Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem for Aug. 21, 2025

A good Thursday morning to you all! Best of luck to all of you playing the big Travers (G1) card this weekend, and we also say goodbye to our friends at Ellis Park as they wind up their summer meet this weekend in Henderson, Kentucky. Ellis has grown and evolved so much in the last several years; it’s cool to see that product just continue to do well. 

Saturday is the Canadian Derby (G3) up at Century Mile, and they’ve got a nice group for the $200,000 season feature in Alberta. Back in the early 2010s, I used to do some writing work for Northlands Park, which was Century Mile’s predecessor in the Edmonton area, and I’ve been fond of this race ever since.  

Today I wanted to share the story of my favorite edition of the Canadian Derby from 2011, the 82nd running of the 1 3/8-mile race. It featured a big field of 11 with just a tepid 3-1 morning line favorite named Line Change. The winner was a horse named Freedoms Traveller, a big gray horse who came from off the pace to win at 5-1. But let’s start with his backstory. 

Freedoms Traveller, a homebred racing for Randy and Donna Feddema, was bred in the province of Alberta. The horse was trained as a two-year-old by Barry Brown, who had trained for over 20 years and had a modest-sized operation. Barry won 279 races over those 20-plus years and hit at a 14% rate. 

Freedoms Traveller was actually one of Barry’s last winners, and the horse ran second in a stakes event at Northlands Park on the last weekend of Barry’s training career in 2010. Brown had been sick and passed away in May of 2011, just a few days before Freedoms Traveller was set to make his three-year-old debut. 

Brown’s longtime partner, Lianne Knectel, took over the training duties of the horses, and as she and Barry had suspected, Freedoms Traveller got better with more distance to run. After a couple of third-place finishes at shorter distances to start the season, he won an allowance and followed it up with a win in the Ky Alta H. at 1 1/16 miles. He lost a heartbreaking photo finish in the Count Lathum H., which was the main local prep for the Canadian Derby. 

On the big day, Freedoms Traveller was second to last early on. Northlands was a five-eighths of a mile track, so the race was just over two full laps of the course. On the third of the four turns, Freedoms Traveller started to make his move. Jockey Rafael Zenteno sent him up wide as he catapulted past his rivals, and he made it up to third midway down the backstretch for the final time. 

Track announcer Shannon “Sugar” Doyle was aware of the horse’s history and of Barry’s connection to this runner. As Freedoms Traveller made his move on the backstretch, Sugar exclaimed “Freedoms Traveller, sent by the angels into that far turn.” 

Freedoms Traveller absolutely inhaled the favorite going into that turn and opened up a big lead. As they turned for home, Sugar said “The angels sent him at the quarter pole, they’re carrying him to the eighth pole.” I just watched the replay of the race before typing this column, and all these years later I still get chills hearing that call. I thought Sugar captured the moment and its weight so perfectly.  

Fun fact about Freedoms Traveller: after his racing career was over, he went on to become a chuckwagon racing horse and even competed at the Calgary Stampede!  

Have a great weekend everyone!