The life changer

Some horses have the potential to change somebody’s life. A superstar in Quebec, the mare initially named Fontaine Angus was invincible at 2 and became a life changer for her trainer. After a stellar career, Emilie Cas El followed up as a broodmare by producing a Hambletonian-winner.

The story starts in 1992, the year of her birth when young trainer Dustin Jones wanted to buy yearling colt Emile Angus. The plan fell through. However, he had discovered the most powerful trotting family in the Canadian province of Quebec: Emile Angus was a younger brother to Canne Angus and Amour Angus. When the latter’s first-born became for sale, Jones was automatically interested.

“The year before I bought her, in 1992, I wanted to buy Emile Angus, but the partner that was going to buy him with me backed out and said he was too small. Emile Angus sold for $12,000. The summer of 1993 I watched him race every start and I liked the way he raced, so in the fall of 1993 I went to Angus farm. Emilie Cas El was the one I especially went to look at as her mother was a half-sister to Emile Angus. I thought she was perfectly made and I was going to go up to $15,000 to buy her. She was the first foal and she was small, so I guess that’s why I was able to buy her for $13,000. The summer of 1993 I was training a trotting filly for Wendell Cass and she won the Coupe Des Éleveurs, which was the Super Final for Quebec-bred 3-year-old trotting fillies. After I bought Emilie Cas El I asked him if he would buy half with me,” Jones recalls.

Trained with pacers

Except that her name wasn’t Emilie Cas El at that point. The future superstar started life under a very different name, Fontaine Angus, but was quickly given a new name reflecting her new owners. Emilie is the name of Jones’ daughter, Cas comes from Wendell Cass’ last name and El comes from Cass’ wife’s name Elzada. Jones quickly realized he had struck gold. Emilie Cas El is the big full sister to Andover, Angus and Conway Hall, and the trio’s full sister was equally talented. At 2, Emilie exceeded all expectations by winning all 13 races. After winning two legs and final of the Coupe Des Eleveurs, elimination and final of the Canadian Breeders Championship and six legs of Quebec Circuit at Blue Bonnets, Emilie Cas El managed the extremely rare feat of being selected Horse of the Year as a two-year-old trotting filly. In fact, no juvenile trotting filly had ever won Horse of the Year-honors in Canada prior to Jones and Cass’ wonder-filly.

“Emilie was a natural from the moment she was put in the jog cart. Training down I had no trotters that could trot with her so she trained with pacers all the way down to qualifying, and I don’t think she ever made a break. I thought before I qualified her that she was the best trotter I had ever trained up to that point. I was very careful with her and never rushed her out of the gate – I usually let everyone leave and when everyone was placed I moved her and went to the lead. Every race she got better and better, and she finished off the season undefeated and was named two-year-old trotting Filly of the Year and overall Horse of the Year in Canada. She also set tracks record for 2-year-old trotting fillies both at Blue Bonnets and Mohawk, ” says Jones.

Her first loss

The spectacular season had attracted European attention, however, and Jones and Cass soon accepted a $400,000 offer from the Finnish Kemppi Stables. The daughter of Garland Lobell, who is a full sister to Andover, Angus and Conway Hall, stayed in Jones’ training. Emilie Cas El started her 3-year-old season where she left off at 2, winning her first four races and setting track records at Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City. As a clear indication of how Emilie Cas El was way ahead of her time, her track record at Hippodrome 3R/Trois-Rivieres stood for 19 years until Viva Bayama finally broke it in 2014. However, after 17 straight wins the streak was up.

“Everything went downhill after that. I gave her a very bad drive at Sportsman Park in the American-National, I was parked the whole mile and still finished third. She should have won that race. In the World Trotting Derby she wasn’t trotting 100 percent and had a trailing position. I was caught in the whole way and when I did find room she wasn’t trotting good and made a break – her first ever in a race or training. She was shod by a blacksmith in Illinois when she was there and she was touching a knee. Back to Quebec and I shod her. Then she went out, won and set a track record at Blue Bonnets. Emilie Cas El was qualified for the final, but I had to scratch her as she developed a puss pocket and was lame. It popped about three or four days after. Then she was good again. She should have won the Canadian Breeders Championship, but made a break for some reason. I still don’t know why,” he continues.

Off to Europe

After wrapping up her North American three-year-old season, Emilie Cas El was off to Europe. Her continental debut came in the prestiguous Orsi Mangelli-race in Milan, Italy. Driven by Jos Verbeeck, Emilie Cas El finished fifth behind Trustworthy, Deliberate Speed, Au Royale and Scorfano – though four years later Conway Hall would get revenge for his big sister’s loss when he defeated Varenne to win the 1998 edition. Finnish trainer Tuomas Korvenoja now took charge of Emilie Cas El. Though she wasn’t dominant against European opposition, the Quebec-born mare showed class and a remarkably consistency until the end of the year. Her 1996 debut produced a fourth-place finish, before she went 2-5-3 in her next 10 starts. She was second, behind Lookout Victory, in the four-year-old filly elite at Solvalla during the Elitlopp-weekend, the Momarken Grand Prix filly as well as Fina International, at the time a prestiguous race for aged mares in Norway. Lamitech Dancing won the latter two races. At the end of the year Emilie made two unsuccessful starts in Italy.

After starting 1997 with two straight wins the mare was an outsider in the Finlandia Ajo, but all hopes are shattered when the mare broke before the starting car left the field. Going next to Norway for the Oslo Grand Prix, Emilie was one of two Quebec-born daughters of Garland Lobell in the field: Nuke It Linsay being the other. However, both mares ended out of the money as Zoogin won the race, just as he had in Finland. After a sixth-place finish in the Fina International, won by Moni Maker, things turned around with three straight wins. This included the elimination and final of the Momarken Grand Prix filly in Norway. Emilie Cas El notched another three wins in 1997, making it a relatively successful year where she was 8-1-1 in 17 starts. However, after a third-place in her 1998 debut, the mare was retired and bred to Express Ride.

A huge legacy

Even though she didn’t quite follow up the spectacular start to her career, Emilie Cas El was a tremendous trotter. She also did a lot for others: She showed Quebec-bred trotters could compete with the best in North America. She put her sire Garland Lobell on the map; even though he had produced the very good Tak the Tuk, Emilie Cas El was his first real star. The blue-blooded filly also secured Jones and his family financially as well as advancing her trainer’s career. With the money from the sale, Jones made his first trip to the Lexington sales in the fall of 1995, where he bought the yearling Georgia Limited. That horse went on to earn more than $1,1 million, winning the American-National Open and finishing second to Moni Maker in the 1998 Elitlopp.

“She was definitely a life changer for me, I was married and had two small kids and a farm, so the sale of her paid a lot of bills. Some of the money I invested and was able to put both my daughter and son through university and both got their degrees and were able to come out of school with no debt.”

The smallish Emilie Cas El, measuring roughly 152 cms (15 hands), would soon show herself a great broodmare. She had everything she needed to succeed: “Her confirmation was perfect. She wasn’t a big filly, but she had a really big butt and gaskin, and a big set of lungs. She was always willing to do her best and when you asked her she always responded,” Jones said when asked to described the mare. No wonder she produced really well from the first foal. The mating with Express Ride produced Archduke Kemp, a good trotter who was third in E3 at 3 and Sweden Cup at 5. He also sired one of the 2017 International Trot participants, Danish horse Tripolini VP. Later foals of Emilie Cas El includes Hambletonian-winner Trixton, Breeders Crown-winner Impressive Kemp and world champion Highscore Kemp, dam of dollar-millionaire Lindy the Great. Other daughters are also proving to be great broodmares, such as Peaceful Kemp (dam of Venerate), Fabulous Kemp (grandam of Crown, Delayed Hanover, Periculum, Raised By Lindy and Spy Booth) and Julia Kemp (dam of Swedish trotter Lulius Boko, second in the 2022 Swedish Derby).

Emilie Cas El passed away in May 2021, aged 29, at Hunterton Farm where she had been part of the broodmare band for many years. The mare’s legacy lives on, though, through her many descendants.