Page 24 - September 2005 The Game

24 The Game, September 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
A special thanks goes out to all of this year’s sponsors of the OntarioThoroughbred Farm Managers Club Annual Golf Tournament: Adena Springs North; International Bloodstock Agency; Anson Stud; Ciano Cat;The Game; B.F. Lorenzetti & Assoc.; IHT; Hindmarsh Farm; London Equine Hospital;Windfields Farm; Kingfield Farms; Dr. Rolph DeGannes; Moffat Dunlap Real Estate;Trajectory; Woodbine Entertainment Group; Fieldstone Farms Inc.; Colebrook Farms & Colebrook Training Centre; Roger Attfield Inc,; John Whitson;Westover Farm; Dr. B.VanArem; RMC Stable, Syd Cooper; Woodlands Farm; Huntington Stud; Sam-Son Farm; The Salty Dawg;Where’sThe Ring;Three Chimneys Farm; Park Stud; NorthYork Farmers; H.B.P.A.; Kingswood Farm; Windways Farm; Elm Tree Farm; Cavalier Transportation Services Inc.; Reg Wilder Construction Ltd.; Kinghaven Farms; Kingview Farms; Ontario Potato Distributing; JR Racing Stable; Reade Baker; Dubro Zerajic, DVM; and Schonberg Farm.
Seeing is Believing
Ontario Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club Annual Golf Tournament - July 18, 2005
By Harlan Abbey
"A happy horse is a running horse," declares Dianne Hedges, and she's certainly proving it with her training of Taho Believer at the Fort Erie Racetrack.
In 15 starts in 2003 and 2004, mostly at Woodbine, the now five-year-old had only a couple of seconds and thirds and $2,895 in career earnings--and it's estimated that it costs $25,000 a year to keep a Thoroughbred in training.
His owner, Brenda Goodlet, became fed up with paying the monthly training bills and gave him to Hedges under an agreement: Hedges would pay all the feed and veterinary bills and contribute all the labor, and any winnings would be split 50-50.
Dianne Hedges is a Trainer and Pony Rider at Fort Erie and is pictured here with her pony named, Which Way Did I Go, a.k.a. Willie, and her thoroughbred race horse,Taho Believer, a.k.a. Taco (right).
In his first start for Hedges, Taho Believer (barn name "Taco") won a maiden race and he's gone on to add two more second- place finishes and a third in five additional starts. One loss came on a muddy track and the other against a field that was "too tough, they ran five furlongs in :58 seconds, which is good time for $5,000 claimers," said the proud trainer.
"As the only runner I train, I give Taco all my attention," she explained. "First of all, you never can feed a horse too well. And, like children, horses try to get away with little things, like not standing still when you groom them. So I let Taco move around a bit, and he's happy. I think in a big stable, a horse runs a few poor races and everyone assumes he has no talent for running and he kind of gets ignored.
"Taco is a nervous, timid horse and training him on the sand ring is a big advantage. There are fewer horses on the sand track as compared to the main track. Monique Dionne, his jockey, he treats her like his plaything, and she goes along with it."
An eventing and hunter competitor as a teen, Hedges earned an equine coach level two certificate at Humber College. "A friend at a Thoroughbred farm told me they needed exercise riders there, and that's how I got into racing," Hedges related.
"Then I bought a six-month-old foal, eventually named Which Way Do I Go (barn name "Willie"), got my owner-trainer license, and it's been the race track ever since."
Willie, purchased for $600, went on to win seven races and earn over $50,000, eventually retiring at age nine. He was retrained as a pony horse and accompanies Taco to the starting gate and in his training gallops, although Hedges says Willie feels being a pony horse is beneath him.
"He still gets excited to be on the track but he settles down when Taco is beside him, and that's the only time I use him in the mornings. Otherwise he'll run off with me. I will just ride him for five races in the afternoon, when he's much better behaved. But he still thinks that they'll eventually come up with an ankle transplant and then he'll resume his racing career.
"At home, it's a different story. My daughter Ashley, now 14, has been riding Willie there since she was three years old. But she can't ride him at the track."
So far, Hedges says she's only had "bits and pieces of success. I think I've shown I can improve a horse and I'd like to have a few more to train. Being a pony girl is not my career ambition."
Ontario Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club’s Golf Tournament Organizers (left to right) Dan Steeves, Christiane Krohn, Richard Day, Shirley Gill and Dan Mooney. The team are already planning for next year’s tournament which is to be held on Monday, July 24, 2006 at Kleinburg Golf Course.
Above: John Carlton of Canadian Livestock Insurance sponsored the lunch at the start of the tournament. Patrick Minshall donat- ed a Fiesta BBQ for the longest drive prize and Dom Romeo of PineView Pontiac Buick GMCTrucks offered a car for the Hole in One contest.
The OntarioThoroughbred Farm Managers Club (OTFMC) raised $9,000 at their annual GolfTournament in July and presented CARD (Community Association for Riding for the Disabled) with a cheque on August 17.
Pictured here at CARD’s facility are from left to right: Linda Nicholson, CARD Volunteer; Christine Hacksaw, CARD Rider aboard CARD horse Prince; Sandy Webster Stolte, Executive Director of CARD; Christiane Krohn,Treasurer of OTFMC; Richard Day, Director OTFMC; Dan Steeves, President OTFMC; Dan Mooney, Director OTFMC; and Bonnie Hartley, CARD Special Events & Fundraising Coordinator.
Bratt wins Media Handicapping Contest
As he might say on Toronto One or the Score, Woodbine television host Jeff Bratt went straight to the front and played “catch me if you can” to win the 2005 Woodbine Media Handicapping Contest.
Over the two-day contest, on August 27 & 28, Bratt cor- rectly picked five winners from 20 selections for a total of $93.70, which was $26.10 higher than his nearest pursuer, Bill Tallon, Canadian Editor of the Daily Racing Form.
Media members were asked to make a $2 mythical win bet on horses (Woodbine, Saratoga or Fort Erie) in 10 races on Saturday and Sunday, including three mandatory races on each of the days.
Here are the complete standings of the 16 participants:
Jeff Bratt $93.70, Bill Tallon $67.60, John Siscos $56.70, Jennifer Morrison $54.40, John Chunn $42.40, The Game’s Steve Roberts $35.90, Ron Gierkink $34.10, Ted Labanowich $34.10, Adam Hickman $18.40, Shirley Gill $15.00, Dan Loiselle $12.00, Jason Portuondo $12.00, Richard Mauntah $9.50, The Game’s Peter Gross $8.60, Jim McKenny $7.40, Rob Longley $0.00.
Did You Know....
That according to an article in the Toronto Star a Canada Post employee in Smith Falls, Ontario has taken to delivering her rural route’s mail on horseback to alleviate her gasoline expenses. The letter carrier, who usually uses her own SUV, commented that high gas prices and her low fuel allowance, which was set at 44 cents a kilometre in2003, was actually costing her money to deliver Canada Post’s mail.
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