Page 18 - November 2005 The Game
P. 18

18 The Game, November 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
A Head at the Wire
The first in a series of real life stories by Paddy Head
The Battle of the Roses
Not to be mistaken for the War of the Roses, this battle began in 1967. Let’s see when the first skirmish occurred.
Kathy Kusner, a member of the American grand prix jumping team at the ‘64 Olympics, applies for a jockey’s license. The first shot is fired. She misses her target when the stewards deny her on the premise that women don’t have the strength to ride racehorses. Kathy insists that racing is more a game of skill and technique and proves her point when she takes the Maryland Racing Commission to court and wins. Victory in the women’s camp! Kathy sustains an injury at Madison Square Gardens and sighs of relief are heard in the enemy camp. Penny Ann Early takes up the gauntlet and charges. The men boycott her first four races and Penny retreats. Victory in the men’s camp!
The siege continues as women from across the land appear at the gates, the starting gates that is. It’s beginning to look hopeless to the troops holed up within the fortress of the jocks’ room. A new tactic is needed. Okay, let the women ride and when they get a taste of what it’s really like, they’ll be glad to leave it to the boys. On Feb. 7 1969, Diane Crump makes history when she successfully rides a race at Hialeah.
A few weeks later, a shy nineteen year old named Barbara Jo Rubin breaks from the gate at Charles Town and leads the boys all the way to the wire.
A resounding success. Now we have a woman in the inner sanctum, the winner’s circle. The assault
continues as Barbara Jo Rubin wins 7 out of her first 10 races. Two state troopers are needed to escort Barbara Jo to the saddling paddock, not to hold off the jockeys but the railbirds who try to grab her clothes as souvenirs. Not cut out for the hero role, shy Barbara Jo retires from the limelight.
Not so for Mary Bacon. Mary is stunning with her dark brown eyes, long, glimmering blonde hair, gold hoop earrings and yes, mascara. And does the camera love Mary, both in and out of the winner’s circle. Her nude centrefold in Playboy causes controversy in both camps. No one wants to associate with her, which is just fine for the woman known as ‘the toughest broad ever seen on a horse’. Mary lives up to her reputation, trading punches with men and women alike. The first black woman jockey, Cheryl White, comes under her wrath. When asked what happened, Cheryl wisely shakes her head. “No comment.”
Meanwhile, in a small camp known as Waterford Park, a warrior of a different nature resides. Patty Barton has planted roots in the West Virginia encampment where she raises her 3 children and rides races all year round. Patty has no dreams of grandeur, no plans to fight for the roses but rides every week in rain, sun and snow. Honest, this woman is; a pushover, she is not. When called before the stewards for ambushing another jockey on his way back to the jock’s room, Patty drops her pants and points to a large welt across her buttocks, received from the stinging
end of his whip on at the quarter pole. This is not a woman to be messed with.
The winner’s circle is now being visited on a regular basis by women across the continent, almost as if it were their right. And to add insult to injury, one of them appears at the Big A. With a mere 3 wins to her credit, Robyn Smith steps onto the hallowed grounds of Belmont. And doesn’t the damn woman impress trainer Allen Jerkins. A few trips to the winner’s circle and she catches the attention of Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt. Robyn Smith, with her willowy 5’7” figure and Hollywood beauty seems well on her way to glory. Detractors look for an angle of attack: riding ability? Damned if she can’t get a horse out of the gate and rate him perfectly. No strength for the finish? Her strategy makes up for lack of muscle. Drops her whip? She can hit left or right. So where is her imperfection? Ah, yes, there it is ‘she’s flat chested! The press joins in the derisive chorus and Robyn Smith becomes Robin Nobreasts. Ammunition just isn’t what it used to be.
1969. A new warrior appears on the horizon, Paddy Head. I’m 19 years old, and oblivious of the battle being fought on the racetrack. I’m trying to break into the hunter/jumper scene at St. Bruno riding stables in Quebec. Growing up with an invisible horse, I have dreams and ambition but no
actual experience. I’m offered more mounts in the tack room than out on the hunt course. Working 6 1/2 days a week for a paltry $55, there isn’t a bright future for me in the showhorse world. Suddenly, an article appears in the Gazette, jockey Mary Bacon is riding at Blue Bonnets for trainer and stock broker Noel Hickey. I look at myself in the mirror: five feet, 100 pounds. Why not?
I look up Noel Hickey’s office in the phone book and call. His secretary hears the 2 magic words, Thoroughbreds and jockey. She gives me an appointment. The grandeur of the downtown Montreal office intimidates me but I swallow my nervousness as I sit on the other side of Noel’s expansive desk and answer his questions. At about the third question, he flings a pencil at me; it glances off my shoulder. Without missing a beat, he continues his interrogation. Round about the sixth question, another pencil just misses my head. When the third pencil lands in my lap, Noel finally explains his eccentric behaviour, he’s testing my reflexes.
I’ve failed the reflex test miserably. But Noel thinks there’s something about me, something that might work. “Pack your bags,” he tells me, “you’re on your way to Suffolk Downs!”
- Paddy Head is the author of her first released book, Majeek.
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Fort Erie trainers take long trip to win $600
By Harlan Abbey
Two Fort Erie horsemen -- Campbell Wilson and Tom Agosti -- may have set racing records on Saturday, October 8.
In his first start as a jockey, Wilson (6-foot-1 and 165 pounds) came home a winner in a two-and-a- quarter mile race at the Genesee Valley (NY) Hunt
race meeting.
While trainer Tom Agosti, who came to the
Thoroughbreds after training and driving Standardbreds in the Buffalo area, had winners at three different tracks in the same day -- Devil's Scripture won the seventh race at Fort Erie, Circus Halo won the second race at Finger Lakes (NY) and
Agosti drove AC's Flashy Guy and Early Winner to victory in harness races at Batavia
(NY) Downs. However, he was in the winner's circle pictures only at Fort Erie and Batavia Downs; his assistant saddled Circus Halo.
Wilson, who exercises his own Ramledd Stable horses each morning, said he was more tired than his mount, Exclusive Tale (owned and trained by Paul Mandalfino) during the long grind. "I got tired after about two miles," he explained, "but it was an easy win -- for the horse, not for me." The point-to-point
race layout was a far cry from the manicured dirt oval at the Fort Erie Racetrack. It was on grass, which Exclusive Tale loves, but also involved a right hand turn and crossing a road and a bridge.
The purse for the race was only $1,000. Mandalfino's winner's share was only $600 and Wilson's ten percent riding fee was only $60... but the two racetrackers said they enjoyed the day so much -- despite the rain -- that they plan to race at Geneseo again next year.
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