Page 23 - The Game April 2006

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, April 2006 23
Ryan G. Rawson Thoroughbred Horse trainer
He’s never wanted to do anything else. At an early age he quit school to work at his father’s stable full time and now, with his father gone, 25 year old Ryan Rawson is trying to carry on the dream he shared with his father from a very young age - to become a racehorse trainer.
"I was born and raised to do this," says Ryan. "It was a plan my dad and I shared. Ever since I can remember I’ve worked for him; at the farm on week- ends, spring break, summer holidays and then when I left school I ran his barn at the track."
Family tradition has always played a big part in BC’s racing fraternity where several families of horsemen are three or four generations deep. It’s part of the makeup of the sport—father to son passage of knowledge and horseman- ship.
And there is another part of the family equation, Ryan’s uncle Wilf, an excellent horseman in his own right and long the right-hand man of the leg- endary Sonny O’Connell. Two good mentors for a young apprentice.
"My dad and I worked great with each other," says Ryan nervously—this is his first interview.
"We had this communication. We’d always know what each other was talk- ing about. He’d tell me to do some- thing for a horse and wouldn’t mention a name just ‘that horse’ and I’d just know. It was strange and he used to brag about it. We had really great communication.
"He taught me everything I know. He taught me something every
morning, explained something to me everyday. There is not one day when he didn’t. It was a learning process every single day. He’d tell me that ‘you never stop learning in this business, every single day’."
Ryan’s father Roy, a popular trainer at Exhibition Park, died in 2003. When he passed away Ryan set out to establish a stable of his own and trained the first season with the help of trainer Christie Wiebe.
"I did okay last year. I had five horses and won five races with three of them. But they weren’t much and I didn’t want to put them through it again. When they couldn’t win their conditions I had to let them go.
"In the beginning I thought I needed [any] horses. It was a bit of a bad decision, no one else would take them and I did. But I learned from it."
Now he has just one horse in his stable. The last horse his father bred, a filly called Noswar’s Baby. (Rawson spelled backwards, he explains) owned by himself and his sister Jodie.
Ryan’s goal is to be a public trainer.
"There’s nothing else I’d rather do. I go to California in the winter and work as an assistant for a trainer at Golden Gate, for Andy Mathis, a young, successful trainer and a good guy to learn from.
"My goal is to win the BC Derby one day. My immediate goal is to win a race over $5,000. All the horses I’ve had have run for $5,000. But you have to put your time in at the bottom and that’s where I am now. Paying my dues."
A Look at Racing in British Columbia
By Jim Reynolds
FORMER FAVOURITES RETURN TO HASTINGS
Tommy Wolski
Backstretch Briefs
This season at Hastings, local racing fans will be in for a treat. Not only will they have an opportunity to wager on their favourite jockeys from last year, there is also a good chance a few familiar faces from the past may be resurfacing.
After a six-year absence away from horse racing, popular jockey Mark Walker is seriously contemplating a return the saddle.
During his hiatus from the racetrack Mark has been busy working at a local construction company driving heavy-duty equipment.
Perhaps one of the reasons why he is motivated for a comeback is the fact that his son Tyler is now working for trainer Traci McCarthy as an exercise person and is under the guidance of Walkers close friend, the now retired jockey Chris Loseth.
By his own admission, Mark was not happy with the fact that he did not retire on is own terms.
Multiple injuries from riding and hip replacement surgery forced an early end to his riding career..
"I thought about it for awhile. And now that it has been four years since the hip replacement operation and it was a success, I thought why not give it a try." said Walker.
"I haven't been sound in fifteen years and now that my spirit, mind and body are back together. I figured why not."
During his successful career, Walker won multiple stake races aboard many top horses during his era including Barbex, Bird of Courage, Briartic Storm, Bolt the Hatch, Earthquack, Twanger and Count Gema to name a few.
Despite his absence from riding, he still holds fourth position among all jockeys at Hastings for career stake victories.
Can he pull it off? In his mind the answer is a big yes. Realistically, that is something only time will tell.
Also returning to Hastings after a year of riding in the U.S. is Felipe Valdez.
Considered to be one the strongest riders at Hastings, Valdez’ foray south of the border was not by his own choosing.
After numerous riding infractions over the three years, it was suggested by the powers to be that Valdez take a break away from Hastings for a year.
According to former agent Geoff Mussellam, Valdez has been working very hard while riding in New Mexico. Valdez, has been granted a jockey's license to ride this season at Hastings. "He is eagerly awaiting his return to riding at Hastings and proving once again he belongs among the elite jockeys in Vancouver.” said Mussellam.
NOTES FOUND ON A PROGRAM: Former Hastings leading rider, Pedro Alvarado, is back after suffering a cartilage injury near the end of last season...Jockey Anthony Stephens is doing double duty this season. Stephens will be the agent for nephew Mark as well as himself. “It will be rather neat. Right now, I have him riding four horses opening day, that is more mounts then I have. Might have to get after my agent." smiled Stephens......Hastings fans are also in for another treat with perennial favourite Jake Barton returning from a successful winter riding in Northern California.
There has been a violent uproar over the
publishing of cartoons depicting the Muslim
Prophet Mohammed by a Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten. As with many controversial
incidents, there is more than meets the eye.
While the newspaper claims that the cartoons
were published as a testament to free speech,
perhaps this is a claim of "methinks thou dost protest too much". For Muslims, any depiction of Mohammed is considered sacrilege and has strict instructions against such in the Koran. Was this a setup to entice Muslims to action that would justify anti-Muslim sentiments? The immigration to Denmark of thousands of third-world Muslims has put a huge strain on Denmark's social system and the violent reaction to the publication has invoked shock (deaths) and confusion (trashing a KFC?). This also gives said newspaper an opportunity to say "I told you so".
It's said a good lawyer never asks a question without already knowing the answer. This seems to be a case of a religious group playing into the hands of a political or social agenda. If the reaction by Muslims world-wide was exactly what Jyllands-Posten anticipated, (and they must have, knowing the Koran's writings), they must accept part of the responsibility for inciting it. World Muslims, some who have published vulgar anti-Semitic cartoons in the Middle East, must accept responsibility
for their actions. They had a chance to display self-control in a volatile situation and show the world what their belief is about- and blew it.
Historically, Christianity hasn't done itself any favours when it comes to depictions, either. Images of God (always with a white beard) and Jesus (the wavy flowing hair must mean he used Pantene), may be the artist's renditions, but have unfortunately portrayed two-thirds of the Trinity as white Anglo-Saxons. In fact, the Bible's only reference to Jesus' appearance comes in the Old Testament book of Isaiah 53:2 -"The servant grew up before God--a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look"
(The Message translation). Contrary to what we'd like to think, Jesus wasn't good looking! I can live with that - but can Christians live with an ugly Saviour? In fact, if we are made in God's image, God must be bald.
Are times really that bad? I looked up "crime rates" online and got some stats last released in 1999. Despite
what we're led to believe on the covers of newspaper and TV news lead-ins, Toronto ranks 27th, 25th and 24th in homicide, robbery and break-in respectively per 100,000 people. C'mon Toronto, we're behind Winnipeg! Life has to be taken in perspective. We may long for the "good old days", yet for some those days
meant no running water and outhouses. Some long for the "good old days" of horse racing, but that meant, at least in Ontario, living in tack rooms, communal showers, no facilities for women, minuscule purses (by today's standards) - the list goes on. Perhaps, as Carly Simon sang, we should realize that "these are the good old days" and count our blessings.
If you remember my article from the 2005 February Game, you'll know that I mentioned how scientists stated that although tsunamis dish out short term pain, they may also account for long-term gain. Recently Sun wire services had this to say, "From atop the coconut tree where he fled to escape the onrushing water, Muhammad Yacob watched the Dec. 26 tsunami turn his rice paddy into a briny, debris-strewn swamp. Nine months later, Yacob and his wife are harvesting their best-ever crop, despite fears that salt water had poisoned the land. Farmers say vegetables, peanuts and fruits are also growing well, spurring hopes that agriculture in the still devastated region will recover faster than expected."
Funny Stuff About Cartoons, Crime Rates and Tsunamis
Get Tied On
with Chaplain Shawn