Page 21 - January 2009 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
In Search of a Racing Form
By Peter Valing
The Game, January 2009 21
Annual Conference January 9 to 11
The Horse Industry Association of Alberta’s annual Horse Breeders & Owners Conference is scheduled for January 9 thru to 11 at the Capri Centre in Red Deer, Alberta.
The highly informative and well attended conference will once again feature speakers from across North America including:
Linda Allen (California); Insights on Equitation Over Fences
Pam Asheton (Alberta); On the Trail in Alberta
Dr. Roxy Bell (Alberta); Dentistry: From the Horse’s Mouth
Dr. Robert Bowker (Michigan); Trimming for Hoof Health & Activity
Dr. Hilary Clayton (Michigan); Developing Strength & Flexibility in Horses, and Advances in Biomechanics Bill Collins (Alberta); Conversation with a Legend
Dr. Darrell Dalton (Alberta); Biosecurity: Should I be Concerned?
Tara Gamble (Alberta); Safe, Effective & Fun Riding Lessons
Dr. Laurie Goodrich (Colorado); Stem Cell Therapy in Horse Rehabilitation
Van Harding (California); Saddle Fit and the Sore Back
Dr. Ray Caplan (Georgia); New Concepts in Parasite Control
Dr. Fernando J. Marques (Saskatchewan); Gastric Ulcers: Causes, Prevention & Control
Josh Nichol (Alberta); Receiving Yield vs Accepting Movement
Dr. Stephen Reed (Kentucky); Demystifying Neurological Herpes (Rhino)
Dr. Eva Sondergaard (Denmark); Temperament: Matching Horses to the Job
Dr. Lori Warren (Florida); Immune Boosting Nutrition for the Performance Horse.
Tickets are $95 and discounts are available for attendees from the same farm or company (advance registration only). The deadline for advanced registration is January 2, 2009 with walk-in registration accepted at the conference.
A special free Stable Owners’ Seminar will be held
at 1pm on January 9 and focuses on: The economics of operating a stable; Insurance and horses, assessing the risk and exploring solutions; Getting the Leading Edge in Your Stable Business; and Stable shopping...from the client’s point of view.
The Opening reception for the conference is at 7pm January 9.
For a detailed conference schedule or to register on-line visit www.albertahorseindustry.ca or call 403-948-8521
The Horse Breeders and Owners Conference is the only one of its kind in Canada and is conducted by the Horse Industry Association of Alberta with assistance from the Horse Industry Section of Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development.
I was born in Czechoslovakia when it was still a country and when it still functioned (or in most cases barely functioned) according to the precepts of communism. Fortunately, my family defected from Czechoslovakia before I was marked by the miseries of life under a dictatorship. One of the less brutal, but nonetheless unfortunate, miseries of such a life was the perennial shortage of consumer goods. The “bread line” was something my parents faced regularly. I, however, was raised in the West, where in most cases, the opposite of the latter scenario is true. The simple principle of supply and demand has ensured that we are glutted to the gills with all that we want. Rarely is something that I need out of stock - with the notable exception of the Daily Racing Form.
of the Form. In addition, shopkeepers aren’t interested in remedying the situation. At times, it appeared to me that the shopkeepers were indeed conspiring to keep me away from my Form. One shopkeeper in particular got my paranoid mind racing. Saturday’s Form would arrive on Friday, but by the afternoon he was always sold out. I started coming to his shop earlier and earlier, but each time it was the same: “Sorry, all gone,” he’d say with a smile that betrayed a certain delight
I began closely following thoroughbred racing three years ago. During my inaugural season as
a fan, the track program was enough to get by on. It was “free” (a parking voucher at Hastings is redeemable for food and a program) and contained more than enough information to assist me in my wagering. But as time went on, I began to be envious of the horseplayers who waltzed about with a marked-up Form folded beneath their arm. Form-toting horseplayers seemed
to me a more serious breed than the rest, and I knew that if I wanted to at least look the part of
a serious handicapper, I would one day have to delve into its pages.
One morning after being turned down yet again, I decided to take a long walk down to where I gured the Form would be plentiful - Chinatown. “I’m off to get my Form,” I said to my wife. “Why don’t you just download it?” she sighed. Download it? Not a chance! Only the newspaper version would sit well in the crook
of the arm. So down to Chinatown I walked, envisioning heaping shelves of the Form on each corner - the Chinese did, after all, comprise much of the city’s horseracing fraternity.
I bought my rst Form at the track, an hour
or so before the races began. I tried so hard to understand it that I didn’t play a single race
that day. I could have asked one of the Form- toters for some advice on how to navigate its pages, but I’m a male, and males aren’t always keen on asking for directions. Instead, I took
the dated Form camping the next weekend in order to examine it in a tranquil environment. I spent the weekend sitting around the camp re with my forehead crinkled and my eyes glued to newsprint. From time to time I’d nod or sigh, not because things were making sense, but because I felt that such gestures and sounds would impress my wife. As I am a nostalgic/romantic sort, I was hoping that my wife was viewing me and my Form through a black and white lens, a lens that put me in the company of the Hemingways and Sinatras of the world.
The rst grocer in Chinatown gave me a knowing look when I asked for the Form. He didn’t carry it and couldn’t explain the directions to someone who did. Nonetheless, he seemed happy that I had asked for it. At the next shop,
it was much the same. The grocer recognized what I was after, didn’t have it, but pointed me
in the direction of someone who might. For ten minutes I walked past the shmonger stands, the herbalists and the “trading companies.” I took a left, a right, got lost and ended up in front of the of ces of a Chinese daily. In I went, thinking that one newspaper might lead to the next.
I returned from that trip sore-backed and mosquito-bled. But I was no longer a spring chicken with the Form. Not all of the statistics now made sense, but some did, and I was sure that my wagering skills would soon improve. I started developing strategies favoring one set of numbers over another and combining this statistic with that. In the process, I made sure to heavily mark up the pages. And by the end of the season, I was reading the Form as though I were reading a newspaper.
The receptionist nodded along, but hadn’t a clue about what I was after. She could page a staff writer, she suggested. As I waited for the writer to show, I noticed a grocer’s awning across the street. I exited the reception just as a very confused-looking young man came out of the newsroom.
Every weekend, however, I would run into the same problem. In Vancouver, there is a shortage
I realized how long I had been out on the hunt. My wife was under the impression that I would be home within minutes, and three hours had elapsed since I had left the house. I didn’t have
a cell phone, and so cast my eye around for a payphone. Now here was something that in the city of Vancouver might be harder to nd than the Form.
in denying me my paper. Eventually, I waved $20.00 in his face, offering to prepay a month’s worth of the Saturday Form if he tucked one behind the counter for me. He declined the offer, suggesting instead that I come “a little earlier.”
I hit a few corner stores before entering Chinatown, only to meet with blank stares
when I asked for my paper. The magazine racks bulged with all sorts of idiotic pulp, but no racing material whatsoever. I pressed on.
I had hit pay dirt! There on the bottom shelf next to all sorts of Chinese Teen Beat-type magazines was my beloved Form. It was late Friday afternoon, and I had my pick from a large stack. It was while I was savoring this nd that
Chris Loseth is anked by wife Tracy and GM of Hastings, Raj Mutti at the induction ceremony of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame December 2.
Following those amazing awards, in 2001 Loseth contributions were recognized when he received the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award. An award given to a Canadian rider who makes a signi cant contribution to the sport.
Chris Loseth Inducted Into B.C. Sports Hall of Fame By Jackie Humber
Hastings Race Course eight times. In 1984 Loseth won an unthinkable 8 out of 10 races in one day, a mark that put his name in the Guinness Book of World Records. Although it should not have been a surprise when he was nominated to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum this year, Loseth was happily surprised. “Well I think it’s a great honour to be recognized outside of
the Racing Industry and to be linked to so many great athletes
that have excelled in their own sport, I do feel honoured,”said a humbled Loseth. According to Selection Committee Chair, Doug Clement, there were 110 nominees this year. “The class of 2009 truly re ects the best of the best” said Clement. Since the opening of the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum in 1966 Loseth is only the second jockey to be inducted. An honour he now shares with the late Hedley J. Woodhouse. Congratulations Chris, it was well deserved!
During his racing career that spanned more than 30 years in the saddle, Chris Loseth managed to win a remarkable 3,668 races.
He has accomplished many milestones during that career, including never having broken a bone while racing. “Well I guess I was lucky to have never broken a bone during racing, especially after so many years,” he said with a smile.
After arriving at Hastings in 1974, Loseth was awarded the Sovereign Award as Canada’s Leading Apprentice in 1976. He matched that award in 1984 as Canada’s Best Jockey.
In 2007, He was awarded with an induction into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. Loseth was the leading rider at
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