I became friendly with Pete, the 2nd trainer, so he invited me to ride from Detroit to Lexington in his car rather than the back of the Brook Ledge truck. It was nice to have someone to talk to on the road, and not have horses blowing their noses all over me as I slept in the lawn chair in front of them. He was telling me about the drama in his life(that he created), and I already sort of knew the other side of the story since I'd already met his girlfriend in Syracuse. We pulled into Lexington and she was sitting in the front of the barn just giving him the evil eye! They say paybacks are a bitch, and she payed him back for his unfaithfulness right under his nose in Kentucky that fall. There was a Swedish playboy named Mickey that she used and abused under Peters nose just to make him jealous. I don't know how long she tortured Peter for before they finally worked it out, but, they wound up getting married and I think they are still together now.
Back in those days the grooms slept in front of the horses most of the time when they were on the road. We did in Lexington until the nights got too chilly, then we all bunked together in a tack room at the end of the barn. We had a motley bunch working there, and one guy in particular was extra crazy! His name was Bruce Mossy and I think he had been in Vietnam, but, who knows he was so full of BS. Anyway, there were beds all around the perimeter of the room and a bunch of us on the floor in sleeping bags one night when at about 2am the cops were knocking on the door with their billy clubs. Apparently, Bruce had been arguing with his wife on the pay phone(I think she was dumping him, can't figure out why!) and ripped a whole row of phones off the wall. I don't know if he was thrown in jail or not, but, I never remember seeing him again.
There truly is no place in racing like Lexington in the fall! Back then there were a lot of guys time trialling horses to try and improve the lifetime mark or just get a record on one for breeding purposes. That was fun to watch with Fred Bach and his thoroughbred prompters galloping with jog carts next to and behind the horse that was time trialling. The atmosphere is second to none, with all the great drivers, trainers, and horses going at it during the day, and then a non stop party after the work is done! Glen had a large RV as did many of the top trainers, and he had a little MG that he towed behind it. Some of his assistant trainers were given a Cadillac to drive, and everything was spotless...first class all the way!
It was also in Lexington that I met 2 people who are still my good friends to this day. Dave (Junior) Sabatelli and Jimmy Campbell. Dave was a groom there and we wound up sharing a room in Pompano that winter. Jimmy was Glens other assistant trainer who had been racing the horses in the Canadian operation during the summer. Junior and I would go the extra mile around the barn and the trainers all noticed that. Glen even started to like me after our less than smooth introduction in Detroit.
Meanwhile things for my friend John Hafford were not going so well. Glen sent him to Florida while we were still in Lexington to start breaking some colts. There was a $250,000 colt named Trident Almahurst that they were trying to get harnessed up for the first time. John, being scared of a horse was standing outside his stall with the longe line while a groom was fighting with the horse trying to get his girth on. The horse reared, Hafford yanked the line, and the horse wound up hanging over the stall gate by his stifles for quite a while until they could cut the gate down. That was the end of Johns career in the Garnsey Stable and I can't say I shed many tears over that!
Glen got me to drive his Caddy to Florida from Lexington, while another groom, Rob, drove the big RV. That was a fun trip; we had CB radios in the vehicles and made up funny handles and bs'd with the truckers on the drive down through.
We arrived at the South Florida Trotting Center and it was so freeking hot and muggy that it took me several days to acclimate! There were millions of mosquitoes, and the water stunk like sulfer..outside of that the place was great! The beer in the track kitchen was only 25 cents on Monday nights, so we used to have "chug a lug" contests. I'd win a few heats, then get too full and have to go vomit. After that I'd win the next few heats and so on...the walk back to the dorm was the hard part! After a few weeks at the Trotting Center, Jimmy and Glen decided to have me sent to Pompano to work under his shedrow. That's where I moved into the end of the barn with Junior and many memories were created that I'll write about tomorrow...
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