Heartbroken over mare’s death
New Brunswick owners heartbroken over death of star racehorse Ramblinglily
Allan Jones has been in the harness racing game for nearly six decades, and he knows a special horse when he sees one.
He calls Ramblinglily a once-in-a-lifetime horse.
One of the greatest Maritime-bred pacing mares of all time, Ramblinglily died last month following complications from a leg injury. She was 10 years old.
The sudden passing of the horse who loved to win has been heartbreaking for coowners Normand Léger of Shediac and Jones of Riverview and the New Brunswick harness racing community.
“It’s just like losing someone in your family,” said Jones, who also trained Ramblinglily throughout her career.
Lily – as she was known around the barn – won 69 races and notched 123 topthree finishes in 155 career starts while never leaving the Maritimes. She banked $195,063 in purses.
“She was the best horse I ever had – and probably the best horse I’ll ever have in my lifetime. She was one of a kind,” Léger said.
“It was her desire to win. She was quite upset when she lost going back to the barn. She knew if she lost.”
The connections were preparing Ramblinglily for the 2020 season, when she took a misstep during qualifying in mid-June at Saint John’s Exhibition Park Raceway.
The diagnosis was a flexor tendon injury, and Jones and Léger made the call to retire the mare from racing and breed her.
However, complications from the injury set in, and she was sent to a veterinarian clinic in Charlottetown, where the complications and her condition worsened.
The co-owners made the decision to have her euthanized on June 27.
“That brings tears to your eyes, I’ll tell you,” Jones said.
The courageous horse that was born on Jones’ Riverview farm brought so much joy to her owners and their families.
They travelled with her to racetracks across the Maritimes, and their extended families across Canada watched her races online.
In a time when the New Brunswick harness racing industry has struggled, Ramblinglily was a big success story. She had a large Maritime fanbase and her own Facebook page.
“People liked her style of racing. She was very keen behind the gate, she liked to lead and liked to finish and was always competitive,” Jones said.
“She was good with people. At the track, kids would come pet her, and she would put her head right down and let them pet her.”
Ramblinglily’s passing followed the death of Léger’s wife, Dianne LeBlanc, on June 2.
LeBlanc was a big harness racing fan – she was working at the old Brunswick Downs in Dieppe in the 1990s when she met Léger, and she was the one who introduced him to Jones. LeBlanc gave Ramblinglily a good luck kiss before each race.
“She was her pride and joy,” said Léger, whose daughter, Mélanie, was the horse’s groom and rarely missed a race.
Ramblinglily burst onto the Maritime harness racing scene as a three-year-old filly, winning the Maritime Breeders final, Atlantic Breeders Crown final and The Maritimer Stake. Perhaps most notable as a three-year-old was her victory in the Donnie and George Turner Memorial against all male competitors from the No. 8 post at Truro Raceway.
She continued her winning ways from there, including a dominating run in the pacing mares division. She had a string of eight straight victories during the 2017 season.
She won the regular fillies and mares open class at Red Shores at the Charlottetown Driving Park 19 times. She shares the Truro Raceway track record for aged pacing mares of 1:55.
In an Atlantic harness racing poll conducted by Nicholas Oakes for his Down The Backstretch column in The Guardian earlier this year, Ramblinglily was named the pacing mare of the decade.
“She did pretty much everything you would expect an animal to do for you. She was good to work with, she had a good attitude,” Jones said.
“She was a champion, and a lot of champions seem to have that attitude and fight and grit that makes them that good. She had all that.”
Driver Walter Cheverie once compared Ramblinglily to driving a Cadillac.
Jones had a close bond with the horse, whose name was inspired, in part, by former United States pacer champion Rambling Willie and from granddaughter, Ava, saying the filly had ears that looked like a lily when she was born. Jones also owned and trained her mother, Crafty Jewel.
“She was extra special,” the veteran horseman said of Lily.
Jones and Léger received offers to sell Ramblinglily following her stellar threeyear-old season back in 2013 but never really considered parting ways with her.
She ended up giving them the ride of a lifetime.
“This is the dream. It’s like winning the lotto,” said Jones. “We had a lot of good times together.”