When she wins, it won’t be by a hair

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This article was published 02/06/2017 (3369 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The all-Canadian apple-pie girl with strawberry blond hair and green eyes soon might get you at the wire. Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security.

Thirty-one-year-old Jamie Hartmann is just starting to get rolling after arriving from Saskatoon with 28 horses. The two-time leading trainer (2014, 2015) at Marquis Downs finished second in the standings there last year to sharp horseman Ray Gardipy, but still won 18 races at a 20 per cent clip. In 2015, Hartmann led the standings in Saskatchewan with 28 wins and a 31 per cent win clip.

Hartmann has started 23 horses at Assiniboia Downs this year and has only one win to show for it so far, along with three seconds and three thirds, but her horses are now starting to get the hang of the place. A few good ralliers on Wednesday night for Hartmann make her a trainer to watch going forward, and her stats already say she knows how to win.

Hartmann comes by her talent naturally, if relatives count. Her grandmother Bev Hunter’s horse won on her birthday way back on June 19, 1985, and Hartmann’s aunt Judy Hunter was the first woman ever to win a training title at a recognized track. Hunter made a few forays to Assiniboia Downs years ago, and she’s still active as a trainer today, having now won more than 400 races.

“My aunt was probably the reason I originally got involved with horses,” Hartmann said. “Mom (Rhonda) and Dad (Gerald) owned some horses, but I think Judy was the one that pushed them for me to get involved in the Pony Club. I got on my first horse at three.”

Hartmann spent her teenage years competing with show horses and won her share of ribbons, but gave the horses most of the credit.

“I was brave,” Hartmann said. “But I always had really good horses to ride. My favourite was a Dutch Warmblood named Power Play. I was eight when I met him and I didn’t lose a class with him when I rode him. Others had fallen off him, but he was big and I was little and he just really took care of me for some reason. People called him my babysitter. He took me everywhere for four years. He was in charge, not me. Every kid should be so lucky to have a horse like him to learn on.”

Hartmann gravitated to the track at the age of 17 to work for her aunt, but also took a short-lived detour as a hairdresser at 19, working at Waskesiu Resort in Saskatchewan.

“I liked dealing with horses better,” Hartmann said. “So I got more into the track and less into hair. I started as a full-time assistant trainer for Judy when I was 24. I loved watching the horses transform from fat and hairy in the spring to sleek and muscled up two months later. You get disappointed when they can’t win every race.”

Hartmann got her first experience with a “good” horse, multiple stakes winner Atlantic Hurricane, when she worked as a swing groom for Stuart Simon at Woodbine in 2011, and Simon was probably one of the big reasons for her success when she went out on her own.

“He taught me a lot,” Hartmann said. “He also had a really good assistant named Adrian Lee from England.”

Hartmann’s aunt sent three horses to trainer Rob Atras at Assiniboia Downs in 2012 and Hartmann went with them, working for Atras locally and in Phoenix and readying herself to become a trainer. Her first horse as a trainer, Highly Favoured, came courtesy of one of Simon’s owners.

“I was working as an assistant for Judy,” Hartmann said. “I just had to pay the shipping to get the horse back here. Judy gave me free rein with the horse and I ended up winning five of six with him. He lost only once in the slop by a nose.”

Hartmann officially was hooked.

“I really like it here,” she said. “I’ve been treated very well by everyone. Rob MacLennan bedded my stalls for me before I got here and the people have been really welcoming. I just want to do well for the horses, and for the owners who sent me here with them, and good for the grooms who put so much work into them. “

Hartmann’s been lucky in the help department so far, attracting top exercise rider John Mills and jockeys Corey Jordan and Stanley Chadee Jr. to gallop her horses in the mornings, while under the care of veteran grooms Glenn Miller and Errol Williams as well as Ulric Bell and Brenda Tardiff. There’s a reason some trainers attract good help, and good help makes for happy horses.

“I have a soft spot for all of my horses,” Hartmann said. “That makes it hard sometimes. I want them all to be happy, and to win.”

They are. And they will.