Keith Waples: A Star Is Born

To honour one of the greatest horsemen in the history of harness racing, the Standardbred Canada website will feature a five-part series on the legendary Keith Waples as he approaches his 90th birthday.

Penned by writer Robert Smith, this is the first of five SC web exclusive web features on one of racing's most revered individuals.

A STAR IS BORN

This coming weekend, December 8 to be exact, marks a very special milestone birthday of an extremely extraordinary person. Keith Gordon Waples was born on this date in 1923, some 90 years ago. His gift to harness racing has been his long and memorable career, a lifetime filled with excellence, accomplishments and perseverance.

Even now at an age when his contemporaries have either passed on or opted for a more sedentary life style, Keith still trains his own horses, attends the Harrisburg Yearling Sale and follows the sport he has loved for a lifetime on the Internet. He still visits his friends and looks forward to tomorrow, shunning the urge to only recall the so called "Good Old Days."

The story of Keith's first appearance on the racetrack preceded his driving career by a few years. A gentleman by the name of J.T. Payette lived near the Waples farm at Victoria Harbour. He was a very-well-to-do business man who made a living through owning a foundry, but his true love was harness racing. Each Sunday after Church, Mr. Payette visited the Waples home to visit with Keith's father and delivered what he would later recall as his "weekly sermon." The two older gents talked horse all day long, and the young lad listened to every word. After starting to jog horses at the farm at around the age of four, a few years later he had his first big thrill away from home.

Mr. Payette was widely known for holding races a couple of times a year at his track in Penatanguishene, one of them usually on the first of July. He owned the track so he made the rules. One year when he was about six or seven, Keith recalls, "He put me on the lead pony and I was hooked!" It has been a long and interesting journey. He has marked his place in history many times.

Keith's public career in the sulky began back about 1936 when at the age of 12, he hopped on the sulky behind one of his father's horses. In a classic tale, by now polished and well-worn by the telling, Keith accompanied his father Jack Waples to a race meeting in the small town of Sundridge, Ont. Recent rains had compromised the track and left it in a condition the story recalls as "like porridge." The senior Waples was a rather large man, weighing in the range of over 200 pounds. An astute bystander suggested "Why don't you let the boy drive? He's a lot lighter and he'll be easier to pull ..." While the father was somewhat in agreement he said, "But what if his mother finds out?" The simple reply to that was, "But she's not here today." And so it all allegedly began. His first victory came behind a horse called The Grey Ghost. There were another 3000-plus more to follow.

In the earliest days of Keith's career the sport was essentially confined to a few months of the year when local horse people travelled about the countryside, competing on holiday weekends at many small towns. By late summer and early autumn, the real racing season began as the Fall Fairs were held across the regions. Some were two or three day affairs but most consisted of a single afternoon.

Racing for small purses over sometimes less than pristine racetracks, the rewards were small. Some places offered a box of cigars or a $5 Bill to the best dressed driver or the reinsman winning the most heats. It was a tough way to make a buck, but those who did it loved it. Once the day's racing was completed, everything was loaded up and it was on to the next stop. Sometimes horses raced at 3 or 4 spots in a week, and in those days it was several heats in a race.

Very early in his career, Keith began to show a penchant for winning races; he won them in clusters. He seemed from the start to have a God given talent for everything it took to be a good driver. He had good timing,the ability to make snap decisions, athletic ability and perhaps above all he was quiet and reserved. His calmness was at times almost unnerving. People liked him and enjoyed being around him. In addition to driving his father's horses, others saw an opportunity to cash in on the youngster's talent.

During the decade of the 1940's a young Waples plied his trade in the Northern and central parts of Ontario. Each year his talents gained the recognition of more people, and with it came more owners seeking his services. During the winter months he was off to Toronto and Dufferin Park, the capital of winter racing. Despite his relative youth in a then seniors dominated sport, he quickly rose to the top. People soon learned that if you had him driving for you, you didn't have to worry about him driving against you.

By the decade of the 1950's, harness racing was huge in the province of Quebec. It was the ideal spot for a young up and coming Ontario-based horseman like Keith Waples. The two large tracks in Metropolitan Montreal, Blue Bonnets and Richelieu Park soon became a "home away from home" for Mr. Waples. When night racing began at Richelieu Park in 1952, he was primed and ready. He not only trained a large stable of his own, he catch drove for many others. There were many times when he just hopped from one sulky to another, competing in almost every race. While racing in Montreal one writer dubbed him by the simple moniker 'The Thin Man'; and that was about as close as he ever got to a nickname in over a 75-plus year career.

This 1950's photo taken at Montreal shows a trio of drivers receiving their awards. From left: Raymond Lemay, Keith Waples, Percy Robillard, Phillipe Dussault, Lucien Bombardier. (Waples Family Archives)

This "busy" style of driving is said to have inspired an aspiring and watchful Quebec horseman who was still in his teens. A young Herve Filion has often been quoted as saying that was how he wanted to be, driving in every race. He carefully studied the demeanour and style of Keith Waples and liked what he saw. Scores more have been inspired by the many things he did so well. He is a man who most often just went out and performed; he never felt the need to make predictions nor provide a lengthy post-mortem of a day's events. Keith's rather famous cousin Ron Waples once said of him "He was not a great teacher, but you could sure learn a lot from him."

A very old saying states "Our lives are not measured by our birthdays, but rather by what falls in between." Keith Waples has indeed lived a full life and done a lot. His name can be found in virtually every page where records are kept. In 2005 he was named the greatest horseman of the 20th Century in this Country and he is a member of numerous Halls of Fame, most notably both the Canadian and U.S. Harness Racing Halls. His name is engraved on such prestigious places as The Little Brown Jug, The Prix d'Ete, The Adios, The International Trot, and the list could go on seemingly forever especially if you start counting driving titles won.

Throughout it all, Keith Waples has retained his unmistakable personality; a man whose humility and basic human qualities have made him the "favourite" in every race he ever competed in. He has always shunned the spotlight and surely will continue to do so. That's just his way.