Looking down from balcony of the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, NY, Ontario breeder Arika Everatt-Meeuse thought she was going to vomit.
It was exactly 26 days after her mother, Boss Lady J, had died. Everatt-Meeuse had spent much of the trip crying, and now the hammer was about to fall on one of the last foals out of the late Janeane Everatt's favourite mare. Everatt-Meeuse was beside herself with worry and grief, fretting about where Count to Three's yearling filly was going to land.
Trainer Mark Casse had been one of the few people to vet the yearling, so Everatt-Meeuse had been hoping beyond hope that he was going to buy the filly and bring her home to Woodbine Racetrack to race.
"We felt like our best buyer was Casse," said Everatt-Meeuse. "I thought, 'I'm going to lower my expectations in the ring as long as he gets her.' I think he's fantastic, he does a great job, and he's had other horses for us. He did fantastic with (multiple graded stakes winner) Lucky Score. Over the years he's had all kinds from us and done really well with them. So, I thought, 'Whatever I don't make today, she goes home (to Ontario) and there (are) potential Breeders Awards.'"
But Casse had spent $750,000 on the filly that sold one yearling before Count to Three's baby stepped into the ring and now the Hall of Fame trainer was distracted first by an interview and then by a conversation with that filly's new owners.
"None of it was making sense and I didn't know what was happening," Everatt-Meeuse said. "And then all of a sudden [Casse] was like, 'Oh, hey, hey, hey.' They were about to hammer her down and he bid once, and he got her."
The price was $250,000.
"I felt like my mom was there," Everatt-Meeuse said. "I said, 'Thank you, Boss Lady.'"
Two years later—and four days after the Ontario-bred filly that sold that day won the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks—Everatt-Meeuse dabbed away tears. A framed photo of her mother was looking down from a wall in the beautiful, enclosed gazebo on the small island in the pond on Shannondoe Farm that her parents started as a trout farm near St. Thomas, Ontario, in the 1960s before launching a Thoroughbred breeding operation there in 1971.
"Everyone on the farm called her Boss Lady J," Everatt-Meeuse said of her mother. "I'm Captain and she was Boss Lady."
In January of 2017, Everatt-Meeuse acquired Count to Three, in foal to Stormy Atlantic, privately for a modest sum after the mare failed to reach her reserve price at a Sam-Son Farm dispersal held at the Keeneland Horses of All Ages sale. The final bid was just $14,000. Everatt-Meeuse had just made a deal to bring stallion Dynamic Sky to stand at Shannondoe and was looking for mares to breed to him.
Count to Three, sired by Red Ransom, was 15 at the time and had already produced five foals. But two of those—Ransom the Moon (sired by Malibu Moon) and Count Again (Awesome Again)—ultimately ended up being multiple graded stakes winners with earnings of $884,829 and $1,085,415, respectively. The depth of their talent wasn't fully known by the time Everatt-Meeuse bought Count to Three, but their success definitely enhanced the mare's value later.
Still, Count to Three's foals for Shannondoe had modest results prior to Everatt-Meeuse's 2021 decision to breed the mare to Kentucky-based Not This Time. It's important to note that Not This Time's stud fee at the time was $40,000, not the $175,000 it is today.
Helping the cosmic connectivity of it all was the fact that Boss Lady J loved Count to Three, who died in 2024 and is buried at Shannondoe.
"(Count to Three) was her favorite as soon as I got her," Everatt-Meeuse said. "There was something about that mare that my mom loved. She reminded her of another mare that she had when I was a little kid that was hers; it was bought in her name and belonged to her."
Everatt-Meeuse said she decided Saratoga was the place to sell the yearling that would become No Time because the filly was and is "super classy." Still, it was a bit of a risk. The yearling was physically behind others when it came time to sell.
Once in Saratoga, Everatt-Meeuse said she could feel her mother's presence everywhere she went. Saratoga was one of Boss Lady J's favourite places and the Saratoga sale always fell around her birthday.
Three days before Janeane Everatt would have turned 83, her daughter was feeling queasy looking down on the auction ring at the Fasig-Tipton New York-Saratoga Select Yearling Sale as the bidding slowed and the hammer was beginning to raise on hip #26.
That's when Casse swept in and bought No Time one yearling after also landing the filly that would become And One More Time, the winner of the 2024 Grade 1 Johnnie Walker Natalma Stakes at Woodbine.
Casse said if it wasn't for Barber, they both would have missed out on No Time, because the yearling that was due to sell between the two fillies was out.
"(Barber) wasn't even looking for anything," Casse said. "But Gary and I have a relationship where, if I see something, I call and, honestly, I don't think he's ever turned me down, but I'm usually fairly confident when I ask him. That's why he doesn't turn me down.
"So, I called him up and I said, 'Gary, there's a filly here that we have to buy. ... She's going to be overlooked because she's not very big, but she's going to grow. She's got a hell of a pedigree and could be any kind. So, we vet her and Gary knows that we're going to bid on her. Luckily, he was paying attention, because you're 100 per cent correct. We bought the horse before, and I was doing an interview and I forgot and I didn't know the next horse [due in the ring] was scratched. And I got a phone call, and it was Gary, and he goes, 'She's about to sell' and I bid on her.
"And that's how she got her name—No Time."
In the end, Everatt-Meeuse said it was fate.
Little did she know then, but No Time would give Shannondoe its first Woodbine Oaks winner and a shot to win its first King's Plate on Aug. 16 at Woodbine.
"The stars aligned, my mother watched over everything," Everatt-Meeuse said, "and I'm sure she's still watching."
This press release has not been edited by BloodHorse. If there are any questions please contact the organization that produced the release.
