Saskatchewan

'Premier Wall', the horse, beats the odds

With a flick of his ears and a swish of his tail, he trotted away, victorious.

3-year-old thoroughbred beats out other horses at Saskatoon race

In this image from 2014, Jockey Orville Beckford rides Premier Wall. (Leisha Grebinski/CBC)

The odds were against Premier Wall 9.4 to one. But after the eighth race at Marquis Downs finished, he flicked his ears, swished his tail and trotted away, victorious.

This image of Premier Wall and his jockey, Orville Beckford was taken in September 2014. (Leisha Grebinski/CBC)

The three-year-old thoroughbred was up against eight other equines; he beat out Year of the Ma and Fourth Generation, who came in second and third, respectively.

The brown gelding wasn't favoured by odds makers for the Friday race: he was pitted behind Fourth Generation, Berger Bullet, Rural Echo and Cassidy Allstar.

All nine horses got off to a good start on the cloudy day. The track conditions were fast.

But Premier Wall pulled it off. The card at the track wrote about his race this way: "good position, vied for the lead, duelled, up in final strides, drivin."

Although the horse bears the same name as Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, the thoroughbred's co-owner, Ed Esquirol said it's a coincidence. 

Premier Wall is the first born of a male named Sea Wall and female Praise the Lady.


Who's the quote about?

When we first heard about Premier Wall, the horse, we found a number of quotes from various media about Premier Brad Wall (the human) and Premier Wall (the horse). Can you tell which is which? Try our quiz!

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