First win for owner Karen Carroll!

The fifth race at Woodbine on July 12 was an exciting maiden special weight race with the heavy favourite, the 3-year-old filly Spirited, looking like the winner in mid-stretch for trainer Josie Carroll.

That is until another Josie Carroll trainee, Talbot's Riplyn, charged past to win by a neck at 5 to 1, giving Karen Carroll (no relation) her first win as a Thoroughbred owner.

“It was very exciting,” said Karen, who breeds, sells and races Standardbreds at Talbot Creek Farm in Shedden, Ontario with her husband Dr. Wayne Carroll.

“This was a special first win also because she is named for my Mom and Dad.”

The 'Riplyn' part of her filly's name comes from her parents, Blake and Evelyn Bennett's Riplyn Farm, a dairy cattle business.

Karen got her first pony when she was just seven years old. After studying law in college she began training and driving trotters during the time her parent top trotter Armbro Agile. Karen also represented  Ontario in the Women’s Drivers Challenge in PEI and won.

Wayne Carroll, a rider and hockey player, graduated from Guelph University specializing in Equine Medicine. His late brother Ray was the longtime farm manager for Anderson Farms. The Carrolls, who have four children, started Talbot Creek Farm (128 acres) in 1998.

Karen began breeding to sell Thoroughbreds in 2016 with her first mare purchase, Another Flashback, by Curlin. The mare's fourth foal, Jumpin Junie, a $30,000 Keeneland September yearling, won the 2022 Princess Elizabeth Stakes for Sea Glass Stable.

Talbot's Riplyn is a full sister to Jumpin Junie (who was originally named Riplyn) as a daughter of Midnight Lute – Another Flashback.

“We couldn't sell her, she had a cyst on a back ankle. So I kept her to race.”

After one race for trainer Mike DePaulo last year, Talbot's Riplyn joined Josie Carroll's  barn after a winter of frolicking in the snow at Talbot Creek.

Another Flashback has a yearling colt by Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Golden Pal entered in the 2025 Keeneland September sale and a colt from her only other mare, Catch the Fire, and by Good Magic, also in that sale.

Until then, Karen may get to see Talbot's Riplyn in a stakes race soon. “It's certainly something different, keeping a racehorse. But you only learn more things in this business by trying different things.”

Talbot's Riplyn's maiden win: