Beautiful weather and beautiful races highlighted Father's Day weekend at Rocky Mountain Turf Club. Large crowds were on hand for both days, with Sunday creating the best handle in ten years at RMTC. At the end of the day, I'm not sure it was possible to wipe the grin off CEO Max Gibb's face.
There were two Quarter Horse stakes on Saturday and one Thoroughbred stakes.
The first Quarter Horse Stake race was the 660 yard Whoop-Up Classic where veteran, "Free Thought" once again showed all why he is considered one of the best Quarter Horses in the area. The William Leech trained horse, with Ricardo Moreno on board picked up a convincing victory. Second place went to Allison Clapton's, "CR Cruisin for Chicks, ridden by Jose Rocha.
The second Quarter Horse Stake Race was the Oldtimers Classic, where Leech again showed his dominance with a victory for, "Stripsteak", again ridden by Ricardo Moreno. Tom Kenway's entry of "Honor the Fast Man", with Scott Sterr making his return to the irons, was a game second.
The Thoroughbred Stake was the Filly and Mare Spring Sprint, going 5 1/2 furlongs and Lyle Magnuson's, "Sterling Aly" once again bettered the Garry Marks trained, "Lady Amelia". These are two of the best mares on the grounds, and once again they displayed their class.
The large crowd in attendance on Father's Day were treated to two Stakes Races. First off was the Quarter Horse All Canadian Futurity featuring six first-time-starters and once again William Leech teamed up with jockey, Ricardo Moreno to pick up the victory on, "Clear to See", plus Leech also had second place honors with, "Light Footed", with the veteran Scott Sterr aboard.
The Thoroughbred Stake was the open Spring Spring and Jaqueline Smith's beloved veteran, "Cantchaco", once again came through for her picking up the victory easily. Allan Brown picked up second place with longshot, "Mandella Fever", ridden by Nicholas Patrick. Needless to say, it was a wonderful weekend at R.M.T.C.
In comparison to the veteran trainers at Rocky Mountain Turf Club ( some would say grizzled), Colten Mead looks like he might be thirteen years old. In reality, Colten is in his early twenties and has aspirations of making a lifelong career out of training race horses.
Colten is the son of Brad Mead, who has trained horses at Rocky Mountain Turf Club for the past few years, and has now turned the primary training duties over to Colten. Colten says his first exposure to horses was the day he was born and he has had a love for the beautiful animals ever since. Colten first got into the horse racing game five years ago His dad, along with Alan Brown, claimed a horse and Colten's life was about to change in a big way. Colten became an assistant trainer for his father, who then claimed," Ma's Miracle Run", along with a few other horses. Two years later, "Ma's Miracle Run", became Colten's first lifetime win as a trainer earlier this year. Colten is currently training eight horses, two quarter horses and six thoroughbreds. Ben Wiebe owns both the quarter horses that Colten trains.
Colten is learning there is a lot more work as the trainer than the assistant trainer. That being said, he still wants to pick up two or three more horses this year.
Colten plans on spending the winter at a race track in either Nebraska or Oregon and then return to Alberta for the spring.
Colten says long days and short nights will not deter him from his aspirations of being a year-round full-time trainer. He admits there have been a few moments in his mind when he starts to wonder if it's worth it, but then he has a win and everything is beautiful again.
When asked what advice he would give to someone thinking of training race horses, Colten says to be prepared for lots of work, long days and short nights thinking about what more you can do for your horses. He loves every second of it.