Page 8 - October 2008 The Game

8 The Game, October 2008
Outside the Jocks’ Room...with Slade Callaghan
By Michelle Rainford
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Slade Callaghan after winning the $1 million Woodbine Mile
Michael Burns Photo courtesy of WEG
cutting the grass or have a project going. I also like the computer. I follow the stock market and when I’m done racing that’s something I would like to get into.”
The success Slade has enjoyed perhaps is a result of his philosophies, “I try to live my life with the most morals I can. Treat people the way I would want to be treated no matter who they are.” Some- thing that may also play a part in his success is his attitude towards the horses, “I love the horses, being around them. My life will always involve horses. And I don’t care who you are, if you don’t get the right horses, you aren’t going to win races.” When I asked Slade what it was like winning the Woodbine Mile his simple statement “it’s a really great feel- ing” summed up what many might not be able to put into words. “I’m a quiet person,” Slade tells me, “I don’t get caught up in fanfare. I don’t need to be the centre of attention by any means; I actually try to avoid it as much as I can.” Only a truly humble person could avoid being the centre of attention after winning a million dollar race, something Slade has managed to do with all the class of the world. The one thing Slade has proved is that in the racing world, nice guys de nitely do not nish last.
In Jamaica, because
of less racing days, ap-
prentice status differs
from North America.
The weight allowance is
10 pounds until the rider
wins ve races. Then the
weight allowance drops
to seven pounds, later to
ve pounds and nally to three pounds.
Summer has left us already but with the fall season comes some of the biggest races Woodbine has to offer. I’m not usually a big fan of fall, not really the fault of the season but mostly because it precedes winter. However, due to the fact that I am unable to ride for another few months I will be able to enjoy fall and winter more than usual from the comfort
and a lot of people were moving away. They met
on the beach. I come from a really nice family, I have great parents.” What sticks out in Slade’s mind about his childhood? “One or two Sundays of each month my family would have a picnic on the beach with friends. I always remember that.” I asked what some of the differences are between Barbados and Canada for growing up, “Everyone does everything young in Barbados. I learned to drive when I was twelve, I was working at the track when I was four- teen and I had quit school before I was sixteen.”
of my living room. I am a big fan of Woodbine’s big races and we have already seen one of the best upsets of the year. I am of course talking about the Woodbine Mile winner Rahy’s Attorney with Slade Callaghan in the irons. It happens that I asked Slade if he would be interviewed before his big win, but whom better than the winner of the Mile to be intro- duced to readers.
Slade was riding races at the racetrack in Barbados as a teenager and it was there that he faced a terrible accident that left him without feeling in his one hand. “I wouldn’t call it adversity. I know that it was
scary to other people, but I had so much faith and
I was young enough to think I was invincible that
it was never that bad in my mind.” Slade was right because as he tells it, “They told me I would never ride again. I had the fall in August; the operation at St. Mike’s in Toronto in November and was back on a horse in January using one hand. That therapy was tremendous, just putting my hand on the reins when I couldn’t hold it. My rst race back was July, eleven months after the spill and I won that race. The name of the horse was Amazing Grace.”
Slade and I sat down between races about a week after the Mile. The whole point of these articles is
to focus on who the jockeys are beyond the doors of Woodbine so I did not bring up the race right away. Instead we talked about growing up in Barbados, “I don’t think I could get across what a good childhood I had,” Slade explains, “back home is really different from here, especially twenty or thirty years ago. You could go anywhere, do anything, life is so laid back. In those days there was no traf c and you could
get anywhere in ten minutes or less by car.” I have known Slade for a few years and after interviewing him it only con rmed my opinion that Slade is a really nice guy. Not just your regular nice guy but truly someone that epitomizes the word nice. This may be because of his upbringing, “My dad is from Ireland,” Slade tells me, “he moved to Barbados
in the sixties when he was offered a management position for his company on the island. My mom is from Guyana. She moved to Barbados around the same time because her country was going communist
Noel Davis twice voted ‘Most Promising’ rider in Jamaica
Noel Davis won two awards as a jockey in his na- tive Jamaica and is hoping to win at least one more in Canada, at either Fort Erie or Woodbine -- it’s immaterial which one.
“I was voted ‘Most Promising Apprentice’ by my fellow riders in 1978, and a year later I was voted ‘Most Promising Jockey,’” he said. “Now, I’d like to
Davis’s family was not involved in racing in Jamaica although his father was a “punter” who frequently took Noel with him to the races, held each Wednesday, Saturday and civic holidays.
Slade’s move to Canada didn’t happen until he
was 22 when he came to visit his brother at Wood- bine. “I fell in love with the place. I had quit racing for about a year in Barbados so I decided to get my weight down and start racing here.” He did exactly what he said he would do and several years later Slade became a Canadian citizen. Slade is now mar- ried to Kelly whom he met at Fort Erie and they have been married for almost three years. They reside in Bolton where Slade says he is a home person. “I like to be at home. I’m always doing something there,
be ‘leading rider,’ even if it was for only one sea- son.”
“nine or ten young boys, sometimes 12.”
“I became fascinated with the horses: how fast they went and how friendly they were when
Jockey Noel Davis
I visited the stables,” he recalled. “I was nearing the end of my school years and I was thinking about what I really wanted to do and then it hit me -- I wanted to be a jockey.”
Continued Page 10 - See Noel Davis
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