When Meadowview Cliffy scored his first lifetime victory at Georgian Downs on June 14, it helped brighten a rather dismal week for his owner and breeder Charlie Reid of Meadowview Farms in Orono, Ontario.
Just two days earlier, Reid was forced to have Cliffy’s mother, Meadowviewprincess, put to sleep due to a tumour on her liver. She was one of many horses Reid has owned over the years which trace back to Flemingtons Jane, a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Reid’s father, Jack, selected and raced Flemingtons Jane to many stakes victories during her racing career and once she retired to the broodmare ranks she produced many top trotters including Bobbo, a foal of 1977 who won $905,000 during his career, and the multiple stakes winner Wendys Joker ($302,000).
“I did a chart which showed Flemingtons Jane and her daughters’ production and between she and her daughters and their daughters, their offspring have won more than $9 million, the richest being Corn Cob Conch (with just over $1 million),” said Reid who has owned many of those daughters and their foals.
Frisky Mitchelle was one of Flemingtons Jane’s top producing daughters with her offspring having earned just shy of $2 million. The most successful of which was the Classic Adam son Meadowview Sunny who earned in excess of $814,000 for Reid during his racing career and was named Canada’s two-year-old trotting colt of the year in 2002.
Sunny’s Angus Hall half-sister is the dam of Reid’s latest Ontario Sires Stakes hopeful, Meadowview Cliffy, who has post three in the first of six Grassroots divisions for three-year-old trotting colts Thursday night at Mohawk.
“He had a little trouble finishing his miles last year,” explained Reid of the Muscle Mass son who made six starts and $3,500 last season. Trained by Mark Etsell, Meadowview Cliffy comes into tomorrow night’s contest off a resounding nine length 1:59.4 victory at Georgian Downs.
“He’s the spitting image of his dam, he’s small like she was. He was a piece of cake to break, a gentleman from day one,” said Reid who named the colt after his good friend Cliff Francis.
 Reid owns another Muscle Mass three-year-old competing in the Grassroots program in the filly Meadowview Vicky. “She broke stride in her first Grassroots at Georgian, but she won her qualifier on Saturday by 14 lengths,” said Reid.
Vicky’s dam is Meadowview Tiffy, the final foal from Frisky Mitchelle who died just 11 days after her birth. Tommy Jane, Flemington Jane’s second foal, and a retired 31 year-old broodmare at the time, adopted the filly who went on to earn $171,000 in her career.
Tomorrow night Meadowview Cliffy will attempt to carry on his family’s success in the Ontario Sires Stakes program. The three-year-old colt trotters are featured in Grassroots action in races one, three, five, seven, eight and nine at Mohawk. The full card may be viewed Mohawk Entries – June 26.