People and horses enter, or in most cases never enter, the Canadian Horse Racing Hall Of Fame based on what everyone knows about them - the races they’ve won,
the money they’ve made, the foals they’ve produced, etc. But what about the things people don’t know about them? Those are some of the things we try to tell in our annual Hall Of Fame issue of TROT… other stories that are maybe a bit lesser known than the stats. Hopefully we’ve succeeded in doing that here, in the preceding pages.
Personally, I had the honour of interviewing both Ben Wallace and Paul MacDonell for this issue, and had the pleasure of writing their feature stories based on the thoughts and memories they shared with me (the printable parts at least). I’ve also had the pleasure of knowing both men for many years, and when it comes to Paul I’ve been lucky enough to have him drive for me at times as well. So I’d like to share a few short stories of my own, about how the man in the red-and-white was very good to me - whether he knew how much it meant to me at the time or not.
When I was 25-years-old, after racing cheap horses mainly at Kawartha and Barrie for years, I found an owner that wanted to invest in an OJC horse, so we got a stall in the Greenwood backstretch and we went to the bank and got a cheque. $20,000 - that’s what I had to spend, and after years of mainly racing cheap claimers for small purses, that was a lot of pressure.
We found our horse, and her name was Jillian D. Her lines were good, she had been competitive in that class and had raced on the circuit for some time, but I was nervous. That was ALL the money we had - what if I blew it?
Knowing him just a wee bit through mutual friends, Paul MacDonell had driven a cheap horse for me at Greenwood, a handful of times the previous winter, and trust me when I say that he didn’t get rich doing it. Paul had also trained Jillian D six months prior to this, and never one to be shy I decided just to march into his barn one morning and ask him about her. I had no idea if he’d tell me what he knew or tell me to go to hell, but it was definitely the former. I was a little nervous to just go on in there and ask him, but I remember being greeted with a warm smile and eventually, a comforting statement along the lines of, “Don’t worry, you won’t get hurt claiming her.”
I claimed the mare with confidence the next night and put her right back in with Paul down to drive. He gave her a perfect second-over trip and she finished second - almost won. She was claimed again and we were up a few thousand dollars. Even more importantly for me though was that I now felt like I belonged, and I had the confidence to race on the OJC.
Fast forward to that winter and things were going pretty well for us - I was up to three horses and I wanted to school my mare, Daylon Touchdown, after qualifiers one morning. The night before I went into the Greenwood driver’s room to see if Paul would be there to go with her. I remember hesitantly walking up to a table full of drivers playing Gin, and asking Paul in front of them all. He replied, “Ya, I’ll be there, but why don’t you just go with her… you’ll do fine… she’s no trouble.”
I had taken horses off the gate a bunch of times, but never at an OJC track beside guys like Brown, Condren and Wall. It had never even crossed my mind that I belonged out there. Paul said it to me with such confidence, like it was a no-brainer. Plus, I wasn’t going to suggest that I couldn’t do it with all of those guys sitting there listening as they played cards. So I drove her myself as he suggested, and all went perfectly. It was just another example of the good-natured guy helping a green kid, and making him feel like he was being accepted.
I’m not certain, looking back, if I ever thanked Paul for the confidence he gave me with those friendly gestures, or repaid him in any way. Then again, there was that time in Delaware, Ohio when we had a few too many pops on Jugette Day and I helped hide him from Woody that night at the Delaware Inn because we were all pretty drunk and he was driving Village Connection in the Jug the next day.
Damn - too bad I’m out of space and can’t tell the whole story!
Thanks Paulie! And now I guess we’re even.