The View
from the back side
Racetrackers by BARRY DENTON ome of my fondest memories of the race track are the cast of characters I met. Many of them had been in the race horse business all of their life and others were just passing through. You met people from all backgrounds and ethnicities. If I stop and think about it I guess my clientele was a miniature United Nations. One day I started making a list of where many of them had come from and it was
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quite fascinating. There were the usual doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. Then if you add some Arabian sheiks, Russian oilmen, heads of state, politicians, a railroad magnate, a large retailer, Hollywood folks, and a few New York Jews you had a pretty interesting mix. Can you imagine having them all at the same party? Thankfully you deal with the trainer most of the time, but many times the owners love to check out who they are sending checks to on a regular basis. Many of the owners I got to know very well over the years and I learned so much by talking with them. You have to be bright to be successful and these folks were special. I always appreciated my owners and went the extra mile for them. As interesting as the owners were I was always even more fascinated by the everyday guy or gal that worked at the track. Many of the other farriers I worked with were very colorful . I remember I went to Chicago to work on a horse and met a most interesting African American farrier. His name was Lightning and I never did know his real name. Maybe he didn’t have one, which wasn’t uncommon in those days. Lightning was in his forties and proba-
bly six foot tall and about eighteen inches wide. He was truly the narrowest individual I have seen to this day. He was a little tall to be a farrier and probably weighed about 130 pounds. When I first saw him I thought he was malnourished or had a tape worm. Lightning was actually very healthy and had a large client base. People liked him as he had a very easy going manner with horses and people alike. However, the most amazing thing about him was that when he walked somewhere he always had a horse rasp in his hand. As he walked along he would flip the rasp back over his shoulder and bounce it off his boot heel. The rasp would flip back over the shoulder and land in his hand every time. I have never seen anyone else do this. Of course, all of us horseshoers would try it and incur a multitude of bruises. Lightning did this without thinking about it as he walked along. I didn’t go to Chicago often, but every time I was there I always marveled at Lightning and his antics. Andre Delonpres was a Frenchman through and through. He spoke with a continued on page 49
TFY
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New 4,800 Head Capacity
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APRIL 2014