A week after her resounding success in the Grade 1 Jonathan Sheppard Handicap at Saratoga, trainer Keri Brion said the result still hadn't fully sunk in. Brion saddled four runners in the race, and trained all of the trifecta, led by The Mean Queen (IRE) and rounded out by Baltimore Bucko (GB) and French Light (FR).
“I didn't really allow myself to even start thinking about it,” said Brion. “A lot of people were saying it to me, but to be honest I just hoped one of them could get it done. I knew the pressure was on – on paper, mine were the ones to beat. It wasn't until the eighth pole I started yelling for French Light, 'Get up there!' to be third.”
The accomplishment was fitting, since Brion served as assistant trainer to Sheppard for 11 years and was part of his team for several of his 15 victories in the race, formerly known as the New York Turf Writers Cup.
For Brion, the past eight months since going out on her own have been a whirlwind. Brion had taken a string of Sheppard's horses over to Ireland in November 2020 and was still there when she got word in January that Sheppard was retiring. Brion had long hoped to open her own racing stable and had developed good relationships with many of Sheppard's owners, so she had expected at some point she may take the mantle from him but said it happened rather suddenly.
“I always planned to go out on my own, but maybe not in this way,” she said. “But everything happens for a reason, and everything's going pretty good now.”
Now, she is the leading trainer in the National Steeplechase Association standings by earnings and is tied with recent Hall of Fame inductee Jack Fisher for NSA wins. She got her first Grade 1 win in late July when Baltimore Bucko took the G1 A.P. Smithwick Memorial. Her jaunt to Ireland also helped her make history, as she became the first American trainer to win a hurdle race in the country (courtesy of The Mean Queen) and the first to win a National Hunt race in Ireland with Scorpion's Revenge. Brion said the level of competition in Ireland and England for steeplechase horses is considerably higher than in the United States, where there are comparatively few steeplechase horses.
The months spent in Ireland exposed Brion to new training styles to build better fitness and stamina, but also gave her the chance to develop an angle she hopes will bring new owners into the steeplechase scene in the States. Prize money has become a major problem in English and Irish racing, and Brion has found that a mid-level runner there can be tremendously successful in America, where steeplechase purses are much better.
“Obviously, over there jump racing is more prestigious, so they've got that going for them but the guys who are putting a lot of money into the sport don't even break even,” she said. “You can at least break even, maybe make some money here when you do it the right way. I have quite a few people intrigued by it.”
American jump racing is a great outlet for a runner who prefers firm ground, which they don't reliably get in Ireland.
Brion leads The Mean Queen back to the barn after a workout with Tom Garner up
Although steeplechase is most popular in East Coast areas known for all types of equestrian sport, like fox hunting and eventing, Brion said she wish more people understood that it really has more in common with flat racing than cross country.
“I wish the sport did a better job of advocating and teaching people about it because there are quite a few misconceptions about the sport, but it's only because you would have no way to know,” she said. “I think people look at us as a different entity. Flat racing, you look at them as athletes doing a sport. Steeplechase racing, I think people look at it like we're almost show horses which we're not. We're just as competitive as the flat, and there's money to be made in it. It could be supported just as well.”
Brion first came to horses not as a reformed show rider, but as a Thoroughbred fan from the age of 10. She started off working at Sylmar Farm in Christiana, Penn., and learned to gallop at the age of 13. Although she's known for her steeplechase success, Brion said she hopes to build a name for herself in the realm of flat racing also, the way Sheppard did with top runners Informed Decision and Forever Together.
Perhaps contrary to popular belief among flat racing fans, Brion said the training process for a steeplechaser really isn't much different from a flat horse. Hurdlers also don't actually travel much slower than flat horses and need just as strong a closing kick, they just settle over a greater distance first.
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Brion also sees potential in a certain type of flat horse to make a transition over hurdles, and is hopeful she can help more owners see the potential in that type of second career.
“You look for horses – whether they're turf or dirt – that are running long, they're coming late, and just missing,” she said. “Horses that look like they want more ground. I don't mind dirt or turf, either way. You want to see horses that are finishing third or fourth and are galloping out strongly. Every horse jumps, it's just a matter of how good. You can teach them to jump. Even a $10,000 claimer who just runs out of room or is just very one-paced and has a high cruising speed, those are the horses that do well [steeplechasing]. And it's always good to remind owners, horses get their maiden conditions back over jumps.”
Brion aboard Grade 1 winner All The Way Jose
The summer season has been a busy one for Brion, who bases out of Fair Hill. The Fair Hill base is perfect for her program, which allows horses regular turnout and the chance to gallop over rolling hills, but it still means a lot of time on the road. Brion is sending horses to Virginia, New York, and Pennsylvania at regular intervals, so her days are long ones. Brion spent some time as a jockey (she was champion apprentice jump jockey in 2017), and still gallops as many of her own string of 30 as she can. This fall will bring more commuting, as there are steeplechase meets every weekend through mid-November. Race days like the G1 Jonathan Sheppard make the long days worth it.
“I have quite a few nice 2-year-olds in my barn, so I'm hoping they will fire and I can get my name out there,” she said. “I've got a bunch of new owners from overseas and I'm looking forward to getting new horses in. My success in Saratoga has really helped me, and I have some exciting new clients.”
In late July, a grainy video circulated on Twitter, purporting to show the impetus for the two-year suspension issued to trainer Amber Cobb by Delaware Park stewards for “improper or inhumane treatment” of an animal and conduct detrimental to racing. The ruling had puzzled racing fans and media when it was published, since it did not describe the nature of the incident that prompted such a serious penalty.
(The Paulick Report received a clearer version of that video in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in late August. It is embedded below.)
The video shows a chestnut horse tied either to the back wall or to the metal grating over a window of a stall, while a woman shouts obscenities at the horse and strikes at the animal with a plastic pitchfork until the horse, a 2-year-old unraced filly, rears and stumbles, then falls to the ground with the wall tie still attached to either her bit or her halter. She tries to rise and falls again, finally lying still while breathing heavily until someone unclips the tie.
Many people wondered, after watching the video clip, what prompted the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission to shorten Cobb's suspension from two years to 60 days after an appeal hearing held July 14. A recording of the appeal proceeding, which stretched for nearly five hours, revealed the decision came down largely to the perceived credibility of the accused and a whistleblower.
The video in question, along with a Live Photo captured on a previous date, were both shot by Lisa Whittaker, former groom for Cobb, sometime in February 2021 at a private farm in New Jersey. (The Paulick Report did not obtain a copy of the Live Photo. Whittaker testified she intended to take a video but didn't switch her phone's camera settings quickly enough and ended up with a live photo, which shows a short burst of action and a still image.) Whittaker provided both the photo and video along with a written statement to stewards in May 2021, after she said she had secured employment in another barn and was no longer afraid of being fired by Cobb.
Whittaker painted an unsettling picture of life in Cobb's barn. She worked for Cobb in November at Delaware Park, and then again at the New Jersey farm beginning in January or February, and continued with Cobb through the time that she sent a string to Delaware Park for the start of the new racing season. Whittaker said she saw treatment from Cobb that began to concern her – both at her time on the farm, where Cobb was starting young horses, and back at Delaware Park.
“Her methods are brutal,” Whittaker told the commission. “She is very heavy-handed. If they are slightly out of line, and these are young horses, she's screaming at them to whoa and hitting them with a whip. They don't understand why. She flips horses over all the time. She'll pull on their mouths when they're ground driving. She's screaming at them, she's whipping them, and there's nowhere for them to go but up.”
At the beginning of the 2021 Delaware Park meet, Whittaker recalled a horse – a bay colt – who was being taught to use the automatic walker. The horse broke loose and ran around the Delaware Park property for an extended period of time. When they finally caught him, the overwrought horse didn't want to go into his stall. Whittaker testified that Cobb beat the colt in the head with a chain shank to get him to back into the stall. She also said Cobb told her to withhold feed from the horse for four days afterwards.
Whittaker said the live photo she took was the day before the video and depicted the same horse.
“If you look, she's pulling this horse down,” she said, looking at the photo in the appeal hearing. “That's what she does, she'll drive them forward and she'll pull so hard, they have nowhere to go but up … This horse reared up, hit her head on the wall, and came down and broke a tack box.”
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On the day the video was shot, Whittaker said Cobb had tried ground driving the horse, an unnamed filly out of Bluegrass Ellie, outside in an open area for the first time, four days into her ground training.
(Ground driving is a common practice in a horse's early training and usually involves tacking the horse with saddle and bridle and attaching a driving line on each side of the bit. The handler will walk behind the horse or, for work at a trot or canter, may stand while the horse travels in a circle around the handler. The practice is a good way to introduce a horse to steering and the feel of the lines on the horse's sides can prepare them for a rider's legs brushing them.)
The filly bolted, and at some point, got loose. Whittaker recalled Cobb brought the horse back into the barn and tied her to the wall in the stall while Whittaker kept mucking a nearby stall. When Whittaker heard scrambling and commotion, she rushed over and began filming Cobb's outburst.
For her part, Cobb did not deny that she is the person shown in the video, or that she hit the filly with a plastic pitchfork. Beyond that, her and Whittaker's interpretations of what takes place in her barn differ. Cobb denies that she ever instructed food be withheld from any of her horses for days; she recalled the colt who was loose at Delaware but said she told Whittaker to withhold food only until the colt was cool to prevent colic. She denied ever hitting any other horses.
Prior to the video, Cobb said both that the filly had been very tough but also that she had been responsive and reasonably compliant over their prior three days of ground driving inside the barn. The Live Photo from the previous day, Cobb and another witness said, showed the filly spooking at the noise from a car outside the barn, and Cobb disputed that the filly had fallen over, saying she broke the tack box with one of her feet as she regained her balance and was uninjured.
On the day in question, she said the horse became agitated when she got into the open field, seemingly with no provocation, and bolted. Cobb let one of her driving lines go almost immediately and struggled to hold the horse with the other.
“Eventually I didn't have anything but to let her go because she was so tangled up,” Cobb said. “I didn't want her to trip or hurt herself so I let go and she freaked out and ended up rearing up so bad, she got tangled up in the ropes. It wasn't anything I did, she just lost her mind.”
Once she caught the filly, Cobb said she brought her inside to Whittaker, who was told not to tie the horse to the wall. The filly, Cobb said, had previously demonstrated a propensity for “climbing the wall” or scraping and striking it with her front hooves.
When Cobb discovered Whittaker had tied the horse to the wall anyway, she said, she went in to release the horse. Then, Cobb said the horse tried to kick her – that was not shown on the video. The video recording began, Cobb said, when she made a second attempt to enter the stall to release the horse, first by standing in the doorway with the pitchfork and yelling.
“I was upset and I don't want to say 'stressed' because that's not right, but I didn't want anything to happen,” said Cobb. “I just didn't want anything to happen. So when I tried to get her to move over my fear and anxiety overtook me. I didn't want to hurt her, I just wanted her to be OK.”
Whittaker didn't see the incident the same way.
“That was her losing control of her temper,” said Whittaker. “She was mad at the filly. She lost control and went after the filly. That's pure anger. The filly, you see she's standing tied to the wall. She tried to say she was kicking at her, and the filly is standing calmly and had turned her head to her. She showed no aggressive behavior whatsoever.”
Indeed, commissioners appeared shocked by the behavior in the video. One can be heard muttering during the first replay of the video, “Jesus. Shit. I can't see this.” When a commissioner asks a staff member to confirm whether there is any further video evidence, a commissioner mutters, “That's enough.”
Commissioners did press Cobb on her motives for approaching the filly the way she did, focusing particularly on the moments early in the clip where the horse appears to be standing calmly before Cobb begins brandishing the fork at the horse.
“I know she looks calm,” said Cobb. “She's come at me numerous times. I'm scared that she's going to come over on me again. I kind of wanted to set my barrier.
“I wanted to say, hey, I'm dominant here. I need you to submit a little bit to me here. She's fighting me tooth and nail.”
Cobb was asked whether she could have anticipated that threatening the horse would be more likely, not less likely, to result in the horse flipping over in the stall.
“Yeah, but I didn't hit her that hard,” Cobb said, who attributed the horse's fall to slippery stall mats.
Cobb said she'd never had another horse flip over with her before.
But in fact, she has. In June 2020, an unraced 2-year-old named Sky High Interest flipped over coming out of a wash rack at Finger Lakes and sustained a head injury requiring euthanasia, according to a report from the New York State Gaming Commission.
“Oh,” Cobb said when asked about Sky High Interest. “I forgot about her. I try to forget about her. She bolted off the wash rack and flipped over. It was an older horse … they think it was semi-heart attack related. She was an older horse.”
Commissioners also focused on the time lag between when the video was shot and the time it was reported to stewards in Delaware. Alan Pincus, attorney for Cobb, brought up the whistleblower's personal life as a possible motivator, suggesting that Whittaker's ex-boyfriend had an affair with Cobb (who said she has been in a long-term relationship with jockey Jamie Rodriguez for the past decade). Whittaker laughed, seeming bemused by the suggestion when questioned by Pincus. That laughter, for two commissioners, spoke a thousand words.
“Quite frankly I found her to not be a credible witness,” said secretary-commissioner Ed Stegemeier, citing her laughter as “nervous.” “She's not on trial but if she really cared passionately about animals, which she does to a degree, why do you wait months to do something?
“I want to support our stewards … but I really feel we need to reexamine the decision that was made … Maybe this was an isolated incident. But God help you if in the future this ever happens again.”
At the same time, Stegemeier said, the horse's reaction suggested it wasn't an isolated incident.
“When the horse saw you had a pitchfork, the horse immediately reacted to you coming in, which said to me this has happened before,” he said. “This was not the first time.”
Character witnesses for Cobb questioned Whittaker's professionalism while praising Cobb's, reiterating that they'd never seen horses without food or water in her shedrow. Rodriguez also testified to corroborate Cobb's version of events. He can be heard at the end of the video, telling Cobb the filly is dangerous and needs to be removed from the barn.
By contrast, several commissioners remarked during public deliberations that they were impressed with Cobb, who studied equine business for two years before embarking on a series of internships at breeding facilities and training operations and sustaining a brief career as a jockey before a horse she was riding flipped over on her and injured her knee.
“You were articulate,” said chairman W. Duncan Patterson Jr. “You were an excellent witness. I believe you were scared but I don't know what was inside your head, that's just what I'm surmising. I believe you acted irrationally and I cannot ignore the video. It's too damning. I concur with what my fellow commissioners said that the stewards were correct in their ruling but the penalty goes much too far. I think that would put you out of business. But maybe being out of business for a couple months, three months might be a good thing. Let you clear your head. I know what this business is like because I've been in it.”
“I believe Miss Cobb is one of the most articulate people that I've heard from the back end of Delaware Park,” said commissioner Richard Levine. “Everything we heard about her was excellent except for one witness who I personally think was very flawed and had not-friendly motivations. But the film does show what the film shows. All the evidence we have is that it was a single incident.”
The stewards also could not corroborate any of the accusations Whittaker made in her written statement about other abuses, either in New Jersey or Delaware. William Troilo, acting chief state steward, said that the decision of the stewards was based only on the evidence provided to them, since Cobb disputed the majority of Whittaker's statement.
All commissioners agreed that two years would end Cobb's career and should be shortened. Per the official rules of meeting order, the group worked its way down from a two-year suspension until they could find a length of time that was acceptable to the majority. They settled at 60 days.
Henry “Jim” Decker was the lone holdout and abstained from the final vote, which without him was 4-0 in favor of lowering Cobb's suspension to 60 days. They also required that Cobb demonstrate proof of completion of a certified anger management program, apparently not realizing that the stewards' ruling had already included that requirement.
“Cruelty to animals, whether it's a one-off or not, is unacceptable anywhere,” said Decker, who had suggested a one-year suspension. “The fact that something is a death sentence for a racing career, I don't believe should have any bearing on what the penalty should be. The penalty should be commensurate with the crime, so to speak.”
Cobb appealed the 60-day suspension into the Delaware court system, but through her attorneys voluntarily dismissed that case on Aug. 24. She has not saddled a horse since July 21.
Cobb and Rodriguez said the filly was sent back to her breeder, Saratoga Glen Farm, with the recommendation she not complete the breaking process over fears she was too dangerous. As of late June, Troilo said she was turned out in a field. She did not appear to be physically injured by the incident.
It's been a long road to Kentucky for the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) Mega-Makeover classes of 2020 and 2021, between the event's postponement in 2020 and the constantly changing landscape as a result of the global pandemic. The final entry period for the Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America (TCA), has passed, which means we have our first full look at the horses impacted by the Makeover process.
Here's how the field of registered horses emerged over the months since the last Thoroughbred Makeover in 2019:
December 1, 2019: horses were eligible to start retraining for the 2020 Makeover and trainer applications opened
February 14, 20 entries were accepted into the 2020 Makeover
July 7, 2020: the RRP annou20: 616nced the postponement of the 2020 Thoroughbred Makeover and the intention to run an expanded double event in 2021; entered trainers were given the opportunity to either retain their 2020 entries or roll their entry status to the 2021 competition year
December 1, 2020: horses were eligible to start retraining for the 2021 Makeover and trainer applications opened
February 15, 2021: 480 entries were accepted to the 2021 Makeover, combining with 322 trainers from the postponed 2020 competition for a total pool of over 800 trainers for the Mega-Makeover
July 31, 2021: trainers for both competition years had through this date to register the horses they intended to compete. 573 horses were registered for the 2020 competition year, and 454 were registered for the 2021 competition year, making a total of 1,027 horses that were in training for the Makeover
August 15, 2021: at the close of Final Entry, 525 horses were entered for the final Makeover competition
Let's take a closer look at that deep field of registered horses!
Height
While the average height of horses comes right in at 16.0 hands, the measured heights of registered horses range from 15.0 hands all the way up to 18.0 hands — with one unique outlier, our 14.0 hand entry Lucky Ribot.
Gender
As is typical of past years, geldings make up over two-thirds of our total entries. Six horses were listed as stallions at the time of registration.
Year Foaled
The minimum age for Makeover registration is three years old. In both competition years, 4- and 5-year-olds were the most popular age group at the time the horses were acquired (taking into consideration that the 2020 class is another year older than when horses may have started their Makeover journey). While a large number of registered horses are in that 4-to-6-year-old range, we're once again seeing a strong representation from the so-called “iron horses” that will be 10 or older by the Makeover!
State Bred
While Kentucky once again bred over a third of our Mega-Makeover horses, New York and Florida are also well-represented with 10 percent or more of the class.
Sires and Dams
We love looking at bloodlines and which of the breed's stallions are represented: many of those we see over and over again are racing's top sires, but some lesser-known names often crop up every year which can indicate both regional popularity as well as recognition of ability of offspring in sport. Forty-seven stallions are represented by multiple registered offspring for the Mega-Makeover; we've highlighted those with five or more below.
Additionally, 19 of the top 20 leading sires of 2021 are represented — only Constitution is missing.
We're looking forward to the meeting of full brothers Our Paul Thomas and Good Timing Man at the Mega-Makeover; both are by Overdriven out of Gorman's Wynn. Five other dams are represented by sibling offspring this year as well.
Public Auction
North America's leading public auctions are all represented at the Mega-Makeover, and in total, both classes of horses brought over $38 million at the sales!
Racing History
On average, Makeover registrants made 20 starts with two wins, averaging earnings of $65,665 each. In total, registered horses made 20,081 starts, crossed the wire 2,442 times in front, and earned a whopping total of $67,438,338.
To be eligible for the Thoroughbred Makeover, a horse must have been in training to race and must have at least one published work — and for about 8 percent of our registered horses, that's as far as their racing careers ever went. Others achieved “war horse” status, making more than 50 lifetime starts.
We're looking forward to seeing some of the stars of recent seasons of racing embarking on their journey to a second career. Here are some of the stakes horses you can expect to see in person at the Mega-Makeover: Flatlined, Granny's Kitten, Hawaakom, Ashleyluvssugar, Moonster, Sixes, Show King, Pepe Longstocking and more.
How Makeover Registrants Were Acquired
The acquiring of Makeover horses represents the crossroads between the racing and sport horse worlds, and can provide valuable information for how those worlds are interacting and working together.
About half of the horses registered for the Mega-Makeover were acquired directly from their racing connections, and those horses on average spent about 100 days between their last start on the track and finding their post-racing home. Resellers and non-profit aftercare organizations represent two other routes that horses take after racing. Eight horses across both competition years were reported as “self-rescues” by their Makeover trainers, acquired from auctions or “kill pens” — this number is down from 10 in 2019.
The overall average price paid by Makeover trainers for their horses is $2,230, which is up from $1,960 in 2019 and $1,200 in 2018.
The most popular aftercare organizations:
It's always interesting to see from which tracks Makeover horses retired: these trends indicate that more horses are retiring from lower-tier tracks, populated by mid- to lower-level claiming competitors. They can also indicate where rehoming programs and aftercare organizations are making an impact.
To learn more about the horses of the Mega-Makeover, browse the list for familiar names, or look at final entry, please click here. The Thoroughbred Makeover and National Symposium, presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America, takes place October 12-17, 2021 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
It is a horse racing life well lived, and one that many are grateful to have been part of.
Frank Courtney's career, one that reached the finish line on a picture-perfect day at Woodbine, spanned seven decades, and spawned a multitude of roles, both on and off the racetrack.
His most recent job, that of Horsemen's Bookkeeper, was one he held for 32 years.
Few, if any, have been able to view the world of Thoroughbred racing through such a unique lens, something Courtney is humbly grateful to have experienced.
“I've been in racing all my life. My father trained horses and rode, my uncles also rode. It's been in my blood since I was born.”
Actually, even before he arrived.
“On Sept. 4, 1952, my mother was at the races at Dufferin Park and she started having labour pains and then you used to go home and have your children. So a few of the owners and trainers said, 'You better get home and have your baby,' and needless to say I was born about 6 p.m. I was actually almost born at Dufferin.”
His racetrack life began in the early 1960s when he walked hots for trainer Andy Smithers.
“Growing up and learning to gallop horses for Andy Smithers, I consider him one of the best trainers I ever worked for,” offered Courtney. “Other notable trainers were Frank Merrill Jr., I went to Florida for three years with him trying to be a jockey, but my body structure was a little too large and I couldn't get down light enough to ride Thoroughbreds, but I rode Quarter Horses on Sunday nights after the races. We'd go up there and I rode for John McKenzie, who ended up being a horse trainer here at Woodbine.”
Not surprisingly, Courtney, who also spent time as an exercise rider, has no shortage of racing tales, horse and human, to share.
How he got – and kept – the Clerk of Scales role at Woodbine is one that stands out.
“When I was working in the jocks' room in 1976, the Clerk of Scales at the time was Robert Davie and he was the gentleman that taught me everything in the jocks' room. A couple years later I became his assistant Clerk of Scales and when he retired he made sure the job was given to me, even though I was only about 27 years old.”
In some ways, the odds of success were stacked against Courtney.
“Even senior management was concerned because I had galloped horses with a bunch of my friends like David Clark, Robin Platts, Gary Stahlbaum, all the top riders at the time, and they were worried that I would be intimidated by them, but he had said to me, and I love this quote, 'Frank, I'm giving you the opportunity to be the Clerk of Scales, it's up to you to either keep the job or lose the job.' I'll never forget when he said that. He said, 'It's your job, a good job, and you're going to have to do everything that I taught you, don't let your friends intimidate you.' Luckily, the ones that I had been real close with were probably the best to work with.”
Courtney also worked closely with some of the sport's top trainers and top horses, never taking any of those interactions or lessons learned for granted.
“One of the best horses I ever galloped for Frank Merrill was a horse called Lord Vancouver. He was a super turf horse and that was one of Merrill's that they had purchased horse off Conn Smythe.
“Another horse that I had the privilege of getting on was a horse One for All, a horse that was trained by Horatio Luro, the trainer of Northern Dancer, that was sent up to compete in the Canadian International. We had real fun with him because they were training him to get ready to go to the l'Arc de Triomphe in France, but because they run the opposite way in France, we got to go out every morning after late training and they closed the turf so we could gallop in the wrong direction and that unique because nobody else was allowed on.”
For as many stories as Courtney has, others have equally fascinating stories of the man himself.
Some speak of the meticulous work he did as a bookkeeper, others talk of his life on the Woodbine backstretch.
All of them note the profound impact Courtney has had on Thoroughbred racing in Canada.
For trainer Don MacRae, who began his training career over 25 years ago, the man he met early on in his racetrack life would become a mentor, and a game changer in his career.
A lifetime winner of 535 races, MacRae, to this day, remains grateful for Courtney's guidance.
“As a younger trainer starting out I was very cocky and thought I knew it all,” said MacRae. “Frank was a guy who would always try and teach me to be a better person and show me that kind of attitude was the wrong one to have. I have a lot of respect for him.”
Woodbine Entertainment CEO Jim Lawson, and Jessica Buckley, Woodbine Entertainment SVP, Standardbred & Thoroughbred Racing, shared equally high words of praise for Courtney.
“Frank has been a fixture at Woodbine,” started Lawson. “Like many of our employees, Frank has been working with us for decades and it is people like Frank that have made Woodbine into the familiar and caring community that it has become. When you walk into Frank's office to ask him to perform a special task for an owner he reliably got the job done, despite usually being overwhelmed with “special requests.” Frank always handled those requests in stride and with a smile. I will certainly miss him and our chats and I wish him the very best in retirement.”
“Frank's long tenure with Woodbine is a true testament to his love for racing and the people he deals with on a daily basis,” said Buckley. “His commitment to excellence, when serving the bookkeeping needs of horse people, will be greatly missed by all.”
Sue Leslie, President of the HBPA, and board member with Ontario Racing, noted Courtney's keen eye and attention to detail in his bookkeeping role, skills that were highly respected and appreciated by the thousands of horse people who depended on his diligent efforts each week.
“Frank maintained meticulous order in the bookkeeper's office,” noted Leslie. “Horsepeople could count on him for accurate information on their accounts. On behalf of all horsepeople, Frank, we thank you for your 40 plus years of committed service to HBPA members. We all wish you well in your retirement and hope you visit us often.”
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame trainer Mike Keogh, the man behind Wando's 2003 Canadian Triple Crown triumph, applauded Courtney, not just for his flawless work throughout the years, but also for his ability to connect with trainers, owners and jockeys.
“Frank is one the nicest guys you could ever meet, nothing was ever a problem with him. He always made sure everything was correct. Also, he is a horseman, so he understands what your needs are. We will all be sorry to see him leave, but wish him nothing but the best.”
With one of horse racing's most one-of-a-kind careers now in the books, Courtney can look back fondly upon what he was able to accomplish.
“It's been a great experience. “I've met a lot of great people over the years. I've been teaching Tammy Frost to come in and help with Anne McMahon, general manager of the office. Anne and Tammy were also related with horse racing also and it's something that a lot of people… I mean for 47 years I've given up a lot of weekends because races are Saturday and Sunday, so the weekends are Monday, Tuesday, which a lot of friends could never understand. They call you up for a party Saturday night, but I had to work Sunday morning doing my accounting reports, so you go to a party but in the back of your mind you have to get up early and go to work.
Many are grateful he did, and that in some way, big or small, they were able to go along for part of the ride with hm.
“Over the years, I realized how much he had helped me in my career to become a better trainer and a better person,” said MacRae. “I wish him all the best in his future adventures.”
The last word, which goes to Courtney, is a heartfelt expression of gratitude to his family.
“I met my wife Rita in 1972. We've been married 46 years. I have two lovely daughters, Amy and Lisa, and all the times I was allowed to work here and work weekends and my daughters both competed show jumping and eventing, my wife became the van driver and support staff while I was here at work. The odd weekend I would try and go on a Saturday and Sunday to some of the events, but you didn't get out too often, but I'd really like to thank my wife for being there for the kids.”
