SC Rewind: Perusing An Old Program

In this week's edition of Rewind Robert Smith takes a journey back over 50 years ago to 1965. His story is rooted in the contents of an old London Western Fair Raceway program from October 28, 1965. He discusses his findings and lists a lot of old names and memorabilia extracted from this vintage piece.

For as long as I can remember, I have always enjoyed looking at race programs. As a young lad I can recall my parents heading off to the races while we stayed home; not a place for kids in those days, I guess. When they returned, my first question after finding out if one of our horses was racing and how it fared, was to locate any programs they had brought home. I pored over them trying to study and learn everything I could. Horse's and driver's names, race times, purses, past performance charts and whatever else caught my eye. Since many horses are owned by people from small and sometimes obscure places on the map, the study of programs can serve as a pretty good lesson in Geography. What better way to learn about places like Walters Falls, Bethany and Dunrobin?

It seems that most people retain only special programs from milestone events or 'once a year' race days; I've found the old 'everyday' ones can be interesting too! The one I am using as a basis for today's Rewind was for a Thursday night at London, with the highest pursed event on the card was a mere $400, a $1500 Claiming event. Those were the days; when the world was still being filmed in black and white.

List of Drivers

The following is an alphabetically arranged list of drivers competing at London that I painstakingly gathered from the old program. These names include those driving on the evening of October 28th and those listed elsewhere including entries, past performances and driver's standings. Needless to say there were a lot more people who drove that year, they just were not included in this program.

Ed Arthur, Johnny Atmore, Norm Bayne, Floyd Belore, Wm. Bennett, Ken Bogart, George Caldwell, Bob Cameron, Dan Campbell, Dunc Campbell, Jack Campbell, Lenard Campbell, Ray Campbell, Elgin Carley, Joe Carr, Richard Carroll, Wm. Carroll, Cecil Coke, Wes Coke, Don Corbett, Cecil Crandon, Gary Crowe, Ellis Dell, Wilf Duford, Dale Dufty, Ron Ellerker, Ken Ellis, Harvey Fleet, Bud Fritz, Lloyd Goodale, Wm. Habkirk, Irwin Hamilton, Bill Harvey, Jack Herbert, Fred Hill, Jimmy Holmes, Clarence Hoyt, Barney Hughes, Stan Hughes, Ted Hughes, Vic Hughes, Earl Hyatt, Gerald Johnson, Tom Keck, Bill Kingdon, James Knapp, Jack Kopas, Wm. Lawrence, Don Lindsay, Vic Lutman, Bert Madill, Wm. Madill, Jack Manders, Ray Manders, Mike Marchuk, Cecil McCallum, Levi "Jiggs" McFadden, Hugh McLean, Ray McLean, Jim McLellan, Neil McRann, Peter R. Miller, John Millman, Robt. Mitchell, Jack Moffat, Marshall Moore, Orwell Morrissey, Keith Morrison, Billy Nevilles, Dave O'Dare, Ross Parr, Cecil Pollard, Gordon Pullman, George Ray, John Redpath, Garfield Ritchie, Ed Rocheleau, Nelson Russell, Verne Soper, Rod Steward Jr., Herb Stewart, Cecil Stone, Lawrence Sullivan, Glen Tiffin, Wm. Troy, Murray Telfer, Joe Truckle, Lloyd Wagner, Allan Williams, Stan Williams, Les Wright, Clarence Young, Herb Young.

A trio of top drivers of this era at London display their driver's awards earned at the WFR track. From left "Jiggs" McFadden, Stan Williams and Jack Kopas.

Presentation night for the top drivers from the 1964 season. From left Wes Coke of Petrolia, Neil McRann from Lucan and Dresden's Levi "Jiggs" McFadden. All of these gentlemen were long associated with the London track.

An Old Warrior

One particularly interesting 'mini-story' from the subject program was quietly nestled among the third race entrants. The venerable old performer Hal's Bomb had reached the age of 14 at the time and was in his final year of racing; he was wending his way to the proverbial finish line. This old horse had raced his entire career with a certain level of distinction and oddly was still in the stable of his original and only owners, Willmot and Hugh McLean of Port Elgin (see more below). In another part of the program where London's current records were displayed, there stood the name of Hal's Bomb as he shared the current record for pacers with a clocking of 2:04 taken back in 1961, the year the Raceway started racing under the lights.

This old fellow was known to a legion of fans as he had campaigned at many tracks in the Province and even at several U.S. Raceways. He was a competitor in the final race ever held at Dufferin Park in Toronto way back in 1954. The son of Army Hal - Albehkahr was part of the field that closed that famous era of winter racing; the winner of both heats that final day was Nancy Patch, driven by Allan Walker of Owen Sound. When Hal's Bomb retired at the end of the 1965 season he had amassed a lifetime bankroll of just over $42,000 which may not sound too impressive by today's standards but back then it undoubtedly put quite a few groceries on the McLean family table as the old saying goes. Translated to 2016 numbers, adjusted for inflation, that amount is now equal to approximately $320,000. While maybe not officially recorded it is quite possible this horse had "Jumpin' Sid" at one time as his groom.

Left: Hugh McLean. Right: Hugh driving Adios Direct (5) to victory at Western Fair in 1965.

Long-time competitor Hugh McLean of Port Elgin Ont. was a colourful performer indeed, mentioned in many a story from the "good old days" of the sport. He was also tough as he displayed in back in 1961 when he lost his right hand while trying to free a jammed snow blower on his farm. Conventional wisdom would say that his career as a driver was over but he soon proved otherwise. Just 10 days after the accident, Hughie was back jogging horses using a crude hook made by a local blacksmith. A few months later he discarded the hook and replaced it with a modern replacement hand and soon resumed his normal driving career.

In the early days before groups or organizations representing the horse people became as popular and effective as they later became, Hugh was among the first to hold office. In the early 1950's he served as the V.P. of a group known as United Harness Horsemen's Association of Canada that met with track owners and other management personnel to seek better purses, revenue sharing and improved racing conditions.

I truly enjoy looking at old programs.