"The great thing is it's not ho-hum for them; they're very appreciative of having a horse like that. Their enthusiasm is infectious...sometimes in this game you get dragged down a little bit, you know, night in and night out, but it's always refreshing to see people that are in it just for the pure joy of racing."
While trainer John Bax is no stranger to training O'Brien Award winning trotters, the shine still doesn't decrease with the recent win for two-year-old trotting filly Riveting Rosie. The daughter of Muscle Mass closed out her rookie campaign with six wins in eight starts, never finishing out of the top three, and earnings of $468,613. Her major victories included the Peaceful Way Final, her Ontario Stakes Super Final and a division of the Champlain Stakes.
Bax co-owns Riveting Rosie with Don Allensen of Wyoming, J And T Stable of Newmarket and John F. Hayes of Sharon, Ont. While Bax wasn't on-hand to accept the award, the ownership group was and they had a great time in PEI.
"It's always nice when you can come across a horse like that...the little guys don't usually end up with that kind of horse. When you pay $17,000, you're not expecting an O'Brien winner."
What makes Riveting Rosie O'Brien caliber? According to Bax, it's that intangible quality of heart.
"She just wants to more than the next one. You can't train that into them; she just has the desire to do it and she's a great-gaited horse. She doesn't look like she's going any faster but her stride gets longer."
While Bax notes that Riveting Rosie will predominantly race in Ontario since "the money's still pretty good" in the provincial program, the trainer would like to test his pupil against the Grand Circuit later in the year.
Bax also discusses training in Florida and what went into the decision to winter certain horses there, the stakes schedule for Riveting Rosie in 2014, and an update on Bax's two retired all-star trotters Define The World and Goodtimes. To listen to the full interview, click the play button below.
Trot Radio - Episode 318 - John Bax
Audio Format: MP3 audio
Host: Norm Borg
The opinions expressed are those of the participants and do not necessarily represent those of Standardbred Canada.