Kid Katabatic won the first race and the last race in which he was entered. They were the bookends of a storybook career which saw him become one of the most popular horses in the Northwest.

Between his maiden score in a $32,000 claimer in April, 1996, and his grand farewell in the S.W. Randall Plate in September, 2002, he accumulated 15 other victories, including a smashing score in the 1997 Longacres Mile, the most prestigious race North of San Francisco.

As a youngster playing in the pasture, the Kid did not project future stardom. “He was small and chunky and he had a choppy stride,” remembers owner/trainer Shauna Ferguson.

He was the first foal of Ineeda Vacation, a mare Ferguson had trained for Silver Wings travel man Wellington Lee and weatherman Phil Reimer. When Ineeda Vacation was retired after a career in which she won $59,000, Lee and Reimer gave her to Shauna as a broodmare.

She was bred to Danzig’s son Katowice, a mating which combined the time-honoured cross of Northern Dancer and Bold Ruler. Ineeda Vacation was a daughter of Winning Hit, a son of Bold Ruler. Winning Hit had gained some fame as the broodmare sire of the breathtakingly fast filly Safely Kept, who ran the boys dizzy in winning the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Unfortunately Ineeda Vacation has not produced another runner remotely approaching the quality of Kid Katabatic. One of the reasons may be that her next six foals were small fillies. Now after 11 years, Indeeda Vacation has foaled another colt, a yearling by Slewdildo.

Kid Katabatic was a difficult horse to train; hard to gallop, stubborn as a mule and not much bigger. He did not race at two and Shauna elected to start him in a $32,000 claimer when he made his debut as a three-year-old, even though
there was an allowance on the same day.

He galloped home by six lengths and never ran for a price again. He won two of his four starts at three and his four-year-old season began with high hopes. He more than fulfilled them.

He won an allowance, The Victoria Day and The Sun at Hastings and then tired slightly to finish third in Seattle’s Budweiser Emerald at a mile and 1/16th. Next up was the $200,000 Longacres Mile but Shauna was reluctant to start him in such a demanding race in only his ninth career start.

“Shauna wanted to give him more seasoning,” recalled jockey Chris Loseth. “I said,‘’to hell with the seasoning. I think he can win’.”

He went wire to wire to triumph by two lengths in track record time of 1:34.1. In second place was Hesabull, who went on to finish second in the million dollar Breeders’ Cup Sprint two months later.

“The Longacres Mile was surreal,” says Shauna. “I knew he’d run well. When he came out of the receiving barn he looked like a winner. He looked like a prize fighter that day.”

Kid Katabatic became the fourth B.C.- bred to capture the coveted Mile, joining Eddie’s Boy (1952), Quality Quest (1955) and Travelling Victor (1984)

The owners—Shauna, husband Keith Ferguson and Lindsay and Melvin Russell—were so buoyed by the victory that they went hunting bigger game. They chose the $1 million Atto Mile on the grass at Woodbine. It turned out to be a mistake, perhaps the only one that Shauna Ferguson made as she managed Kid Katabatic’s career with a delicate touch.

They had difficulty making the shipping arrangements. He arrived late and did not take to the turf. They decided to skip the Atto and ship to New York for the seven furlong Vosburgh at Belmont, one of the toughest sprints in North America. “As it turned out it was a bad decision to run in the Vosburgh,” says Shauna.

He went off at 53 to 1 and you could hear the surprise in the voice of race caller Tom Durken when he announced that Kid Katabatic was in front as the field of 12 settled into stride. He backed up to finish last and came home for a much deserved rest.

Besides the Mile victory, two other races stand out for Shauna. In 1998 he won the Budweiser Emerald in 1:39.3, which stood as the fastest mile and 1/6th in North America for three years.

Two years later, at age seven, he stepped back just as the starting gate opened for the B.C. Cup Classic. The vaunted front-runner trailed the field by a dozen lengths, and his supporters had given up any thought of victory. But he unleashed a tremendous kick in the last quarter mile to score by more than three lengths under Gary Baze. Baze and Loseth rode the Kid in nearly all his big races.

Loseth contradicts what appears on the form chart. “Despite the fact he was nearly always in front going into the first turn, he was not a real good breaking horse. He never paid a lot of attention in the starting gate and it took him a few strides to get going. The day he won the Mile he didn’t break well but he still got an easy lead. A lot of his success was because of Shauna. She really babied him and I don’t think he would have done as well with anyone else.”

In seven campaigns he started only 39 times. His record was 17 wins (13 of them stakes), two seconds and six thirds for earnings of $626,815.

His performances transcended mere dollars. “He loved the crowds,” says Shauna. “He loved the ovations when he won and he responded to the admiration. He hated it when we took him to California because down there he was just another horse. He was an amazing athlete. Although he was small when he was young his symmetry was perfect. He had so much power in his hind end. He would run away from them on the turns.”

He is now using that athletic ability as Shauna’s cattle penning horse. Those poor cows don’t stand a chance.