Damn those clouds.
The fog and the bastard clouds that engulf Willie Neish, who suffers from the onset of dementia, are terrifying and lethal.
Some days are good. Many more aren’t.
But when his two-year-old Custers Stand races, whom he owns with his wife of 60 years, Dianne, and Len Denham, Willie is happy, smiling and alert.
“Custers Stand is good for him,” said Dianne. “I think the horse is buying him some time. I really do.”
Dianne said Willie was diagnosed with dementia last January.
“It came very quickly. He took a driver’s test and almost got into an accident. It went down from there. He cries a lot. It’s horrible. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But it’s so rampant. It’s unbelievable how many people have it.”
Custers Stand’s trainer, Marie Brooking, is certain that his little horse is an elixir.
“When Custers Stand won the Rocky Mountain and then this past weekend’s Shooting Star at Century Mile, Willie was telling everyone in the retirement/nursing home about the horse,” said Brooking. “He showed them his winner’s circle photos, showed them a replay of the races that his daughter downloaded and walks around the home telling everyone that his horse won.
“I just wish he could see the horse race,” said Dianne, tears welling.
But he can’t. And neither can Dianne, who lives in High River, Alta.
“I go to see Willie every day in the home south of Calgary. It’s a 45-minute drive. I spend three hours with him and then I drive home.”
On top of all that Dianne, 80, slipped and fell and broke her femur in July; Willie, 82, also has macular degeneration for which, like dementia, there is no cure.
“It’s been a bad year.”
Not for Custers Stand, whom Willie picked out at last year’s Alberta Standardbred Yearling Sale.
“I showed him one horse and Willie didn’t like him and put the kibosh on that one,” said Brooking. “He showed me a filly he liked but I didn’t and put the kibosh on that one.
“Then Willie picked out Custers Stand, who I also liked.
“Willie looked at this horse lots. He kept going back and forth to the stall where Custers Stand was standing in. He kept looking at the sales catalogue. He was also friends with Custers Stand’s breeder Jim Rhodes. He was absolutely convinced that this was the one he wanted.”
“Willie always knows how to pick out a good horse,” said Dianne whose husband used to work with pure-bred cattle and ran and supervised recreation parks in High River.
“He was so well liked,” said Dianne. “He was a good honest worker."
Custers Stand is out of the top producing broodmare China Art.
“My daughter, Brinsley Brooking Lutz, trains one of China Art’s foals, Oriental Express, who has won 23 of 98 starts for earnings of over $119,000.
“Brinsley will compete this Saturday in a Powder Puff Derby,” Dianne said of the race for women which is part of the first annual Alberta Harness the Hope Charity event. The goals are to raise awareness of breast cancer, raise funds for the Alberta Cancer Foundation and expose more people to a night of harness racing at Century Mile.
Another foal of China Art, Artician, has been in the top three in 28 of 60 starts and paced in 1:53.3.
And then, among several others, there is China Dream -- China Art's first foal -- who won nearly $444,000 and also paced in 1:53.3.
“The whole family paced in tough, tough races,” said Brooking. “Custers Stand’s entire family is strong and this is China Art’s first breeding to Custard The Dragon.”
Highly sought after, Custard the Dragon won $777,817, paced in a world record 1:48.1 and has sired multiple stakes winners like Ralph Klein Memorial Stakes champion Rockin N Talkin ($502,340 - 1:49.1), Western Canada Pacing Derby winner Kneedeep N Custard ($496,913 - 1:49 3.) and several other track record holders.
But to get Custers Stand, Dianne and Willie and Denham had to empty their pockets.
“We had a budget of $25,000,” said Brooking. "But there was a bidding war and we ended up buying him for $47,000. We blew our budget.”
Custers Stand has won his last two stakes. Driven by Phil Giesbrecht, he won a $25,000 division of the Rocky Mountain Boys on Oct. 5 by three widening lengths in 1:54.1, which was almost a full second faster than both of the Western Canada Pacing Derby eliminations on the same card went.
“He won so easily that Phil said he could have gone in 1:53 and change if he had to,” said Brooking.
Then, ‘George’ -- his stable name -- really showed his grit and heart winning the second $26,800 division of the Alberta Sires Stakes Shooting Star this past Saturday. Driven again by Giesbrecht, Custers Stand went first-over down the backstretch through a second quarter in :27.3 meeting up with pacesetter Momas Work Of Art. The pair then raced head and head and jowl to jowl through three-quarters in 1:26.3 before Custers Stand finally drew clear in the stretch to win by a length and a half in 1:56.
“It was hard on my nerves,” said Brooking, who also trained Wrangler Jewel, winner of the $100,000 Shirley McClennan Breeders Stakes two years ago coming from the backfield at the top of the stretch, and Fully Covered, who finished third four years ago after being supplemented to the Western Canada Pacing Derby.
“I was screaming and yelling at ‘George’ when he went by,” said Brooking. “I was worried ‘George’ wouldn’t have anything left down the lane.”
But Custers Stand just kept coming and coming, finding more with every long stride.
“He has really come around. I always knew he was a good, little horse. I just needed everyone else to believe it. He tries really hard. He does everything you ask him to do. And for being a stud colt, he’s really sweet.”
‘George’ likes his sweets too.
“He eats everything I eat. Bagels. Carrots. Apples. Doughnuts. Black liquorice. The other day he was eating Puffed Wheat with me. He especially likes Dads chocolate oatmeal cookies. But we have to be careful with those because chocolate has caffeine, which is a banned substance. He’s a real good eater. He eats it all.
“He’s not tall at all but he used to be chubby. But I kept saying, ‘Don’t worry about it. He’ll tuck up.’ And he has. All he needed was a little maturity.
“I knew he would get better and better,” she said about the colt who only made the top three in his six first starts. “It just took him a while to get going. He was green, especially with the starting gate. But he’s settled into being a racehorse. You ask him and he gives it. He knows his job now. He’s a totally different horse.
“He’s also gotten better since he came to Edmonton with the longer stretch. The lane just wasn’t long enough in Calgary.
“He’s also a gorgeous horse. 'Gorgeous George' we call him. Everyone at the track knows who 'George' is.
“There was a radio on in the shed row before the Rocky Mountain stakes. They were playing the ‘Rocky’ movie theme song. And I said ‘This is our song.’
“He’s the little horse that could.”
Introduced to harness racing by her father, Al, who won 280 races in Alberta, Marie said she was 16 when Al gave her her first horse to train.
Racing in Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, in 2009, Marie decided to go to Ontario to learn more training. She stayed there for 11 years soaking up everything.
“I worked for many good trainers. I learned a lot. When Covid hit, I came back home.
“It worked out for the best,” said Brooking, who operates a small stable of five horses. Two are yearlings. One horse she owns herself and another she leases.
Custers Stand’s last race of the year will be the $80,000 Super Final on Nov. 2 at Century Mile.
“I think if we get a good post and a good trip that we’ve got a good chance.
“After that, he will get some rest,” said Brooking, 53, who has been training for 30 years. “The Super Final will be his 10th race of the year and that’s enough for a two-year-old.
“We’ve got to try to win this race for Willie. For this to happen is terrible. His body is very healthy. He’s a big, robust man. I know he will be watching on his iPad.”
(Curtis Stock / thehorses.com)