2nd Series Chronicles of a broke horse trainer "Charlie and Beaner"

CHARLIE AND BEANER

In the horse world, and especially in the horse racing world, the groom is an integral part of any success attained by the stable. In fact, at the larger tracks and in the large, more successful operations being a groom is considered a profession and the good grooms command a great amount of respect. At the small to medium sized tracks, grooms tend to be a steppingstone job or a pickup job in route to some other profession. This isn’t always the case though. There are those grooms who prefer to not be tied down and tend to wander from track to track and from trainer to trainer. Such is the case with Charlie. I met Charlie in 1988 at an old racetrack in Illinois called Cahokia Downs. At one time this was a highly regarded track which was eventually replaced by Fairmont Park in nearby Collinsville, IL. Fairmont retained ownership of Cahokia and used it as an overflow track for stabling and a training track in the off season. For those of us based out of Fairmont Park, we would stable on the main track with most of our horses and usually have a few overflow horses on Cahokia. Fairmont ran from early April through October so if you chose to stay through the winter, all your horses had to go home for the winter or move to Cahokia. Cahokia was not the most comfortable training facility since all the buildings were old cinder block buildings. It tended to feel a lot colder inside than outside on a cold winter’s day. The day I met Charlie was one of those days! I had about six horses on Cahokia Downs in mid-December on one of those days when you spend most of your time breaking out frozen water buckets to keep fresh water in front of your horses. I was on about my third trip to the barn when I was approached by a scruffy looking little old guy with a noticeable limp and a desperate plea of “would you happen to have any work?” Since there was virtually nobody around the barns who didn’t have to be there in this kind of weather, my first questio n was “ W here in the world did you come from?” He proceeded to explain that him and a baby kitten he had found half frozen were living in one of the 10 x 10 cinder block rooms in the old jockey’s quarters. They were existing with some old horse blankets that served as both pillow and blanket on an old army cot. Their cooking utensils consisted of one crock pot, a couple of big spoons and whatever they could find for a bowl. Since buying cat food would have been considered a luxury on Charlie’s budget, the ba by kitten