Page 17 - April 2008 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper The Game, April 2008 17
The Biggest Race HIe Ever Won?
n 1965, Tak Inouye won
the Queen’s Plate aboard Whistling Sea and became the
rst rider ever to pilot a western- bred horse to victory in Canada’s most prestigious horse race. But
like all great success stories, the
road to victory was lined with many twists and turns along the way. After the Second World War, Tak’s father moved the family to Vernon and started a business as a harness maker. He made saddles and bridles and halters and other harness
for the loggers who used horses in the bush. It was through his father’s harness making that Tak got his rst exposure to horses and eventually found his way to the racetrack. Like many before him, Tak got his start
on the backstretch walking hots in Calgary. When his boss moved the string to Toronto and on to Florida, Tak followed along, eager to learn the tricks of the trade.
I asked Tak how he got his histo- ry-making mount for the Queen’s Plate. He told me his opportunity came a two weeks before the race
when another rider booked off Whistling Sea and
the trainer—future Hall
of Famer, Roy Johnson— asked Tak to ride him in the Woodstock Stakes. “He was a no good son-of-a-
gun,” Tak said. “We were the longest shot in the race. When we broke out of the gate we got slammed hard and almost went down. After that I gave him his head and tried to feel whether he was sound enough to keep going. He felt all right so I let him drop his head and gallop along. The trainer told me he was rank and would run off for the rst half of the race and have nothing left for the end. He was a big tough stallion and you couldn’t rate him. I didn’t think he was any good so I didn’t even try to hold
him. I just let him gallop along. But I noticed every time a horse came near I could feel him pick it up a step. When we hit the three-eights pole I picked up my cross and he grabbed the bit and took off. We ended up winning the race by a nose. Whistling Sea paid $52.00 to win!”
“Well, I still didn’t think he was any kind of horse but I agreed to ride him back nine days later in the Plate Trial Stakes. But this race was a mile
and a sixteenth. I said to Roy: ‘Is the owner crazy? This son-of-a-gun can’t run that far.’ Roy just shrugged his shoulders and said the owner wants
to run him so I’m running him. The owner at the time was Calgary oilman Paul Olivier.”
“This time I didn’t even touch his mouth the rst half of the race. A lot of people don’t know you can’t rate a horse by taking a big hold. You have to get him to relax. But every time a horse moved on him I could feel him pick up the pace. I waited until the 3/8 pole and picked up my lines and he grabbed the bit and took off like
a rocket and darned if we didn’t win the Trial too. This time Whistling Sea wasn’t the longest shot in the race, but he still paid $32.00!”
I followed Tak into the tack room and listened while he wrung out his freshly washed saddle-cloths and hung them up to dry.
“Well, now I knew I had something, ‘cause we’d beat some pretty nice horses in the Plate Trial Stakes. So
I agreed to ride him back ve days later in the Queen’s Plate. But I still gured we were in over our heads, running a full mile and a quarter against the best horses in the country. The longest race Whistling Sea had
ever run was ve days earlier in the Trial!”
“We went to the post at 7-1. This time I decided I’d better hustle him out of the gate. We went right to the front and I relaxed and let him get comfortable and we just galloped along for the rst half mile or so. But just like before, every time a horse moved on him I could feel him surge a little and pick it up. He was do-
ing all the work, so I just sat chilly and didn’t move my lines. By then I knew what to do when we hit the 3/8 pole, so I picked up the lines and he grabbed hold of the bit and started running. All of a sudden we were in a horserace. We hooked the favourite and came down the stretch neck and neck. But Whistling Sea just kept on running and pulled away to win by
a couple of lengths. And that’s the story of how I won the Queen’s Plate in 1965.”
“That’s a great story, Tak. Was the Queen’s Plate the biggest race you ever won?”
Tak thought this over before he nally answered with a wink and
a grin: “No, the biggest race I ever won came the year after...but that’s a whole other story!”
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The Game April 2008.indd 17 3/27/08 11:55:57 PM
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