Truro owned horse too smart

A hundred yards from the finish line of the world’s biggest harness race, the horse from Truro made its move Saturday night.

Driver Tim Tetrick brought Wakizashi Hanover outside of the favourite, Wiggle It Jiggleit, in the $1-million race.

As the horses came even, Tetrick yanked Wakizashi Hanover’s ear plugs so the three-year-old gelding could hear the thundering hooves and roaring crowd.

“Tim knew that horse always has a little more in the tank,” said Bruce Kennedy.

“That was our victory move.”

Thirty-six hours after watching his horse take the $500,000 first prize at the Pepsi North America Cup in Campbellville, Ont., Kennedy was back behind the counter of his Truro convenience store Monday morning.

Kennedy and the five other owners of Wakizashi Hanover — Percy Bonnell (Truro), David Bugden (Truro), Wayne Burley (Truro), Scott Bowen (Amherst) and David Chabassol (Stellarton) — are on top of the harness racing world.

“They caught lightning in a bottle to have a horse like this,” said Howard Howe, publisher of the Harness Edge, a harness racing industry publication.

What’s even more shocking than some guys from Nova Scotia owning the fastest harness racing horse in the world is this is the second time it’s happened in seven years.

In 2008, Somebeachsomewhere took the North America Cup, along with pretty well every other contest the then-three-year-old gelding owned by Brent McGrath of Truro competed in. Somebeachsomewhere retired in 2009 with $3.2 million in winnings.

“To have two horses of this calibre come out of little Truro out in the Maritimes in just seven years is nothing short of amazing,” said Howe, 59, who has been working in the harness racing industry for 35 years.

He doesn’t attribute it purely to luck.

“The Maritimes has been a great breeding ground for horsemen of real ability,” said Howe.

“They all started much the same way, with cheap horses of not a lot of quality. Then through trial and error and some mentorship, they learned what horsemanship is all about so when they do get a good horse, they know how to handle it.”

Two years ago, Kennedy went to Harrisburg, Pa., to buy a horse. There were 1,118 yearlings being auctioned off, with many going for over $100,000.

Kennedy and his friends from Nova Scotia had a budget of $18,000 and a desire to find a horse that would be a bit of fun for them to manage. They bought a harness on the first day, but by the last day of the sale they had been outbid on every horse.

With only 12 animals left to bid on, they upped their budget to $23,000 and got Wakizashi Hanover.

“Whenever you buy a horse, you’re the last bidder,” said Howe.

“So that means everybody else in the arena is saying ‘You’re an idiot.’”

But everyone else was wrong.

Kennedy has been watching horses his entire life. He grew up kicking around the Maritime harness racing circuit, learning from the oldtimers who lived through the sport’s golden age on Canada’s East Coast.

During the ’80s, he bought a horse in Kentucky named Easy Bruce, won some races, got known, made $100,000 and had a lot of fun.

For the three decades that followed, he’s lost money on them.

“If you’re into harness racing, you’re there because you love it,” said Kennedy.

“Because it’s a losing proposition — has been for years.”

So for the 72-year-old, Wakizashi Hanover was supposed to be a last bit of fun in the horse racing world.

The owners gelded their young horse and sent it first to North Carolina and then to Jim King Jr. in Delaware for training.

Kennedy, his trainers and his Nova Scotia co-owners quickly realized they had a real contender.

Through long experience, they didn’t want to burn out Wakizashi Hanover by pushing him too hard as a two-year-old. Last year they only raced six times.

The horse showed up for the race Saturday as a relative unknown.

“This is a fairy tale story,” said Howe.

But not entirely, cautioned Kennedy, because the future of harness racing in the Maritimes is not looking bright. The small racing tracks have been closing, and the horsemanship skills built over generations are lodged in an aging cadre as few youth carry on the tradition.

“To get players into the NHL, you need minor hockey,” said Kennedy.

“It’s the same with harness racing. The fair-level tracks are closing for lack of support and so the ranks are being destroyed.”

Aaron Beswick 

Reproduced with permission of the The Chronicle Herald – Check site here