The Canadian Sportsman
Archive for October, 2009
October 02, 2009
For years now, Jimmy and Christina Takter have been naming horses after members of the harness racing media — Ken Warkentin being the most famous, of course. But there have been others, including Bob Heyden, Dean Hoffman, Nicole Kraft, Kathy Parker, Gordon Waterstone.
So, where’s the love for your Canadian friends, Jimmy? As a man of the world, you’d think he’d throw a little international goodwill our way. After all, I’ve even made the trip to his spectacular farm in his New Jersey, seen his Statue of Liberty and sat in his American room.
Not that Jimmy has to name a horse after me, but someone from The Sportsman would be nice. I vote for Schellenberger, the maiden name of my colleague Lauren Lee. Now that would be a great name. Here comes Schellenberger! Perhaps one for our advertising director, Kristy Dustin. And Dustin dusts them off again!
About the closest I’ve come to having an equine namesake in thanks for all the love I’ve showered on the industry is Bob McIntosh’s threat to name a horse DontwhipmeBriggs (see previous entry).
Nice.
But of course, Dave Landry gets the pseudo star treatment. Back in 2007, Landry began telling me Doug McIntosh, Bob’s brother, was going to name a horse after him.
Sure, sure, I thought, with equal parts skepticism and envy.
Occasionally, I would check and, upon finding no horse with that name, I figured this was just something Doug mentioned in passing as something he might do... Until I opened last year’s Lexington Selected Yearling Sale catalogue and discovered hip number 151, an Artsplace colt out of Doug’s mare Angel in Disguise. The name? Yup, you guessed it — Landry.
This delighted the human Landry to no end and he quickly began devising schemes to cobble together both coins and coconspirators to purchase his equine namesake. Thankfully, they remained just that, schemes — though I’m convinced this colt will end up winning the North America Cup for no other reason than it’s named for Landry.
Unable to be in Lexington the week of the sale, Landry asked me — seriously — to have Blair Burgess scope out the equine Landry and report back.
Blair was a good sport and, after giving a lightning-quick, less-than-lukewarm scan of the pedigree page, promised to take a look at the horse before it sold (for $22,000 to Len Kordy of Kingston, ON).
The next day, I ran into Blair at The Red Mile and asked him what he thought of Landry.
“Small and correct,” Blair said simply, before walking away.
I’m not sure if he meant the horse or the photographer.
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October 01, 2009
In our Nov. 27, 2008 edition, The Sportsman brought you ‘Camping For Keeps’ — the story of Ontario Harness Horse Association (OHHA) youth camps and how many kids from these camps have stayed in the business by helping out local trainers in their spare time.
This year, camp coordinator Liz Waples is happy to report that even more kids have remained interested long after their camping days were over and many successful matches have been made with trainers, who are pleased to welcome these hardworking youngsters into the barn.
Brianne Sloan is one of those youngsters and she’s become a great help to trainer George McClure in Clinton, ON, helping out in the barn every day in the summertime and on Saturdays and Sunday during the school year since she attended the youth camp in the summer of 2008.
So impressed was McClure with the 11-year-old’s eagerness and work ethic — it’s nothing for her to clean 10 stalls a day without complaint — that he recently rewarded her with a piece of Wynsum Margaret, a four-year-old pacing mare he purchased on Aug. 23 at the Summer Sizzler mixed sale.
“I didn’t give her anything,” said McClure. “She earned every bit of it for working so hard all year. “She comes to work every day at 7 o’clock when she’s not in school.”
Just one week later, Sloan earned her first victory as a horse owner, grinning ear-to-ear in the Clinton Raceway winner’s circle (above, photo by Gerald Millar) alongside winning driver and co-owner Dustin McClure after Wynsum Margaret’s victory.
But it was more than just the McClures and the mare that made Sloan’s day. Race announcer Frank Salive made special mention of the youngster in the winner’s circle, while track photographer Gerald Millar specially inscribed the winner’s photo to say, ‘Congratulations, Brianne. 1st win as an owner.’
“Everyone in the barn calls her ‘Smiley’,” said McClure. “She’s always that way, but (her smile) was even wider after that race.”
McClure said there’s also been a further trickle down, with Brianne’s parents, Rob and Sandra, both going out and getting their groom’s licenses after their daughter took such an interest in the sport.
“It’s been great,” he said. “It’s nice to have some good news every now and then.”
October 01, 2009
It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Okay, that might be overselling it just a bit. However, when it comes to the relative conditions of cleanliness and overall disgustingness there is a lot of variation in public restrooms.
That fact was recently underscored during The Sportsman’s annual pilgrimage to the Little Brown Jug in Delaware, OH.
Nature called somewhere in Michigan, just before we hit the Ohio border.
While my co-workers headed for the gas station men’s room, I found the ladies’ room in lockdown mode. I patiently waited, assuming the unit was already occupied. When no one emerged after several minutes, I inquired with the gas station attendant as to whether or not a key was necessary to gain access to the restroom.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but some sort of animal got loose in there last night and made one heck of a mess,” said the young man.
“It’s pretty disgusting. You might be better off just using the men’s.”
It’s amazing to me how much information we just take at face value. Without further hesitation I turned around and made use of the men’s room, which was no prize either, and made it all the way back to the car before my mind started to wander…
What kind of animal? A chipmunk? A badger? A wolverine? Or was the attendant speaking figuratively about the ‘animal’ and really meant that it was just a gross woman with poor aim?
What do you mean ‘got loose in there’? Did the kindly badger wait patiently for the automatic sliding door at the front of the gas station to open, then bomb it straight to the back of the convenience store — bypassing aisles of cupcakes and pepperettes — just so he could use the facilities?
Did he close and lock the bathroom door behind him? Why did he pick the ladies’ room? Was it a badgerette?
How long was he in there for? Is he still in there? What was preventing them from cleaning it up and re-opening the bathroom? Was there more to the story? Had they sealed off the crime scene waiting for the badger-bathroom CSI unit to arrive?
Sadly, these questions went unanswered as we crossed the state line into Ohio. If the bathrooms of rural Michigan left us with more questions than answers, then we found restroom nirvana at the Little Brown Jug.
Of course, the Delaware County Fairgrounds has its share of what will now be referred to as ‘badger-ized’ bathrooms, but the toilet Taj Mahal can be found next to the hospitality tent atop the hill at the track’s first turn.
From the outside, it looked like just a fancy outhouse trailer. Inside, it was opulent, looking like the cabin of a cruise ship, with faux black marble sinks and counters, wood trim, slatted doors with brass fixtures and thick paper towels. It was like Fantasy Island in there.
And, it was spotlessly clean.
This, too, made many, many questions come to mind, but I thought better of mouthing off about the magical appearance of the world’s greatest public water closet — the badger could be listening.
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