in the U.S., splitting their time between Fair Grounds, Canterbury, Delta Downs and more recently, Turfway Park. According to Ulwelling, the Louisiana division of Ulwelling horses is maintained by Gary Scherer, who has kept a string of horses for the Ulwellings since the onset.
“We have also started running at Turfway with Billy Morey,” said Ulwelling of their most recent foray. “We're starting to build up that string because of the purse increases and we can have some of them race there in the winter so that is a good spot for us.”
The partnership also maintains a string of eight mares, which are the source of their own homebred racing stock. Boarded at Bill Snowden's Winchester Equine in Kentucky, the mares are bred in Kentucky before being sent to foal in Canada in order to take advantage of the lucrative Ontario-bred racing programs.
“When we were introduced to the bigger races like the King's Plate and the Woodbine Oaks, we had some mares in Louisiana, so we transferred those mares to Canada to Hill 'n' Dale Farm and Glenn Sikura,” he explained. “We started breeding a few mares and gradually increased our numbers from there.”
“The mares foal in Canada and we raise them in Paris, Kentucky,” he explained. “As soon as the mares can travel, we send them back to Kentucky. We breed them to Kentucky stallions, the babies remains in Kentucky to be raised and the mares return to Canada to foal every season.”
With both their breeding racing programs in full swing, the Ulwellings have enjoyed success the past few years, including a pair of wins in the second jewel in the Canadian Triple Crown in Fort Erie's Prince of Wales Stakes. The first was realized with the Kevin Attard-trained Haddassah (Air Force Blue) in 2021 followed by Velocitor (Mor Spirit) two years later.
“We won the Prince of Wales with homebreds,” he said. “We thought about what a blast we were having, so we decided to put some more money into it to get it rolling. That's how our [Canadian] program grew.”
And now 20 years removed from the first foray into horse ownership, Ulwelling points to one of the fundamentals driving him to a first King's Plate for the Ulwelling team.
“My father is 72 years old and all he really talks about is the horses. I would like to see it for my father,” he admitted. “In this King's Plate, we can go with horses we know that fit. We've run before and finished fourth last year with Pierre. We thought he as a nice horse but he wasn't on the level of these horses we're bringing this year.”
“I think we're putting it all together with our horses in both breeding and buying. It tells us that what we're doing is working.”
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