HRA is saddened to pass along the loss of long time Trainer Floyd Arthur. The following story by Curtis Stock was originally published in 2002, and we are reposting it in honour of Floyd and his immense contribution to thoroughbred racing in Alberta.
Once a year they hold the Alberta Fall Classic program -- Northlands version of the Breeders' Cup -- and, at least once that afternoon trainer Floyd Arthur leads one of his charges into the winner's circle. See for yourself.
In 1997's inaugural Fall Classic, Arthur won the Distaff with Late Nite Martini, a wonderful mare that won seven stakes and horse-of-the-year honours that season.
A year later, Late Nite Martini won the Distaff again and Golden Remark won the Sturgeon River.
In 1999, Golden Remark won again -- this time in the Oaks.
Two years ago, Regal Eyre upset her favoured stablemate Northern Neechitoo in the Oaks. Last year, Northern Neechitoo got her revenge and won the Distaff while Reeyre spotted her field half a dozen lengths at the start and still rallied to win the Sturgeon River.
Five years of the Fall Classic; seven wins for Arthur. As good a bet as the sun coming up in the east. Just don't try telling that to Arthur, who will send out both Northern Neechitoo and Jiffyjimmygee in this afternoon's renewal.
"I've had too many things go wrong. Especially when you figure everything is just right," said the man now in his fifth decade at the racetrack where he has consistently been one of Alberta's top percentage trainers.
"You think everything is copacetic and that's when it all goes haywire."
Jiffyjimmygee may have his hands full in the two-year-old Premier's Futurity with Fuhr Ore getting the rail and coming off a smasher. But if you talk to the opposition, Northern Neechitoo figures to be way too tough for another run at the Distaff.
"If a couple of horses scratch and the ones left all go after Northern Neechitoo then, maybe, I've got a chance," said CD Cool's trainer Rick Hedge. "And that's not a very good maybe."
Not that this will come as any surprise given that Northern Neechitoo has won 10 of her 19 career starts, is undefeated in her lone two starts this year and taken seven of her last nine.
Yet, Northern Neechitoo has what has sometimes been a fatal flaw -- her occasional reluctance to leave the starting gate.
"About the only times she has lost is when she comes out sideways," said Arthur. "It's like a sprinter that doesn't get set in the blocks and misses the gun. Sometimes she misses the break."
Twice that happened to Northern Neechitoo last year. Otherwise, she probably would be riding a nine-race winning streak into the Distaff. In the City of Edmonton she lunged at the break and couldn't regroup in time; in the John Patrick she broke in the air, hit the side of the gate and lost all chance.
"That's why they run races on dirt and not on paper," said Arthur.
He should know. Having won just about every stakes race in the province except for the big one, the Canadian Derby, Arthur seemed poised to break through several times only to have tragedy slap him in the face.
In 1992, Arthur had pointed Jet Bent to the Derby -- a horse that had finished worse than second in only one of his 11 starts. But, a couple of weeks before the Derby, Jet Bent broke down after winning the Western Canada.
Similar fates befell both Jimmy Dancer, who shattered a cannon bone, and Akure for Luv, who broke a bone in his foot before both of them could get to the Derby.
But the one that probably hurt the worst was The Greek Con, a horse Arthur carried a picture of in his wallet for years after the horse had to be put down after shattering bones in his ankles two weeks before the 1985 Canadian Derby.
"And people wonder why I'm always so hyper," said Arthur. "Those are four reasons why.
"It's the nature of the game. It can drive you crazy. I was going to write a book once and call it How I Fell on My Butt in 30 Days," he said of a month back in the 1960s when he was just getting started in the business.
"I had a horse named Nagnac that was my bread and butter horse. I took him to Phoenix in the winter and somebody claimed him. I used that money to claim another horse that turned out to be no good at all. In between that I got married and that didn't work out too well either."
Of course, there's been plenty of good to relish in too. Like Devoted Brass, who went on to win the San Rafael at Santa Anita and the Swaps stakes at Hollywood Park, California. Or Tiny Boots, who won seven races in a row; Lady Alta, who won the Madamoiselle stakes four years in a row; I Want Fifty Three, Kirathimo, The Bagel Princess and so many others.
"A lot of horses that made me proud," he said.
Now, he's got two more chances to smile this afternoon -- with Jiffyjimmygee, who has won two of three starts including the Sales stake in his last appearance, and Northern Neechitoo.
"I don't know what it is about the Fall Classic but it has certainly been good to me. I guess, in a way, I zero in for that day. That's certainly the case with Northern Neechitoo," Arthur said of the five-year-old chestnut that didn't get to the races this year until August.
"Our main goal all along has been the Fall Classic," Arthur said. "She's coming into this race as good as she's come into any of her races. But, like I said, too many things can go wrong.
"When she goes into the starting gate I'll be nervous.
"Then again, the day I don't feel that flutter in my gut before any race I'm entered in, it will be time to find something else to do."
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