The I Love Canadian Harness Racing Fan Club read many noteworthy and heartwarming stories from the people who submitted entries for the Most Memorable Moments of 2016 contest. We received stories about horses that had outstanding seasons, people who were newly involved with racing and stories that brought tears of joy to racing fans eyes.
Jennifer Clark of Ponoka, Alberta was chosen as the winner for her story about two-year-old filly pacer Legs Like Tina and how she helped her accomplish her dream.
Here is Jennifer’s story:
I am recently new to harness racing. I bred my first racehorse and she was born in 2014; she was named Legs Like Tina. She was born with very long dark legs and my husband said she has legs like Tina Turner. Within a few minutes there was a Tina Turner song on the radio and the name stuck.
I was only going to breed racehorses to sell but a few things caught my eye with her. She would try to race my pony horse when I would lead her as a yearling. So much that I had to start using a chain to pony her. She would always let out squeals when she felt good. I only knew of one other great racehorse who would do that so consistently. I decided not to sell her as a yearling. I was aiming for $7,000 and was told I was asking too much. So, I decided to look into getting her racing myself.
I trained her to a cart and started jogging her through a farmer’s field. I logged 120 miles with my GPS and needed to take the next step. That's when I found out that a fellow standardbred trainer lived only 35 minutes from my house.
I approached him and asked to be mentored and help me get my trainer’s license so I could race my own horse. I then brought Tina to the farm and started training her down with his guidance. In the meantime, I would study the trainer’s book every chance I had. Tina was ready to qualify and I booked in to write my test and drive my rated mile.
After passing both, I was now down as trainer on a horse that I bred and raised. I would get up early, put in a few hours at work, take off to the barn to train, then return to finish the rest of my day at work.
There were days that the track was too muddy to even walk on. I would saddle her up and then ride her down the edge of the highway to the dirt road and work her under saddle.
Legs Like Tina raced seven times, she had two seconds, three thirds a fourth and a sixth-place finish. She has helped me reach my goal and a lifelong dream of being successful in some way with horses. She is on holidays for the winter and we will try again next year.
Jennifer first got involved with horses in junior high school grooming thoroughbreds at Stampede Park. When the track closed she then went on to training saddle horses for fun on her family farm.
Fast forward to 2014 and Jennifer and her husband Jamie decided to breed racehorses. “We bought a mare as a riding horse and decided to breed her the following year and see what happens. I loved the stud I picked (Lil Dude Starrbuck), as soon as I met him I knew he was my choice for this mare. That's when Tina was born.”
Training is currently a hobby for Jennifer which takes up a lot of her spare time. Otherwise, you can catch her delivering mail for Canada Post or working with her husband on their Caulking business.
The Fan Club would like to thank Jennifer and all of the other entrants who shared their most memorable moments of 2016 with us!
We would also like to wish all of our Fan Club members the best of luck with racing on and off track in 2017!