Mapping Out Your Future With Mike


Harness Horses.

Wagering on the outcome of a horse race is losing its popularity. This might not apply to the Kentucky Derby or other major racing events, but day in day out racing is losing its appeal.
This is a tradegy. The sport of kings is falling from its lofty position and now must cater to slot machines to finance the racing operation.

Only one thing is for certain, people will wager...on anything. The cost of providing viewing stands, horses, vets, tracks, wagering windows, feed, real estate etc. is too high for the profits return. The MBA credo roi rules supreme. It is much less expensive to address the wagering needs of the general public with lotteries and slot machines than wagering on horse racing.

There were several things which attracted me to horse racing. As a fan of risk analysis the obvious lure of wagering was present. The other factor was the animals. "The care and training of the standardbred racehorse" is a very comprehensive book. DJ and I spent hours and hours with that book first learning the basics of many subjects. We spent hours with sick or injured horses, nursing them back to health. Our waking hours were often nothing but care for our horses. At the height of our involvement in the racing business our days would start at 4:30 am and finish after midnight only to start all over again the next day. There was some down time during the afternoon, but the days were busy, productive and very satisfying.

Horse racing is like fishing, the stories get more interesting with each telling. I propose to share two stories with you only. ...tell the truth, nothing but the truth, so help me God!

Sudden Sue

Back in the late 1970's, the racing authorities in Ontario did not use computers to maintain the racing records of standardbred racehorses. It was all in databases but not like today. In an attempt to understand which horses were a good claim from a claiming race, we tracked all of the horses racing in $5000 to $20000 claiming races. We cut and paste literally data from racing programs (6 lines at a time) to maintain an overall picture of a horse's past performance. From this data, we decided which races to enter our horses. More importantly, we decided which horses were good claims on paper. Then it was time to actually look at the horse etc. Sudden Sue was a 4 year old mare when we claimed her. DJ liked her easy gait on the pace and she was a large powerful mare. Her breeding was very suspect on her father's side, but the mare's side was decent. She showed consistent results but was owned and trained by a farmer who was enjoying his hobby. Perhaps there was room for improvement.

To a long story short, we claimed the mare and raced her for several years. We improved on her performance and moved her up from $7000 claiming. She raced for us at either 12 or 15 claiming and was consistently in the top four. As a side note here, most of the working racing community at that time considered purses as the least interesting option for income. Training fees and wagering were the most interesting. Wagering brings to mind just how consistent the racing effort was etc... Our strategy was to race our horses where they should be in the top three. We did not consider our capital investment (the claiming price) in our racing decisions. Once the horse was claimed by us, then the strategy was to make money from the winning of purse money, not from dubious racing and wagering activities. This did not make us a lot of friends in the backstretch initially, but eventually we actually made it easily on the good old boys because they could always count on our horses to race to form and be competitive. Now do not get me wrong, I wagered. With a woman trainer and apprentice drivers we were seldom the favorite even with competitive horses.

The difficult side of racing your own horses comes when you lose them in a claim. DJ and I were even more upset when the horses were injured. This happened to Sudden Sue, she broke a bone in her knee. We had her insured for $10000 and the vet told us to put her down and collect the insurance, she could no longer race and could not support herself properly so that she could become a broodmare. Donna loved Susie, that's DJ driving her in the picture. She said let's keep her in a stall until she can walk and then just turn her out in a field. We got a different vet to look at her and he gave DJ some special wrap ointments etc and some massage instructions. DJ and her grooms worked on that horse forever. After dodging death, Sudden Sue not only survived but 18 months later came back to win a race coming from dead last to win in a rush at the $12000 claiming level at the major track. It's amazing what can be done with focused effort and desire. There is no way that DJ should have spent that amount of time with that horse, but Susie was her favorite. And Sudden Sue and DJ prevailed.

Knight Alert

We tracked the performance of hundreds of horses by cutting and pasting race results from programs. One of those horses was Knight Alert. We bought this horse privately at the price for which he raced $12000 claiming. He was consistently close but seemed to be underperforming especially considering his breeding which was excellent. He was a 6 year old gelding and had been very successful as a 2 and 3 year old and then was injured and never returned to form.

We raced him back at 12 claiming and he finished fourth as usual. DJ had two shedrows working then, one at the track and one at the farm. Knight was at the track and the track vet was not our favorite. He said the horse was sore over the back and he wanted to inject the stifles. He wanted to put the horse out to do this which was very unusual. I declined his treatment and suggested that DJ take Knight to the farm and have our farm vet look at him. He was also having trouble with his feet so we have the expert at quarter cracks look at him and he fixed him up. The farm vet injected his stifles but said his major problem is that he is just sore over the back and it is not going to get any better. DJ refused to accept this verdict so we turned him out for a few days and then she started to give the horse a massage every afternoon. She would put alcohol on his back and then use a orbital wood sander to massage him over the back. We started him back in training after a few days and he seemed a little better.

You must understand something here. The technology of racetrack construction was changing rapidly at that time. Although we had spend serious money on our track, it was just a 1/2 mile stone dust farm track. It had banked corners, but nothing like at the racetrack. I trained Knight after we had him at the farm for about 10 days. I did not want to push him, I was just looking to see if DJ's massage was helping. The horse was great. I told DJ to keep up the good work and looked for the entries at the main track, not the secondary track where he had been racing. I told our driver to come out 4 days later in the evening and he could take Knight his third mile and advise me where to race him. I warmed Knight up just like on a race night and he was set for his final mile at about 8 o'clock. It was pouring race and the track was getting deep. The driver took him out anyway and scored him. Then he turned for the training mile but did it just like a race. When they came off the track, the driver jumped off the bike and gave me the horse. He got in his truck and drove around my track. When he came in he said I thought your track was short a bit, but it seems to measure out at a 1/2 mile. I said, it might be a length or two short of a half mile. He said that horse just trained in 2:05, home in a minute in the mud on this farm track. What have you done to him?

Making a long story short, we took him to the main track. He drew the 8 hole. It rained. He won by 10 lengths at 90 to 1. We raced him at 15, 18 and 20 claiming. He was claimed about 10 weeks later by someone from Blue Bonnets. We tried to tell him about DJ's magic therapy and he was abusive and an ass. The horse did not race for 6 months. He came out 6 months later and broke down at the 1/2 mile mark and never raced again. DJ is just a miracle worker there is no doubt about it.

I could fill up 100 pages with horse stories. We have dozens and dozens of win photos from our time in standardbred racing. It was exciting and demanding. The industry has changed. The times are 10 seconds faster per mile. The equipment is better. The tracks are faster. The vet work is more imaginative...I often wish I had found standardbred racing sooner so that I could have driven in races as a young man. In the sixties and seventies, the sport was exciting, enjoyable and profitable. Now the chemists and the MBA's have taken over and the small farmer and private owners are all but frozen out. This is starting to sound like sour grapes and that was not my intention. We loved our time with the horses and it is nothing but a fond memory. At one time in my life, I went to the races every day. I have lived in Georgia since 1985 where wagering on racehorses is illegal. During my visits to Canada I have gone to the track a few times, but it's not the same. Before it was part of me, now I am just a spectator.