Page 20 - The Game February 2006

20 The Game, February 2006 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
When sports columnist Jim Coleman passed away a few years
ago horseracing lost a great friend
and champion. Through six decades Mr. Coleman wrote
about the great horses and wonderful people in a sport that
so obviously fascinated him. An old-time sports writer who was there for the historical events he wrote about; the Queen’s Plates, the Grey Cups and hockey playoffs, he was the last of a breed. His writing was a personal narrative and his editors gave him free rein to use his imagination. Something that often led to tall tales that wouldn’t get by today’s politically correct editorial boards.
Racing has always depended on sports- writers to glamorize and promote it—radio can’t capitalize on the colour and visual that is so much a part of the sport and television has proven an under-utilized medium. It has always
been the racing writers, many of them plying their words on radio and TV but mostly in print‚ that have elevated the sport from ‘lap ‘n
every column he ever wrote.
There are interviews with Jackie
Robinson before he became the first black major league baseball star. Stories about Grey Cup games in the early years, and of the horseracing events of recent history. He knew the people he wrote about and based some of his fictional characters on, saw and wrote about NORTHERN DANCER, COOL RECEPTION and VICTORIA PARK in the 1960’s. He knew and was friends with mayor players like E.P. Taylor. And he wrote about the little guy. His characters of Johnny Needle-Nose and the
BlowBack Kid were probably a composite of the many backstretch denizens he had known over the years.
There are stories about a horse who could pitch baseball but couldn’t run, an Irish jockey who won races with the help of the ‘little people’. There are touching tributes to MAN O’ WAR and an old woman known as Apple Annie, and of course Frank Merrill’s
famous "running, jumping, swimming steed Puss N Boots.
This book’s a great read. It keeps alive the image and memory of old racetracks and the horsemen that haunt them.
Jim Coleman was easily as interesting as the characters he wrote about. I’ve been reading his stories for years. He called me at home one morning about a year before he passed to talk about old friend Donald Gilkie and to tell me a story about the last time he saw him at Santa Anita sitting in a private box passing out grapefruit from a crate. I appreciated the story and the time he took to tell me.
Why a book review in this column? Homage I guess. This sport of ours, more than slots and television coverage, needs more Jim Colemans.
Funny How Time Slips Away!
taps’ on
sections
Virginia gentry where North American horseracing began to the elevated status it enjoys.
Perhaps that’s one
of the reasons for the
problems our sport
now suffers—there
are no Damon Runyons left, no one to create (and explain) the myth and mystic. And why it’s making a comeback of sorts today as hundreds of racing stories are now receiving attention from editors and movie producers.
Those who have read and enjoyed Coleman’s books about horseracing, ‘A Hoofprint on My Heart’ and ‘Long Ride onaHobby-horse’willenjoy ‘THEBEST OF JIM COLEMAN, Fifty Years of Canadian Sport from the Man Who Saw It All’.
Edited by BC sports writer Jim Taylor it is an anthology of columns Mr. Taylor and Coleman’s wife Agnes found while going through an old filing cabinet.
An interesting note here is that Coleman, who professed that, he didn’t like to be interviewed or fussed over, saved
quarter of the
A Look at Racing in British Columbia
By Jim Reynolds
A HEAD AT THE WIRE - CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
Terri and Dave Forster at the gap
Tommy Wolski
Backstretch Briefs
For many of us, life as a professional jockey appears to be a job of fast horses, plenty of accolades and making lots of money.
Unlike other sports where most athletes are under a contract and their wages are guaranteed, horseracing offers no such luxuries.
Because jockeys and trainers are self-employed they operate without unemployment insurance and this can sometimes lead to a tough hit in the savings account when things aren’t going your way.
Recently we polled a few jockeys and trainers, who call
Hastings race-
course their
home base. When we
reached jockey
Frank Fuentes,
who was coming
off a good sea-
son at the
Hastings oval
(Fourth overall
in the standings
with 70 winners
and $1,424,800 in purse earnings), he was busy at work. But not on the back of a horse.
“Right now I am in the middle of painting a house for money.” said Frank,”When I am done with this one, I have another house ready to go. Then its back to Hastings to get ready for the 2006 season.”
For Chad Hoverson, (Fifth in the jockey standings with 57 winners and $1,145.111 in earnings) the time off is both crucial and necessary, as he will be filing papers to relocate to Canada.
“I have several things to do that include getting my papers to live year round in Canada. I also am going to Arizona to visit my son who is graduating from the University of Arizona." said Hoverson.
Some jockeys continue riding through- out the winter months such as Jake Barton who is enjoying a good meeting at Bay Meadows in Northern California.
Meanwhile Anthony Stevens is pondering on whether to return to Macau in China where he had considerable success in the past.
“A lot depends on the rules they have allowing foreign jockeys.” said Anthony, “Since I rode there for six years, it may restrict my return, which makes that decision up in the air. If they need riders, then that is where I will be going."
For B.C Thoroughbred Hall of Fame trainer, Dave Forster, it is a time when he and wife Terri (Assistant trainer), travel down to Santa Anita for a family reunion.
“I will turn out my horses on the farm. And head south for a visit with my son Grant, who races a large stable at Santa Anita. And just relax in the sun." says
Forster.
Chances are
Forster's son Drew, who is agent for Jake Barton, will also drop intomakeitatrue family reunion.
No matter what one does to make money or keep busy this winter, one thing is certain, everyone will be ready to return back to work.
WOLSKI’S NOTESFOUNDONA PROGRAM: On Monday, January 23, when the gates opened for shipping-in at Hastings - the first horse to arrive was for trainer Alex Murray, driven in by Thompson Van lines......When news arrived that Emma-Jayne Wilson won the prestigious Eclipse Award for Top Apprentice Jockey, there a was hearty congratulations from the horsemen at Hastings. "Emma-Jayne is a deserving winner. And I am looking forward to riding against her this season at Woodbine." said B. C.'s top apprentice jockey and fellow Eclipse finalist, Justin Stein......Recently spotted looking at horses for sale in Florida, were trainers Mel and John Snow along with Raj Mutti, Director of Operations at Hastings.
At 99-1, the mare, Any Old Tear, appeared to be just another long shot but there was a difference - her owner. When I appeared in the saddling paddock, I shook hands with Bobby Venezia. The first words out of his mouth were , “I apologize for putting you on this horse.” Now, that was a unique approach. Normally, I was expected to get down on my knees and thank them for this sterling opportunity. Bobby assured me that he had a good horse in the barn for me to ride. The bay mare looked perfectly sound but when I peered around the full cup blinkers, I saw that her eyes were closed. She was actually dozing! I was legged up and turned loose on the track, not surprisingly without a
pony. The mare responded like a show horse as she cantered rhythmically down the backstretch, halted, turned and galloped back. As I passed Eddie Kelly, who was fighting with his sweaty mount, he gave me a dirty look. “Dammit, Paddy, you’re not out here to have fun!”
Any Old Tear didn’t turn into a stakes horse when she left the gate but her responsiveness kept us out of trouble. Her real gift came the following day when I was introduced to the ‘the good horse in the barn’. It was the beginning of a new era, one I would owe to The Heckler.
Contract holder, Bobby Venezia, and Apprentice Jockey
Paddy Head