If you never knew, i'm actually Check Mark's brother (some of you already know that from previous posts on here
), so our story is pretty much the same.
My father and grandfather both used to race horses way before both of us were born. We have a lot of my dad's winner circle photos and his driving colours still with us (used to fit me
). I always loved his custom helmet with had his name on it with other custom designs on it too. His colours were blue and white with a big letter "E" on both side of the shoulder.
I always liked his story's he told me when I was growing up. His claim to fame is when my dad and my mom claimed a horse at Greenwood. Her name was Wild Honey Pie. She hasn't won a race in over 2 years, and they both still claimed her the week before. The race she was in was bigger than a mile (so like 1 1/8 or something) but she ended up winning the race at 8-1. Still have the race on VHS tape and shows my dad with his colours on and my mom with her big white boots on. I always loved that race and will still cherish it in the future. He also retired from racing with a .300+ UDRS rating which most people can never accomplish even today.
My dad used to work for Don Leblanc who owned a horse called A Go Go Lauxmont. He won 17 out of 36 starts and banked $299,881 (12 wins came in the Ontario Sire Stakes) which that was a lot of money back than. He took a record of 154.3 at Red Mile in a time trial, making him one of the first Ontario-sired trotters to achieve a sub-1:55 trotting record at a time that Ontario's circuit was solely composed of half-mile and five-eighths mile tracks.
My dad paddocked him the night he raced in the 1988 Canadian Trotting Classic, leading most of the way and getting beat by a nose to future Hambletonian and divisional champion Armbro Goal. My dad's friend used to own him (Paul Lindsey) had him when he went to stud for a bit, but was later bought by someone else. Offspring made almost $15 million.
One of my first times to the racetrack was maybe 4 or 5 years old at my local racetrack Grand River Raceway. Being so small, my view of the racetrack was looking through the chain link fence watching the horse go by. I think I visited the racetrack more when I was little more than today, since you can watch it on tv and bet from home too.
I didn't really know how to read the program at a young age, circling random numbers and letter, hoping to pick a winner or something. Looking back at the few programs I have kept, I don't even know that I was thinking back than
.
I started to know more and more about the program, with help from my grandfather, which got me a better understanding on how it all works. My grandfather used to keep old harness racing programs for my brother and I to read, he was always so excited to see some of his grand children finally fall in love with the best sport in the world. I don't really remember a whole lot with my grandfather, as he passed away when I was 6 years old, but I still remember some of the good memories we had.
I think one of my coolest memories I had when I was little is when my entire family went to Tioga Downs to watch the driving championship. While I was there I got to meet and get autographs with all of the drivers like yannick gingras, tim tetrick, john campbell and ron peirce. I remember when we were getting autographs, my mom met ron and was telling him about how mad she was when he beat Somebeachsomewhere in the Meadowland Pace. So he signed his signature and made an inscription saying "I loved when I beat the Beach".
The night before the driving championship, my brother dad and I went up to meet the announcer at the time, Darin Zoccali invited us in the announcers booth and see what it was like to call a race from the top. We got really lucky and had a race named after my brother and I. It was called the "Conley and Hudson Ecclestone Trotting Classic" You can find the race replay below (if you can't find it it was on July 31st, 2010 at Tioga Downs Race 9)
https://www.tiogadowns.com/racing/video/ It was one of the coolest memories I had. We also met the big wig of the Meadowlands, Jeff Gural who reserved a table in the area where all of the owners and trainers are. We also had lunch with him which was pretty cool.
Another time we did sort of the same thing was when we went to Mohawk and met Ken Middleton. I remember we had that race we were up there on PVR, but somehow got deleted. If I find the race, you can tell my brother and I are playing with the blinds and can here it a lot during the race
We have also had the pleasure of meeting some of my mom and dad friends. One of my dad's friends (Peter Davidson) is married to Brad Grants sister, Teressa. Her dad won the Pepsi North American Cup (who was Bettor's Delight, who is the sire of Tall Dark Stranger) and she has won lots of stakes races too. We also have been friends with Mark and Julie Austin, who have won a lot of stakes races and been our friends for a very long time. Also we know Paul and Don Lindsey. We have seen them race some good horses, but the best they have had would be Alexie Mattosie who has go onto win races like the OSS Sire Stakes, William R.Haughton Memorial and many other races.
As I got older, I started to learn more about the different bread which was thoroughbreds. I never really knew about it much and also didn't really know how to read the Daily Racing Form, which I still don't really know how to read some of the abbreviations on there, which I ask Check Mark on
.
But for some reason, I can pick winners better in thoroughbred better than standardbred, even though I like standardbred better. My brother and I claim to fame was picking a $1500 trifecta at Grand River (still our biggest hit to this day), which started us to get onto the betting side of things. We were betting on the ABM way before the legal age of 18 (which we are now). We started doing it at 13-14 when no one was watching. There was a area at Mohawk in the back where only a few people hanged out and bet and since they were all self serve, no one noticed us. My dad and mom warned us a couple times betting as they thought that we would get into trouble.
Check Mark and I hit a winner one time and went to cash it. Our hearts were racing as we went up to the window. But since Check had so much facial hair, they just recognise him as a older person
.
Also in the past couple years, I have been getting into the memorabilia side of horse racing. The first time was probably getting a whip from a driver when I was little. It later turned into getting 4 shoes of the great horse "Admirals Express". Later on I have gotten a whip from my brothers favourite driver Corey Callahan when he won the 2017 Battle of Waterloo (also photomatched).
Also last year I followed a really nice 2yo named "Tall Dark Stranger". I was there when he won the Metro Pace final. I told my brother I would go and get the whip from him. My heart was racing and after the race was over and Yannick Gingras was walking back I asked for his whip and he said "ya here ya go kid". I said thanks and held onto it. I had a novice race fan come up to me and ask about the whip. I told him it was from the race before and he asked me if he could have a look. I said sure and he let out a big crack in the whip, which I was almost ready to punch him in the head.
I was also there when he won the Breeders Crown Final. I had a media pass to attend the 2 day event and after the race I asked Gingras if I could please have his whip. He kind of startled and kind of looked at me for a sec. He than said "sure" and handed me the whip. I had one of my dad's friends make a really nice custom display where I can put the whips on.
Anyways, I have been a racing fan ever since I was a little kid and still enjoy it to this day.
