1st Series Chronicles of a broke horse trainer "It's a Small World"

HorseN Around with Mister Ed – “IT'S A SMALL WORLD”

Anyone who has been in the horse world for a significant length of time is familiar with the concept that "the horse community is a small community". As a racehorse trainer at many small to medium sized tracks over a period of 17 years, I was always amazed at how many people in various parts of the country knew me, or at least knew of me, from other parts of the country. Usually, I had crossed paths with a friend or a friend of a friend somewhere who had occasion to at least mention my name in passing. I believe it was somewhere around 1988 (give or take a year or two) that Missouri was on the brink of establishing horse racing at a few locations under the stewardship of their relatively new gaming commission. The only recognized meet that I am aware of ("recognized" meaning that the results of these races were accepted by the Jockey Club of America as officially counting on the race record of any horses competing at the race meet) in Missouri was hosted by the Sedalia State Fairgrounds as probably some sort of a test, I guess. The meet had pari mutuel betting just like other tracks. There was even a "tote board" in the infield which displayed odds and payoffs in real time and the whole thing was a big deal to the state and especially to horsemen within the state. I was training a stable of 10-12 horses at Fairmount Park, Ill. The track is located in Collinsville, Ill. which is right across the river from St Louis. I was born and raised in Missouri and was extremely excited about actually getting to run in my home state. The haul was only about 200 miles so there was no way that I was not going to be running something there every one of the 4 weekends that the meet was scheduled to last. The only fly in the ointment was that the purses were so small that you could win a race and maybe still not cover your