Captain Clutch

At a glance

Status: In training
Filly, Ontario-bred, foaled May 23, 2023
By Reload out of Midseason Form
Trainer: Kevin Attard
Acquired at the 2024 CTHS Premier Yearling Sale

Behind the name

A 4-time Olympian and 12-time World Championship medallist, Marie-Philip Poulin has been captain of the Canadian women’s national hockey team since 2015. She was dubbed “Captain Clutch” by her teammates and the media after famously scoring the game-winning goal in the gold medal games of three out of four Olympics in which she competed. The only player in international women’s hockey history to have scored a “golden goal hat trick”, she is also the only male or female athlete to have ever scored goals in four straight Olympic gold medal hockey games.

Poulin was the first female hockey player to win the Northern Star Award as Canada’s Top Athlete of the Year, joining an elite group of nine NHL legends that includes the Rocket, Bobby Orr, Lafleur, Gretzky, Lemieux, and Crosby. She is one of only two hockey players to ever receive the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada’s Female Athlete of the Year.

In 2022, TSN named Poulin the “best women’s hockey player on the planet.” NBC ran a segment on her called “Canada’s Captain Clutch” and Sportsnet called her one of the most clutch players in hockey history.

Marie-Philip Poulin began her career with Boston University, leading the Terriers to the Frozen Four final in 2011 and becoming the first player in Boston University history to be a finalist for US Female College Player of the Year. By the time she graduated, Poulin was a first team All-American and Boston University’s all-time leader in goals, assists and points.

As a pro, Poulin played with the Canadiennes de Montreal in the CWHL. In the 2015-16 season, she won the award for top scorer in the league and also became the inaugural winner of the Jayna Hefford Trophy as league MVP (an award she would win two more times). The next year, Poulin captained her team to a Cup win, scoring two goals in a 3-1 victory against Calgary in the final.

In 2020, Captain Clutch took part in the Elite Women’s Showcase at the NHL All-Star Game and was voted by NHL players as the best female hockey player in the world.

In 2022, Poulin was named an NHL player development consultant for the Montreal Canadiens, bringing to the role “credibility, pedigree and an innate talent for being clutch.” In 2023, she scored her 200th point with Team Canada and became captain of the Montreal Victoire with the inception of the PWHL. In 2024, she captained Team Canada in the World Championships and scored twice against the US in the gold medal game to secure Canada’s record 13th world title.

Always able to reload and start each campaign in mid-season form, Poulin currently leads the Victoire in goals and points and sits atop the league in game-winning goals.

More than just the greatest big-game performer in the history of women’s hockey, Captain Clutch is one of the best in all of sports history. Her plaque at the Hockey Hall of Fame is already as good as mounted.

About the sire

Sired by Hard Spun (a son of Danzig) out of Hidden Reserve, Kentucky-bred multiple graded stakes winner Reload was foaled in 2009 and raced from 2012 to 2016. Racing six furlongs to 1 1/16 miles on turf and dirt and synthetic, he posted five triple digit Beyer speed figures and 14 three digit eSpeeds in a career in which he earned $567,504 by going 8-4-3 in 24 starts.

Reload first raced as a 3YO and went 1-4-1 in 8 starts at Belmont, Saratoga, and Aqueduct. As a 4YO, he went 2-0-0 in 7 starts while clocking 3-digit eSpeeds on four occasions at Keeneland, Gulfstream Park, and Belmont. As a 5YO, he raced only twice, winning both races at Gulfstream including the G3 2014 Canadian Turf Stakes with an eSpeed of 118. As a 6YO, he went 2-0-2 in five starts in which he consecutively reached eSpeeds between 109 and 118. Returning as a 7YO, he raced twice and won the G3 Tampa Bay Stakes with a 120 eSpeed.

Post retirement, Reload became the leading Canadian freshman sire in 2021. He has sired five crops of racing age, 207 foals, 110 starters, five black-type winners, and 74 winners of 201 races. His progeny have earned $6,793,428 on the track.

Reload’s dam, Kentucky-bred multiple graded stakes placed Hidden Reserve (4-4-2 in 14 starts), was sired by Mr. Prospector and is a full sister to G1 winner Educated Risk and also a half-sister to G1 champion Inside Information.