Al and Bill Ulwelling experienced the highlights and lows of life in a time span of just a few minutes: their 3-year-old Colt Mansetti won the King’s plate, the first jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, with 2 ½ lengths, and while the family was on the way to the circle of the winner, his survival his survival worked his survival The new meaning of the word victory.
Transition from fan to owner
The Ulwellings, who own A&B Welding & Construction Inc. In every Lake, Minn., started their journey to the King’s Plate on the opening day at Canterbury Downs 40 years ago.
“My father just loved betting on the horses and when I was a small child, he would of course take me to Canterbury. We were there opening day,” Son already remembered. “And since then we would go back to Canterbury to bet on the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, Belmont [Stakes]. And then we met a man at the bar, a buddy of us who had a horse. And we, of course, at that time we had a little money, and we just wanted to wet our toes, so to speak. And we bought a horse in a bar. “
The couple bought a horse with friend Bob Wizcek, a gelding called diplomatic storm, and although he never completely found the circle of the winner, father and son succeeded in enjoying their first trip to ownership.
“Once he ran, like, fourth place in Iowa [at Prairie Meadows] And I think we got around six hundred dollars, “Ulwelling shared.” Then we drank the six hundred at the bar. We were just so happy that he was fourth. ‘
Wizcek eventually came out of racing, but the father-son Duo stayed in, the success of their company gave them the means to keep investing in racing.
In the next two decades they not only expanded their stable but also their blood stock interests. The Ulwellings have around 30 horses in training, divided between strings in both Canada and the United States, and half a dozen breeding marry in Winchester Equine in Kentucky. Every year they breed their mares to Kentucky stallions and then send them to Foal in Ontario to take advantage of the province’s benefit programs. The king’s album is one of that: the race is limited to Canadian -3 -year -old thoroughbreds, another stimulus for the owners to keep sending their mares to the north.
“We don’t breed to sell. We only breed for racing,” shared Ulwelling. Moreover, the couple, together with Bloodstock Agent Clay Scherer, will sell such as the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. Spring 2-year-olds in training sales and be active to claim horses. “We will claim. We look at the PPP every day, but have just not seen much that looks really good lately.”
Their Canadian string is entrusted to Kevin Attard, who broke Mark Casse’s series of 13 straight sovereign prizes for Outstanding Trainer last year. Attard’s Banner 2024 season included a victory in the Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf of the maker with Moira, who also gave the trainer his first King’s Plate in 2022, and a victory through Caitlinrtness in the King’s Plate. The American string of the Ulwellings is divided between Bill Morey in Turfway Park in Kentucky and Gary Scherer on fair grounds in New Orleans. They got their start in Canterbury Park near their house in Minnesota, but the pair prefers to racet in Woodbine.
“The facilities are literally in world class,” said Alwelling. “You have a large outdoor dressing course, an inner stelt course, and then you have the big song with Tapeta [all-weather surface]As a result, they race from mid -April to the end of December. And by that time the horses will need a break anyway.
“We had a stand in Canterbury, and we had one TV on Woodbine all the time, bet on it. I kept seeing these facilities and saw how massive it was. I caught a few years before I contacted Kevin. We were winning a lot of races the midwest tracks. Well, if we could just get a few horses there, we can view and manage them and still visit and such.
“Long story short, I called Kevin after we had driven a horse called Pumpkin Rumble up there. I said,” Hey, Kevin, my name is already. ” And I think I was not serious or something like that, and so we started with KEV.
The cooperation between Attard and the Ulwellings has been fruitful. Together they won two Prince of Wales Stakes, the middle jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown in Fort Erie, with Haddassah in 2021 and with Velocitor in 2023. The stubborn profits of the owners also came with Attard: Pump Pin Rumble gave the Gropee Valedictory gave Valedictory Stakes in 2019. June in the HPIBET Marine Stakes in Woodbine and his victory in King’s plate 16 August is the highest victory of the team so far – the memory of the highlights and lows of that day linger while looking at the Prince of Wales.
A day to remember
Mansetti had not immediately linked the Ulwellings, a son of collected from the Sky Mesa Mare Gidget Girl, as a King’s sheet candidate. Bred by Jim Rome’s Jungle Racing and Veulen in Ontario, he was part of the Mission of Eddie Woods on the 2024 OBS Spring 2-year-olds in training sales, where Clay Scherer saw him and identified the Colt as a candidate for the Ulwellings.
“We liked him. We loved his work. We liked everything about him,” the younger Ulwelling shared. “And Clay gave me a target price and we have it for $ 40,000.”
They gave their new acquisition a name that was close to them and dear: Mansetti. “Mansettis is a pizzeria at our house. My wife and I have four children and to get her out of the house, if I could feel that she needed a break, she and I would go to Mansettis for an hour,” he shared. “If you have a lot of horses, it will be difficult to name them. So we always try to name them for something that we like. And we love Mansettis and their pizza, and so he ended with the name.”
On 2, the Colt won his six Furlong debut at the end of September and then took the Clarendon Stakes in his third start. To start his 3-year season, Attard shipped him to aqueduct for Mansetti’s first attempt on the dirt.
‘We thought he was a good horse, so we sent him to the Jerome [Stakes]To aqueduct. He trained very well and when he ran [fifth] We think in Jerome, “This is a sprint horse.” He will not be a board horse, so let’s just store it. Let’s concentrate on Woodbine in the spring and then start him, “Ulwelling remembered.
Mansetti returned to the Tapeta All-Weather Surface After his non-placed finish in the Jerome, then won the stated Woodstock Stakes at six Furlongs.
“I am like, KEV, still think he is just a sprinter because he has won fairly easily.”
Two starts later, Mansetti won the Marine Stakes with a length at 1 1/16 miles.
“After that race I said: ‘Kev, let’s just have a chance. We talked about the plate process [Stakes]But then he wanted six weeks to just train until the [King’s] Plate. We wanted a fresh horse with so much air in him to go as far as we knew he was tactically fast. He already shows that. Then Kevin started to train him and find him more and more. And of course he just peaked at the right time. ‘
The Ulwellings entered Mansetti and Faber, their gelding through unlikely, in front of the 1 ¼ miles plate.
“We had the feeling that Faber had no problem achieving the distance, and he had had a number of really rough journeys. So we knew that a) he could get the distance, but b) he needed the right trip,” the owner shared. “And we felt like Mansetti, the mile and a quarter would be doubtful.”
But Attard’s father, colleague trainer Tino, chose the collected foal over his stablemate and told the Ulwellings that the morning of the plate.
“I never even got the chance to ask him if he is using him,” laughed.
Looking at the race from the circle of the winner, Al Ulwelling and Woman Gabriella “SAW: 23.47 [for the opening quarter-mile]And I think, “We won’t even get a piece of this.” I said, Faber is coming because he can run all day. So I started looking for Faber thinking that Mansetti might almost stop. Then I see the 1:12, and he still kicked it up, and [jockey] Pietro [Moran] I really didn’t ask much. And I started screaming for Mansetti. He surprised us.
“He is a very nice horse to have. I think he’s getting good. He gets better every race.”
The moment the Ulwellings reached a classic high, life intervened. While Gabriella was on their way to the circle of the winner, they were looking for Father Bill, who could not be found anywhere.
“I tried to stop them for my father. I thought he might just be talking to someone. And then my wife got a phone call on her phone from our friend. And then I heard our last name about the Walkietalkie of the EMS boys. And I am so, this can’t be good.”
While he went the stairs to the apron of Woodbine to participate in the festivities in the circle of the winner, the older Ulwelling got a heart attack, his pacemaker shocked his heart to keep it while paramedics were present. They could stabilize him for a ride to a local hospital. Once they came home in the Minneapolis area, “his hospital, his cardiologist, called him and said,” We have to see you immediately. You are lucky that you live. Your heart stopped beating five times. ‘
“My father has an electric issue with his heart, and it happened earlier,” explained. “When we won the Prince of Wales, he had his big problem with his heart. That’s when he got it [pacemaker] done in it. Then we went to the [King’s] Plate, and it happened again. So no more live racing for him until they get a good solution for that. “
With their patriarch on the improving recovery, the Ulwellings will count down the days until Mansetti and Faber compete on the 1 3/16-Mijl Prince of Wales Stakes on 9 September. After an eventful King’s Plate, the younger Ulwelling is looking forward to a more predictable and someone can call a Canadian Triple Crown classic so-Day at Fort Erie.
“It will be a fun day, I think. Both horses are healthy and we get another chance to do it. I think Faber is going to go really well. Like Mansetti, he is now my favorite horse, but I think Faber is doing well, so I am enthusiastic about it.”
The American father-son Tandem has found success at the highest level on the races of our northern neighbor, and the family seems to continue that for years.
“We were lucky there, that’s for sure,” said Alwelling. “The good thing is that we keep the pedal low and try to win more.”
Ideally, with everyone happy and healthy and together in the circle of the winner.
#HeartStopping #Kings #Plate #Ulwellings #experienced #highlights #lows #life #victory #Mansetti