Page 6 - July 2008 The Game

6 The Game, July 2008 Common Bonds
Consider these similarities in their backgrounds, and individual trophy cases:
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Fort Erie Jockeys
Cory Clark and Chad Beckon
He also gave an illustration of how it’s important to have a “Plan B” in
a race, using a turf race on June 3 to illustrate: “(Trainer) Mike Cartwright told me to stalk what appeared, on past form, to be the front runners: ‘Don’t strangle him (El Camino Royale) hooking them.’ But for whatever reason we outbroke them, so I went to Plan B and took the lead” (with fractions of :22.3, :48.3, 1:14 and 1:40.2 for “about one mile”) and, according to the Racing Form chart “had speed to hold sway... was never threatened and romped home clear” at $18.10.
Sociologists say that the more things a man and woman have in common, the better their chances for having a successful marriage. So Cory Clark and Chad Beckon, two young jockeys at the Fort Erie Racetrack, would seem to be a 1 to 10 “sure thing” bet for many happy years together after their upcoming August 22 wedding.
Like all fellow riders, you give some- one your feel of how the horse likes to be ridden. But some jockeys get along with some horses better than another rider, no matter what the advice is.”
rst winner (in 1998) at Woodbine. I got outrun and outrode that day.”
“I know my dad took me to the
1. Both their fathers -- David Clark and the late Dan Beckon -- were Woodbine jockeys. In fact, they
were such good friends they would drive together, in Beckon’s car, from Woodbine to Fort Erie for riding assignments.
“I always tease him when I beat him,” counters Cory. “He’s not al- lowed to beat me -- although he does it all the time!” Chad was off to an early start in winning the 2008 Fort jockey’s championship for races won, and Cory was among his closest competitors.
races at Woodbine,” recalled Chad, “and he had me sitting and steering a quiet Thoroughbred when I was ve.
I also remember falling off a couple of times. My riding style, others say, is sometimes like my dad’s, but it’ll take a long time to reach his standards.” Cory, too, said others say her riding style is like her father’s, “But I didn’t consciously copy it.”
Chad said his favorite type of runners are those “that can get to the front and ‘cool’ the eld pace-wise.”
2. Both won Champion Apprentice honours at the Fort -- Chad in 2005, Cory in 1999 and 2000.
For Chad, Mystic Hawk, trained by Stacey Cooper, “runs the same style every time, 30 lengths behind and goes the last three-eighths in 38.4, despite physical problems, so you know his heart is big. I rode Smiling Jordan in the morning for trainer Henry Whalen, but didn’t get the chance to ride him
3. Cory was second leading rider in 2005, Chad was sixth.
When they leave the jockeys’ room, the young riders together enjoy cook- ing, gardening, and walking their three dogs, a German Shepherd and two Australian Shepherds. For a time, they attending the same high school, but Cory began her racing career earlier and the couple did not reconnect until Chad moved his tack to Fort Erie a few years later.
4. Chad was second-leading rider in 2007, Cory was fourth.
in the afternoon for quite a while, then won the Puss N Boots Cup in 2006.
5. Chad was named Outstanding Jockey as well as winning the cham- pionship in 2005. Cory was named Leading Female Rider in 2007.
“Then for Nick Gonzalez last
year, Cut The Mustard trained very easily but would get temperamental, a ‘natural woman.’ You had to do it her way and let her feel she was the boss.” Sounds like good preparation for a husband-to-be.
As for the immediate future, Cory and Chad plan to ride through the
end of the Fort Erie meet and take
a delayed honeymoon cruise this winter, where Cory “will enjoy all the buffets.”
Obviously both riders are highly competitive and successful. But does that competitiveness -- in the only athletic endeavor in which men and women compete against each other -- come home with Cory and Chad?
Cory had started her riding career in the show ring, even winning a class at the Royal Winter Fair on a Saddlebred (“The horse did everything”). David Clark admitted “I had fears about her becoming a jockey and kept her show- ing hunters and jumpers as long as I could; but when she nally made up her mind (to be a jockey) I supported her 100 percent. I don’t know our head-to-head statistics, but I do know that I was second when she rode her
“I have lots of favorites,” said Cory and -- with prompting -- mentioned Silks of Gold, which she rode to two wins for this reporter and trainer Ralph Biamonte in 1999. “This year, I’m galloping Chicago U W for Nick Gonzalez. She’s just a brat and tries
to take advantage of me. She likes to buck and play when I get on. She’s not nasty, just happy, a come-from-behind sprinter who also can set the pace.”
Although Cory is older than Chad, she still looks like a teenager and has to show identi cation to see an “adults only” movie. Perhaps, for that rea- son, she isn’t looking too far into the future. While Chad said “I’d leave it to them” if their children want to become race rider, Cory answered the same question thusly:
By Harlan Abbey
Linda Wallensky, a native of Toronto who is a marriage counselor in Buf- falo, noted that “After the rst rush
of passion and infatuation, a couple settles into a friendship and it’s very helpful for them to have something they like to do together, they always have something to talk about... as long as they support each other’s wins and don’t become too competitive.”
Although Cory and Chad sometimes race ride or exercise the same horses, they each have their favorites.
That depends on which one you ask.
“If we have family or friends over,” said Chad, “it’s a good laugh -- who has beaten whom lately. But we leave it in the jock’s room. We’re competi- tive but don’t know our head-to-head statistics. She doesn’t rub it in if she gets to ride a horse I’ve ridden before.
“Children?! Because of my career I never even thought about getting married! But maybe one day.... “
Sire Tomahawk Fifth Freshman Sire in NA
Eight-year-old son of Seattle Slew, Tomahawk, who stands at Park Stud in Orangeville, Ontario is currently fth on the freshman sire list in North America with his top producer Royal Minikin.
The Anne Cameron trained Royal Minikin was the rst winner for Tomahawk. The 2-year-old Ontario homebred lly out of stakes-placed winning mare, Regalclass, by Regal Classic, won by 1 1/4 lengths in MSW company on May 31 at Woodbine for owner John Terdik.
Tomahawk, who was G1 Placed and a multiple Stakes winner in Ireland, has registered 53 two-year-olds in his rst crop.
Information as of June 22, 2008.
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