I think I set a personal record this weekend. I went to Woodbine four times. I was there before 7 am saturday morning to hook up with Richard Dos Ramos. If you met “Dos’ for the first time, you’d have a hard time beleiving he’s been a jockey for almost 30 years. he doesn’t have that hollow, desperate, fleshless contour to his face that many jockeys who have been in the game that long tend to develop. Dos Ramos, who will be 47 has a strong handsome face with big dark eyes that seem to open wide to anyone engaging him in conversation.
Dos Ramos made a big splash in 1981 when he won the Sovereign Award as top apprentice jockey in this country, a feat he repeated the next year. I was a sports reporter with City-Tv at the time, using every possible excuse to do a story at the track and I coined the phrase, “Get rich and famous with Richard dos Ramos!”. Ok, not an award winner, but when I met him in barn 14 Saturday morning we were both amazed at the relentless passing of time and perhaps the fact that, more or less, we’re still doing the same thing. Except, as editor of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper, I don’t have to come up with excuses to go to the track for a story.
I was meeting with dos Ramos for two reasons. This saturday when the thoroughbreds return to Woodbine, Down The Stretch will be part of Community Day, in which many of the track’s partners interact with the fans. We have a table on the second floor and will be giving out many freebies, including signed covers of our paper. One of the covers will be the one featuring dos Ramos when he won the Breeders’ Stakes on Marlang. I had Richard sign 30 of them on saturday and not one to minimize an opportunity, I interviewed him and took some pictures. That story will appear in the next issue of Down The Stretch. One of the pictures i took was of his left hand. Many years ago he was on a horse that snapped a leg….11 of the 12 horses behind managed to run past him safely, but the final horse stepped on his hand, mashing his thumb quite badly. Apparently he had to beg the surgeon not to amputate it, so the doctor tried a ‘new’ technique and did in fact save the thumb.
Next saturday at Woodbine will be very busy for us. We’ll have those covers from Dos Ramos as well as signed covers from Paul MacDonell, driver of Somebeachsomewhere and if the special delivery system works quickly enough, I hope to have Chantal’s ink on some covers. She’s still riding in California.
Also this Saturday, we’re giving out pens with the Down The Stretch information printed. Associate Editor Eleanor LeBlanc has ordered purple ribbons, which stand for the fight against horse slaughter and we will dispense those to anyone making a donation; our intent is to give any money we raise to a horse ‘rescuer’ to perhaps help in the purchase of a horse from the slaughterhouse.
Woodbine is providing us with a limited number of programs to disperse as we see fit, and we also have printed copies of all the Perry and Mooch cartoons. I can only imagine the stampede of racing fans to our table to get one of those.
Make sure if you’re at the track on Saturday, you come to see us!
Oh by the way..the other three times at Woodbine – went back Staurday at noon to score a form, returned Saturday night to distribute copies of Down The Stretch in the harness paddock and was back before the simulcast doubles on Sunday…to ..uh..you know…bet.
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