Martimas

Martimas won his first three starts, all at five furlongs. On July 4, 1898, he won a five furlong at Ontario's Fort Erie Race Track then won another similar event on July 12.^[1] Sent to race in Montreal, Martimas easily won the St. Lawrence Stakes, the featured race on the July 20 card at the racetrack owned by the Bel Air Jockey Club.^[8] Based on these performances, his handlers decided to try him against some of the best two-year-olds in the United States and sent him to compete in the Saratoga, New York race meet in August. Entered in both parts of the Grand Union Hotel Stakes, on August 6 Martimas finished second to Kentucky Colonel in the first part run at five furlongs, and on August 20 he ran fourth in part two at six furlongs to winner Matanza.^[9][10]

For the August 23, 1898 Futurity Stakes hosted by New York's Sheepshead Bay Race Track, Martimas was ridden by Harry Lewis who had been aboard the colt for his win in Montreal's St. Lawrence Stakes. Sent off at 50 to 1 odds, Martimas won the Futurity by three lengths over twenty-two competitors.^[11] Owner William Hendrie donated all of the purse money he received for winning the Futurity to help build the Martimas Wing at the Hamilton General Hospital in his hometown of Hamilton, Ontario.^[12]

Still competing in New York state, Martimas would win the October 8 Rancho Del Paso Stakes at Morris Park Racecourse. With jockey Harry Lewis back racing in Canada, future Hall of Fame jockey Fred Taral was aboard.^[13] In a December 22, 1916 retrospective referencing The Canadian Sportsman magazine, the Daily Racing Form reported that "His greatest performance as a two-year-old was probably in the Rancho Del Paso Stakes in which he ran three-quarters of a mile in the mud the heavy weight up, in 1:12 and a fraction."^[14]

At age three, Martimas most important win came in the 1899 Canadian Derby at the Fort Erie Race Track.^[15]

The following year, the four-year-old Martimas won the 1900 edition of the Toronto Cup at Woodbine Racetrack and the Spencer Handicap at Saratoga.^[16]

As a sire Martimas stood for his owner at his Valley Farm in Aldershot, Ontario. Although he served a limited number of mares, Martimas sired two winners of Canada's most important race, the King's Plate. His colt were Kelvin won the 1907 running and Shimonese won in 1909.^[14]

Following the death of Martimas in 1916, a December 22, 1916 article referencing The Canadian Sportsman magazine, the Daily Racing Form reported that as of that date the Martimas 1911 filly Slipper Day was the "fastest filly ever bred in Canada." Slipper Day was owned by William Hendrie's son, John Strathearn Hendrie, a successful businessman and politician who would serve as the 11th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario.^[14]

In 2001, Martimas would be inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.^[12]