I absolutely love this issue of TROT - our special annual North America Cup issue. It’s always a great chance to meet the 10 Cup finalists and some of their connections, and tell the stories of at least a few people who otherwise may never have their story told.

The issue does come with a little added stress however - just ask my photographers (haha).

Photos are a crucial part of every issue we publish, but they truly play a huge role in this one. And with 10 features - and usually just a week to grab photos - we strongly rely on our team of Michael Burns, Clive Cohen, Justin Fisher, Michelle Hogan and James Woods to do a mountain of work over a short period of time.

Whether it’s hitting the farms during the wee hours of the morning, getting shots of owners at the draw, or spending the entire afternoon and evening at the track on Cup Night, our photographers take thousands of shots during the week leading up to the main event, and they never let us down.

Horses are the most beautiful animals on Earth, and in my opinion, we can never have too many photos of them in our publication.

One photo in particular, however, this month especially, is the one that stresses me out the most every year - the daunting cover photo of the N.A. Cup winner.

I can never rest until we have it… and whenever possible, it has to be perfect.

People might think it’s no big deal - that we can just use any old photo and there must be hundreds to choose from - but believe me when I say that those people would be wrong.

Without getting into all of the technical aspects regarding what makes a photo possibly work for the cover, the July cover-shot also needs to be unique to us if possible - something that has basically been unseen by others in the days following the race. And with the number of photographers present at the finish line and in the winner’s circle, and with the rampant use of social media to share said-photos moments later, this task sometimes seems to be monumental.

We’ve still ended up with many wonderful N.A. Cup cover-shots over the past few decades, from photographers Burns, Cohen, Fisher, Woods, and the late John Watkins, but this year it was a different Cohen, in 26-year-old Jacob Cohen, that came to my rescue and lowered my stress levels in the moments following the race.

This year’s fantastic cover photo, shown again here on this page, was taken by the son of New Image Media’s Clive Cohen - it’s a Jacob Cohen-original, and it perfectly captures the raw emotion displayed by James MacDonald during the kind of moment-in-time that our sport offers as well, or better, than any other.

I’m not actually certain why I stress over our July cover shot as much as I do, texting our photographers over again throughout the week, reminding them of the parameters needed to fit the bill.

I guess it’s because The North America Cup isn’t just any other race. And our July cover doesn’t require just any other photo. But that being said, when I interviewed Andrew Harris for the Brandon Blvd piece that begins on page 32 in this issue, he said something really cool that we all need to be reminded of once-in-a-while - including our racetrack operators.

It didn’t make the story itself, but at one point, when discussing a possible future stallion career for Brandon Blvd, I asked him if that possibility adds pressure when trying to win a race like the North America Cup?

Andrew said, “No.”

He said that there’s always pressure because every race is important to someone, and that a race at a B-track that same night, going for a fraction of the money, will be just as important - and possibly more important - to someone else, as the N.A. Cup will be to him and his partners.

Andrew’s words were more than just prophetic - they were eerily accurate.

On the morning of Sunday, June 14th, less than 12 hours after Andrew’s horse went a huge mile to be second, and Jacob Cohen snapped our new July cover photo (which I told his father might beat him out of an O’Brien Media Excellence Award for Photography next February), I was speaking to a friend in a barn at Classy Lane, who was very excited about what happened at Georgian Downs the night before.

Kimmy Epoch, a caretaker in the Tony Beaton Stable, had her first win with Runway Diva - a three-year-old Betterthancheddar filly she’s looked after every day for more than a year-and-a-half, since the horse was purchased as a yearling.

It was a non-descript 1:56.2 victory, for a purse of $8,500, that took place in front of little-to-no fans, but to Kimmy it was the culmination of many long hours of work - and it felt damn good - even after being back in the barn on a Sunday morning after just five hours of sleep.

There was just one thing wrong. Kimmy became a bit emotional relaying to me that unfortunately Georgian Downs no longer has a photographer, and therefore there was no winner’s circle celebration and no photograph to mark the occasion.

It’s shocking, really. At Mohawk there had to be close to a dozen photographers snapping hundreds of winner’s circle photos following each race, yet 113 kms away at Georgian Downs, they can’t have a photography student from nearby Georgian College snapping a few dozen shots per night?

We can do better… and I for one won’t shut up until we do.

As for Kimmy and ‘Diva’… Congratulations. I wish we could do this for more of you.

Dan Fisher
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