Page 18 - The Game July 2006
P. 18

18 The Game, July 2006 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Time Now to Enjoy
It has always been said that the best time to leave a career is when you are on top.
After winding his way through the maze of life, Robert “Bob” Topley is now ready to make the most of what he has achieved and retire to re-visit and enjoy the people he has met and places he has travelled along the way.
On the heels of celebrating his company’s 20th Anniversary, Bob is winding down his successful Topley Thoroughbred Services while he can still enjoy the fruits of his labours.
Bob was born in Toronto into a “horse family”. His father, Robert Topley Sr. arrived in Canada from Wales in 1924 and worked at Fort Erie Racetrack along with his father and brother before becoming an exercise rider for Queen City Stables at Old Woodbine.
The senior Robert turned his focus to the equestrian industry when Major Clifford Sifton hired him for his equestrian team. It wasn’t long before he had filled up Mr. Sifton’s trophy room with his achievements in the ring.
Bob moved with his family to Winnipeg and at age eleven a Welsh pony named Buddy gave Bob an early education in riding. With saddlebags on each side, Bob would ride Buddy to deliver the Winnipeg Free Press to his 92 customers. At the end of the route Bob had to hang on for his life while Buddy booted it home for his supper.
His talent for riding came naturally which was evident after his father asked him to compete in a jumping class. Despite having never ridden competitively he had a perfect ride and was the winner ahead of the boss’ son. His next competi- tion silenced any criticism that Bob was a one hit wonder, after he won the Barbara Kemp Shield on a different horse.
The family then moved East and Bob competed in the Junior Jumping Stakes at the Royal aboard a 4-yr-old green filly which came down to a second place finish after a hind tick during 4 jump offs against a Mexican Team.
At the age of twelve, Bob was schooling thoroughbreds for Frank Merrill, Lou Cavalaris and J.C. Meyer along side his father at Donlands Farm, located at what is now the crossroads of the Don Valley Parkway and Eglinton Ave.
They also galloped steeplechase horses which was an ultimate test of endurance. A nice steady gallop of up to nine miles a day for each of the five horses he was to ride for a total of $23 a day.
His father was listed as jockey and trainer in the 1950 Hendrie Stakes aboard steeplechase runner, Fiftyfirst, who cleared 22 jumps in the race.
There was some talk of Bob becoming a jockey himself however when he had a growth spurt at age fourteen, that idea had to be thrown out the window.
The Topleys eventually rented the barn for $125 a month and built a very select and successful operation named Shady Lane Stables until 1956 when they got out of the business altogether when the city revealed its plans to run Eglinton Ave
someone with both a business and a horse background was needed.
Bob took the position which he kept for three years before politics forced him to quit.
He moved to a 12 acre farm, Willowglen Farm, in Consecon, Ontario and was working as the National Service Manager for Exide Battery Company until the company re-located to Mississauga. Not wanting to uproot his family he quit his job, confident that he would find another position. However that was when the recession hit in 1981.
On September 6, 1986 he purchased a computer and the software and began designing the program for his Stakes Closing Service.
Bob set up a table in the backstretch kitchen and had trainers look at the program and fine tuned it until it was ready to roll.
On January 15, 1987, Bob met with Sam-Son Farm’s Ernie Samuel and after showing him what he had to offer, the pair shook hands on.
Paul Johnson signed up the following Saturday.
Kinghaven called Monday.
Rick Kennedy, owner of Afleet called the next Wednesday.
Mac Benson for Windfields called Thursday and Mike Ryan with Kentucky’s Top Yield Bloodstock along with David Bell inquired about the new service on Saturday.
Bob had a hit on his hands.
“Basically if you are a trainer or owner,” said Bob of his stakes closing service, “you would look upon me as your extra office for stakes planning.”
Topley Thoroughbred Services saved trainers from having to call around to the numerous racetracks to find out nomination and stakes closing dates. By providing a complete report of what stakes are available for specific horses, Topley was also able to find opportunities that otherwise might not have been considered.
“I would ask the client, ‘how do you want to work with your stakes information,’ then I would customize it to suit their needs and resources.” says Bob.
Topley Thoroughbred Services could provide information by closing date, by race dates, by type of surface, by purse level or something more specific.
Bob recalls a client who had a stakes winning mare of more than $200,000 who needed to find a Grade 3 race for her to place in before retiring her to the breeding shed. Other similar requests were common when finding black type races to boost the marketability of mares, “Let us know every possible stakes race in North American that is available for her.”
Topley Services could also fine tune stakes races by distance or even track location.
“I had a client who didn’t like flying,” recalls Bob, “He asked me to find all of the stakes races that he could drive to.”
Trainer Ernie Poulos was the trainer of the Mr. Jeff Sullivan owned, Black Tie Affair. Ernie hired Topley Services because in the early stages of the horse’s career they wanted to go after the purses and avoid “the bullets or the big boys” in each race. The horse was on a winning streak at 7 different race tracks in 6 months before travelling to Monmouth to beat Farnaway and then on to the Breeders’ Cup and Horse of the Year Honors.
Bob Topley at Woodbine with the plaques of horsemen he knew from his younger days
through the middle of the farm.
Bob admits that he never finished his
education and when his father expressed that he preferred that he didn’t work in the horse industry, he found work as an office equipment technician for Xerox and Bell & Howell, travelling from Oakville to Windsor and Fort Erie to Owen Sound.
It was also in 1956 when Bob met his “wife to be”, Betty, on a blind date at the Club Kingsway. In November of that year, he sold his car to buy her a ring and the couple were married on May 4, 1957.
Working as a technician in so many different companies provided Bob with a good business background however many people over the years had commented that with all his knowledge of the horse industry he should be in it.
In 1972 Bob wrote to John Mooney at the Ontario Jockey Club who had said that they didn’t have any openings at that time. However in the fall of that same year he received a phone call from the OJC stating that they were launching a new breeders program for both the thoroughbreds and
standardbreds and
With his son in University, Bob accepted a position with the Manitoba Racing Commission 1983 as Executive Director and Supervisor of Racing for Thoroughbred, Standardbred and Quarter Horse racing, during which time he developed the rule book and played a part in the development of intertrack wagering and helped to get the Commission back on track.
He didn’t plan on staying long in Manitoba and in 1986 he relinquished his position to pursue an idea he had of a business where he provided stakes closing reports for trainers.
In July 1986, Bob revealed his plans to Peter Poole, former farm manager at Windfields Farm, Paul Johnson, former manager of Beechwood Farm, and Trainer Lou Cavalaris at Woodbine, all of whom commented that his idea was something that they needed.
August 23, 1986, Bob registered Topley Thoroughbred Services; His first client was Tom Webb, owner of Bessarabian who simply said to Bob, “I want you to do something for me.”
CONT. PAGE 20 - SEE BOB TOPLEY
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