Story by Jennifer Morrison
As he jumped off his final mount of 2020 at Ajax Downs, Quarter Horse jockey Ed Walton could feel waves of emotion taking over as he accepted congratulations for winning his first ever rider's title.
It would be hard not to get caught up in the all the feels as the 57-year-old thanked the owners and trainers of Ajax Downs in his final post-race interview of the season.
Walton, whose mother Sharon, his biggest fan and major league Quarter Horse groupie, had recently passed away, a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic that had taken hold of the world.
But Mrs. Walton was very aware throughout 2020 that her son was leading the riders’ standings throughout a shortened Ajax season and you know she was proud.
Walton won a career high 35 races in just 21 racing days and held off a furious finish by rival Cory Spataro to take the title. His mounts, which included stakes stars such as Ecs Greys Anatomy, Twixt of Fate, Fiesty Icon, Hanover Hill Chalsee and the great Country Boy 123, earned over $457,000 and collected a meet leading 356 QROOI points.
Walton also entered the record books as the rider of Carneros, who set a world record for 110 yards on June 16 of 6.770.
“It really just worked out well all year,” said Walton in late January from his cottage on Lake Temagami. “I got to ride for great outfits, Rick Kennedy, Michelle Woodley, Jason Pascoe and Ruth Barbour and I felt great physically all year.”
Early days
The Brampton-born Walton, who is very tall for a jockey at 5' 11,” Walton rode in his first Quarter Horse race some 37 years ago following in the boot-steps of his uncle Rick Radley who took his teenaged nephew to Picov Downs every weekend. Walton fell in love with Quarter Horse racing and at the tender age of 16 he was small and light, perfect for a jockey.
That all changed in one year when he shot up to near six feet tall. He elected to begin working with Thoroughbreds at Woodbine, starting as a hotwalker and groom.
“I learned to ride from Danny and Kelly O'Callaghan at their farm when I was 19,” said Walton. “I worked at Woodbine as a hotwalker and I really wanted to start exercising horses.”
O'Callaghan suggested Walton wasn't ready just yet so the young rider headed to Picov Downs to gallop Quarter Horses.
“Oh boy, I wasn't ready at all,” Walton laughs. “Horses were running off with me, falling over with me.”
It was back to Woodbine and he worked for top trainer Donnie Walker where he perfected skills as a rider and he returned to Ajax in the early 1980s to ride in his first race.
His first victory was memorable as his horse was placed first when the winner, ridden by his Uncle Rick, was disqualified.
Walton's years of riding Thoroughbreds helped him master his seat on a horse; the lower a jockey can get the better.
"When I would ride horses around the turn at Woodbine, the sun would shine in a way I could see my shadow. That would help me work on getting low in the saddle."
Despite competing in a jocks’ room filled with Woodbine Thoroughbred riders the likes of Wayne Green, Walton won his share of races in his first 10 years at Picov. Among his first clients was owner and trainer Rick Kennedy, whom he still rides for today.
Working on the railroad
By 1994, Walton was married - he met Lynette at one of the farm's he used to gallop at - and the couple started a family. Walton decided to leave horse racing.
"My dad was working at the railroad so he got me a job. It gave our family stability and I had summers off and got to spend a lot of time with the kids."
The Waltons had daughters Jessica and Nikki and later adopted TJ, who is challenged by Down's Syndrome.
It was Nikki who lured Ed back into riding horses when she mentioned that she had never seen him racing. Ed took her up on it but after a decade of working the railroad, he weighed 182 pounds, hardly jockey weight.
So, Walton jogged and rode and opened a training centre with Lynette in Dundalk, a business that took off to the point where there were as many as 80 horses on the property and staff had to be hired.
"It was really good but it started to get too big. We had the kids working in the barns, everyone was working so hard it became too much."
After a 14-year hiatus, Walton returned to Picov Downs for that track's final racing season. A new track, Ajax Downs, opened the following year in 2009.
"The slots-at-racetracks partner program with the province had started and the purse money was really good. A new track was built and I just love riding Quarter Horses so much."
In his first year back in the saddle, Walton won a career best 27 races and his horses earned $379,000; as a comparison, when he won 22 races in 1991 the purse earnings totalled $17,000.
Race-riding can be a fickle game and while Walton was one of the track's top riders, luck was not on his side in 2010. He started the year 0-for-100 and ended that season with just two victories. Walton rode sporadically through the next several years, battling his diet and low motivation while selling the farm and moving to a home in Flesherton where they live now.
Photo by John Watkins
Business picks up
It was in 2014, having joined forces with young, up and coming trainer Jason Pascoe that business picked up. He rode Pascoe's Steakshagginwagon to a Horse of the Year title in 2014 and went to Pascoe's new winter location in Oklahoma before the 2017 season. But just three weeks into training there, Walton fell from a bolting horse and broke his hip. He had surgery in the U.S. and travelled home where his own doctor told him he was probably done riding for good.
Ah, but we know how those stories go when it comes to riding horses; Walton was back in action by the time Ajax Downs started. Unfortunately, the following year he suffered a broken wrist in the summer and missed half the season.
Walton persevered and with a fresh new diet and plenty of horses to choose from, he was eager to get 2020 underway. But when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down and postponed racing, Walton was one of thousands of horsepeople who did not know if there would be racing at all.
“I was getting on horses for Michelle Woodley and [former leading Ajax rider] John McInerney in February but when everything started shutting down, we stopped training them for a few weeks.”
Woodley and McInerney had a selection of mostly American-bred horses which opened up Ontario bred mounts for Walton, those coming from Kennedy. He also began his second full season riding 3-time Horse of the Year Country Boy 123 who reeled off four straights wins in 2020.
Walton won't be resting on his laurels when the 2021 season begins at Ajax in May. Currently he spends the winter running a new business with Lynette, a franchise store called Alpha Dog Raw, which sells raw dog food, in North Bay. He expects to begin exercising horses in mid February.
“The year was amazing,” said Walton. “Some days I rode all 10 races. I was a little sore by the end of the day but it was so much fun. I can't wait to get going again.”
Main photo by John Loper
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