No anger between Laver and Webster about doing what’s best for Tirade Seelster

by Matthew Lomon

When Darryl Laver took his seat at Progressive Auto Sales Arena last year, he expected a spirited performance from the Sarnia Sting and maybe a point or two from leading scorers Easton Walos and Beckham Edwards.

What the longtime horseman didn’t anticipate, however, was a business proposition from an old racetrack acquaintance, Allister Webster.

“I hadn’t seen Al for about 12 years,” Laver said. “I never trained for him, but he had a few people training for him before he left the industry when the slots went out.

“All these years later, he came up to me at the game and wondered if I wanted a horse. I said, ‘Well, yeah. What do you have?’ ‘I don’t have one,’ he said, ‘but I’m going to get one.’”

Webster’s plan, as Laver recounted, was to purchase a trotting filly at the 2025 London Classic Yearling Sale, preferably from Muscle Mass.

About one week after their initial encounter, Webster presented Laver with a list of approximately 10 yearlings that caught his eye.

Webster then set course for the J-AAR Expo Centre at Western Fair District, eager to scout them in person on viewing day, which also happened to fall on Canadian Thanksgiving.

A cornucopia of reconsiderations followed.

“He was down there quick to look at a bunch of them and he was down to about five but then he changed his mind,” Laver said with a laugh. “He didn’t go to the sale the first day because he was going to buy a racehorse instead.

“Meanwhile, another one of my ownership groups bought a cheap one that day for $5,000 [Sister Rosetta]. Then, Al calls me that night and says, ‘I see you bought one. I’m going to go down tomorrow.’”

Webster’s list of five was now two.

“They weren’t any of the ones that he picked in the first place,” Laver said with another laugh. “They were back-to-back in the sale: two trotting fillies, Hip #185 and 186. The first one was 185, Green Silverado. She is four-for-four for [trainer] Matt Trelford.

“The next horse, 186, was Tirade Seelster.”

Laver, who was not in attendance on day two, reached out to Webster with one simple message: “‘Well, are you a horse owner?’”

Webster answered, “Yep,” and off the pair went to pick up their new trotting filly, Tirade Seelster.

“The first thing I said was, ‘This is a big horse,’” Laver said. “She’s a February foal, so it was early, but she was big. She also has a strut to her when she walks – it’s like, ‘Look at me.’”

The bay daughter of Lookslikeachpndale—Tymal Timeout had the class to back up her confidence.

“She broke really easy,” Laver said. “She was handled well coming from Seelster Farms – they get lots of handling there. She did everything; she was a natural right from the start.”

While there were initial concerns that Tirade Seelster’s size may hinder her development, they were quickly laid to rest.

Though, her path forward was not adversity-free.

“It was mid-March [2026] and she was training nice, and then all of a sudden she developed a little nod to her,” Laver said. “She would make the odd break coming out of a turn, so we took her to a vet.

“He thought it was in her left front foot, so we X-rayed the foot. Nope. We X-rayed the knee, and she had a little wee line. It took a lot of X-rays to find it, but when we did, the vet said it was going to require four-to-six weeks of stall rest.”

Aware that their rookie racer was a “busy body in her stall,” Laver and Webster opted for a more appropriate rehabilitation strategy.

“The very next day, we took her to First Line Training Centre and got Courtney Robson and Boyd Wilson to swim her for us,” Laver said. “She swam for six weeks until the end of April. Then I brought her home and she was ready to go.”

Qualified by June and ready to compete by July, Tirade Seelster showed flashes to begin her career, but was still figuring out where she belonged.

For that answer, Webster turned to Laver.

“Al said, ‘What would you do if you owned her?’ I told him I’d go to the Prospect,” Laver said. “We raced her in the Grassroots and they went in [1]:55 and I said, ‘Let her race in the Prospect. They go for $10,000, so you get five grand if you win, and she’s going to be all right in there.’”

Laver’s intuition proved spot on, as Tirade Seelster, making her Prospect Series debut with Tyler Borth in the race bike, rolled to a confident three-length victory on July 18 at Hanover Raceway.

“He [Borth] never even asked her,” Laver said.

The emerging trotter returned to the Prospect ranks on Aug. 1, delivering a runner-up finish at Hiawatha Horse Park – a mere three kilometers from Progressive Auto Sales Arena, where the unexpected Webster-Laver partnership began.

Any sentimentality was quickly one-upped by a brilliant outing on Aug. 15, this time at Georgian Downs, that saw Tirade Seelster secure her second Prospect score by 1½ lengths.

With Borth unavailable that night, Scott Coulter held the reins. His instructions from Laver were simple.

“Scott asked me what he needed to know, and I told him just to put her on the gate because she’ll push it,” Laver said. “She left the gate from the 7-hole, crossed right over to the front, and he never even asked her.

“In the winner’s circle, Scott said, ‘All I did was whistle to her at the top of the stretch. There’s no BS about it. She just goes.’”

While Coulter wasn’t able to pilot Tirade Seelster in her next Prospect event on Aug. 23 at Clinton Raceway, the lifetime winner of more than 6,100 races had high praise for the ascending filly.

“He said to me, ‘Anybody can drive her,” Laver said. “She’s a sports car.’”

Coulter’s compliment proved spot on, as Tirade Seelster, with Lorne House in the sulky, secured a second straight gate-to-wire tally, elevating her Prospect Series scorecard to 3-1-0 from four starts.

“Lorne and I were walking after the race and he said, ‘That was just a training mile for her,’” Laver said.

Encouraged by what he’s seen from the $27,000 purchase, Laver understands how Tirade Seelster’s recent success could spark talk about a potential promotion to the Grassroots.

However, the veteran conditioner has no intentions of rushing his prized pupil’s development.

“Al’s mentioned going back to the Grassroots, and my response to him has been that it’s nice to go there but she’ll be a way better horse next year if we don’t run her into the ground this year,” Laver said.

“It’s nice to compete in those races and be in the big spotlight at Mohawk, but if you don’t do well, then you might as well go for $10,000 somewhere else.”

Staying in the moment, while carefully managing Tirade Seelster’s short- and long-term futures, has been a point of emphasis for Laver with four Prospect Series legs remaining, including the $25,000 final on Oct. 6 at the Raceway at Western Fair.

If all goes well over the next five weeks, perhaps a return to the Grassroots will be in order for a 3-year-old Tirade Seelster.

Laver, like Webster, is certainly open to the idea.

“I hope we can get there,” he said. “I think she’s a really nice horse. I’ve always said she’s a really nice horse – she’s smart, she doesn’t pull, she just goes off the gate and does her thing.”

As long, he added, as it’s in the best interests of Tirade Seelster.

“Everybody wants to chase the big headlines, but it’s not always what’s best for the horse,” Laver said.