(Linda Rainey and trotter N V Whatatrotter)
by Dave Briggs
N V Whatatrotter never made it to the racetrack, but the Worthy Bowl trotter out of Ingas Girl had an indelible impact on Linda Rainey, the managing director of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
“He was the horse that I was able to show at the Royal Winter Fair,” Rainey said of competing with the trotter several times in the Ladies Road Class, beginning in 2009.
“Showing at the Royal is a little surreal,” she said. “Going down the chute into the ring it’s lit almost theatrically as you enter the ring. To be showing in a space that you’ve admired your entire life and a place where you’ve watched friends go in and show, to be able to do that with a capacity crowd cheering as you’re in there with 10 or 11 other horses is pretty cool.”
N V Whatatrotter originally was a $33,000 yearling sold at the 1993 Canadian Classic Yearling sale.
“He had an injury early on and had never really made it to the track, but he was a handsome boy that could trot a ring and had a really long show career. We just retired him last year,” Rainey said. “I didn’t own him, but some really good friends that show, did and gave me the opportunity to show, which is kind of cool… His barn name was Glen and Glen had been in that ring many times and could likely do the class without me or without anybody. He was just a good, old reliable horse.”
“Growing up, there were show horses that my dad had raced a little bit and you had those experiences of going around the track for the first time and driving a particular horse on your own, at home. That was always a fond memory, as well. Much more on the show horse side than the racehorse side.”
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