SC Rewind: Ladies In The Sulky

In this week's edition of 'Rewind,' Robert Smith recreates a story from 1977, some 42 years ago. It involves a couple of then active female trainers and drivers who were plying their skills at the original Barrie Racetrack which was then in its early years. With considerable recent talk about female trainers and their proficiency I thought it would be an appropriate topic.

When the old Barrie Raceway opened its doors for racing in late December of 1973 there were plenty of horsemen eager to race there. Not to be overlooked was the fact that a few "horsewomen" were equally interested and perhaps just as qualified. Thanks to the archives of the now defunct local newspaper The Barrie Examiner I have been able to at least partially recreate a couple of stories involving these dedicated distaff trainers and drivers from those many years ago. I have not copied the originals, but rather rewritten them as though they were currently happening based on the information from the newspaper articles.

Reta Morrow

Reta Morrow is shown with her trotting mare Lady Remlap prior to a training session at the farm (Barrie Examiner photo)

On any given night at Barrie Raceway a young lady named Reta Morrow is likely to be among the on-track participants. Although she is just 27 years old, her involvement with the sport of harness racing as a trainer and driver already dates back six years. She's admittedly is no "women's libber", except when she's on the racetrack. "Then it's you and me against the world," she told reporter Roseanne McCabe. This of course was a reference to the popular song by Helen Reddy that quoted those words. She said "It's a tough world on the racetrack for a woman, and you have to be physically strong." And she was!

Reta comes to her job well-trained, having lived on a farm all of her life, thus familiar with the many chores and long hours it takes to make things work out. She lives on her parents' farm located at Route 1, Thornton, Ont., just a short 15-minute drive south of Barrie. Gladys and Arthur, her mom and dad, were familiar with horses but not of the racing kind; theirs were of the work variety. The experience tended to give her a preference for horses above other animals on the farm.

Reta bought her first horse in 1969, a trotting mare named Lady Remlap sired by Duke Demon out of Cindy R. Initially purchased as a show horse she later decided to start training her as a racehorse, based in large part on the possibility of earning some money. That was six years ago and since then it has been a time of great learning for young Reta. "Lady" has earned her keep and then some but she's now nine years old and showing signs of aging.

To prepare for the future and find a possible replacement for her current "ace" Reta is now training ACs Highlander along with Lady Remlap. The training and care taking takes up most of her days. When she's not doing physical work she is watching races or reading about them. She told the reporter "I guess it's my whole life."

Note: Be sure to look below for a trivia question related to this little story. If you know the answer then send it along in the comments section.

Mary Heslip

By day 22-year-old Mary Heslip is a nurse at Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston, Ont.; a demanding position to say the least. After her daily shift is finished she soon steps into another challenging line of work which she chooses to refer to as a "hobby". Her pastime is training, driving and caring for her own Standardbred horse. She does most of her racing at Barrie Raceway, located not too far from her home at Rosemont, Ont. a small hamlet near Alliston. If you're still not sure where Rosemont is just remember that's right near Mulmur.

To sum up her two rather different occupations she said "I like nursing; if I didn't like it I wouldn't do it. But I could live without nursing; I doubt that I would ever want to be without a horse." Her current number one horse is a gelding named Rocky Laird. She bought him about a year and a half ago from Elmer Hussey, a well-known veteran horseman from Alliston. Earlier in his career Rocky had competed successfully on the tough O.J.C. circuit racing out of the Wes Coke stable. In 30 starts last year he carried young Mary to the winner's circle five times. Prior to that he helped to get her harness driver's licence. "He was nice and easy to drive, Elmer wanted to sell him so I bought him." The ownership of her own Standardbred was new but she had been around horses all her life.

Following in her father's path of training horses, Mary began jogging at a young age after having a pony way back when she was just six. Her dad Truman had been on the racing circuit for years and she enjoyed helping him. At the age of 16 she acquired a licence to drive, but only at the fairs. Two years ago at age 20 she graduated to a licence that allowed her to compete at the major tracks. The fact that she was a female did not alter her plans and her family were fully behind her.

Despite her successes Mary wishes to race horses as a hobby and has no plans to become a full-time driver. The $2,400 Rocky earned last year was nice but she also shared in the ownership of another horse with her Dad that also brought a lot of enjoyment. Their young trotter Kwik Ben made over $7,000 last year and provided her with a great non-driving thrill as well. While racing in a stake at Clinton last season with Clure Archdekin driving, their homebred won and created a very nice $3,700 windfall for the family.

Mary summed up her involvement in harness racing by saying, "I'm not out to conquer the world, I do it just to have fun. When it stops being fun I'll quit."

(With quotes from The Barrie Examiner)

Quote For The Week: Sign at a Farm Machinery Dealer - "We will stand behind everything we sell except a manure spreader."

Trivia Question: In one of today's stories the name "Remlap" was part of a horse's name. Do you know where that name came from? If you do send along your answer as a a comment.

Who Is It?

Can you identify the person shown above?

Who Else Is It?

How about this fellow... can you correctly put a tag on him?

Be sure to stay tuned for the correct answers to the trivia and photo quiz during the coming week.