Father’s Day weekend annually means three things in my world: The North America Cup, golf’s U.S. Open, and Father’s Day itself. And this year, the weekend included more ‘Dad’ moments than I could ever remember before.

The N.A. Cup itself was chock-full of them.

CRACK SHOT is owned in-part by Dale Hunter, who promised his dying father, Dick, that he’d use part of his inheritance to buy a better quality of horse than the family had previously owned, in an attempt to reach a top race like the North America Cup (see page 64).

LITE UP THE WORLD is one of the last great sons of American Ideal - a leading sire who passed away a year-and-a-half ago. He was selected and is owned by Mac Nichol, the same man who selected and owned American Ideal himself (see page 54).

MADDEN OAKS is the best looking horse I’ve seen in-person since I laid my eyes on his father, Huntsville. The colt was trying to avenge his sire’s 2017 Cup loss, when he finished a close second as the 4/5 favourite, by becoming Huntsville’s first son to win the N.A. Cup. His young trainer, Cam Capone, was ironically also trying to avenge his father Mark’s narrow Cup loss, in 2003, with even-money favourite Allamerican Native (see page 38).

But the horse who hit the triactor, when it came to significant father-child connections, was the eventual winner, LOUPRINT (see page 28).

In winning, the colt by Sweet Lou won one of the races his father couldn’t, when he was defeated, as the odds-on 1/2 favourite, in 2012.

After winning, driver Ronnie Wrenn Jr. told TROT how he thought about his late father, Ronnie Sr., shortly after the race, and how much it meant to him to win a race like this in his memory.

And after winning, trainer Ron Burke became very emotional in his post-race interview with TROT’s John Rallis, when he mentioned, in a cracking voice, this being “the first one without my dad.”

This is when I thought - when watching Ronnie get emotional - about the huge influence that, especially a good father, can have on their child.

Ron Burke is a stoic individual. I’ve seen him win many big races and do many interviews afterwards, and I don’t believe I’ve ever seen him get too excited or show a lot of emotion.

Saturday, June 14th was different - understandably.

Ron had spoken many times, both while Mickey Burke was alive and since, about how special his father was; how he was an incredible horseman that taught those around him so much; how he was the patriarch of the family and The Burke Brigade - the most successful training operation in the history of North American Standardbred racing.

So I wasn’t totally surprised, in hindsight, to see Ron Burke get emotional, but it still caught me a little off guard.

I was saddened for him in the moment, while being happy for him at the same time, because it meant that he had been lucky to have such a wonderful mentor in his life.

Good on you to share that with us Ronnie.

Good on you Mickey, for being such an inspiration to your son.

The following afternoon, on Father’s Day itself, I sat in my living room with my own father, and my son, watching the U.S. Open.

I was musing to myself about all of the great father-child moments that had been part of North America Cup XLII, and as the leaders played the front nine in the golf tournament, I was also, for a bit, musing at the early-Sunday struggles of journeyman golfer JJ Spaun.

With his name in the unfamiliar position of being amongst the leaders on Sunday in a major, Spaun bogeyed five of his first six holes, seemingly ruining his chances of victory.

Cynically, my son and I set fictitious odds on the chance they’d even show another shot of Spaun’s beyond 4:15pm… insinuating that he was pretty much out of it at this point.

Then, JJ Spaun played his next eight holes in two-under par, on one of the most difficult courses in PGA Tour history, and he was right back in it.

With a couple of holes left to play, a TV commentator revealed that one of Spaun’s two young daughters had been sick the previous night, crying loudly in the family’s dwelling throughout, and keeping her parents awake half the night. He went on to share that JJ, a man trying to win the U.S. Open just a few hours later, was out at 3:30am, to the local CVS Pharmacy, to get her some medicine.

In this day-and-age of stories about spoiled professional athletes, and what can sometimes be considered their crass and lewd behaviour, this story pleased me and even surprised me a little.

It also made me start cheering for JJ Spaun to win the tournament.

And while it partially explained the tough start to his final round, it also made me realize this:

Like Sweet Lou, American Ideal, Huntsville, Mickey Burke, Dick Hunter, Ronnie Wrenn Sr. and Mark Capone, JJ Spaun is a great sire - and a good dad.

By the way, Spaun birdied both #17 and #18 to win the 125th U.S. Open Golf Tournament.

By that point, however, the result on the golf course wasn’t overly important to me anymore, because I had already learned he was a winner, in my eyes at least, approximately 45 minutes earlier.

Here’s to all of the GOOD fathers out there, including mine. Lord knows there’s enough bad ones around, so thank you to the good ones for helping to make this world a better place.

Dan Fisher
[email protected]