3 Burst results for "Dan Bella"
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan bella" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"10,000 people at the races on weekends. It was everything was jammed. And yeah, there was a lot of. The character and the ambiance to it was fantastic. Yeah, there are so many characters in this sport. It's what truly does make the sport special. And like you said, 50 years ago, things were totally different. The sport, the popularity of the sport was different. And the characters haven't changed, but I don't know if we have the same type of vibe when it comes to the characters in the sport of racing that we used to. Do you? I think that's true with every sport, but especially with horse racing. I mean, there were, yeah, there were grooms that were famous throughout the industry because of their character. There were riders. You know, trainers, Carl Chapman back then, and they called him the arch enemy asylum. He was great guy and always easy to talk to new Cavaliers who was very famous trainer was kind of my go to guy when I was a younger trainer. I'd run things past up all the time. Great experience, always willing to share his experience with you and we're just not as dynamic as we were back then. Some of those guys just had great characters and you know they shot and they made the industry shine. Visiting with trainer Dan vela here on trainer talk presented by facing tipton, Dan back to what I was talking about a moment ago with my relationship with my uncles and going to the races with them and those memories that I'll cherish forever. One of the things that was mentioned in the article, I referenced earlier was that you have a win picture with your uncle from 1961 at fort Erie when you were only about 6 years old. I have several of those types of pictures myself. And they are just so special. Yeah, I mean, you look back at it, my cousins were in the picture, my uncle was in the picture, the horse's name was Leo's jingle. Yeah, you can't forget those type of things. And you know, I mean, everything was black and white pictures back then and you know, but you look at them and it just kind of brings it all back to life for you and the time you used to spend at the races and you know, yeah it was a great time in my life and it was, you know, that's where the that's where it all started for me. But family is it was great to be around the family and go there. When you first started working with horses, it wasn't racehorses, right? No, actually we moved out there oakville Ontario when I was about 12 or 13 years old and I worked for a gentleman named Lauren Siegel on weekends and summers. Show horse show horses, he was a good fellow, a little rough around the edges, which some horsemen were back then, but a great fella and I had a great time there, and I worked there till I finished high school and then I went to work on the race track for a guy named Jerry Levine. What do you remember about that first day that you walked into that barn and started what was that 1972? Jerry Levine was 70 might have been I'd have to think about it. But it was 73, I think, was the first for Jerry Levine and he had a great barnacle horses horses like fave count who ran against secretary at that ball almoner who had won the queen's play to hit a long list of great horses and it was an experience. I mean at first you're intimidated by all of it, right? I mean, it's overwhelming. These great horses and you know you've read about them when you were a kid and you're if you've loved horse racing and then all of a sudden you walk into a barn and you've got these steak horses there and yeah, he trained for AP Taylor too, which was also very interesting. I remember a band pulling up one day with two horses on it and dairy gets on the phone and he calls BP Taylor up and he says, well, which one's mine? One of them was fine, but the van driver doesn't know and he said, I'll take whichever one you want and well one of them ended up being a well they were both great horses. Police car and the other one was lord Durham and he just happened to pull off the one name police car, but he didn't know who the U.S. at the time, but they both ended up you can't go too wrong back then with an EP Taylor Brad horse, right? So yeah, it was how I got started back then. Is it true that you got to ride Donald duck? Yeah. Yeah, they had no pony. I had never ridden much when a kid, but I wanted to learn how to ride. So after work, I would tack up the pony and take him out in the backfield. And I learned. And it wasn't easy at first. You know, I landed on my head a few times, but we seemed to survive it and everything. That's how I learned. And then as I got older, like 1819 I started galloping horses and did that for a number of years too. Yeah, that pony, of course, was named Donald duck. One cool sidebar to the full story of trainer, Dan Bella. When you were riding early on and trying to learn how to ride, Dan, were you thinking, maybe one day you might want to be a jockey or were you still thinking along the lines of, okay, I'm going to train horses one day. You know, when you're that young, you think, jockey, yeah, you think jockey. Sure. I was probably even too big at that time. You know, I'm not tall, I'm 5 four, but I'm currently still hockey. I always was. And I wrestled in high school and you know you put on a lot of muscle doing that and I played football. So I was probably too big at that time, but that's kind of you always dreaming that when you're a kid, but it didn't last too long. I hope you look pretty quick. What position did you play in football? Well, we call that middle guard..
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan bella" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"Good evening, or maybe even good morning, depending upon which part of the world you are tuning in to today's show on Sirius two 19 XM two O one and so many of you also now choosing to listen to trainer talk and many of our other weekly talk shows via podcast all over the world on our website at horse racing radio dot net and various major podcast platforms. And I really want to thank you first and foremost for being part of our HRM family each and every week. It is truly a pleasure to be able to bring these shows to you every week throughout the year. I of course, in Mike penna, baron in the backstretch, happy to have you in the saddle with me once again for the next hour on the show trainers listen to. It is trainer talking. It's all presented by our friends at phasic tipton here on the horse racing radio network. Well, you know, 50 years is a long time. And it's a really long time to be doing the same job. And when today's guest first started working on the racetrack, the year was 1972. And to put that in perspective for you, Richard Nixon was president of the United States. Don McLean's American pie topped the music charts all in the family and Sanford and son were the top two television shows, but godfather had just come out and was the most popular movie of that year. The cowboys under coach Tom Landry defeated Don Shula's dolphins in Super Bowl 6 and a gallon of gas about this cost 36 cents. Secretariat had yet to become secretariat. He was only a two year old while his stablemate revered was busy winning the 1972 Kentucky Derby. That was also the time when a very eager and very determined teenager first arrived on the woodbine backstretch. 50 years later, he still showing up at that same barn area and at 66 years young. He's as passionate as ever about the sport he loves. Please join me in welcoming trainer Dan Bella to train her talk presented by phasic tipton. Dan appreciate the visit, my friend. Hello, how are you? Doing really well and really excited to hear your story. You know, you think about what you have accomplished in these 50 years. 860 career winners. Nearly 30 $9 million in purse earnings and you're a two time sovereign award winner as Canada's leading trainer. Boy, could you ever imagine when you first walked on to the woodbine backstretch that things would end up where they have? No, not really. I mean, let's be honest, they start out as a kid, you're living on the back side, your work and your groom and your walking hot and you know you're getting on some horses and your work your way up. But the dream for everybody, that stage of your life is to win a queen's plate and to train some horses and to fulfill all those dreams and to be that lucky and to be around great horses. You exceed your expectations and you're very lucky to do that. You know, Chris leman over at woodbine, who is in the publicity department, wrote a really nice article about you and about your career it came out about two weeks ago or so. And one of the things that he pointed out was that your introduction to horse racing came through your uncle. Tell me a little more about that. Well, my best friend when I was a kid was my cousin Mike and his father was my uncle Jim. They were vegetable farmers outside of the city and we used to spend our Sundays out there on the farms and I used to spend my whole summer there working on the farm and we had a great time. And he was absolutely passionate about horse racing. You know, back then, the racing farm was only, you know, maybe ten sheets of paper, but he used to go out and get the farm during lunch time and then after dinner he'd sit down in his chair and he'd read before him and eat market and we used to shoot the board area for the races there in the summertime and it was a big deal for me. And that's kind of where my passion for the horses started. He would always own a piece of a horse or a horse or whatever he could afford. But that's where it all started. He loved horse racing. And I caught a bug right away back then. I've got pictures from, I don't know, the early 60s at fort Erie in the summertime. Yeah, it was a lot of fun and that's where I got started. As I was reading that and just listening to you now I was thinking about the relationships that I have with my uncles and I have a couple of uncles that really enjoy going to the races. We have gone to multiple racetracks together. And you know it's so special to be able to spend that time with your family and do it in an environment and participating in a sport, even if it's just handicapping and betting on the races to do it in a sport like horse racing is just so, so cool. Well, sports 50 years ago sports were different. Also, there were more characters in sports back then. The extremes were a little more we've gotten a little more placid with what we do in sports nowadays, maybe you could call it a little more professional, but we've lost maybe a tiny bit of our flares. Some of the characters back then some of the jocks, Chris Rogers and sandy Holly came along a bit later. Avelina, Gomez, who was one of the greatest riders that ever lived and they interacted with the people on the back side, much more than. And what the betters and yeah, there was a lot of flair to all sports then, but horse race it was a big deal then..
The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"dan bella" Discussed on The Horse Racing Radio Network Podcast
"14 hopefuls, including Dan Bella's charge, the minster are set to square off in the $250,000 coronation futurity, which headlines a trio of stakes this Saturday it would bind. The mile and an 8th torpedo event for Canadian fold two year olds is a significant race on the road to next year's queen's plate. Trainer Dan Bella in search of his first coronation futurity crown will send out the minster. The bay son of English Channel impressed in his career Beau on October 2nd, sent off at odds of 5 to one, the minster forced the pace from the rail on the turn before taking the lead in the stretch and widening to a 6 and a quarter length victory. I was expecting a really big effort to Bella, you never quite expected to be that easy. That win was even easier than it looks on paper. He was pretty much geared down and ran green, but he's a very talented horse. Bella concluded his post race comments that day, saying, wait until he figures out how to run in a straight line. That could spell trouble for the competition later today. Bella has similar high praise for his glorious song contender, Marie Mackay. The bay daughter of noble mission, Fred and owned by Donald Whelan and track west racing, took the shady while stakes on October 8th at woodbine. Other coronation futurity starters include a trio of Mark Cassie trainees. Fast feet, God of love and lament and three from the barn of cabinet, hidden honor, kitty Holliday, and rock, as well as stronger together who is trained by sittard. The 108th running of the coronation futurity is slated his race 8 on Saturday's 11 race card first post is 1255 p.m., the $125,000 display stakes and $125,000 glorious song will go as racist three and 9 respectively. Both of those are 7 for longs on the tap, and that's your north.