Page 27 - May 2007 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper The Game, May 2007 27
Fern Chretien: Boxer, Horseman, Lover
Photo Right - Memories of Chretien's Fight Career
Photo Below - Prince of Wales, 1981. An ecstatic Chretien leads Cadet Corps and Robin Platts to the winner's circle.
Chretien still has the Power at 70
Fern and 'Bunny' Married for 49 Years
Outside barn 31 on Woodbine’s backstretch, Fernand Chretien greets me with a dizzying combination of rights and lefts, furious left jabs alternating with pis- ton like rights at a staccato pace.
Very little, it seems, has changed since I last met him some 25 years ago. He still carries that engaging personality on a cinder block physique. Half my life ago, Chretien and I went two rounds in a char- ity boxing match. He was the former jun- ior-lightweight contender, I was a local television reporter. And then, like now, he had the speed and power in his fists, choosing only out of his own mercy to miss my terrified face by inches.
Chretien, now 70, was born in 1936 in Ottawa and for most of his life the sports of boxing and horse racing have run parallel.
“We moved to Cabbagetown when I was six,” he says. “We lived on Duchess Street. It’s called Richmond Street now. I quit school to be a jockey in 1953. I was breaking yearlings, galloping horses at Old Woodbine for E.P Taylor’s Windfields Farm for about three years. Then I went with another outfit - Pat McMurchy. Then I hooked up with Frankie Merrill.”
Chretien soon realized it wasn’t in the books for him to be a jockey. Although he wasn’t very tall – today he’s maybe 5’6” – he had that solid build to him, and soon became much too heavy to ride professionally.
“I was the only Frenchman around Duchess and Sherbourne and we’d go to Moss Park,” he says, his ruggedly hand- some face lighting up at the memory. “I had to fight my way there and fight my way home. I had to learn the boxing.”
Chretien fought his first three bouts in Florida where he was helping Frank Merrill with the horses. Between 1956 and 1963 he compiled an enviable record; 32 bouts, 17 knockouts, 11 wins, 3 draws and only one loss and the one blemish on his card still bothers him.
“In 1963, I had the one title fight in Sidney, Nova Scotia against Tyrone Gardner,” he says. “I knocked him down three times; he didn’t know what round it was, but I was a bleeder and my eye was cut. The doc came over and said, ‘I got to
stop this fight.’ I said, ‘No, give me one more round.” But he said no.
Seems the fight game back then was pretty much like the fight game today.
“The whole operation was all related,” says Chretien, his voice filled with humour, not anger, “The referee was related to him, the judges were related to him. I had all the odds against me.”
Chretien admits he earned just $1,200 for that fight and by the time, everyone took their action, he took home only $800. He insists he doesn’t regret a minute of his boxing career
“I didn’t get much money, but we had fun. I boxed all over. We stayed in the highest places. We ate the best food. We met some good people and we met some bad people.”
The other half of his ‘we’ is his wife of almost 49 years, Loretta, although he never calls her Loretta.
“I was 21 when I was married and my baby was 18,” he says warmly. “My bunny was 18.”
“She was born on Easter Sunday,” he explains. “She was an Easter bunny - my Bunny.”
In 1961, while still seeking out ring engagements, Chretien and his brother Lionel started a flower delivery service called Brothers’ Express.
“I had 32 trucks. We had the biggest delivery service in North America. We’d pick up flowers from the flower shops, take them to the warehouse, sort them out and then we’d deliver them.”
The bouquet delivery service was lucrative enough that Chretien enticed another brother, Richard, to buy some horses with him.
“My first horse, Below Deck, was with Normie Bowles in 1967,” he says. “He finished in the money a couple times but he broke down. He had a bow.”
Fern and Bunny also talk nostalgically about Corvette Carol and Sweet Mood, but it was a three year old colt named Cadet Corps that gave them their biggest thrill.
“We won the 1981 Prince of Wales,” says Bunny proudly. “We paid $14.50 to win. We won by five lengths and we were the Cinderella story because we beat the big people.”
The picture of Chretien leading Cadet Corps and rider Robin Platts into the Fort Erie winners circle informs that Queen’s Plate winner Fiddle Dancer Boy finished third. And this was a much better payday than anything Chretien earned trading punches.
“We got $42,000,” he says. “It’s half a million now. That was nice. Then we went to Kentucky and bought a couple more horses.”
Actually there’s another angle to the Chretiens’ Cinderella story. A few years ago, Chretien was hired to work on Ron Howard’s boxing film, Cinderella Man, which starred Russell Crowe. Chretien worked for almost six weeks, playing a referee for the fight scenes.
“We shot at Maple Leaf Gardens. It was a great time. We had all you can eat and met so many good people.”
Asked what he earned for this, Chretien, for the first time, is reluctant about the specifics.
“Never mind how much,” he laughs boisterously. “More than anything I got for anything. I got thousands.”
Worth much more to
Chretien than all the money he
has earned is the close-knit
family he and Bunny have
created. Their three grown
children, Tom, Paul and
Andrea have blessed them
with three granddaughters and
three grandsons, whose
pictures generously adorn the walls of their cozy Mississauga home.
For the last twenty five years, Chretien has been involved with the Toronto Thoroughbred Racing Club. As a director, he’s responsible for bringing in the guests that share their racing experience with the members.
“Jockeys, and owners and trainers,” he says. “Whoever I can get. I look after the farm visits. We always have 30-40 people
who go to different farms to visit horses, the babies, the studs. We have a great time. Sam Lima is the president. He’s been involved for the last 42 years. We do it for the pleasure. We do it for the racing.”
Chretien is not likely to return to the ring these days, though his hand work is still lightning fast. He’d love to return to the winner’s circle though and has part ownership of two runners. - PG
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The sun tries hard to clear the clouds dur- ing early morning training at Woodbine
Across from Woodbine Racetrack