Canadian and U.S. Hall of Famer Ray Remmen said he likely never would have left Saskatchewan to find fame at the Meadowlands Racetrack if it wasn’t for stallion Adios Pick, one of the greatest sires to ever come out of Western Canada.
It was Remmen’s grandfather, Art Hunter, who traveled from Saskatchewan to the Harrisburg Mixed Salle with Dr. Brad Gunn in 1960 to purchase Adios Pick after an injury prematurely ended the stallion’s racing career.
“Adios Pick’s progeny started racing when I was 16 and that really, really helped my career. He bred a lot of cheap mares and came up with a lot of good horses,” said Remmen who won the Western Canada Pacing Derby four times in an era when Adios Pick dominated the pedigrees in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.
“He saved us, me and my grandfather, otherwise we would still be out there,” said Remmen, who was named in honor of his uncle, Ray Hunter, who was shot down during a mission over the Mediterranean in 1943 while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II.
Remmen started going to the track at age four and by age eight was already jogging his grandfather’s horses. In 1963, at the age of 16, he received his driving permit. A year later, he won his first Western Canada Pacing Derby with Chunky Mohawk and he and his grandfather took a load of horses to race in Phoenix, AZ.
“When Phoenix closed we went to Windsor Raceway because we were broke. We raced at Mohawk and went to Buffalo and Batavia. Our horses were no good at all,” Remmen said.
Returning to the prairies, Remmen quickly made a mark driving Adios Pick offspring, which led to another foray east, this time to stay. He settled near the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey and won the very first race at the track with Quick Baron in 1976. He also won the first Hambletonian at the Meadowlands with Shiaway St Pat in 1981 and became one of the most successful trainers in the track’s history.
But without Adios Pick, Ray Remmen may never have made it out of Western Canada.
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