Woodbine owner Yawen Wu is eyeing her first King’s Plate appearance after homebred Sedburys Ghost (Shaman Ghost) captured the Plate Trial Stakes on July 20, giving the Canadian engineer her first stakes victory as an owner-breeder.
The strapping chestnut gelding burst from the pack to win the Plate Trial by 1 1/4 lengths at odds of 7-1, following a fourth-place finish in the 1 1/16-mile GIII Marine Stakes in June.
“I had mixed feelings,” Wu said. “But Barb said, ‘Yawen, dress up because you’re going to win.'”
Trainer Barbara Minshall maintained unwavering confidence in the gelding’s abilities despite the disappointing Marine Stakes performance.
“Barb was so confident,” Wu explained. “She said, ‘Sedbury is training well and I have no doubts unless something happened. If everything goes well, he has speed and he has talent and the jockey [Ryan Munger] had been working with him since we started training him.'”
Sedburys Ghost traces back to Wu and husband James Mann’s initial venture into Thoroughbred breeding. The gelding’s second dam Bayou Mist (Silver Ghost) was part of a small group of mares the couple acquired in 2007 when establishing their farm in Port Perry, Ontario.
“My husband and I, we are both engineers by trade, we have our own company,” Wu said. “So it’s not like we’ve been involved in racing our whole lives. But we both love horses, so we bought the farm land. We bought acres and built the farm from scratch.”
Their proximity to the historic Windfields Farm — which was winding down operations as they were building up — proved fortuitous for their unexpected entry into Thoroughbred breeding.
Bernard McCormack, Windfields manager at the time, recognized the potential of their property. “He told us that we had a great setting for broodmares and foaling,” Wu explained. “We are on an island. It’s a great piece of land. Very beautiful and quiet.”
Wu and Mann purchased three mares at the 2007 Keeneland January Sale, including Bayou Mist for $35,000. The mare’s 2006 foal was multiple stakes winner Selva (Forest Wildcat), who later produced multiple stakes winner Vanzzy (Verrazano).
Family and business demands — the couple operates Mann Engineering with a focus on renewable energy — forced a temporary pause in their breeding operation.
“I had four kids and they were all busy in the school,” Wu recalled. “And our business was also busy. So we took a five-year break. We sold all the horses in the first group that we had bought in Kentucky.”
Wu kept only Hurricane Mimi, who earned $171,078 with three wins and 11 in-the-money finishes from 28 starts before retiring to the family’s Spirit Run Farm in 2017.
Sedburys Ghost is Hurricane Mimi’s fourth foal and fourth winner. He was entered in the yearling sales where he RNA’d for $20,662 in August 2023.
“I put a reserve at $29,500 and I didn’t get him sold,” Wu said. “Bernard asked if I wanted to lower that, and I said, ‘No. I am going to keep him and race him.’ I didn’t want to give him away.”
That decision has paid dividends. The gelding broke his maiden in his second start last June and returned nearly a year later to add an optional claimer before his traffic-compromised effort in the Marine Stakes.
His Plate Trial victory stands as the pinnacle achievement thus far.
“This was my first stakes winner, so I am very excited,” she said. “I was sitting beside Barb and my two daughters. In the beginning, he was in mid-pack, so after the turn, I saw he had a clear lane and he just went and as soon as we saw that, I knew he was going to close. I have never been so excited in my life, actually. I was shaking.”
The family’s broodmare band has grown back to five, but Wu has shifted her strategy away from selling and toward racing.
“I just need a little bit more courage to breed to sell because the Canadian sires have a lower commercial value,” Wu said. “But they are good horses. I have two yearlings right now and I was going to August to sell, but I withdrew them and decided I am going to race them.”
One promising prospect is Hurricane Amelia, a 2-year-old full-sister to Sedburys Ghost currently training at Woodbine with Minshall.
“I heard great things about her from Barb,” Wu said. “She says she is very competitive and she reminds her of Sedbury as a yearling. And they look identical. Chestnut with three white socks.”
Hurricane Mimi produced a filly by Souper Speedy this year and was bred back to Tamarkuz.
While Wu has plenty of racing to look forward to, the Aug. 16 King’s Plate remains the immediate focus.
“I’ve never been to the King’s Plate,” Wu said with a laugh. “I’ve never been invited. Usually you have a friend or a friend of a friend who has a horse in the King’s Plate and they invite you.”
As her daughters research appropriate attire for the prestigious event, Wu admits to mixed emotions about the upcoming race.
“I am nervous. Excited. But also kind of nervous.”
