Dallaire Hopes to Make 'Vision' a Reality

A lifelong barrel racer, Brittany Dallaire got her start in horseracing at the tender age of 14 when fellow barrel racer and Thoroughbred consignor Hal Hatch asked her if she wanted to come and ride for him. The rest, as they say, is history.

“I started riding for Hal and then I went and rode for John Stephens for a few years and kind of worked my way up,” Dallaire said. “Four years ago, I had an opportunity to start owning some horses with the guy my mom works for, Gary Smith of English Range Farm, and he just gave me a good opportunity to get into it.”

Now 23 years old, Dallaire consigns horses in partnership with her boyfriend Jonathan Poole as Envision Equine and the pair were represented by their first bullet worker Tuesday when Hip 242, a colt by Shackleford, covered a quarter-mile in a sharp :20.3 during day two of the OBS April breeze show.

“We had pretty high expectations going into [Tuesday] with him,” remarked Dallaire, who breezed the colt herself. “He's been a standout all year. We brought a pretty good group over there, but he stood in a class by himself, just the way he carries himself. He's always been fast. He's always shown up for us. We haven't really drilled on him too much because he has been so good that we haven't had to. We had pretty high expectations, but you never know what's going to happen when it's time to go.”

Hip 242, a half-brother to GSP Pedaltothemedal (Medallist) who hails from the family of GSW & GISP Concave (Colonel John), is one of two English Range homebreds in the Envision Equine consignment. The other is Hip 1157, a Twirling Candy colt whose second dam is Chilean Group 1 winner Tuscolana (Chi) (Roy).

Envision Equine's seven-horse consignment also includes Hip 379, a Hansen colt who breezed in :10.1 Tuesday; Hip 409, a filly by Dialed In who breezed in :10 flat Wednesday; Hip 454, a Stay Thirsty colt from the family of champion Halfbridled (Unbridled) and MGSW Lu Ravi (A.P. Indy) who worked in :10.1 Wednesday; Hip 547, a filly by Warrior's Reward who covered a quarter-mile in :21.1 Wednesday; and Hip 947, a Quality Road filly.

“They are all pretty even across the board other than [the Shackleford],” Dallaire commented. “He was the standout of the group. The rest are all pretty even. The Stay Thirsty is the only we didn't break and train ourselves. He is a ship-in, so I don't know much about him, but he has been pretty nice since he has been over here.”

Dallaire and the 31-year-old Poole, who met while they were both riding for Hatch, started Envision Equine just last year. Based at Starting Point Horse Complex in Morriston, Florida, the pair break and train about 20 Thoroughbreds a year and consign about half of them at either OBS March, April or June.

“We started Envision Equine last year and had 20 to train,” the Ocala resident said. “We took six to April, two to March and two to June. Our top seller was a Sidney's Candy colt, who brought $125,000 in June. This year we had 20 in training all year, but a lot of them went off to other consignors. We had eight consigned to this sale, but we are down to seven now [after withdrawing Hip 279], and we have a couple for June.”

Envision Equine's consignment is typically a mix of English Range Farm homebreds and horses they picked up at yearling sales. The bulk of its consignment is often made up of the offspring of young sires.

“Usually we can afford the freshman sires just because they haven't really proven themselves yet, so we tend to buy a little bit of those,” Dallaire remarked. “Generally you can't get the Tapits and the Smart Strikes and ones like that in our price range. Obviously, you want to have the best sire power you can get that you can afford with the physicals that you want.”

As young up-and-comers in the business, Dallaire and Poole work with a small budget, so they have to be a bit flexible, not only with sires, but also with pedigree and certain physical traits.

“We will buy horses that may have a little flaw here or a little flaw there that we think will grow or mature into themselves,” Dallaire commented. “We try to buy good physicals and not worry too much on the pedigree. We make sure they are pretty correct and have a good walk and have all the right pieces. Sometimes you have to buy them a little bit smaller or give up a little bit of pedigree to buy them in the price bracket we are trying to buy them in, but we are looking to move up every year with our prices as we do better and better.”

The breeze show continues through Saturday and the OBS April sale begins Tuesday, April 19 and runs through Friday, April 22.