Renée Kierans – Hands-On Trainer

You won't find too many horsepeople on the Woodbine backstretch today who have worked in as many facets of racing as trainer Renée Kierans, who recently shipped in her small stable of runners for 2025.

She has exercised horses, ridden in races, owned and trained and is well known for her years as simulcast and network television analyst for Woodbine Entertainment.

And Renée is keen on bringing new owners into racehorse ownership, something she has done with success.

“I get a great amount of satisfaction winning races with horses who maybe have been a bit difficult,” said Renée. “And I love riding my horses that I train since I get to really know each horse.”

Born in Montreal, Renée remembers falling in love with riding horses as a child on a trail ride in Jasper Park in Alberta. She studied human kinetics at the University of Guelph in Ontario and then travelled to New Zealand after graduating where she galloped horses for a year.

Upon returning home to Montreal, Renée wanted to stay with horses. Her father, a good friend of leading owner Jean Louis Levesque, made a call and in 1984, she was riding horses for Levesque's Woodbine trainer Jacques Dumas.

Renée also rode competitively as an amateur rider in various competitions around the world. You can watch one of her winning rides, this one at Newmarket in England aboard Shining Jewel in the 1993 Dickins Invitational,

Renee began training horses in 1992 when she bought her first horse with her sister from the local yearling sale. Kid Million, picked up for a little over $2,000, was a three-time winner.

She continued to train on a small scale when, in 1999, she signed on with Woodbine Entertainment's television department as a daily race analyst for both Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds and in-the-saddle interviewer on network television for the Queen's Plate and other big races. She was on the air for more than a dozen years until the end of the slots-at-racetracks revenue sharing program led to massive layoffs at the track.

Since then, Renée's stable has grown to about half a dozen horses each year, she has been involved in teaching health courses with Equine Guelph and she assists top American trainer Michael Stidham when he ships horses to Woodbine to race.

One of Renée's more recent success stories has been Timeskip, who just retired from the track following his 9-year-old campaign last year. A $26,000 Woodbine yearling purchase and quite a skittish fellow early in his career, Timeskip won over $328,000 and was graded stakes placed twice.

Last year, Renée won three races with Rick Mah's filly Taylormoon, who had a serious gate phobia that her trainer helped her overcome.

New owners Ann and David Muscat of Halton Hills have enjoyed success with Lobby Bar, who they currently own with Renée's partner, Hall of Fame standardbred trainer Ben Wallace and Harness Horsepower. The partners bought Lobby Bar for $20,000 at the CTHS sale four years ago and he's already a three-time winner of almost $100,000.

Renée welcomes anyone to her stable who wants to get involved in racehorse ownership. “It's so important to surround yourself with good people in the industry and people you can trust.

Then decide if you want to jump right into claiming a horse, or buying a yearling and watching him develop.”

With so many years of hands-on experience, Renee is a good bet any time one of her horses goes to the the post.

Cheering Section

Woodbine's reigning leading trainer, Mark Casse, is hoping that his Kentucky-bred student, the impeccably bred Sandman, performs well in the March 29 Arkansas Derby (G1) to earn a trip to the biggest Derby of them all, the Kentucky Derby (G1).

Sandman, owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, D.J, Stable, St. Elias Stable and CJ Stable, is 3 to 1 in the $1.5 million race at Oaklawn Park which offers Kentucky Derby points of 100-50-25-15-10. The handsome grey cost $1.2 million as a yearling and he was recently a closing third in the Grade 2 Rebel Stakes, also at Oaklawn.

Mark has had horses in eight editions of the Kentucky Derby with his best finish being a fourth from Classic Empire in 2017, a colt who won the Arkansas Derby that year.

While the Grade 1 Florida Derby, also a major race towards the Kentucky Derby, is the key feature at Gulfstream Park on Mar. 29, there is some Canadian content in supporting stakes races. Chiefswood Stables' Ontario bred Playmea Tune contests the $165,000 Army Mule Stakes (race 11) for trainer Josie Carroll. Playmea Tune is coming off his first stakes win in the Forego at Turfway Park on Feb. 1.

Woodbine trainer Martin Drexler has entered two recent claimed horses, Skyro and Fly the W in the $165,000 Appleton Stakes on the turf, race 13, where they will meet Woodbine fan favourite Ice Chocolat (Brz) from the Mark Casse barn.

Answer to our quiz on 'X' @HBPA_ONT

This week on 'X' we asked if you knew the name of the Canadian Champion 2-year-old colt who went on to win the Florida Derby (G1) the following year?

The answer is MERCDEDES WON, the 1988 Sovereign Award winner who won the Grey Stakes (G3) and Swynford Stakes at Woodbine as a juvenile and went on to a big career in the U.S.

Watch Pete Axthelm's short report on the 1989 Florida Derby here: