By Chris Lomon / @ChrisLomon
As she walked the sturdy one-eyed colt over to the Woodbine paddock for the biggest race of his life,
Siobhan Brown, almost every step of the way, patted the bay known as “Willy” and whispered words of encouragement.
“Everyone thinks I’m crazy,” started the groom who has worked in the barn of Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame trainer Josie Carroll for the past three years. “I pep talk my horses all the way through their races – from the time they leave their stall to the moment they break from the gate.”
The walk from Barn 39 to the paddock on September 12 was different than any other trek Brown had taken in her horse racing life.
But nothing, not a one-eyed horse, not a $1 million purse, not contesting the iconic Queen’s Plate, and certainly not the odds suggesting a victory was a longshot, was going to alter the pre-race gameplan Brown always employs.
“Renee [Dockstader] helped me bring Mighty Heart over. She had prepared [Mighty Heart owner] Larry Cordes’ two other horses, so it was really special for me to have her come over. We’ve bonded through his horses, so to have both of his grooms bringing his Plate horse over was amazing. When we were walking through the tunnel – we were going so slowly – Renee kept saying, ‘We’ve got to hurry up!’ And I said, ‘No… this is his speed and we’re not going to run the race before we get there.’”
As the trio continued their journey to the paddock, Brown readied the three-year-old Ontario-bred, making his stakes debut, for what was waiting.
“I said, ‘Willy, there are going to be a lot of cameras. There is going to be a lot of excitement. I know you’re ready to go, but you need to listen to your jockey. You’re going to go in the gate, you’re going to get a clean break, and you’re going to listen Daisuke [rider, Fukumoto]. You’re going to find a good spot early and when you come home, you just go, buddy.’”
The Nova Scotia native didn’t know just how prophetic her words would be.
But there were still other matters at hand before track announcer Robert Geller would send the horses on their way.
Brown was ready for all of it.
“We were in the paddock and Mighty Heart gets a little stressed out when he hears the voices of people that he knows. He got excited and we calmed him down. Everyone in our group had gone outside to the walking ring, and we were walking him around the paddock, telling him it wasn’t time for him to go outside yet. Every time we’d go by and he’d see outside, he thought it was time to go.”
Photo by Mr. Will Wong
Carroll, who won the 2006 Plate with Edenwold and the 2011 running with the filly Inglorious, legged-up Fukumoto as Brown made her way to the grandstand to the spot she always stands in whenever a horse of hers runs.
“Go get ‘em, Willy,” Brown said as he disappeared from her sight.
The next time she saw Mighty Heart was moments later in post parade.
His body language spoke volumes to Brown. She liked what she was seeing.
Photo by Mr. Will Wong
“He looked amped up. He looked fantastic. I walked back over to my usual spot by the stairs, well back from the fence, and just past the finish line. I was nervous. It seemed like forever in the minutes before they went into the gate.”
Brown exhaled as the 14 horses began their journey over the Woodbine Tapeta.
When the field passed the wire for the first time, Fukumoto, in his first Queen’s Plate, had guided 13-1 Mighty Heart from post 13 to the rail and to the front.
Looking at the tote board and seeing the brisk early fractions, a quarter-mile in :23.57 and a half in :47.61, Brown became concerned.
At least she was for a moment.
“I thought, ‘What are you doing in the lead, buddy? It’s a long race.’ When the cameras zoomed in on him in the backstretch, I could see Daisuke wasn’t pulling to hold him back, but he wasn’t pushing him either. I thought they looked good. They looked relaxed.”
But there was still plenty of ground to travel.
Around the turn for home, Mighty Heart’s rivals came calling to his inside and outside.
“They were starting to catch up and I thought, ‘Oh, no.’ Too many times, your horse is in the lead and they end up getting caught.”
Despite not being able to see them, Mighty Heart heard them, and braced for the challenge of his much more seasoned foes, ready to test his mettle against more highly regarded contemporaries.
For the woman who had requested to be his groom this year, it was a mix of nerves, excitement and crossed fingers as the real running began.
As the son of Dramedy shifted into another gear after leading nearly every step of the way in the 1 ¼-mile Canadian classic, Brown, tears streaming down her cheeks, put her arms out and shouted, ‘Run to me, Willy.’
Mighty Heart crossed the wire a 7 ¾-length winner in a time of 2:01.98, the second fastest Plate run since 1957.
Photo by Mr. Will Wong
“I just lost it. I just cried and cried. I was so excited. There is a video of me and I sound like a wounded seagull at a fast food restaurant. I’ve never hit an octave so high in my life. I must have yelled “Willy” a hundred times. I couldn’t get anything else out. My knees buckled and down I went. I got back up. I never thought I’d ever have a horse in the Queen’s Plate let alone win it.”
When Brown was finally reunited with Mighty Heart in the winner’s circle, she reached up, gave him a hug and said, “I knew you could do it, Willy.”
In the aftermath of the Plate triumph, it wasn’t non-stop elation for the horse’s connections, Brown included.
There was still work to be done.
“It’s still kind of surreal. After the race, it was amazing. People were coming to the barn and taking pictures. Then it hits you… we did it. I thought to myself, ‘Siobhan, you are so stupid.’ I had changed out of my nice Plate clothes for a baggy t-shirt, so I could get my work done. I had him run in the Plate and then we had two horses run in the race after. You wanted to celebrate, but we had business to do.”
Just like Brown did the next morning.
“I got about two hours sleep Saturday night because I was so excited that I couldn’t fall asleep. I got up at 2:30 on Sunday morning and went to the barn for another race we had that day. I had to put the day before on the back burner and focus on getting the job done again.”
Thankfully, she’s had plenty of reminders of the big moment in the days and weeks following.
While the tears have stopped, Brown, even if she’s not always aware of it, is still sporting a wide smile.
Photo by John Watkins
“I come back down to earth, trying to treat it like any other race, then someone mentions it, and I start glowing all over again. Probably one of my favourite moments was when Josie was giving Daisuke the leg-up for the race, and the horse moved right into him. I had to hold the horse steady, and I thought, ‘Are you trying to be like the horse [Authentic] from the Kentucky Derby and knock everybody over?’ I’m glad he didn’t.”
Mighty Heart was simply content to bowl over his Plate competition.
The signature victory thrust the horse into the spotlight, at Woodbine and beyond.
Brown, who began working as a groom in 2016, was recently interviewed by CBC News Nova Scotia, an opportunity for her to share recollections of a horse racing fairytale come true.
But there’s much more to the story than just a one-eyed horse winning the longest continually run race in North America.
“My aunt, Helen, had passed away, and that’s why I moved out here to Toronto. People will always tell me that she’s watching over me. Leading up to the race, I was having all of these weird signs. I’m not one to believe in that, but a little part of me does. I was filling the horses’ water buckets and I thought I saw a piece of hay floating in one of the buckets. I went to scoop it up and throw it away, but it stuck to my finger. I let out a scream when I realized it was a praying mantis. I grabbed a towel and picked it up.
“I went home and did a Google search – I had put him on the grass – and some people say it’s a sign of good luck because the mantis is praying. I said, ‘I’ll take it.’ It was only the second time I had seen one in my life. The day of the race, I had gone outside to talk with two other grooms, and one of them told me to hold still. There was an eyelash on my face and she told me I had to make a wish. They told me they knew what it was, but not to say it out loud. So, I said it in my head. And the wish came true.”
The number of people on the Woodbine backstretch coming to Barn 39 has wound down over the past couple of days.
Whether he’s alone or with others at his side, Brown believes Mighty Heart might have some measure of what he accomplished.
“I think so. He’s so funny. He has so much personality. When people walk by and call to him, you can tell how much he likes it. He’s easy to love. I’m so glad I asked Josie that I could be his groom. His other groom didn’t come back this year, so I was able to take him. I love his personality… there’s just something about him, and I think everyone that’s come to congratulate him also sees that.”
Brown is hoping people unfamiliar with horse racing might see it too.
“This is a story that shines a positive light on our industry, the sport that so many of us love. From the outside looking in, there is some negativity associated with it. But, we love our horses. We love when they win, but it’s about so much more than that. This horse, he is a perfect example of what makes racing wonderful. He beat the odds in so many ways and he’s found a new following. People love those underdog stories and he is one of them. He’s a horse that people enjoying talking about.”
Photo by Mr. Will Wong
Mighty Heart is also a horse that seems to appreciate a good pep talk, even if he doesn’t hear every word.
“He couldn’t hear me when he was getting close to the finish in the Plate, but I told him, ‘Run to me, Willy.’ And I like to think that’s exactly what he did.”
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