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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes-Advocate, 1988-04-20, Page 24v 1 Times -Advocate, April 20, 1988 Southern Ontario the "Kentucky of the By Mark Bisset It's something right out of an Australian movie. A veteran "horseman" decides to forego the training sulky one morn- ing and gets out the racing cart with plans to test a young horse. The morning is bright and the track seemingly deserted. The horseman goes through the daily process, hitching the promis- ing standardbred to the good sulky, looking forward to the horse's per- formance, wondering if this will be the million dollar animal. As he warms up the colt on the track, other horsemen noticing the racing sulky, have appeared out of nowhere with stop -watches in their hands. They've been wondering about the young horse too. They're not disappointed. The trotter runs the distance in record time and when he's back at the stable they gather around to compare -watches. They all agree that this one could be the horse. Two farms over, another horse- man climbs down from a manure pile where he has just witnessed the run from a distance. He too has a stop -watch and he is impressed. That's one of the anecdotes Leroy Revington has about being a horse- man, told not in the same way he did, but told with the same feeling. That little story is what horsemen seem to be about -- always waiting for the perfect horse, always look- ing forward to its best performance. It is the drive which keeps men and women in the otherwise difficult business of training standardbred horses. Trying to write a story about standardbred horse trainers in this area is almost as tough as picking the daily double and winning the triactor in one night at the races. There are horsemen nestled beside oval tracks all over the county and many of them are good -- so good in fact, the area is known as the "Kentucky of the north". in racing circles south of the border. Revington has been training hors- es in Lucan for over 30 years. He started out with a broodmare given to him by Clint Hodgins and went on to buy his first horse, "Midge Diamond". A problem horse, Rev- ington worked Midge Diamond un- til it started showing results and for the next 14 ydars it raced well. "He was what I called my bacon and egg horse," Revington recalls. His living room is now filled with silver cups and trophies won by horses he has raised and often driven. One of the highlights of a suc- cessful career came in 1969 when "Fireside Brandy" set a yearling trotter world record at the Western Fair Raceway with Revington at the reigns. That record still stands. Fireside Brandy went on to win the Supertest Stakes as a two year old, but later succumbed to a virus which ended a brilliant career. After two bad accidents on the track, Revington has more or less given up the driving end of the business. Now he concentrates on raising horses for other owners and he tries to sell his own animals be- fore the summer season gets under way. If they won't sell for the ask- ing price, he takes to the road, en- tering them in Ontario Sire Stakes competitions. "We've done a lot of racing, trav- elled a lot of miles," says Reving- ton . "But now we're trying to cut back and sell them before they get to that stage." Racing on a circuit which has es- tablished tracks all over Ontario, a horseman can race as often as every other night during the summer months and can continue into the winter if he wishes. It's a business with a lot of late nights and early mornings. The Sire Stakes races are the place to make a mark, according to Revington. But the competition is stiff. Between 2,500 and 3,500 ini- tially qualify for the Sire Stakes. That number is whittled down over the course of the year until the final ten horses are on the track for all the marbles. "Winning an Ontario Sire Stakes is quite a nice thing to happen to you -- especially with a trotter," says Revington, who has done just that on more than one occasion. The Lucan trainer works mainly with trotters rather than pacers. A trotter has a different gate than a pacer which runs by picking up both feet on the same side in uni- son. "1 had good luck with trotters," Revington explains. "I ended up buying a few and raising a few. "I prefer trotters over pacers. A lot of people don't like trotters over pacers -- they find them too big a challenge but 1 like the challenge: Beside the trophies and horse pic- tures in the Revington home, there are a number of hockey and basket- ball pictures of Revington and his sons in action. Athletics plays a big part for Revington as a trainer. . "It seems to me that if a guy is good at it (training), he's an athlete himself," the horseman says, not- ing that you have to be able to feel when the horse is pushing too hard or not hard enough. "The colt. can't talk and the colt gets tired and they (other trainers) get mad at him." "The bottom line is lots of condi- tioning and they've got to have the care and the feed. You can't hurt a .natural race horse with that." Revington has seen a gradual change come about in the harness racing business. With the Sire Stakes has come monied owners and syndicates which make it diffi- cult for small independent trainers 10 Operate. And while the costs involved in raising and training a standardbred have sky -rocketed -- a bale of hay which cost 25 cents 20 years ago, now costs as much as S2.50 -- the purses have remained the same at local tracks. A driver's outfit alone, which in- cludes safety equipment mandatory to the sport, can cost S500 and breeding fees run from S10,000 to 575,000, depending on the quality of the stud. "There are a lot more bred horses now -- a lot more breeding and a lot of monied people in it," Revington says. "It certainly makes you work hard at it to get any luck at all." Because the life of a horseman in- Volves so much time and dedica- tion, Revington has steered his sons away from the business. But he chooses to stay in it himself. "It gets in your blood and when you've had a little success, you feel it's going to go better and you just kind of hang in there," Revington explains. AFTER THE RUN -- Leroy Revington Margarita Fiesta a good workout. comes in off the track after giving FAST LEARNER -- Leroy Revington of Lucan takes Margarita Fiesta for a run Friday morning at the track behind he Lucan Community Centre. Revington trains standardbred trotters at the track. TRAINING STANDARDBREDS -- Jack Parsons trains standardbred horses for harness racing on his farm between Exeter and Dashwood. Parsgns is currently training three three -year-olds, one two-year-old and one six-year-old. S HDHS S ports By Shiela Dougall The results of the first Track and Field meet of the year arc in. South I luron travelled to Westminster last Wednesday, and turned in some good showings in most of the events. In the 150) metre race Kim Van- Dongen placed second, Beth Sween- ey placed fourth, Anna Szabo placed fifth and Scott Regier placed sixth. In the 400 metre race Michelle Chalmers placed first, Jeff Denotter placed third and Brett Ridcout placed fifth. In the 200 metre race, Michelle Chalmers placed third. In the triple jump Sandra Relouw placed second and Sandra also placed first in the long jump. Also placing in the long jump were Jake Morrice with fifth and Dave Dalrymple and Beth Sweeney with sixth. In the high jump Rob Wonnacott placed second, Chris Chapman placed fourth and Lori Parker placed fifth. Badminton The Senior Badminton team com- peted in a 16 school tournament in London at Oakridge, on Saturday. Kiln Crawford and Erika Cocck easily reached the Doubles Final only to lose to Westministcr in a three game match. Chad Miller and Fred Gregus made the Boy's Doubles Consola- tion final where they too lost. A "You're never done. The horse has to go on whether you're ready or not. They're working for you. If they find out you're not interested A training day The training day starts at 9 a.m. at Jack Parsons stables between Dashwood and Exeter. A large por- tion of the barn he works out of was brought in one piece from the Exeter Fair Grounds when the new arena was built. With snow in the April air, Parsons is out on the track, jogging one of the five hors- es currently under his supervision. Parsons does a "training mile" with each horse twice a week -- Wednesddy and Saturday. The hors- es are run just for exercise the rest of the week, except for Sundays. "They kind of like a holiday as well as we do," says Parsons of the Page 3A north" horses. When they are not doing a train- ing mile, Parsons puts the standard- breds through four to five miles a day, depending on their age. With a young colt, the trainer starts out slowly, increasing the mileage after three to four weeks of work. It depends on the horse you're driving too," Parsons says. "If it's an older horse, you go a little bit more. If he's younger, you go a little bit Tess" The amount a horse is worked also depends on whether or not he is racing. "After you get a horse racing, you have a little Tess training. You don't have to work them quite as much," Parsons explains. The training mile itself -consists 'of a numbtr of steps. The trainer - Please turn to page 4A It's how i play thegame.you Investors salutes the Exeter Mohawks Hardy Cup Finalists. It took great skill, hard work and perseverance. It took the competitive spirit and that extra special element part intuition, part experience. Congratulations for a tremen- dous effort and all the best in the league playoffs. At the Investors Group, we have over 47 years experience helping Canadians to achieve their personal financial best. 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