Page 88 - June 2021

“Along came Smokin, and we were back in business. She could run fast enough.” – Clete Schares
Prairie Meadows, third in the Canterbury Park Championship Challenge-G2 and the Keokuk Stakes-G3, and fourth in the Grade 2 Prairie Meadows Championship Challenge.
“Three Olives N Smoke was a crazy ride,” Brad says. “He took us to places we never dreamed of being. I think he was 6-0 at one time. I’d fly to the races from wherever I was and fly home with a trophy.”
MOVING TO NEW CAREERS
Margo is fully invested in the horses she’s bred, and when their racing days end, she frequently keeps them or finds new careers for them.
“She hangs onto the horses that were good to us; she doesn’t care how much it costs her to feed them, they’re hanging out in that pasture, and they’re lawn ornaments,” Brad says. “Her famous line is, ‘They don’t owe me a damn thing. They earned their keep.’”
Among those she’s retired and rehomed are Happy Harry Smokes, aka Dom (Dominyun- Smokin Corona), who is now Brooke’s 5-year- old barrel horse in partnership with Brooke’s parents, Bill and Linda Webster. “I’ve always wanted to own one of her horses,” Brooke says. “I saw a picture of Dom and he was big and young, and they were having problems with his
“There’s no place I’d
rather be
than in the barns and on the aprons at the racetrack.
I love going
to the races. I don’t even have to have a horse running.”
front feet. Aunt Margo had him x-rayed and tested and said, ‘We’ve done all this stuff and don’t know what’s wrong,’ and I asked if I could have him; I didn’t need to do anything with him until he was four. So, she let us buy him and my mom is helping me train him. It turned out he just needed some time to grow.
“In our area, we have a lot of professional barrel racers who bring their horses through,” she adds. “We’re in what’s called the 2D, and we’re loping about a half-second behind that bunch. He’s awesome!”
Although Margo has tallied a long list of accomplishments in her role as a breeder and owner, she wishes Clete, who died in 2007 at age 71, was still here to enjoy the successes with her. “I really miss that my husband’s not here for the party,” she says. “He’d have just been crazed having a horse like Hank [Three Olives N Smoke].”
But she never wallowed in sadness. “She’s tough; she’s one of the toughest people I know,” says Brooke.
“After Clete died and I was trying to take care of this place and keep up by myself, if I needed help, I’d call Craig. Even though he and his wife, Amy, live a half hour up the road, they were here on a dime. I don’t know what I’d do without them.
“Craig helped me foal the first baby after Clete died — Smokin Brown Eyes in 2008. He loves the horses and keeps up with what’s going on with them and with John. Craig stepped into his dad’s shoes, and they were big shoes to fill.”
Brad adds, “We were out feeding the horses while I was there for Clete’s funeral and I said, ‘You gonna be all right?’ She said, ‘I have to be. These horses don’t know what happened; I have to take care of them.’ Her husband of 45 years just passed two days before and she said, ‘I have to be all right, these horses are counting on me.’ And that’s been her job.”
“I love these babies,” she says. “It’s the breeding end of it that I love the most. It’s like I produced a miracle. And of course, going to the track. There’s no place I’d rather be than in the barns and on the aprons at the racetrack. I love going to the races. I don’t even have to have a horse running. I like the people and I enjoy being around them.”
In the end, for Margo, it’s all about the horse. For quite a while, she says, they just couldn’t get anything on the ground that could run faster than the competition. “I kept Smokin with the idea of going to the track and it was just like Clete said: Along came Smokin, and we were back in business. She could run fast enough.”
86 SPEEDHORSE June 2021
Margo with Three Olives N Smoke
Margo with Midori N Smoke
Photos Courtesy of Margo Schares