“It was at that moment, with the wind in my hair, travelling around the bumpy track that circled a pasture field that I first felt the thrill of sitting behind a horse.”

For many of us involved in harness racing, it’s been a way of life or hobby that we inherited from our parents or grandparents.

Linda Rainey, Managing Director for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame was introduced to racing at the impressionable age of four by her father, Gerald Rainey. It was the start of what’s become a life-long love affair with horses and racing for Linda and she shared some of her favourite memories with us.

Horses and racing have been part of my life since I was young. Dad purchased his first Standardbred when I was four or five. A pretty trotter named Capital R. I remember going with my father to visit 'Rocky' at the farm where he was boarded, and how excited I was when Dad motioned for me to climb up on his lap so I could go for a ride. It was at that moment, with the wind in my hair, travelling around the bumpy track that circled a pasture field that I first felt the thrill of sitting behind a horse. I couldn’t imagine anything more exciting.

Dad raced Rocky primarily at Peterborough before Kawartha Downs, when the races were held at the fairgrounds. He also took him on the fair circuit including our home fair in Orono and, as was the practice during the early 60’s, Dad would also show him as a road horse.

A few years later my parents purchased a piece of land and built a house and small stable so Dad could keep a couple of horses. Like so many in others in our area, racing was a hobby, and in the years following Rocky there were always one or two trotters in the barn and paddock behind the house.

There are memories of being sent out to jog my favourite mare -- Refund Time or, as we called her, “Sadie” -- on my own, spending time as a teenager in the paddock at Kawartha Downs, and the thrill of going to the winners circle when Penny Van Echo won.

While none of Dad’s horses were world beaters, and more often than not they would be turned into show horses, that wasn’t important to me. It was the connection to the horses that left an indelible impression. A connection I stepped away from as the busyness of life and a career in Toronto took the forefront, but one that would draw me back years later, not only as a hobby, but as a career.

A little over three years ago, when an ad was posted for a job with the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, a friend who knew I was looking for a career change, forwarded me the information with a simple note “Go for it, it is written for you.” That was my opportunity to become re-connected with racing and make it my career, a job I am honoured to be entrusted with each and every day.

But it doesn’t end there; my hobby also goes back to those early days of Dad racing and showing. Thanks to some very generous friends, I get to show Standardbreds road horses, wearing silks in the same colours my father wore.

Each and every time I sit on the bike and ask the horse to “Drive On” I think of those early days, sitting on my Daddy’s lap and feeling the wind in my hair as we jogged around that bumpy track in the pasture.

This was a memory shared by Linda Rainey and entered in the I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Club’s Favourite Racing Memory contest. This is the fourth of five stories (previous memories featured here, here and here) that are being featured leading up to the Bring A Friend weekend that is happening nationwide from July 9-12. Register for the Bring A Friend National Challenge and bring a friend or two, or more, to the races during the weekend of July 9-12, and you’ll have a chance to win a prize package valued at $200!