Gord Brown just retired from driving after a successful 35-year career, but the 55-year-old Cobourg, Ont. resident said he owes his start to a gelded trotter named Glorious Andy.
Gord Brown drives Markathy to victory at Kawartha Downs (Photo courtesy Claus Andersen)
“I was working for my father (Stan) and we had two stables at the time and I broke him and trained him and did everything with him. He was just a sweetheart. I got my (driving) license with him. I got my rated mile with him,” Brown said.
Glorious Andy, a homebred son of Dream Of Glory out of Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Famer Flemingtons Jane owned by Robert and Betty Fasken of Oakville, Ont., earned more than $250,000 over nine racing seasons in which he compiled a record of 31-32-26 in 186 starts mostly on the old Ontario Jockey Club circuit of Greenwood and Mohawk.
Brown, who won over 4,200 races and more than $20 million in nearly 23,500 career starts, was 17 when Glorious Andy was foaled in 1978. Though he never drove Glorious Andy in a pari-mutuel start, Brown was along for the gelding’s entire racing career.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Fasken missed the sires stakes payment on him. So, he never raced in the sires stakes. But anytime he raced in another race -- Ronnie Waples won with him one night at Greenwood -- he beat all the sires stakes horses all the time,” said Brown, adding that not being eligible to the Ontario Sires Stakes likely prolonged the trotter’s career.
“He was black as black. He was a gorgeous horse,” Brown said. “He was just a doll.
“He was actually invited to the International at Yonkers one year and he couldn’t go. He had an abscess in his foot.”
Still, Glorious Andy did more than enough on the track, while also giving Brown the break he needed to launch a nearly four-decades long career.
(Courtesy Ontario Racing)