JOCKEYS OWNERS/BREEDERS TRAINERS TRAINERS CON’T

JOHNNY LONGDEN AUSTIN TAYLOR DOC DARBYSHIRE BUD MACDONALD HEDLEY WOODHOUSE LYON APPLEBY JESSIE MCKENZIE GEORGE CUMMINS JOHN CRAIGMILE BOB GILLATLY GORDON CAMPBELL HAROLD BARROBY EMIL SPORRI JOE KIRK WALLY DUNN CY ANDERSON BASIL FRAZIER PETER GORDON SAM BRUNSON ALAN JACK GEORGE HUGHES ERIC HAMBER JIMMY HALKET DAVE FORSTER JIM HUNTER RIVERVIEW STABLE JACKIE RUSSELL ‘BUNNY’ JOHNSON BILL SKUSE EMERALD STOCK FARM SID MARTIN LANCE GIESBRECHT RONNIE WILLIAMS CHARLIE OLDFIELD ANGUS MACPHERSON ALAN MAY CHRIS LOSETH RED ROCK FARM SONNY O’CONNELL FRANK BARROBY SAM KRASNER REG ELLETT ANDY SMITHERS, JR. TROY TAYLOR BRIAN JOHNSTON CLINE HOGGARD DAVID CROSS R.W. HALL MICKEY WALLS FRANK MCMAHON DON MORISON JOHN GUNTHER NICK & PAULINE FELICELLA GLEN TODD CANYON FARMS PETER REDEKOP Hall of Fame Randy Goulding

BUILDERS HORSES HORSES CON’T HORSES CON’T

ALF COTTRELL GEORGE ROYAL DALKEITH BOLD LADDIE JACK DIAMOND SO AND SO TRAVELLING VICTOR KID KATABATIC SAM RANDALL DARK HAWK DELTA COLLEEN STRAWBERRY MORN BOB LEIGHTON MAJOR TURLEY POLICE INSPECTOR MR PRIME MINISTER JACK SHORT MAJOR PRESTO ALTA MIRA SENATE APPOINTEE CLAY PUETT QUALITY QUEST LORD RENRAW RED’S HAWK BILL LOCHEAD WESTBURY ROAD HI DRIVE MAGIC CODE MASSIE WHITE MAGIC NOTE PAPWORTH SOPHIE J DOC MCKEON SIMONY GOLDEN RESERVE ARTIC SON STAN GODDARD CUM LAUDE TEEWORTH DANCEWITHAVIXEN ARCHIE MCDONALD LORD AVANTS GOLD LORD NELSON DR. PAT TALBOT EDIE’S BOY TY HAWK MONASHEE MERV PETERS SPAGHETTI MOUSE AUBREY DAVIES BILL RANDALL, SR. DON DUNN BRYANT MCAFEE TOMMY WOLSKI Hall of Fame Inductees

Tom Wolski by .... Randy Goulding

When Tommy Wolski was beginning his career “I’ve always wanted to bring the people in the Wolski was still riding when he started conduct- as a journalist he told his mother backstretch closer to the fans of the sport,” said ing live interviews in the table terrace for his he was working at jobs he shouldn’t be doing. Wolski. “It is a diferent world and people that radio show Track Talk. aren’t involved fnd it fascinating.” “I told her I didn’t know how to write and I had a “It was for CJOR,” said Wolski. “I had been a lot to learn about public speaking,” said Wolski. Wolski saw his frst horse race at Sufolk Downs guest on a few diferent talk shows for them when he was 10-years-old growing up in and I enjoyed it. A good friend of mine, Joe The result of not knowing what he was doing Boston. He started his long career in the sport Denofreo, recommended I start my own show. were two Sovereign Awards for his long-run- when he was 14. He negotiated the deal and that’s how my career ning television show the Sport of Kings. His frst in the media started. I think it was around 1985.” in 1998 was for his feature on Frank Barroby “The frst time I went to the races I knew I wanted titled “The Making of a Jockey.” to be a jockey,” said Wolski. “A few years later About the same time Wolski also started his my uncle took me to Narragansett Park where I weekly column, Hoss Talk, for the Province His piece on Brian O’Connell in 2004 was also met a trainer, O. L. Foster. He looked at my feet Newspaper. judged the best in Canada. and told me I was going to stay small so he gave me a shot.” Before he started his successful career in jour- Wolski also won the prestigious Hervey Award nalism Wolski was encouraged by legendary from the United States Trotting Association Wolski started out as a hotwalker, moved up to sports writer Jim Coleman to consider working in the Broadcasters division in 2004. He was groom, and eventually started galloping horses. in the media. selected by Tom Dawson, horseracing pro- He lost a photo when he rode his frst race at ducer for ESPN, who judged the Broadcasters Lincoln Downs. “I met Jim in Toronto and I was just starting to Awards. think about what I was going to do after I quit “It was a lot diferent back then,” he said. riding,” said Wolski. “He told me people liked “I was interested from the opening shots and “Apprentice jockeys were like chattel. They me, and because I had a unique voice I might wanted to know more,” said Dawson. “I’m a were under contract and their contracts could be able to do something with it. The main thing believer in using well placed voice over bridges be sold. Mine was sold more than once.” he told me, though, was to talk and write about to connect the dots in a story line, but this what I know. What I know more than anything feature did a nice job of piecing together frst Wolski fgures he rode at dozens of diferent else is horse racing.” person accounts in a cogent manner.” tracks before he landed in Vancouver in 1972, where he has been ever since. No stats are As the face of racing for the past 30 years Dawson’s remarks are a good description of available before 1976 but it is safe to say he won nobody has done more to support the sport. what makes Wolski’s work compelling journal- more than 500 races in his career. With three national awards for journalism, and ism. what he has meant to the horse racing in British “I was riding in Southern when Columbia, Tommy Wolski is most deserving of He uses his extensive knowledge of the indus- Mr. Jack Diamond asked me to come up to being inducted into the Horse try and humanizes the people involved behind Exhibition Park and ride,” said Wolski. “I thought Racing Hall of Fame. the scenes. I would give it a shot and see what it was like. Obviously, I’ve been pretty happy here.”

4 British Columbia Statistical Review 2014 Spaghetti Mouse by .... Randy Goulding

During a career that stretched over 9 seasons, recalls, “and he was one of those horses that Pedro Alvarado who rode him to four con- Spaghetti Mouse won 10 stakes races and walks like they own the ground. You could see secutive stakes victories in 2008 remembers placed in 15 others while becoming the all-time how confdent he was and I remember that Mrs. Spaghetti Mouse as being “a horse with good leading BC-bred for money won with earnings Felicella liked him a lot.” tactical speed that would lose interest if he did of $929,850 dollars. In doing so, Spaghetti not have a horse to compete with.” Alvarado Mouse won many accolades. They named him Spaghetti Mouse in part recalls “I used to look for horses to run beside because they had recently been to Disney- so he would stay focused on business and not In 2005, after winning 2 stakes including the land where the “Mouse” theme loomed large. get to the front too soon. He was a great horse BC Derby, he was named Champion BC-bred Pauline Felicella remembers him as a horse and I am grateful I had the chance to ride him.” Three Year-Old and won the Appleby Trophy they liked at the sale and were able to buy for as the BC-bred Horse of the Year. In 2006 he considerably less than she and Nick sometimes Between 2005 and the end of 2009, Spaghetti repeated as the Appleby Trophy winner and spent for horses. She also recalls that “as a Mouse started 33 times, with 30 of those starts was named Champion BC-bred Handicap two-year old he was growthy and a little awk- coming in stakes races. In those 30 stakes Horse when he won 3 stakes in a row including ward and clumsy and tended to want to fall over starts he won 10 times and placed in 14 others. the Lt. Governor’s, a Grade 3 race in those days. his own feet. We had no idea he would become In 2010 he won an Allowance race as an eight the horse he did.” year-old and was stakes-placed 3 times. He The Mouse had only 5 starts in 2007 but he was stakes-placed at nine, but in 2012, after a still was able to win his second consecutive His frst start, with the late Gary Demorest train- couple of races that were not up to the Mouse Grade 3 Lt. Governor’s. In 2008 he was back ing, was at 3 ½ furlongs in September of 2004 at standard, the ten year-old was most appropri- full strength and won 4 stakes in a row, among Hastings Racecourse, where all 52 of his starts ately retired in a ceremony at Hastings Race- them a third consecutive Lt. Governor’s and his took place. He went of at almost 9-1 and ran a course, the scene of his many triumphs. second S.W Randall and BC Cup Classic. For non-threatening ffth. Next out was at 6 ½ fur- that he was named Champion Older Handicap longs and he closed strongly to fnish second. Horse of the year in British Columbia. All in, The Mouse broke his maiden in his third and Spaghetti Mouse was named a BC Champion last start as a two year-old and it was onwards 5 times. and upwards from there. Subsequent to Gary Demorest’s passing, Spaghetti Mouse was Before he was Spaghetti Mouse, he was Hip trained by Ned Sams and Lenore Dubois. 18 at the 2003 CTHS Yearling and Mixed sale, one of a 108 yearlings sold that night. Roxanne Spaghetti Mouse became a star in 2005 with Sargent consigned him for his breeders Bill and two stakes wins, one of them the BC Derby. Susan Stewart of Black Canyon Pauline Felicella describes him as a horse that and he sold for $21,000. Sixteen yearlings went “loved the attention and knew when he was for more. Those 16 horses earned a little over being looked at. He had a mind of his own and $701,000 in their careers, about $228,000 less knew what to do and when to do it. On post than the Mouse. parade he knew when it was time to go to the gate and you could not get him there until he “He was good-bodied,” Roxanne Sargent knew it was time.”

British Columbia Statistical Review 2014 5