Monthly Speaker Review #4

January 26, 2021 Meeting By James Rayner

Desmond Sandford “Sandy” Hawley

Secretariat, Farah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Marty McSorley, E.P. Taylor, Willy Shoemaker, Queen Elizabeth II. What do these have in common? Sandy Hawley, Canada’s winningest jockey ever. Sandy was the guest speaker at the January 26 virtual meeting of the Kingsway-Islington Probus Club where he shared some of the details of his exciting life.

Born in Oshawa, Ontario, but raised in Whitby, at the age of 16 Sandy was talking with his uncle about a career path and the uncle suggested that, because of his size, he should consider becoming a jockey. At the time, Sandy knew nothing about horses or racing but went with his uncle to E.P. Taylor’s horse farm, Windfield Farms, at that time located
in the northern Whitby-Oshawa area. At the farm, he was introduced to Duke Campbell who was boarding horses at Windfield. The first thing Duke asked was for Sandy to show him his hands. Apparently, if they were large, the boy would grow to match them; small hands meant he had the right build to be a jockey. Fortunately for Sandy, his hands were small enough.

One year later, Sandy quit school and became a protégé of Duke Campbell at Woodbine race track. He spent two years in the stables, walking and grooming horses, mucking out stalls, generally cleaning up and even galloping the horses. This period was not without incident. On one occasion, he tried to imitate Avelino Gomez’s victory jump from the saddle but got his feet stuck in the stirrups and he finished upside down on the horse. Another time, the girth on his horse broke so the reins were too loose to be effective and the saddle came off the horse. As a result, Sandy ended up riding bareback, holding onto the horse’s mane. Because he survived, to his guardian this meant he was ready to ride professionally.

His first meet wasn’t a huge success, as he only won four times in 30 races. About this time (1969), he met Colin Wick who became his agent and who got him a lot of good mounts and he became the Leading Apprentice Jockey in North America. During his career, he set many records and received numerous awards. Among these achievements: Four Queen’s Plate victories, including meeting the Queen; beating Willy Shoemaker’s record of 500 wins in one year (515); receiving the Lou Marsh Trophy twice (Canada’s Athlete of the Year); being admitted to the Order of Canada; entering
the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame; 6,450 wins out of 31,455 mounts, which is amazing.

In horse racing, horses and jockeys move around the continent, according to the season. When he was in California, Sandy met several personalities such as Dick van Patten, Farah Fawcett, Dean Martin, Willy Shoemaker. He enjoyed the good life with these celebrities, playing tennis and golf with them. As an avid hockey fan, he became a season ticket holder for the L.A. Kings and, by chance, got to be the official in the penalty box where he and Marty McSorley became fast friends.

Quite the life for a kid from Oshawa, but it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. One time at Woodbine Racetrack at the post parade, a horse backed into his, causing it to rear up and fall on Sandy, causing major damage requiring two months in hospital and eight months off from riding. Another setback was a bout of melanoma that required three major surgeries and an experimental vaccine. But now Sandy seems happily settled into his fourth marriage and is currently living in Lexington, Kentucky—where the horses are. As for Secretariat, he never did have the occasion to ride, him but did get to follow in his dust several times.