A mother, a daughter and a thoroughbred racehorse

Gwen Boyce, Siobhan Brown, and a racehorse named Mighty Heart are all part of a touching rag to riches story. Bordering on being miraculous, it is about an uphill journey and fate that included a chance assignment that opened some new doors.

Boyce’s youth was typical of what most Bible Hill kids experienced.

“It was about bikes and ball, swimming lessons at the Kiwanis Pool, playing outside until dark, this sort of thing,” Boyce, of Groves Point, Cape Breton, said.

“When I was a little older, I played tennis and lots of team sports at Central Colchester High School. I also played the trombone under the baton of Ron Mackay both at school and in the Truro Concert Band.”

Boyce recalled her parents, Charlie and Della, and family members enjoying visits to the Seafoam Beach Campground. Boyce attended the Nova Scotia Agricultural College and Macdonald College in Montreal following high school. Later, she would complete a music degree at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish.

Accepting a teaching position in North Sydney in 1974, Boyce spent 37 years teaching music in the elementary school system with the then Cape Breton Regional School Board. She has been a resident of Groves Point since 1988.

“After all these years, I still enjoy connecting with old friends from high school days,” Boyce said. “I also keep in close contact with immediate family members.”

Gwen’s daughter Siobhan has a Gaelic name, pronounced ‘Sha-vaughn.’ She grew up in Groves Point, located 10 minutes from North Sydney. While attending high school, she became interested in horses and took riding lessons at Mountain Crest Stables in Coxheath.

A big part of Siobhan’s youth included Colchester County.

“When I was young, Mom and I would spend the entire summer in Bible Hill,” Siobhan, 33, said from Boynton Beach, Fla. “Bible Hill was always home for me; it left me with many wonderful memories. John and Grace Maccormack, my childhood best friends, lived next door to Charlie and Della Boyce, my grandparents. Grace and I would put signs in the window to communicate. We would also yell ‘Oreo’ and run to the window. That was our secret code word. I remember painting the Maccormack’s shed rainbow colours and we’d play Mario Kart and other games.

“I recall going on walks to Kennedy’s Variety Store and, magically, we’d sometimes end up at the barns at Truro Raceway. I would ask the men if I could pat the horses. Most times, their answer would be ‘no, they bite.’

"My Grammy would take us to the farm, the NSAC, and we would get to see the sheep, the cows, and the pigs. I have so many good memories of Bible Hill,”

During the spring of 2017, when she was in her late 20s, Siobhan received a post from a friend working at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. The post advised that Woodbine needed workers. Not pleased with her own employment, Siobhan decided to make a career change. Within two weeks, she switched from being a coffee server in Bras d'or, to being ‘a hot walker’ at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto.

Siobhan had to prove herself to become a groom (a caretaker of thoroughbred racehorses); this involved walking horses for 20 plus minutes after a race or after a training session. But, rising to the occasion and rising to report to work at 3.30 a.m. each morning, the spirited Cape Breton native soon became a groom, with five racehorses in her care.

Stabled primarily at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, for the winter, Siobhan is grooming at the Palm Meadows Training Centre, north of Fort Lauderdale.

Mighty Heart, his father was Dramedy, and his mother was Emma’s Bullseye, was a bay colt with a white stripe and three white socks. He was foaled April 5, 2017, coincidentally the same year Siobhan made the journey to Ontario to work with thoroughbreds. The breeder and owner was Larry Cordes. While only a few weeks old, Mighty Heart lost his left eye in a paddock accident.

He did not race as a twoyear-old and began his racing career as a three-year-old on Feb. 21, 2020, finishing fourth at the Fairgrounds Racecourse in New Orleans, La. In a second start at the Fair Grounds on March 21, he was bearing out badly on the turns and finished 10th. Not off to a great start in his racing career, the one-eyed horse was also plagued by a wolf tooth problem. Shipped to Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Josie Carroll became his trainer.

With her mother (Gwen) offering encouragement from back home, Siobhan gained thoroughbred knowledge and enjoyed a new and exciting life. But no one could have predicted what would follow when this young Nova Scotia girl became the groom for Mighty Heart. The chance assignment, or fate that brought a human and a horse together, led to ‘an amazing bond.’

Picture Siobhan and Willie (his nickname) standing face to face before a big race and her literally giving him a several minute pep talk, carefully instructing the thoroughbred as to what he should do and how he should race.

Gwen described it this way “it felt like an amazing fairy tale.”

Next week’s column “They are off and racing in the $1-million Queen’s Plate.”

Worth Repeating is a weekly column touching on stories from the past, life experiences, and events from the present day. If you have a column idea, contact Lyle at 902 673-2857.