Page 4 - March 2007 The Game

4 The Game, March 2007 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
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From the Editor - Peter Gross
Why Do We Care so Much for Barbaro?
I have a friend who, from time to time, takes out her near-pristine copy of the July 21, 1975 issue of Sports Illustrated. Inside, on page 22, is an article entitled Could She Have Been Saved?, concerning the great filly Ruffian who
broke down in a match race with Foolish Pleasure and was subsequently euthanized. My friend was one of millions profoundly touched by the racing tragedy and it makes me suspect that Barbaro’s fate has affected incrementally many more.
What is it that draws us to this horse’s story, much more bitter than sweet? We certainly belong to an age that reveres and obsesses over its human sporting superstars and invariably our idols let us down. Sadly, there seem to be a diminishing number of running, throwing, jumping heroes who still retain their dignity and accept the worship with grace and perspective.
So we turn to the horse. It doesn’t talk, wear garish clothes, seek out drugs or endorsements or make outrageous predictions. It just runs. Like Ruffian and Barbaro, it runs until its opponents are far behind and gasping. And when they are catastrophically stricken, we feel a grave loss – of what – our own innocence, of a moment in time that can never be duplicated?
We stood vigil for more than eight months, praying that Barbaro could be fixed. We sent flowers, read daily updates and wrote countless blogs. A company that makes figurine horses sold thousands of models of Barbaro. In his recovery, the handsome colt attained a hero status that even winning the Kentucky Derby did not create.
As with any popular movement, there were dissenters, cynics from the uninformed shadows who accused his owners, the
Jacksons and his surgeon, Dean Richardson of prolonging the poor animal’s life only for the potential windfall his career as a stallion would bring. Truth is, with the multiple infirmities to his legs, Barbaro’s capacity to even stand properly behind a mare was a much less certain proposition than was victory in any of
his races.
There was much good that came from the eight months of
attempting to save Barbaro. Generous horse lovers, in a variety of ways, donated generously to the New Bolton Centre for further equine surgeries. The treatment afforded Barbaro gave surgeons valuable experience – almost every horse that has sustained this kind of damage is destroyed immediately. Barbaro’s lengthy survival may mean success for a subsequently injured race star.
Maybe we turn to Ruffian and Barbaro because we so badly want a new hero and, more than just about any other sport, horse racing is desperate for celebrated icons. We were captivated by Funny Cide and Smarty Jones, but as their brilliant careers wound down, so did our interest.
Most of all, perhaps we gathered around Barbaro as a reflection of our own inadequacies. For sure, all of us involved in horse racing have let the horses down. Owners and trainers push their animals too far. Breeders create huge, muscular animals on long, spindly, vulnerable legs.
So we chant our mea culpas and demonstratively show our caring sides. We impose on a horse his courage and his determination and give him the human characteristics we wish for ourselves.
The horse wants to run and we enable that. But, too often, through a collection of our efforts, our conditions and our bottom line, we end up destroying the thing we love the most.
It can be said though, that in every way possible, Barbaro never let us down.
Nancy Powis (July 30, 1930-February 18, 2007)
Many racetrackers will be sad to hear of the passing of Nancy Powis who died of an aneurism on February 18, 2007 at the age of 76. Powis owned and ran Norcross Office Services for about 25 years (Norcross was her maiden name – she was married to Jack Powis who died several years ago).
“She loved the racetrack and her accounting business was built on the needs and the accounting requirements of the racetrackers,” said her long-time friend, Phil Jones, who is acting as the executor of her estate.
“She had a flourishing business here and a long list of accounts including leading trainers and many owners,” Jones told The Game. “She was very aware of the requirements and the unique ways that things go at the track. She was quite aware that she was dealing with owners, trainers, grooms, hot walkers and backstretch workers who offered their tattered income tax returns every April.”
Powis was born in Cleveland, Ohio, but her roots were around Lennoxville in the eastern township of Quebec. She attended Carleton University in Ottawa and moved to Toronto in 1951. Although she was regular visitor to the Woodbine backstretch, she also had a passion for politics.
“She was a political junkie,” said Jones, “and for many years, she worked for the federal Progressive Conservative party in the trenches. She worked very hard in that role and she saw many of the people that she was involved with become ministers of the Crown.”
Powis knew that her health was failing and, just a couple of
weeks ago, sent a poignant note to that effect to Jones.
“She said that her big regret was that many of the people she had worked with in politics had already passed away and would not be able to attend her funeral,” said Jones, who speaks of
Powis with enormous admiration.
“She was basically one of a rare breed of woman who was
quite liberated,” he says. “She was independent, had a sense of purpose and ambition, and had a very good business head.”
As for her company, Norcross Office Services, which is located on Queen’s Plate Drive a little more than a furlong from Woodbine, Jones insists that it will carry on.
“The face of her business has become Chrissy Strachan, her adopted daughter, who has effectively been managing it for the past few years,” says Jones, “This company will continue. Chrissy and I plan on growing it for the sake of Nancy.”
A funeral service was held for Nancy on February 23 at the Newydyk Funeral Home in Etobicoke.
Calgary Native Trudy McCaffery Dies
Trudy McCaffery, a thoroughbred breeder based in California, died of lung cancer on February 12 at the age of 62. Mostly in partnership with John Toffan, Trudy bred and raced a string of top horses including Mane Minister and Free House. McCaffery was originally from Calgary, Alberta, and her sister Marilyn Hoffman said “the family enjoyed a life-long love affair with horses while growing up.”
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