Former NHLer has passion for horses

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/08/2017 (3245 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Imagine what it must have been like on the ice in Madison Square Garden for the most famous punches in NHL history, when Gordie Howe sent feared New York Rangers enforcer Lou Fontinato to the moon with four sledgehammers that broke his nose, dislocated his jaw and crushed his reputation in front of a stunned New York crowd on Feb. 1, 1959.

Brian Smith, one of the owners of recent Assiniboia Downs winner Kenny Do the Math, knows exactly what it was like.

He was on the ice when it happened.

Playing for the Detroit Red Wings, Smith was a youngster being groomed to replace left winger “Terrible” Ted Lindsay on the famous “Production Line” that included Hall of Famer Sid Able at centre and Howe on right wing.

For a racing fan it would be like watching Seattle Slew beat up on a claimer while sitting on the back of horse in the same race. Of course, racing fans can’t watch races from the back of a horse. At least not one that’s in the same race they’re betting on. “Leapin’ Louie” Fontinato was certainly better than a claimer, but he definitely picked the wrong stakes horse to take on that night.

Kenny Do the Math doesn’t make mistakes like that. Trained by 2017 Manitoba Derby winning trainer Murray Duncan, Kenny Do the Math rallied under jockey Chris Husbands to defeat eight rivals (all at once) in a $2,500 claiming race last Monday, the same day that his stablemate Plentiful won the Manitoba Derby.

It was Kenny’s fourth win in 36 starts and second for current owners Smith and his two partners, Royal LePage Prime real estate agents Royce Finley and Daryl Carry.

Kenny Do the Math won’t be making the move to NHL (stakes races) off his recent win, but he’ll certainly give his best when provided with the opportunity.

And winning a race, any race, is tough to do. There are very few empty-net goals in the racing game.

Race horses and hockey players actually have a lot in common when it comes to their playing careers. They go full bore for a few seasons and then injuries take their toll.

Things didn’t work out quite the way Smith had hoped for in his NHL career, which turned out to be the same length as that of most horses, but he still made the big show with Detroit for 61 games from 1957-1961, and he still remembers that famous night in 1959.

“It was something,” Smith said. “Lou took a run at him and he missed. You could hear it from across the ice. ‘Whap! Whap! Whap! Whap!’ Gordie put him into another world. It was a different time. No helmets, lots of stickwork. We all had knots in our heads from getting hit. But I got to play with one the greatest hockey players ever to put on a pair of skates.”

The 79-year-old Smith hasn’t been on the ice for a while now, but he still walks and talks pretty good considering his old hockey injuries include a broken jaw, broken nose, a completely rebuilt plastic shoulder and a new hip.

Smith has been showing up at Duncan’s barn every morning at 5:50 a.m. since May, shuffling back and forth from the barn to the track to watch his big horse go. You had to wonder who the guy was.

After his NHL career was over, Smith went to work with horses. He started out with Hall of Famer Frank Merrill and even had a broodmare that foaled him a winner of 10 races at Woodbine in the 1960s.

He then went on to work at Penn National for 11 years, on the gate crew and also as the horse identifier, clerk of sales, paddock judge and in various other capacities until being asked to come back to Canada to coach the Kenora Thistles hockey team.

“They folded after that year,” said Smith, who stayed in Canada working at various jobs.

But he always missed the horses. So when a relative of his 27-year partner Louise asked him to go in on a race horse last year, Smith jumped at the chance.

He was so keen that he spent most of last winter going out to the farm every day to see Kenny Do the Math. And he’s rarely missed a day this spring.

There are a lot of horses with talent that never make it to the races, let alone win. Similarly, there are a lot of talented hockey players who never make it to the pros.

Smith, whose father Stuart, played for the Montreal Canadiens, actually played 15 seasons of pro hockey, his best night ever coming in 1963 with AHL’s Buffalo Bisons, when he scored six goals and helped the Bisons win the Calder Cup.

Smith stands at the rail at 6 a.m. with the sun shining and the horses galloping by and reflects back on his life in hockey, and with horses.

“I’ve always loved horses,” Smith said. “I’m glad I met Murray. Hell, yeah! It was great growing up with a dad playing hockey. We were kids growing up in Canada, that’s all we wanted to do. It was a good life. I’d do it all over again.”

Smith made the big show. His horse did, too.