Home  > Racing > Contenders

Kentucky Bear

Post Position 8

Click logo below for Pedigree Information

PHOTO CREDIT: Horsephotos/NTRA

Finishing third in Keeneland’s Toyota Blue Grass Stakes didn’t garner enough graded-stakes money to put Kentucky Bear into the Kentucky Derby, but that race and two bullet workouts at Keeneland since then have put him in line to tackle Big Brown in the Preakness Stakes.     The son of Mr. Greeley, unraced at 2, is trained by Canada-based Reade Baker, who has been high on the horse most of this year. The chestnut colt is owned by Bear Stables, the nom de course of Donny (Bear) Dion, a former lumberjack who lives in Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada, and operates the world’s largest mulch company.

TRAINER - Reade Baker, from Port Dalhousie, Ontario, Canada, now resides in Weston, Ontario.     Baker grew up on a small dairy farm where he first learned to ride and work with horses. An uncle took him to Fort Erie racetrack when he was 14 and he immediately decided he wanted to work in racing.     He cut classes to get to the racetrack until he was caught by his parents, who then sent him off to a boarding school in Kitchener, Ont., where, ironically, the first friend he made was John Chris, the son of a trainer. They became fast friends and John went on to become a veterinarian, and he serves as Baker’s stable vet.     Baker got his first job on the racetrack in 1965 at age 18 as a groom, and later as an exercise rider. Following that baptism, he became the agent for jockey Gary Stahlbaum and they put together some successful years, especially their first one when the rides won 17 stakes races.     Baker became racing manager for Rick Kennedy in 1985 and was in charge of plotting the careers of Afleet, Storm on the Loose and One From Heaven. Those connections sent him around the world to race, with stops in Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, England and Ireland to learn about training methods and practices which served him well when he opened a public stable in 1990.     In 2002, he was elected to the Jockey Club of Canada. In 2005, Baker won his first Sovereign Award as Canada’s leading trainer and his trainee, Judiths Wild Rush, was named the country’s top sprinter. The horse repeated the next year. Other recent stakes winners for Baker include Coy Coyote, Slew Valley, Vestry Lady, Bear’s Kid, Bear Holiday and Bear Now, who was eighth in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.     At the 2007 Keeneland September yearling sale, Reade bought 13 horses for clients, including some for Danny Dion’s Bear Stable, for whom he trains Kentucky Bear. Baker and his wife have 10 broodmares. Among the best horses they’ve bred are Elusive Thought, a stakes-winning filly by Elusive Quality, and Ontheqt, by Mazel Trick, who won the Fanfreluche and Star Shoot stakes. Also, he is well-known for the exotic ducks and chickens he breeds and shows.

JOCKEY - Jamie Theriot, born on January 30, 1979 in Arnaudville, Louisiana is an up-and-coming rider who travels the Louisiana-Arkansas-Kentucky circuit. he captured the 2003 Oaklawn Park riding title. He has won multiple jockey titles at Evangeline Downs in Louisiana and won 54 races at Churchill Downs during 2007. His purse earnings for 2007 is $5,641,523, with 172 winners.

OWNER - Bear Stables is owned by Danny (Bear) Dion is origionally from Chidougamau, Quebec, Canada. The small town’s name means “you’re welcome” in the language of the native Cree tribe.     His family includes his wife, Gwen, and children Darcy, Evan and Jeff. The Dion residence is in Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada, far to the west of his home territory. Dion is president and owner of Bear Slashing Ltd., an oil exploration and mulching business operating in Western Canada. He founded the company in 1988. It’s now the largest mulching company in the world and employs some 200 people.     Dion recalls that he was logging in Quebec and felt the call to go west where he believed there were great opportunities for a man who was willing to work hard. He hitch-hiked across the country and settled in Alberta.     He got his start in racing six years ago by buying a horse while on a drinking spree with a friend in a bar in Alberta. The horse, named In Pursuit, was a low-level claiming horse and had very little success.     He named his racing stable after his own nickname which he says he got because he used growl like a bear when he hoisting big logs and the name stuck. All of his horses have Bear in their names, including Preakness Stakes prospect Kentucky Bear.     Dion races at Woodbine Race Course with trainer Reade Baker, and his horses in Western Canada are trained by Dale Greenwood. His best horse in 2007 was Bear Now, who won the Grade II Fitz Dixon Cotillion Stakes at Philadelphia Park on the way to an eighth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.     Dion has begun to focus on purchasing yearlings as a way to accomplish his goal of winning the Kentucky Derby. Kentucky Bear’s entry in the Preakness Stakes, marks Bear Stable’s first encounter with an American classic race.

BREEDERS - The Alexander Valley Breeders of Kentucky are responsible for the breeding of Preakness prospect Kentucky Bear, owned by Danny (Bear) Dion and trained by Reade Baker.