Trainer Lise Pruitt with 2024 Rangatira Stakes winner Explosive. (George Williams)
by G. S. Thompson
“I can’t wait to start,” said trainer Lise Pruitt. “Can’t wait.”
Pruitt is looking forward to the start of the 2025 live racing season at Assiniboia Downs on Tuesday, May 13, and for good reason. This will be her fifth season at the helm for top owner Barry Arnason and his Arnason Farms, and she’s got some exciting young prospects along with last year’s stable star Explosive.
Explosive won the 2024 Rangatira Stakes at 30-1 for Pruitt, and that was after a long campaign south of the border at tracks that included Turfway Park, Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Keeneland, Los Alamitos, Santa Anita, and Golden Gate. The classy 8-year-old gelding has compiled a record of 6-7-5 from 34 starts and earnings of US $160,697, and he’s entering the 2025 season after a well-deserved winter vacation in Manitoba.
Pruitt will have between 15 and 18 horses this season, a number that might seem modest until you consider the quality. Besides Explosive, she’s working to bring Saint George back into the fold, a Florida purchase who broke his maiden impressively last June 26th.
“He got left in the gate and just came running,” said Pruitt. “Won by daylight.”
Besides Explosive, Pruitt has conditioned a number of Manitoba-bred multiple stakes winners and champions including Hidden Grace, Melisandre, and Langara for Arnason Farms, the latter also owned in partnership with True North Thoroughbreds.
Langara is now retired to a wonderful life of leisure, while Hidden Grace and Melisandre have joined the broodmare ranks. Melisandre, like her stablemates, retired on a stakes-winning note with a victory in the Taboga Overnight Stakes last year for Pruitt.
Pruitt lives at Arnason’s farm with her husband, former top Assiniboia Downs jockey Jerry Pruitt, and spent the winter caring for the horses. While Jerry helps out at Maggie Lawson’s Dunroven Farm year-round, Lise handles her training duties at the track for Arnason with the help of a dedicated team that includes top grooms Richie Ricketts and Keno Martin.
Pruitt is excited not only about her horses this year, but also about her 23-year-old daughter Ciera, who spent the winter at Palm Meadows working for Canadian Hall of Fame trainer Josie Carroll. Carroll was the first female trainer to win the Queen’s Plate in 2006 and has now won it three times. Ciera has returned with ambitions of securing her jockey’s license.
“Josie wanted to keep her, but Ciera really wants to ride,” said Pruitt, who believes Assiniboia Downs would be a good starting point for her daughter’s riding career. “She’s learned so much.”
Now in her fourth year of galloping horses, Ciera appears ready to follow in her father’s footsteps. If successful, she’ll write a new chapter in what’s becoming one of Manitoba racing’s most compelling family stories.
Beyond the current racing season, Pruitt and Arnason are looking toward the future. They have five yearlings preparing for this year’s sale, including offspring of stallions Speculating and Nonios. Four of their homebred two-year-olds failed to meet their reserve at last year’s sale, but that disappointment has turned into opportunity.
Among their promising juveniles is a Speculating gelding named “Bromeo.” “He got nicknamed Romeo,” said Pruitt. “But when I tried to punch it in, they wouldn’t accept it. So I had to go with Bromeo.” Another promising juvenile is Noble Escape, out of Reasonable Cause, who is a sister to Manitoba-bred Canadian champion mare Escape Clause. There’s also a Nonios colt out of a Strawberry Flash mare that’s a half brother to Silver Oak, winner of a $100,000 stake at Santa Anita.
“I always look forward to a new year,” said Pruitt, who has found her sweet spot at Assiniboia Downs.
And the horses know it, too.