Welcome to St. Lad’s Farm a Standardbred breeding facility located 40 km. east of Windsor Ontario in the small hamlet of Ruscom.
Meet St. Lad’s Farm owners: Bob Ladouceur and Veronica St Pierre. They combined their names to create “St. Lad’s” and they combined their efforts to produced some of Ontario’s finest race horses.
“ Veronica came to work for me at my Home Hardware franchise in Belle River about 34 years ago,” smiles Bob , “ and we have been together ever since. At the time I owned the Home Hardware store and also a Home Furniture store as well as ran my farm. I guess you could say the grass looked greener on the other side of the fence, so 24 years ago I decided to sell the stores and concentrate strictly on farming and raising Standardbred horses. It seemed like a good time to get out of the retail business with bar coding and GST soon to become mandatory.”
St. Lad’s Farm’s first customers were Jack Darling and Dan Smith. Bob McIntosh is another of their famous clientele.
“We try to keep a balance where 50% of the mares on the farms are owned by ourselves, while the other 50% is owned by our customers.” says Bob.
Bob and Veronica gradually built up a herd of broodmares. In the spring Veronica would put miles upon miles on her vehicle doing the “semen run.” She would have to pick up different stallions semen from across Ontario to bring back home to breed the mares on the farm. The trip from Ruscom to Campbellville’s semen shipping hub was a long 4 hour trip, so Veronica would be on the road at least 8 hours each day, three days a week, while the breeding season was in full swing.
Bob kept the farm running in her absence, as well as harvesting all of the hay.
Bob and Veronica have 3 barns with 30 stalls. They have 12 large video-monitored foaling stalls. Their barn is patrolled by night shift staff during the delivery season. Whenever a foaling begins Bob and Veronica get a call. They are there to assist any mare in the delivery. It was one of these complicated deliveries that tested the couples resolve. Veronica was trying to reposition a twisted foal, inside the womb, when the mare kicked her. The force of the assault threw Veronica back against the wall and left her dazed. Bob wanted to take her to the hospital then and there, but no, Veronica gritted her teeth and insisted on repositioning the foal and completing the delivery. Only later did she find out from her doctor that she had broken her ribs.
St. Lad’s Farm sells their offspring every fall in the yearling sales. This past year their yearlings averaged $22,500.00.
It has been a long journey from where they started out, but one glance at their “Six Digit Club” reminds Bob and Veronica of why they do what they do.
Take a look at some of the talented horses they have bred and raised:
St Lads Popcorn (m, Twin B Champ – Hot Butter – Northern Luck) p,2 1:52.2s ($654,606) 12 wins. Winner of 2008 O’Brien Award for 2yr Pacing Fillies and Winner of 2008 Nova Award for 2 yr Pacing Fillies. At 2, won 12 of 15 starts, Winner of 4 OSS Gold Finals, Winner of the OSS Superfinal, Winner of 3 OSS Trilliums and Winner of the Robert Stewart Stakes.
Machal Jackson – (Sold as St Lads Turbo # 2)
(g, Mack Three – Warrawee Cammy)
p,2, 1:54.1s 3, 1:50.1s ($550,115)
St Lads Kingpin
(g, Million Dollar Cam – Classify)
p, 1:50m ($432,361)
Mach It Paid – (Sold as St Lads Turbo # 1)
(g, Mach Three – Silver Words)
p, 1:51.3f ($398,695)
St Lads Speedy
(g, Mr Lavec – Special Speed)
1:56.4s ($245,111)
Jan It Jackson (St Lads Phoenix)
(m, Badlands Hanover – Warrawee Cammy)
p, 1:50.1s ($233,211)
St Lads Seraph
(m, Northern Luck – Our Wild Angel)
p, 1:54.3f ($226,454)
St Lads Hailaroo
(m, Presidential Ball – Guelph Gal)
p, 1:52.2s ($220,589)
St Lads Treasure
(m, No Pan Intended – Silver Words)
p, 1:52.2s ($209,445)
St Lads HeMan
( g, Northern Luck – Ladylike)
p, 1:50.3s ($208,192)
Chianaglia – (Sold as St Lads StorminNormin)
(h, Blissful Hall – Guelph Gal)
p, 1:51.4s ($194,025)
St Lads Peeper
(m, Mach Three – Hot Butter)
p, 1:51.4s ($207,565)
St Lads Trixie
(m, Artesian – Tricky Fame)
p, 2 1:56.4h ($163,217)
Courageous Decision – (Sold as St Lads Zoom Zoom)
(h, Camluck – Guelph Gal)
p, 1:53.4s ($161,872)
Go Smarty Brand – (Sold as St Lads Superfly)
(g, Camotion – Flywheel)
p, 1:53.3f ($161,472)
St Lads JuJube
(m, Valleymeister – Sans Pareille)
1:57.1f ($148,276)
St Lads Moxie
(m, Camotion – Warrawee Cammy)
p, 1:50.4f ($136,451)
St Lads Dude
(g, Astreos – Armbro Dandy)
p,2, 2:00.2h, 3, 1:58.4h, 1:52.4f ($134,382)
St Lads ZoomZoom
(g, Apaches Fame – St Lads Sassy)
p,3, 1:55h; 3, 1:52.4s; 4, 1:50.2f ($129,245)
St Lads Morgan
(m, Mach Three – Montana Bound)
p,3, 1:56.1s; 1:52.4s ($132,891)
St Lads GoGal
(m, Northern Luck – Guelph Gal)
p, 1:53.4f ($125,836)
St Lads Juicyfruit
(m, Gothic Dream – Truly Gala)
p, 1:51.1m ($123,437)
Lady Gigi – (Sold as St Lads Gigi)
(m, Camluck – Guelph Gal)
p, 1:55.4h ($121,571)
St Lads Magnum
(g, DM Dilinger – Truly Gala)
p, 1:53.2f ($109,962)
St Lads Survivor
(m, Matts Scooter – Fire N Grace)
p, 1:53.4z ($108,844)
Luck Happens – (Sold as St Lads Mr Mueller)
(h, Camluck – Keystone Martha)
p, 1:54.2f ($106,625)
St Lads Nikki
(m, Camluck – Keystone Martha)
p, 1:54.2s ($102,828)
St Lads Adonis
(g, Western Terror – Love Strings)
p, 1:55.3f ($102,162)
