The Good Fight

For the first week of 2013, Ronda Markle was on the top 10 money-list of Canada’s trainers. While her small stable will soon fall down the rankings, her impact as an advocate for the sport will be her legacy.

Story by Trot Staff / Photography by Matt Waples

On January 10, heading into the fifth day of racing at Woodbine Racetrack in 2013, an unfamiliar name, Ronda Markle, graced the top ten of the Canadian trainer standings.

It’s early days yet, but still quite remarkable, that Markle, with a three-horse racing stable, could boast her name in print alongside bigger names such as Rene Allard, Blair Burgess and Jeff Gillis.

Her $18,000 in purse earnings, undefeated in two starts, through the first nine days of 2013 is one third of what Markle earned in 2012 and more than half of what she earned in 2011.

But this isn’t a story about a trainer on the rise so much as it is about a conditioner prepared to rise against the uncertainty heaped upon the racing industry by the cancellation of the Slots at Racetracks Program (SARP) in Ontario.

Still, it’s a little bit about winning, and on a crisp night at Woodbine, Markle is in the paddock preparing homebred trotting mare See R Chin Win, aka ‘Rennie’, and trotting gelding Mego Moss for their second starts of the year.

Markle isn’t too concerned about the trainer standings.

“It doesn’t mean anything to me, because it doesn’t make sense to me. How can that be?” she laughs, while tugging the lines straight on the four-year-old daughter of CR Renegade-Win By Chin.

Driver Billy Davis Jr. arrives to pick up the lines and pre-race instructions from Markle. In a flash, he is off to the track for the post-parade under the lights, winter’s breath visible in the air from both horse and human alike.

As ‘Rennie’ prepares for battle, Markle, standing under the paddock television sets, opens up about her ongoing efforts to raise SARP awareness in the province.

In addition to inundating TROT editor Darryl Kaplan with numerous photos and letters, Markle has been diligent in getting her story out to the media.

Personally crafted missives regarding her take on the government’s failings have been sent to Peterborough’s CHEX-TV; nationally broadcast TV shows like W5; and just about any newspaper editor with a column inch in the province.

If you attended the Cobourg antique car show, it’s guaranteed you went home with one of her handmade flyers – and should you drive by her truck on the highway, you can read the horsemen’s message on her trailer door. She loves it when passersby honk their approval.

Her kind eyes flash when prompted for the reason behind her efforts.

“It’s the way they (the Liberal government) spin it. That it’s a subsidy and that taxpayers not involved in horse racing think we’re on a gravy train. That bugs me the most,” she says. “I want everyone to know that this (SARP) was a profit sharing agreement. They came on to our property with their slot machines and in return we got ten cents of every dollar into the machine. They’re giving bingo halls way more than that, while telling us they can’t afford to pay us anymore.”

The gate folds and ten trotters spring into action. Markle’s attention is focused only on the TV screen above as ‘Rennie’ settles into fourth-position with Gespacho setting a rapid pace down the backstretch.

Into the far turn, Davis Jr. urges ‘Rennie’ into contention but it’s evident halfway down the lane that the mare isn’t going to fire this evening.

While bettors are busy ripping their tickets, the race is far from over for Markle.

“Come on Rennie, get up for a cheque,” she whispers, urging her mare to claim a spot in the top five and make some much-needed money.

And ‘Rennie’, who appeared a straggler in the final sixteenth of a mile, comes alive and finishes fifth – earning her owner-trainer $850.

Markle, at 57-years-old, is a proud grandmother and horse owner.

Her long red hair, tied back in a bun to work with the horses, is still radiant under the glare of fluorescent tube lighting in the paddock cafeteria and her voice rings loud and clear over the blaring TVs and conversations as she talks about the mare that launched her career in horse racing – the imposing, 17-hand behemoth, Grand Tara.

“I used to work for Gord Gilchrist, who, by the way, lobbied to get slots at tracks,” she starts. “He had about 25 mares and Grand Tara was always my favourite just because she was so kind even though she could have cleaned anybody’s clock, but she never would.”

Tears stream down Markle’s face as she talks about the daughter of Archie, foaled in Ontario in 1979, who would eventually become the grandmother of ‘Rennie’ and Mego Moss, who will race later in the card.

But, Markle’s tears are not a sign of weakness. If anything, these are tears of pride.

“Grand Tara has given me everything I have in my barn today. She’s the mother of all my broodmares and Mego Moss is her grandson,” she explains. “They’ve all been good racehorses, all have made money and raced at Woodbine or Mohawk and been competitive. I’m really proud of them.”

Smiling and crying, she continues on about the purchase of her foundation mare.

“So, when Gord was culling mares she was one that was going to be sold,” says Markle. “I bought her for $2,500. My dad gave me the money and we became partners. We had planned on selling her off in the spring, but we kept her.”

It’s strange to see such a strong woman, a winner of $839,000 since picking up her first cheque, a nifty $700 for a fifth-place finish on December 7, 2000 with Ms Moss, so broken up.

She’s a physical specimen from training and jogging her own horses; takes care of her 60-acre farm out in Cobourg; and holds her head with the strong, proud confidence of a horseman.

And yet, the tears still come. It has everything to do with how scrapping the Slots At Racetracks Program has crushed the industry.

Harness tracks in Windsor and Sarnia have already closed and the impact of lost income for horsemen and racetrack operators from the cancellation of the revenue sharing agreement has sent horse owners and breeders into a panic.

The trickle-down economic impact is frightening. Many experts are projecting that racetracks will race fewer days and for less purse money.

Horse owners spend less money at the yearling sales.

Breeders pack up their stallions and send them to lucrative markets south of the border.

And broodmares in Ontario are left barren, because, what if there’s nothing left to race for after 2013?

“I get emotional talking about broodmares, I really do,” she says. “Broodmares get to me. You watch them all the time and see their foals growing up. It’s emotional for me when I think that my broodmares aren’t worth anything anymore. I’m not prepared to get rid of them. I’ve had them their whole life.”

And the mare that started it all was special to Markle. “Grand Tara has given me every horse I have ever owned and I still think of her as if she were still here,” she says. “When I had to put down Grand Tara, she was 26-years-old. Winter was coming, she was arthritic and I couldn’t see her making it through another winter.”

Grand Tara was Markle’s rock, and it is her granddaughter Lilly that is her spark.

The ten-year-old pixie princess is in love with horses. Some might ask what little girl isn’t in love with horses. But, there’s something just a little bit different about Lilly.

Don’t believe it? Just ask Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, who received the following brim and firestone from the fourth-grader early last summer.

My future is to race horses but I don’t know if that will come true because none of the race tracks will be open on March 31st 2013.

There are 60,000 people waiting for you to change your mind and one person taking away 60,000 peoples lives.

What if you were one of those 60,000 people and someone else was the government and he was taking away horse racing. How would you feel? Probably really upset maybe even in tears.

But you’re way too much of a greedy government. Can you even stop and think about the struggle you put those people in.

How do you feel about what you’re doing? Not only my future you’re taking away, you’re also taking younger boys and girls’ future away. I just got my groomers license but what was the point of getting it when there won’t be no more racing.

What kind of heart do you have? One the size of a penny or one that’s black with a big hole in the middle? Or do you even have a heart.

Do you care about how those horse racing people feel.

So many people are shedding so many tears each day and 60,000 people are spending a big amount of money on the food, shavings, vets and shoes for the horses and that gives other people jobs.

If there won’t be any more horse racing where would the people work and where will all the horses go if there is no more racing.

Once horse racing is over no one will forgive you.

Hope to hear from you soon so you can tell me why your making this decision because people would like to know and so would I. I even asked my grade 4 teacher who knows everything and he didn’t know.

“I chuckled for sure,” smiles Markle, as she proudly recalls the moment Lilly presented her with the letter.

“I told her, ‘We’ll have to mail that to him’…and we did,” she says.

In the meantime, Lilly went back to enjoying a horse-crazy childhood of weekends and holidays at grandma’s farm.

“She’s been coming out to the farm with her friend Grace for the last three summers,” smiles Markle. “They ride the horses, jog the horses, bath the horses, and clean out the stalls. They just love it.

“They have such an imagination. I bought them two pairs of tap dance shoes and one would get on the race bike and the other would pull it, with leg wraps on, and tap, tap, tap up and down the driveway!”

The girls even took their tap dancing horse routine into town one day.

“They tapped into the grocery store, ‘clippity clop, clippity clop’ and folks would say, ‘It’s so nice that you girls are tap dancing,’” recalls Markle.

But the girls knew better.

“And they’d say, ‘No, we’re horses!” laughs Markle.

Nearly every track executive is desperately searching for the future of horse racing – wondering where the next generation of trainers, owners and handicappers will come from – and it seems Markle has two potential future stars in her sights.

“It’s important that they enjoy it. They both want to own horses when they grow up,” nods Markle. “They’ve both learned a lot already. I can’t imagine when I was 10 that I could jog a racehorse, but they do it.”

About three weeks after Lilly fired off her letter to the Premier, on August 20 to be exact, a signed reply arrived in their mailbox.

The reply started out well enough…

Thank you for your letter. I was really interested to read about how important the horse racing industry is to you. I am always happy to hear from young people like you who are interested in the issues that affect your community. I think it is wonderful to see how hard you worked for your groomer’s license.

But, then the politics started…

Our government understands that ending the Slots at Racetracks program poses a challenge for all of the people involved in the horse racing industry, and that is why we want to help the industry. To make this happen we have asked three former ministers to work with the industry…

Two paragraphs of soul-numbing legalese later, the Premier signed off with the hope that Lilly would enjoy the rest of the summer.

Snow now covers the grass on the farmer’s field where Lilly and Grace once played.

There has been no reprieve for the horse racing industry and Markle, with 14 horses in the field supported by a trio of trotters, is worried about what to tell her granddaughter should the industry crumble.

“Lilly has a big heart for horses and she gets it honest enough because that’s the way I am too,” starts Markle, tearing up for the second time of the night. “She wrote McGuinty another letter and invited him to come down and jog Mego Moss…so that he’d know why people love horses…but he never replied.”

Undaunted, Lilly continues to fight.

“Even her teacher (Mr. Taylor, who according to Lilly’s adorable letter ‘knows everything’) talks about the horses,” says Markle.

And then, Markle offers up the following little anecdote of a child’s persistence.

“My sister’s friend works at a doctor’s office and this guy came in and started looking at the horse racing flyers set up on her desk,” starts Markle

The flyers, hand made by Markle, are available everywhere in Cobourg.

“So, the friend told the man he could take a flyer and asked him if he knew about the horse racing issue,” continues Markle, eyes sparkling.

And the guy says, “Oh yeah. I know all about it. I’m a teacher and I have a little girl in my class and that’s all she talks about.”

You guessed it. The man was Mr. Taylor and that little girl was Lilly!

It’s getting colder in the Woodbine paddock.

Steam rises off the horses returning from warming up around the Rexdale oval, and dozens of workers scurry about in pre-race chaos.

The punters have bet Mego Moss down to 4-5 hoping they might double their money on a $2 win bet if all works out well.

Markle, on the other hand, is focused on what the $8,500 winner’s share of the purse would mean for her barn.

“The money is important considering we have 14 horses at home and three racing,” states Markle. “Those three racing, feed all the other horses. Your feed bill and shoeing bill is still high and someone has to be the breadwinner, so I always cheer for them to bring back a cheque.”

When you own a horse, there’s always a bill in the mail.

“I just bought 200 bales of hay and it cost $1,000… $5 a bale,” she says, shaking her head. “For as long as I can remember, hay was, ‘A buck a bale’ and I always wondered how those farmers made any money at that. But the last four years, we’ve been paying $2 or $2.25.”

The increase is taking a toll on the family budget. Markle, whose husband earns a pension from years working for the hydro company, is basically just trying to break even and keep her horses fed.

“My horses get the top of the line feed. My grain bill is $1,200-1,400 a month,” she says. “I’ve cut it down as I have four broodmares that are empty (not pregnant), so they don’t take as much food when they’re not having a baby. They still get it though.”

Markle has stockpiled about 400 bales of hay in the barn. She’s hoping that will be enough to get her through the end of March, which, oddly enough, coincides with the end of the Slots At Racetracks Program.

Will there be enough hay for her horses?

“I don’t know. If there’s a lot of snow, you feed a lot more hay,” she says. “My horses spend a lot of time outside and you have to put hay out there or they chew your fences. I’ve learned that the hay is cheaper than the boards. It’s a lesser of two evils.”

Even with her early season success, Markle is feeling the pressure to provide.

“The older you get, the tougher it is. We try and make the horses pay for themselves,” she says. “It’s hard for us to spend our savings to pay for the horses or we’ll be broke. If the horses didn’t make money, we’re broke, that’s for sure. We wouldn’t be able to live where we live and drive the truck we drive.

“We’ve not had great success; we don’t have a San Pail…though we’d like one. The most purse money I’ve ever made was $130,000 in a year. It doesn’t sound like a lot but when you look at it, every year since I’ve started I’ve made a little bit more and we do make enough to pay the bills. As long as we can pay for horse’s expenses from the racing we can keep the horses.”

As Davis Jr. arrives to drive his second horse of the night for Markle, the conditioner offers up an odd thought.

“I guess the money he (Mego Moss) earns will go into retirement…an RRSP for the horses, for the old age when there is no more racing. Hopefully that day won’t come,” she says grimly.

And when will it be time to give up the fight?

“If everybody sits back and doesn’t fight for horse racing, then there won’t be any horse racing,” says Markle. “We all have voices and we all have to speak and be heard. Whoever you say it to, and however you say it, just get the word out there.”

Mego Moss fought the good fight for his own kind on this night and led the field into the homestretch with a lengthy lead.

With Markle’s pleading whispers urging him home, Mego Moss, a grandson of her beloved Grand Tara, completed the mile a convincing winner in 1:57.2... a new lifetime mark by one full second.

Grandmother, granddaughter and grandson - - a horse racing family spanning generations, both equine and human - - drive home, on this evening, with smiles on their faces through the January cold.

But what is to become of them, and all of us? Can harness racing make it through another winter?

And when the end of March comes, will you go out quiet like a lamb, or roar like a lion?