TORONTO—He got bumped at the starting gate, then he had to endure traffic and getting dirt thrown into his face but even then, Clive didn’t give up. And although it wasn’t the start that his trainer and owners had hoped for, all of them say that Clive Cross will be okay and will become a good racehorse.
Clive Cross, who is owned by Manitoulin Island friends Steve Doane and Mark Varey, made his long-awaited debut in the world of horse racing on May 27 at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto. He was taking part in the maiden option claiming six-furlong race for three year olds and up.
“He’ll be back,” stated Krista Cole-Simpson, Clive’s trainer last week. “I thought the way he was working out and his training times that this horse was going to be right there. But at the start of the race, he got bumped and cut off. But that’s horse racing.”
Ms. Cole-Simpson explained she has been working with Clive since 2022. “Steve and Mark brought him down in July of last year to train. He was with me training from July to November, then out on the farm for the winter and came back in March.”
Ms. Cole-Simpson, who was featured in the Canadian Thoroughbred magazine in February in a story titled, ‘Krista Cole-Simpson: On Her Way to the Top’ told The Expositor, “I grew up my whole life riding horses. When I was in my teens living on the east coast, I worked with standard breds and quarter horses. When I moved to Ontario I started to work with thoroughbreds and quarter horses.”
Mr. Doane said Clive “could not have a much worse start. And being that it was a short six-furlong race and being so far behind at the start his jockey Leo Salles told us he thought at the time, “I’m going to educate him. So, he took him into traffic where he got dirt thrown in his face and then he took him outside the other horses where he started to make a good move. If he had a better start who knows? His jockey and trainer are certainly still optimistic about Clive. They see something in him and so do we.”
“Keep in mind as well this was Clive’s first race and there was so much he has never had to deal with before, like seeing a big crowd, being in the paddock and racing with 12 horses,” said Mr. Doane.
“Clive’s jockey was very impressed with him and how he tried to fight back and said that he could have beat this class of horses. It’s sad what happened at the start but that’s racing,” said Mr. Varey. “Do we still have hope in him? Oh yeah. I saw him in his training sessions, he is a fast horse and could have beat the winner of this race time if he had got off to a good start.”
Mr. Varey said Clive could race again in the next month or so if he is healthy. “And if he stays healthy I can see him racing six more times this year. Clive is in great shape and should be able to handle it.”
“I’m positive about his future, I’m not going to give up on him. This was the first race of his career, and he has never run along with more than three horses before,” said Mr. Varey. “His jockey took him in and out of traffic and when he took him on the outside and asked him to go Clive did. His jockey said ‘don’t count him out, his results the next time will be a hell of a lot better.’”
“This is all a learning curve for Steve and I,” said Mr. Varey. “But we are definitely not giving up on Clive. We will see what happens next time he races. People have not seen what Clive is capable of. Sunday just wasn’t his day.”
Ms. Cole-Simpson said Clive, “is a good-looking colt, a little pushy sometimes, but he’s not mean, he would never hurt you. He’s got those big chipmunk cheeks which is cute. Yeah, he likes food and sleeping.”
“I was confident going into the race that he would be in the top three, before things got off to a bad start,” said Ms. Cole-Simpson. “Clive got a good lesson, and he is big enough maybe next time he will be able to push his way through. He did everything good in leading up to the race and was calm in the paddock.”
“He will be fine. He came up a little hyper the last couple of days with the look of what just happened? He is certainly wide-eyed now,” she quipped. “Clive will be back.”
As evidence of how highly Ms. Cole-Simpson thinks of Clive, in the article in Canadian Thoroughbred a lot of the focus was on how she developed Candy Overload, the Ontario-bred son of local stallion Reload, from a yearling into a graded stakes-paced sprinter. However, there is one paragraph near the end of the article that reads, ‘Krista rides her horses at Northern Dawn each day throughout the winter and is helped at the barn by her husband Damian Simpson. One of the unraced horses she is excited about is the three-year-old Clive Cross, named for the late Dave Cross, Jr. for new owners Mark Varey and Steve Doane of Manitoulin Island. Clive Cross is another son of Reload.”
“In horse racing you need luck,” stated Ms. Cole-Simpson. “You can have the best horse, but you still need luck. What happened at the start of the race is the type of thing that happens, but it isn’t the horse’s fault.”
