Kim Meaker
A few years back I was leaning against my office door after morning gallops, listening to my guv’nor deliberating entries. “Out at the weights” was a phrase wafting past me from the confines of the room and I couldn’t help but waft back “Relax, there is a little race in every horse”. This became a fond saying in our stable, one that was used often, writes Kim Meaker.
This piece is not about the big horses. Racing folk will know what I mean by that. This is about the little guys, of which there are many. You need not posses the know how and knowledge of a hardened industry professional to arrive at the conclusion that sensational stories such as those of Secretariat, Sea Biscuit and Soñador are few and far between and the chances of any breeding and training labours are less than likely to be fruitful on the race track or in the breeding shed. But they do help keep the dream alive for many.
Many who would otherwise not believe the possibility of such accomplishments. Many of these people are ‘the little guy’.
The Sport Of Kings is more accurately ‘The Sport Of The People’. It has become possible for the little guys to have a little horse that can run in little races. And that little horse can win. Thanks to the little trainers, many of them master conditioners and horsemen in their own right, they have afforded a plethora of wins and accolades to owners, jockeys and breeders from all walks of life.
These accomplishments mean as much to the little guys as the big races mean to the big guys.
Sometimes, the little guys end up winning the big race with the little horse and that is some thick butter icing on a warm, home-baked cupcake.
Racing is a fraternity, a brotherhood and a family. Without the big guys, there are no little guys. I have met many big guys on my intercontinental travels and what I have found is that they are strongly tied to where and when they started out. Their racing roots. When they were the little guys. With the little horses. And the little races.
Not every little horse can win a little race on the track. Sometimes, in moments of nostalgia among colleagues, we remark on a horse that is still running. It most likely is. Most of these horses are running their own race. Some to represent their teenage rider provincially, some to live out a well-fed retirement, some to gain Olympic glory. They are Thoroughbreds after all. And they will always be running their own little race. Just as us, the people who love them, will be running ours.
