Page 20 - January 2009 The Game

20 The Game, January 2009
This isn’t a Christmas story but it is as close as I can get to the meaning of
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Railbird
A Look at Racing in British Columbia By Jim Reynolds
whatever Christmas stands for. And
it does hold an inspiring message in
it that ts the spirit. It’s a story with tragedy, sadness, human compassion and goodwill. A story of the only real message of any organized religion, that of caring for one another. It goes like this;
donated their earnings as well on this day and the total was matched by track management, Great Canadian Gaming Corp. Total money raised
How Does It Look From Up There?
Sometimes it’s hard to understand things when you don’t have the big picture. I was recently involved with my church in serving at a soup kitchen in Toronto. As the point man, my focus was on the big picture: feeding the people and leading a chapel service after. One woman was more focused on her area, which was the food we brought to serve. She repeatedly kept asking me whether we brought too little food, would there be enough, how many people are coming, etc, etc. My replies seemed to frustrate her: I don’t know, I’m not sure, we have no way of knowing, etc, etc. Because I was concentrating on the big picture, she thought that I didn’t care about her concerns, but nothing could have been further from the truth. I didn’t have answers for her because it wasn’t my priority, although I did point out that I wasn’t going to ask her to do the music and sermon, as those were my tasks. My focus: make sure people were fed; make sure people were ministered to. If we ran out of food or didn’t have enough volunteers, we’d rectify that next time out.
There are a lot of times in the horse racing industry that we don’t get the big picture. I often hear criticism
or questioning of a trainer by their help because what they were doing didn’t make sense. The fact is, people, everyone doesn’t walk around with a condition book in their back pocket. Knowing when your horse will or will not run greatly improves your chances of understanding some of your bosses’ moves. A horse that you may think needs to work might not
be able to as it’s too close to a race
and may knock them out. Now I’m a little biased: I think an exercise rider has the best opinion of how a horse
is going. I’ve heard a leading trainer say: “I’ve seen horses win with bad grooming, grooms that beat on them, hot walkers that turn them loose, but nothing @#$%*’s a horse up faster than 5 minutes with a bad exercise rider”. I have to admit I don’t always see the big picture of what a trainer is trying to do with a horse. Sometimes the circumstances dictate that I can’t ask them- hey, sometimes the trainer isn’t sure of their next move! But my priority is to get that horse around,
do what the trainer tells me to do and report back accordingly. I don’t train it, I don’t own it (trust me, there are some I don’t want to do either with!). My focus is not the big picture, more like the snapshot at hand.
My wife got me a unique present last year for my birthday or Christmas or maybe it was wedding anniversary. Regardless, it was a most unique present. It was a CD that was an adventure. The adventure was a plane ride for 30 minutes over Toronto. Now
I’ve own many times and to many places and I consider myself a fearless traveler. Turbulence doesn’t bother me, nor do delays- there’s not much you can do about either. But nothing could prepare me for the ride I was about to embark on in August.
In early September twelve year old Cole Rutter, son of Fraser Downs trainer Carol St Amand was injured
in a terrible accident while riding an all-terrain-vehicle. Young Cole was paralyzed, and as yet his family aren’t certain of the full extent of his injuries but the devastation to his parents, Carol St Amand and Dean Anderson was terrible.
by this aggressive racing community amounted to just a few dollars short
of $32,000 to aid in young Cole’s rehabilitation and it shows what can be done when families all pull together.
I arrived early at Buttonville airport, (yes that’s BUTTONVILLE airport- you were expecting Pearson?), and had a chance to have a coffee before my ight. As I sat in the cafeteria, I looked at the rows of gleaming, powerful airplanes, all prop-driven, but great looking planes nonetheless. I spotted
Enter the very tight-knit horseracing community on the Fraser Downs backstretch, the management of the BC harness track, and Ontario harness superstars Rick ‘The Whip’ Zeron and Mark MacDonald. Both champion drivers had come to Fraser Downs for a single day of racing—the biggest
But this isn’t a story about harness racing. It’s a story about the generosity of the racetrack family. We’ve seen
it at every track in the country. Last year the same harness horsemen raised money for a young cancer patient named Emma Sheepshead.
a shiny silver number and imagined that it could easily be my ier. I saw, with some despair, a sleek red twin- propeller taking off- despairing that it couldn’t be my ight since it was now airborne. My sadness turned to joy
of the year with the $100,000 Robert Murphy Breeder’s Stake for three
year old colts and the $100,000 Mary Murphy Breeder’s Stake for three year old llies as well as two $50,000 two- year-old races on the card.
The BC thoroughbred community rallied around the cause of needy individuals in their circle as well when, thanks to the efforts of owners Jim and Linda Sentes, a golf tournament and banquet was held for former jockey Jim Arnold who was dying from a terrible form of cancer a few years back. Another former jockey who
as I spied a green and gold 4-seater, hoping that would be my mode of transportation. Yes, that would have
to be it and I gazed at it longingly. My musing was quickly interrupted by a “Mr. Kennedy?” I turned to look at a young man in perhaps his late teens, maybe early twenties. “I’m your pilot”. Gulp. He couldn’t be my pilot- he wasn’t old enough to shave! But he was and, long story short, he was ne. The plane was, um, small and while we sat shoulder to shoulder, literally,
They didn’t disappoint the large turnout of harness fans who came to see them perform. MacDonald won ve races on the card including the hundred grand Robert Murphy and a $50,000 Breeder’s Stake nal, while Zeron won three, including the other $50,000 race — both drivers donated all their earnings to young Cole’s recovery.
was destitute and needed assistance received it quickly and unconditionally from the thoroughbred community thanks to the efforts of trainers Harold Barroby and Cindy Krasner.
It was a great gesture of compassion and according to Rick Zeron one he never hesitated about.
The truth, or moral if you will,
in this story is this. We can nd a
lot of reasons to search our souls at this time of year; tragic accidents or the passing of friends has to give us pause about the importance of this game. Sure winning a race is a thrill, winning a major race can make us a king or queen for a day, mantle piece hardware and hall of fame honours are wonderful, but all of that is eeting. The values that are important are on a much larger scale. Our self worth as
a community, our values, our family and our friends. We have a lot to be thankful for in this game but mostly for each other.
I got a bird’s eye view of the 404. The reason we followed the 404 is because the plane was not equipped with radar or any sort of guidance system! While we soared northward, I was surprised by two things: the rst was how much greenery dominated the landscape
“I’ve made a living at this sport and this is my way of giving something back,” he said.
and two, how often he kept taking his hands off the controls! First, when you’re driving, what seems to stand out are the endless ribbons of concrete and buildings. But when you’re in the air, the highway is just a miniscule part of the landscape. Secondly, my pilot gave me control of the plane and it’s just, well, weird. You’re constantly ghting the wind, so sometimes you have the wheel cranked to the right while you’re still ying straight. It doesn’t look that way from down here. Things look different from up there.
In addition Zeron donated his trademark whip, his helmet and two colours towards a silent auction
and bake sale held December 6th. Many other drivers at Fraser Downs
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Maybe the same is true with God. From down here, we don’t see the big picture. Why does this happen, why does that happen? We struggle to come up with seemingly rational answers, but are often left empty and scratching our heads. But God has a different view. He sees the big picture, while
we are focused on day to day. Maybe that’s why what feels like a tragedy today, is viewed with understanding and perhaps even appreciation later on. God sees the big picture and we don’t. Maybe, for 2009, we need to take a view from ”up there”.
The Game January 2009.indd
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12/18/08 7:59:21 AM
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