The little horse that could

By Nicholas Oakes

It was driver’s challenge day in Newfoundland and Todd Trites was thinking he didn’t come all the way from Fredericton, New Brunswick just sit at the back of the pack all day.

“If they’ve got four feet and a heartbeat, I’m going, boys,” grinned Jody Jamieson at the group of drivers, so Trites knew he would have to roll out hard to make front with Machthemoment from post five. But it was The Smileforme Memorial Pace (named in honour of the horse who was arguably the best in the Atlantic province before his untimely death) and this tiny son of Mach Three was ready to shine.

Machthemoment busted out off the gate and was stung to the quarter in 28 by arch-rival Whitesand Dimples (driven by Brad Forward), before he cleared to the lead and kept on trucking to a 2:00.3, two-length victory — his eighth of the year. “He’s a real nice horse,” Trites said afterward. “He’s not big but he can motor —  just a nice, handy little half-mile horse.”

Standing in the winner’s circle, it was apparent. The torch had been passed and Newfoundland racing now belonged to the Machthemoment. But despite the excitement, owner Jeanette Newell was probably thinking not about the present moment, but about the autumn previous — a time when she would’ve laughed if someone told her she’d soon have the top horse on the rock.

———

Jeanette grew up an hour outside of St. John’s in North River, Newfoundland and her father — Gerard Newell — always dabbled in horses. But horses drifted off the radar for Jeanette as she moved to Ontario out of high school, and then eventually back to Newfoundland. “I came home nine years ago but worked all the time and on the weekends I was just enjoying being home,” she admits. “Then dad bought Mcoddie so I went to the track to see her race and fell right back in love with it.

“Dad was always bragging, and I’ll admit Mcoddie was pretty good last year,” Jeanette adds. “He was just joking around and he said ‘too bad you don’t have one that can beat mine.’

“‘Oh yeah?’ I said. ‘You just wait and see.’”

So the Newells logged onto TrackIT, searching for a horse; they found one they liked, and sent good friend Rod Forward on a hunt for the owners. Meanwhile, in Ontario, Machthemoment had just over $53,000 made and a mark of 1:56.3 at Flamboro while travelling through the barns of trainer Brian MacInnis, then owner Brett Riley at Kawartha Downs.

Riley thought the horse was better than he showed, as in 15 starts he had mixed results. When the phone call from Newfoundland came, Machthemoment was considered sold on the spot. “I needed a bit of money at the time and he was one of the horses that wasn’t getting in,” Riley recalls. “If things had been different I never would have sold him. I told them when they bought him, he just wasn’t suiting what I needed at the time, but I really like the horse.”

The trainer especially liked his personality. “He’s a smart little horse, always bright-looking. Just the kind of horse that has some personality and had some brains to him. He’s one of those horses that will give you all he got.”

Machthemoment’s racing future is a long one, Riley predicts. “He’ll be a horse that I could see racing until he’s 14. Clean-legged little fella and he’s got the body style that should hold up to race. He’s a gritty little bugger. He’s not a tall horse but he’s compact. I made sure they knew that before they bought him. I didn’t want him landing out there and them saying ‘What did we buy? A little runt?’”

It’s good to see they’re having lots of fun with him, he adds. “There are a couple of fellas that come around my barn and we’re always saying ‘did you see how that Machthemoment did?’ We get a great kick out of seeing him doing so good.”

Trucker Ron Gass was hired to pick the horse up in Ontario, and the transaction showed just how anxious Jeanette was to get everything done.”You’ve got to get me Ronnie Gass’s address, I have to pay him!” an anxious Jeanette said to Forward one day last fall.

“Relax, Ronnie is good,” Forward assured her. “You don’t even have the horse picked up yet!”

 

———–

Rod Forward met Gerard Newell at the track in St. John’s several years back and the first time Forward drove a horse for him, the results were less than stellar. “That wasn’t a very good experience,” Forward admits. “It was the last time that horse raced. He made a nasty break at the half but it wasn’t too bad, so I finished the mile. When he went to pull up, though, he could hardly walk.”

The horse broke a coffin bone but the friendship between the two Newfoundlanders continued. In 2008, Gerard asked Forward to look at a mare on a trip to Inverness. “If she looks all right, buy her,” Gerard told Forward as he handed over the money. Forward saw Mcoddie and liked her, so he did as he was told — he bought her, and trucked her to Newfoundland.

It was December of the same year that Machthemoment joined the mare at the Newells’ North River farm, where the pair jogs their horses around a small one-eighth mile track. The two horses were trained down and after a qualifier in 2:06, Machthemoment was entered in the ‘C’ Class at St. John’s.

“I was thinking: ‘C’ Class, okay, let’s see what he can do,'” Jeanette recalls. “He went out in that C Class and made it look easy in 2:04.2. I was floored.”

The next week was the race they’d all been waiting for, as Mcoddie and Machthemoment drew in together.

Jeanette had her plan set and explained it to Forward. “I already told dad… if they’re in together I don’t care who I beat, as long as I beat your horse.”

And as for who was driving who, Jeanette had an answer for that too. “You’re driving my horse and I don’t care who drives his,” Forward recalls her saying with a chuckle.

“They’re there to have a bit of fun,” he shrugs. “If you can’t have some fun what’s the sense of being in it?”

Forward’s brother Rob drove Mcoddie, but Machthemoment put in another impressive performance, beating the mare — who wound up third.When Jeanette saw her father after the race she put her hands up in the air in victory but he just turned around and walked away. Despite the show he puts on, though, Gerard finds it all fun for him and his daughter. “She was happy,” he grins. “He’s a hard little horse to beat.”

He’s the first to admit he’s just content to be involved. “It’s a nice sport to be in. There’s not a lot of money in Newfoundland but it’s a nice way to spend a Sunday evening.”

————

Machthemoment would go on to win in 2:00.3, defeating the well-known Whitesand Dimples.

“He circled Whitesand Dimples before she even knew he was passing,” laughs Forward. “He’s quick footed. He’s a real nice rig to drive. He’s a little horse on the track but if someone tries to pass him, he’ll give it his all.”

Clearly he’s learned his lesson. When the gelding first arrived, Forward definitely didn’t expect to see that kind of speed out him. “I thought he’d go in 2:02-2:03. I looked at his lines and two starts before he won in 1:57, but that’s Georgian Downs, not Newfoundland! So I figured you could tack on five extra seconds, easy.”

Although Machthemoment has been getting all the limelight, Forward still has a soft spot for his stablemate, too. “She’s lazy,” grins Forward, “but she can finish if you can keep her up close and keep her awake.”

In the end, though, it’s the owners that make it so enjoyable to drive these two, says Forward. “They’re easy going people. I don’t have any problems with them. They just want to come in and see the races.”

And the friendship is mutual. “He’s a fine gentleman and a fine man to talk to,” smiles Gerard. “I think he’d get along with the devil, that man.”

As for the future of Machthemoment, (as usual) Jeanette has it all laid out — and she doesn’t plan on parting with him. Ever. “He’s in his last master’s hands now,” she insists. “He’ll race as long as he can then he`ll be home until he can`t be there anymore. Nobody else will ever have him, he’s excellent.”

Gerard has some plans for his own filly, as Mcoddie is just returning from a sick break. “I’m gonna wait and get her good,” Gerard says, “then maybe give Machthemoment another run.”

So at least for the Newells (and for some other fans on the rock) Machthemoment has been living up to his name — he’s definitely been giving them some good times to remember.