Hi this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
How superstitious are you ? And to what lengths will you go to in order not to jinx a sequence of good fortune ?
I think of this today in the aftermath of the Ontario Sire Stakes Super Final at Woodbine Mohawk Park last Saturday.
Pemberton, a 3 year old trotter trained by Paul Walker of Owen Sound and owned by his wife, Brenda & their daughter, Christine, was having a spectacular season, having won 7 times on the year including a handful of Gold Series events through the race season.
There were a lot of factors for Pemberton’s success, maybe not the least of which was a ritual two of the Walker grandchildren conducted.
In a year of COVID-19 restrictions when attendance at Ontario race tracks was limited, Austin and Amelia didn’t have the opportunity to see Pemberton race live.
Instead, the two youngsters would regularly head to the milk house at the dairy farm on race days and watch Pemberton compete on a computer screen, religiously sitting in the same specific seats for each and every race.
Last Saturday they broke tradition and headed to Woodbine Mohawk Park for the $ 250,000 Final, quite likely with a touch of concern that maybe, just maybe, they might create a negative impact for Pemberton.
The break in superstition turned out to be a non-factor as driver Trevor Henry took Pemberton to the victory in a blazing time of 1:52 & 4, pushing Pemberton’s winnings this season to well over the $ 300,000 mark.
They say you should never mess with a streak, never get off a winning horse so to speak, but the photo from the winner’s circle with two masked, but I’m sure smiling underneath Walker grandchildren, proves that belief in a super horse is better than belief in the supernatural.
I’m Fred Wallace