Couple a quiet success story at Assiniboia Downs

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This article was published 23/07/2016 (3395 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Trainer Bev Hamilton and her husband, Don Buckner, were hoping for rain at Assiniboia Downs Wednesday night, but not the tornado-like conditions that forced the cancellation of the races.

They were on their way to the paddock with He Is for the third race when it became null and void. Their horse had a chance, too. He likes rain, but not hurricanes. The win purse of $5,400 would have gone a long ways toward supporting their six-horse stable.

“That’s significant money,” said Buckner, who also happens to be a licensed trainer.

Who’s the better trainer of the two?

“I am,” said Buckner.

“I am,” said Hamilton. “A couple of years ago we sent Don to claim or buy a couple of mares, one to sprint and one to route. He came back with five geldings and a mare in foal.”

The couple from small-town Oregon has been married for 22 years now, and it’s easy to see why. They both have the same dry sense of humour, and both know horses better than most. Yet their entries go generally unnoticed because their names are not at the top of the leaderboard.

In this case, however, disappearances are definitely deceiving, as Hamilton is one of the best on the grounds at getting a horse ready to win off a layoff. She has been ever since she first ventured here as a trainer in 2004. And she was here long before that.

“I grew up at the racetrack,” said Hamilton. “My dad (Woody Brewer) was a trainer, and we have a win picture of me and my dad at Assiniboia Downs in the ’60s. I think Ray Miller (Current ASD racing secretary) is in the picture, too.”

Buckner also comes by his horsey skills honestly. He grew up on a mixed farm and saddled his first winner when he was 12 at the county fair. At the same time he was quite the accordion player, opening for Johnny Cash when that megastar was first getting started.

“It was at a VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Club,” said Buckner. “Nobody even knew who he was back then. But he had a hit, I Walk The Line.

“He hates the accordion now,” said Hamilton. “But he’s a pretty good guitar player.”

Buckner had a talent for music and a role in the formative years of the band Stark Naked and the Car Thieves. While he was only casually mentioned on the band’s website, he played with and is friends with the original bass player.

“They went on to play Vegas, and I went back to college,” said Buckner. “They were a house band at the Flamingo, and I would go back and visit them for a month or so. There was a lounge at the top where Elvis (Presley) and Tom Jones would hang out. They were good friends. The most impressive person I ever saw there was Sonny Liston. Biggest, meanest guy I ever met. Big, strong hands, like the Jolly Green Giant.”

In Manitoba for the summer with their two daughters, Amanda, 9, and Brianna, 16, and their horses, Hamilton and Buckner are not flashy, but when they start a horse, it counts. From five starts this year they’ve had two wins and a third. Their secret is no secret.

“You have to learn to read the horses,” said Hamilton. “That’s pretty much all we do,” said Buckner.

Both silver-haired, yet each only admitting to being 39, their goals appear a little different on the surface, but you just know they’re not.

“To raise these girls,” said Hamilton.

“Kentucky Derby,” said Buckner.