B Cup stakes action highlights weekend at Rocky Mountain Turf Club
Live horse racing action resumes at the Rocky Mountain Turf Club this weekend with six races tonight, post time 6 p.m., along with eight races on the card for Saturday and Sunday, post time 1:15 p.m.
On Saturday, the first seven races will be B Cup Stakes Races, featuring the finest horses in the area competing for the big money.
First up is the three-year old filly race featuring Lyle Magnuson's “Sterling Aly”, battling against Les Adams, “Thorns N Roses”.
The three-year-old boys are up next and Lyle Magnuston’s horse, “Klondike Ike” will be the horse to beat with the greatest challenge coming from Laurie Ferguson’s, “Stripling Warrior”.
The two-year-olds present a full field of eight horses with Memory McCracken’s, “Missluciejane” taking on Les Adams “Rock Steady”.
The fillies and mares sprint stake will be hotly contested in a seven horse field as Garry Mark, “Lady Amelia” matches up against the likes of, “She’s it Again”, trained by John Poirier.
The seven furlong fillies & Mares stakes should be a battle between Lyle Magnuson’s, “Swiss Skimmer” and Garry Marks, “Some Gave All”.
The classic stakes with a distance of a mile and sixteenth with separate the boys from the men in a hurry. The strong favourite will be “Bull Time”, trained by Danny Oberholtzer, with Nellie Pigeau’s, “Master’s Bluff” and Mankumar Mohindee’s, “Carlot Cowboy” hoping to know the champion off.
Pete and Erna Dubois have been around horses the better part of their lives. Pete was a gallop boy at Stampede Park starting in 1957 and after a few years there he went to Woodbine in Toronto to gallop horses. Eventually he made his way back to Alberta and married his wife Erna, who also had a horse background.
After a number of years of being involved in horse racing, they got out of it for 15 years and raised a family in the Claresholm area. Pete worked at the Agriplex in Claresholm and life was good for both of them. Then after the kids grew up and left and Pete and Erna retired from their day jobs, they thought it might be fun to run a horse or two again at the race track.
The late Bryce Choinard from Bar None Ranches asked Pete if he’d train a horse for him in Lethbridge and then showed up with two horses. Pretty soon Pete and Erna were training over twenty horses for Bar None Ranches and what a run it was.
One of the best horses they ever trained for Bar None was Ding Dong Dandy, who people at the A Track had given up on because among other things, he hyperventilated and simply didn’t have any air.
Because of his superior breeding, Lynne Choinard, owner of Bar None Ranches, didn’t want to give up on him and sent him to Pete and Erna. Erna tells of how scared the horse was of everything and the hours she spent with the horse. She says when the horse got scared of something he would put his head into her shoulder for comfort.
The hours Erna put in with the horse paid off and Ding Dong Dandy became one of the best horses to run in Alberta.
According to Erna, the horse just needed some confidence and she helped give it to him. Lynne Choinard was good friends with the Late Ed Whalen, of Stampede Wrestling fame and one of Ed's favourite expressions was “It’s a Ding Dong Dandy”. After Ed’s passing, Lynne named the horse in his honour.
Another horse that Pete and Erna train is Dubla Gold. Dubla Gold is now eleven years old and this will be his last year of racing before he’s retired to a good home.
Dubla Gold had a run of four years in Lethbridge where he was pretty much unbeatable.
Erna has fond memories of the Western Canadian Circuit that was comprise of Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina and then to Lethbridge in the late fall for a week and then they would go to Spokane and then Phoenix. Pete also worked at breeding farms for Dupont and Golden West.
Pete rode as a bush jockey for Ken Buxton travelling to such stops as Stettler, Hanna and Lake McGregor for weekend race meets.
Pete still galloped his own horses up to seven years ago and wishes he still could.
One of the best lines ever in horse racing was shared by Erna when she said years ago someone said to her, “Horsemen are like birds, all they do is squawk and crap”. Partially true and absolutely hilarious.
Pete and Erna currently train six horses and feel that is their limit. Erna says it’s important that horses are cared for properly and if they have more than six, their concern is that they won't have the time to train and treat them properly.
It was a joy to spend some time with Pete and Erna Dubois and listen to their stories encompassing sixty years.
The biggest thing one takes away from a visit with these two is the glow they still have when they talk about their horses. It is truly a love affair.