Tears of joy greeted the arrival of Little Miss Nitza into the world April 10.
"I cried when I seen her," said co-owner Peter Giannakopoulos, the proprietor of Nitza's Pizza in St. Albert. "I have a love for all horses, but especially her. She is a little bit closer to my heart. To see that little horse, especially when she was trying to get up for the first time, you could tell she was a fighter just like my niece, Nitza. She had spirit."
A brain tumour claimed the life of Nitza at age 12.
"If she was alive today she would probably say, 'Uncle, let's go see Little Miss Nitza," said a misty-eyed Giannakopoulos. "I wish she was here to do that."
The foal was born at Empire Stables near Ardrossan to the retired racehorse, Nitza's Pizza. The first owner, Bill Ehmcke of Escondido, near San Diego, named the horse after his wife, Nitza, and his favourite food while brainstorming for ideas at a pizza place.
Ironically, Giannakopoulos renamed his establishment, formerly A-1 Pizza, when his niece requested the change.
"She would not go for radiation treatments unless she knew she was coming here to the restaurant after her treatments. We were pretty tight so I had to wait here, no matter what, for her to show up. We would then go on spending sprees and she would go home and put the candies and chocolates or whatever we bought into individual bags. She would then pass them out at the Stollery Hospital to the kids, doctors and the nurses. She just had a big heart like that," he recalled.
"I started spending $120 a day buying her stuff. It was worth it because she enjoyed passing them out and I was more than happy to do it.
"We got to the point where we got up to $140 and then $160 and I told her, just joking around, that I'm spending too much money and she had to do something to earn it.
"She said, 'I know what we can do, uncle. You can change the name of the pizza place and name it after me. You can give me royalties and then you don't have to feel bad about spending money on me.'
'Within a week I changed the name."
Doctors gave Nitza only three months to live.
"She prolonged her death by 10 months at least, I'm sure just to make us happy," Giannakopoulos said. "It was pretty hard for everybody involved. We enjoyed her so much when she was here."
It's been more than 10 years since her death.
"Nitza will always be 24 hours up here," said Giannakopoulos, pointing to his head. "The first couple of years when she passed away I couldn't even answer the phone. I would just cry. Now I'm OK. My state of mind is different. I can talk freely about it. Before I kept it a secret why I changed the name. Now everyone knows."
Nitza the mare
In November of 2006, Giannakopoulos got tipped off about a horse named Nitza's Pizza racing in Phoenix.
"I bet $600 and I said, 'Nitza, you've got to help me from above, here.' She won by eight or 10 lengths and I made two or three thousand," he said. "When I seen her walking in the post parade she was a beautiful black horse, well built for a filly. She looked like a race horse, period."
Giannakopoulos tracked down Ehmcke and made his pitch to buy the horse.
"He said, 'What do you want to know about that cheap horse?' I told him about my niece and how I wanted to bring the horse up here to race and he was ready to give her to me for free," said Giannakopoulos, who learned Nitza's Pizza blew a tendon at an early age and was forced to race in the lower divisions.
After a few more races Nitza's Pizza was acquired by a horseman in a claiming race in Phoenix.
"I offered $1,000 more than she was claimed for but they said no. They wanted to run her."
Giannakopoulos eventually claimed her for $3,200 in 2006 and through his budding relationship with Ehmcke, the horse racing enthusiasts agreed to split the costs and shipped Nitza's Pizza to Calgary for the spring racing season.
Giannakopoulos got an eyeful watching the horse finish second and fourth in a pair of races.
"She was kind of nervous and snarly [before races] but if you gave her carrots and mints, she was your buddy."
Racing in the Northlands' thoroughbred meet, she won three races that benefited the Stollery Children's Hospital.
"We agreed that every time she wins, $1,000 goes to the Stollery hospital."
In what was supposed to be her last race before retirement, she was claimed for $7,500.
"I was devastated, really hurt," said Giannakopoulos.
He couldn't believe someone would do that, considering all the media hype surrounding the story, highlighted by clips at the Canadian Derby and the Kentucky Derby. It also resulted in an Eclipse Award nomination, losing out to the story of Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner who was euthanized the next year after a long struggle to recover from a broken leg at the Preakness.
"After they ran her three or four times with no wins, I claimed her for $5,000.
When we got her got her back she won a race and was second in another and that was very sweet. We retired her that same year."
Nitza the foal
The tradition will continue if Little Miss Nitza shows promise as a runner.
"We'll take all of our expenses out and any money she makes, it doesn't matter if it's $1 or a million, it will go to the Stollery Hospital," Giannakopoulos said. "What I hope is she runs and makes tons of money. Can you imagine if this horse becomes the real deal as a racehorse? Can you imagine the publicity she would get and the money for the kids?"
Nitza would be proud of her uncle.
"If she was alive that's what she would want me to do so other kids would have a longer life than she did," Giannakopoulos said. "Next year we'll have a better indication if Little Miss Nitza will be a racehorse and if not we'll give her to a family with kids. We're hoping, with Nitza's help from above, she will be there."
Her bloodlines are encouraging. Nitza's Pizza dam was a sprint grass champion and her sire was a Canadian racehorse.
"[Nitza's Pizza] was bred to run for bigger success. She would've ran in California if not for the pulled tendon," Giannakopoulos said.
The stud that produced Little Miss Nitza was a former racehorse in Toronto that had his career cut short by injury. Touched by Nitza's story, the stud fee was waived by Mike Vanin, on behalf of Lin Chouinard, owner of Bar None Ranches of Dewinton, who was also battling cancer.
After the foal was born, Giannakopoulos invited a couple of families from the Stollery to check her out.
"There was one kid, Connor, with kidney problems who had lots of operations. I told him the next horse [from Nitza's Pizza] would be named after him and he can pick out the second name. You could tell he was pretty excited about that."
Little Miss Nitza was the winning entry for the name-the-foal contest held by Nitza's Pizza, with six male names and six female names to choose from. The winner was Jeff Norum of St. Albert. The former Nitza's Pizza delivery driver received free pizza for one month, a pair of centre-ice Edmonton Oilers tickets and $1,000 to be donated to a local charity of his choice.
"We had 4,000 entries. I couldn't believe the response of everybody getting involved," Giannakopoulos said. "I know Nitza would be thrilled."
