(PHOTO - The remarkable CAM FELLA was completing his racing career with 28 straight wins when Cliff Quan met him in 1983)
Cliff Quan is in his fourth year at Ajax Downs as clerk of scales and he says working with the track’s staff has been a rewarding experience.
“They try so hard for their sport,” said Quan. “They are super people who want to make Quarter Horse racing great.”
Quan has worked in all three racing breeds in Ontario and shares his Quarter Horse duties these days with his job at Woodbine racetrack where he has been a clocker for many years.
Meanwhile, it was on the Standardbred side of horse racing that led Quan to his place in the industry some 30 years ago which is unusual since the South African-born Quan had never seen, or heard of, Standardbred racing.
“There isn’t any Standardbred racing in South Africa,” said Quan, who lives in Mississauga, ON. “I started to work in the sporting goods with Norm Clements and at the time, he owned a horse named Cam Fella.”
Whoa.
Not just ‘a horse’. Cam Fella was ‘the’ horse in Canada in the early 1980s, becoming the richest Standardbred ever, a multiple champion and winner of 61 races from 80 starts. He ended his career at Greenwood racetrack in 1983 winning his 28
th straight race.
“Cam Fells was winning the last couple of races of his career when I started with Norm,” said Quan. “He drew me towards the horse racing industry, I got hooked.”
Quan became immersed in Thoroughbred racing and had a ‘Cam Fella’ moment with one of his early favourites in that sport, Prospective Dolly. A fleet chestnut filly trained by Tony Mattine, ‘Dolly’ furthered Quan’s love for horse racing.
He can now say that he has had important moments in his life in all three breeds of racing in Ontario, moments that began long ago with one particular fella.
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