When horses get ready to run the most exciting two minutes in sports on Saturday, Thunder Bay’s Claire Powell will be one of very few people allowed near them.
That’s because she’s been helping train Prospective, one of 20 thoroughbreds racing in the 138th annual Kentucky Derby. Holding onto his side, Powell will walk with the horse as more than 50,000 fans hold their breath at Churchill Downs.
“Nobody else really gets that view of the grandstand and all the fans unless you’re walking from the backstretch across the track,” Powell said on the phone from Louisville where a two-week festival is raging before the weekend’s main event.
But as assistant trainer to Mark Casse, Powell has been too busy getting Prospective, who’s running out of the 12 spot, ready for the most important 1 1/4 mile of his three-year-old life to enjoy the festivities. Although the horse has 30-1 odds, Powell said he’s been turning heads at the track.
“We’re going to go off on a long shot but long shots win the Kentucky derby all the time… I know the size of his heart he’s going to run the race of his life on Saturday, I guarantee it,” said Powell who speaks of the horse she’s spent the last year-and-a-half of her life with as if he’s human.
“He looks fantastic. I like the way he's training, and he certainly looks the part (of a champion)."
Powell, who now lives in Florida, started her career in Thunder Bay although she didn’t know it at the time. She spent more than 15 years riding horses just outside of the city before moving to Southern Ontario for university. Although she said her academic career didn’t turn out too well, she lucked her way into a job at Windfields Farm.
The home of Northern Dancer, the most famous and successful sire in horse racing, Powell said she was amazed that people were willing to teach her everything about horses from training them to helping them give birth.
“It’s just crazy that people pay you good money to do what you love,” she said.
Windfields led her to Woodbine Racetrack, where she met her current boss Mark Casse. And that’s how she met Prospective.
Because he’s been running so well with Powell’s help, including two first place finishes in the past year, the crew doesn’t want to change anything in Prospective’s routine before a race. That means she’ll be right beside him on race day. Powell said she’s just happy her boss has the chance to get a horse he’s trained into the most famous of the Triple Crown races.
“The Kentucky derby to a horse trainer who’s done nothing but train horses his entire life is the Stanley Cup. There’s no greater race in the world,” she said.
Powell is also grateful to Prospective himself.
“He’s the one that’s gotten us this far and let us experience the Kentucky Derby on a level where we’re participating and not just spectators.”
So how do you prepare a horse for the biggest race of his life? Powell said the key is to stay calm yourself and pretend it’s just another race. For Prospective, he likes to eat a bit and have a nap before getting his shot of Lasix, which reduces the chance a horse will bleed when running at such high speeds.
“You have to stay calm for the horse. We can’t get nervous or he’ll get nervous,” she said.
The Kentucky Derby runs Saturday at 6:24 p.m.
