Page 18 - January 2008 The Game

18 The Game, January 2008
A Racing Became “Therapy” for Jane Cross
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Jamaican Warmth Runs Wit’s End
By Harlan Abbey his life in a $40,000 claimer on the Woodbine turf personal tragedy, her husband diagnosed -- and nished last!” “Faygo” should run more with a terribly debilitating illness and often on the turf in 2008 and loves an outside
W
ford’s Wits End Farms during a tour of her barn, I
being told to divorce him for medical reasons 12 years later, brought Jane Cross back to the horsey atmosphere in which she grew up.
post position; Brian Bochinski is his regular rider. Late in the ‘07 season, Cross privately
wondered if she was pulling my leg when she was speaking with an accent rightfully belonging to a Rastafarian. She seemed the type.
“Thoroughbreds became my therapy,” she explained recently at her 17 plus acre farm in Port Colborne. “My
daughter Abby (now 13)
purchased Capital Cool, a big, nearly black three-year-old who had a couple of placings at Woodbine before making his last start at the
It only began to make sense when she told me of her youth. Three generations of Ann’s family had made Jamaica their home. They had a farm in the centre of the island. “The surroundings were much like these,” she said, “green and hilly, but, of course, a little warmer.”
was a friend of Brianna McMullen (daughter of trainer Marilyn and jockey Mike) and at rst I went to their barn to pet the horses. Then I was going there to feed the horses... and soon I was working for them.”
Fort. “Brigitte Desorcy (assistant to Paul Nielsen) told me about him,” Cross said, “and some show horse friends were ready to buy him from me soon after. But a horse that places second for $40,000 at Woodbine has got to be able to win for $5,000 at Fort Erie! It’s a gamble, but one I can’t lose; I can always sell him as a hunter.”
On the farm the family kept horses, but Ann’s involve- ment with the animals didn’t become serious until her old riding instructor died. “Jamaica’s horse community is small and tight. People knew that I knew how to ride and teach. Suddenly, when the island’s only instructor passed away, I had mothers chasing me down the supermarket isles hoping that I’d teach their
kids.”
Tintern (“Spider”) quali ed for Toronto’s Royal Winter Fair as one of the top ten conformation hunters in Ontario for two years in a row. He’s still living the life of luxury in Campbellford at age 28.
The McMullens have two broodmares, “Tilly” and “Slewy,” at the farm, along with “Andy,”
a “sweet” three-year-old. Leslie Benchina, another assistant to Dr. Banks, rides the former runner Carey The Rascal. Thoroughbreds who will compete at Fort Erie in 2008 are Billy Payne’s Live Quote and this reporter’s It Hasta Matter.
a hundred feet of them. They were like gangland kids – not only were they addicted, but they also had zero trust towards humans. Their mentality was: ‘I’ll get you before you get me’.”
Jane remembered, “He was out of an
unraced Thoroughbred mare who had thick mucus coming out of her nose soon after we bought her for $800. A major veterinary clinic said she had six months to live -- but our ‘country vet’ cured her and she lived until she was 27. We also kept Major’s Debby (by the noted hunter sire Gray Hawk) until she was 27.”
At Fort Erie, in addition to Faygo, Cross groomed I See Rockets, a lly who broke her maiden at three; Bailysinheritance, a two-time winner described as “a nice big boy and a good trier,” and Grand Funk, the last of Wilkinson’s homebreds. Woodbine trainer Bob Tiller also sends horses to the race stable.
Easing such large animals off of cocaine would normally require large doses of methadone, which Ann couldn’t afford. So she devised a homegrown remedy, utilizing
the surrounding vegetation. A mash of young marijuana plants and water settled the horses down enough for her to get close enough to them to work with them. “They were very sensitive to touch, and grooming with brushes wasn’t an option. So I began using my hands. I rubbed them and kneaded them and found the areas of heat, the kinks and knots. I learned how to read a horse through the slightest signs, a leaning towards or away from the hand.”
During the years she was away from horses, Cross was self-employed with a company she named “Bubbles & Drools,” making children’s beachwear. Now, in addition to her work at the Fort Erie Racetrack and at her boarding farm, she also makes jockey “Silks by Jane.”
Cross purchased her farm in the fall of 2006. Besides the barns and several pastures, it also includes a half-mile grass training track where Cross gallops Faygo each spring before taking him to the racetrack.
Ann compares the massage techniques that she uses on horses to those used on professional human athletes. “I was con rmed in my rehabilitation methods by a book I read some years after I rst began to massage horses. In Beating Muscle Injuries in Horses, Jack Maegher, a sports doctor who had treated NFL players, applies much of what he learned from the human body to that of the equine. The professional horse and the professional athlete are exposed to similar high-impact, high stress situations. A proper sports massage relieves stress and spasms while at the same time improving circulation and aiding in lactic acid release.” To hone her skills as an equine massage therapist, Ann attended a course in Equissage, in Virginia.
After a couple of years with the McMul-
lens, Cross began working with trainer Winston Wilkinson and in 2006 she became an owner, explaining: “You want to try things on your own and Winston respects my input. We decided to claim Faygo Dancing Home (who’ll be 8 in ‘08) for $5,000 because of his consistency. “The chestnut with the star and hind sock has rewarded Cross and her partner, Adrian Haist, a self- employed computer technologist (the couple met on the Internet) with only one win picture in two years, but more than $45,000 in earnings.
An indoor arena “is part of my ve-year-plan,” said Cross, and she’d also like to add a “bomb- proof” horse that her son Steven (17), Haist and farm visitors could ride.
“He had ve seconds this past season, including a nose loss in the $25,000 Puss ‘n Boots Cup and lost another photo nish,” said Cross, “but he had moved up from claiming to allowance races. Then he ran the fastest time of
In England and Ireland, many race days end with a race for amateur riders, usually over a long distance. They are often called “bumper races” because amateur jockeys’ behinds often bump their saddles during such races. Cross would like to see races like those scheduled at Fort Erie or other racetracks because “I think it’d be fun to ride in them, and I think they’d bring out a lot of new spectators.”
By this time, the Turners had relocated from Jamaica to Canada. On the sunny island, the political and economic situation had worsened, and street violence had dramatically increased. With the futures of their two children in mind, the family made the move. At rst, horses didn’t appear to be a means of livelihood for the Turners. “My husband and I did all sorts of jobs. We didn’t feel like we had a place in B.C.’s horse community.” Then Ann began instructing at a riding school and soon ran the summer riding program.
“Faygo becoming my riding horse was an unexpected bonus. He goes all through the elds, through water, doesn’t take notice of cars, trucks or motorcycles, gallops along the beach, walks with long strides... but likes to be in the lead.”
And perhaps Faygo Dancing Home would be on the winning edge in a photo nish, for a change.
Continued Next Page - See Wits End
By Peter Valing
alking with Ann Turner, the co-owner of Abbots-
Cross’ mother,
Rosemary Milne, had
taught riding in England
and when Jane’s late
father was transferred
to Canada as a qual-
ity control executive
for General Motors,
the family built a four-
stall barn at their home
in Vineland. “Mom and
I did all the work ourselves,” Cross contin-
ued, “hitting the hunter show circuit with our ‘local yokel’ horses. It was the only way we could afford to show. I’d ride a horse all year and we’d generally sell it at the end of the season, so I couldn’t get too attached to them.”
Of the horses in Cross’ two barns, “Cool” is one
of the biggest characters: An “instigator” in the elds who loves to roll in puddles, even breaking ice to do so. Another pasture “boss” is Lucas, a 22-year-old retired jumper owned by Katherine Bernhart, one of veterinar-
As word spread
of Ann’s skills
with horses, the
island’s track
began to call on
her. They had
thoroughbreds
that needed
rehabilitation,
and here Ann got
more than she
had bargained
for. “Many of the horses were coke addicts,” she explained. “When they arrived at my barn, they were going through violent withdrawal. They’d kill anything that got within
Jane Cross and Faygo Dancing Home, who lost by a nose in Fort Erie’s $25,000 Puss ‘n Boots Cup race on the turf.
Ann and Anthony Turner at their Wits End Farms
ian Vicki Banks’ assistants. Bernhart also owns Piggy Back, an ex-racer whom her owner rides in the elds alongside Cross and Faygo.
The Game January 2008.indd 18
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