Chaplain Shawn Kennedy is a hands-on kind of man. Hands-on with horses and hands-on with horse people.
The 59-year-old shepherd of the Woodbine backstretch, who has guided many a steed down victory lane while race riding earlier in his career, for the past decade has been guiding and supporting the lives of backstretch workers who reach out for help in their time of emotional, physical , spiritual or human needs.
On September 14th in a trackside ceremony at Toronto’s Woodbine racetrack, Winnipeg native Shawn Kennedy will be honoured with an Award of Merit for lifetime service to the Thoroughbred racing industry from the Toronto Thoroughbred Racing Club, a 55-year-old organization that promotes Ontario Thoroughbred horse racing and annually honours industry participants who have made significant contributions to the sport. Kennedy will join a long list of racing greats that includes Sandy Hawley, Jean Louis Levesque, Avelino Gomez, Frank Merrill, Lou Cavalaris, Ron Turcotte and Frank Stronach.
The Woodbine backstretch is a village within a city, a self- sustaining community, where people not only work, but live. From grooms and hotwalkers to exercise riders, more than 1,400 people work on the 187 -acre backstretch, many of whom reside permanently in dormitories that houses up to 300 workers during the racing season. The population doubles when you take into account the 1760 horses stabled there.
The grooms and hotwalkers are those at the bottom of the totem pole in all of horse racing. Life does not always go in a straight line for these knights and heroines of the rubrag, brush and hoofpick. They are the ones who work the hardest and longest hours for the least amount of money. They are the ones who tend to the care of their uncomplaining horses with extraordinary pride and dedication , and sometimes toil without retirement or social benefits that are needed when health problems arise, or when jobs are terminated. They are the ones who most need, and receive Chaplain Shawn’s help and support.
For those in our industry who may be sick, injured, or underprivileged, and reach out in their time of need, Chaplain Shawn is there to help.
Shawn Kennedy has been involved with Thoroughbred race horses his entire life. As a successful former trainer and amateur jockey, he understands the problems faced by those who work and live on the backstretch. He has walked more miles on Woodbine’s shedrows than most hotwalkers. His finger is on the pulse of the entire backstretch. Each day he makes the rounds of Woodbine’s barns talking to an aging population of workers, and trainers desperate for help because of changing government immigration policies regarding foreign workers. He welcomes the newcomers and lets them know he is there for them. He senses the pain, frustration and anger caused by the provincial government’s cancellation of the Slots at Race Track program in 2012. “ It cast a pallor over the racetrack and the entire racing industry,” he said.” He sees the existing problems that reflect the mood and the livelihoods of everyone who bows before the great God Horse. “I know what people go through on bad days. The biggest problem on the track isn’t drug abuse, alcoholism or gambling”, he says. “The No. 1 problem is loneliness.”
“Shawn’s deep and helpful connection with the hard working men and women of the backstretch community is one of unmatched sincerity because he has his roots there also” said Jim Bannon, the chaplaincy’s president since its inception, and the driving force behind the foundation and continued implementation and direction of the Racetrack Chaplaincy of Canada, whose ultimate purpose is to live out the Golden Rule through non-denominational counseling and services, providing food and clothing, recreation, healthcare, legal and financial referrals.
Over the years Shawn Kennedy has made hundreds of hospital visits to the sick and injured, arranged funeral services, counseled troubled workers, visited shut-ins, hosted Alcoholics Anonymous meetings , and arranged computer learning, literacy and Spanish classes. He conducts chapel services, officiates at workers marriages, baptizes their children, aids next of kin with funeral arrangements, body removal and social services, conducts memorials , identifies workers who have passed at the morgue, hosts weekly Soul Survivors movie and luncheons, and cleans the Jake as needed. He is a sought after public speaker at local churches and at political rallies in support of horse racing , and his voice and guitar are ever-present at the numerous barbeques and Christmas and harvest luncheons he hosts throughout the year with the assistance of his loyal brigade of volunteers, and Jo Ann, his wife of 33 years, who also works in the Thoroughbred racing industry.
And the list goes on: Shawn publishes regular newsletters, updates Facebook and Twitter daily, assists weekly with the HBPA’s on track Employee Assistance Program, prepares passport applications, assists writing Wills, takes grooms to dental and doctor’s appointments, organizes field trips to the Daily Bread Food Bank, provides benevolence for needy backstretch workers, prays with the jockeys before the races, assists WEG with crisis situations, and almost single handedly organizes an annual golf tournament to raise vital funds to support the chaplaincy. When there is injury, death, sickness, or any emergency situation on Woodbine’s backstretch , the first person on the scene to help is Shawn Kennedy. There is little happening in this village, within a city, where he is not involved in a good and helpful way.
Sue Leslie, in her tenth year as president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, and a key industry executive helping to lead the industry out of the upheaval inflicted on Ontario horse racing, is high in her praise of Shawn Kennedy’s accomplishments . “When the HBPA Board made the decision to substantially finance the Chaplaincy it was just an idea, hoping to offer more services and support to horsepeople. Chaplain Shawn has taken the Chaplaincy from infancy to adulthood. The Chaplaincy is more relevant today than ever and Shawn has constantly grown the services provided to our racing community”.
Chaplain Shawn’s original Woodbine base of operations was a tiny trailer. Today his office is in a converted garage, affectionately known as “The Jake” (the Jake Howard Centre is named after a former Woodbine Chair). The Jake is less than spacious, but it contains a clothes depot, the James B. Irvine Library, a part-time librarian, barber shop, a meeting room, and the chaplain’s office. In 2008 the Jake went Hi Tech and installed four computers.
The Jake is where the backstretch calls home.
Roy Dwight, who has worked on Woodbine’s backstretch for over 30 years, has been a loyal member of Shawn’s volunteer brigade for more than a decade. “I met Shawn when he first came to Woodbine. He was galloping horses, along with his pastoral duties. I told him that I would help in any way that I could, and have been doing that ever since. I help with his fundraisers, his annual golf tournament, serving food to the homeless, and am the chef for the barbeques and dinners for the backstretch workers that he organizes throughout the year. He is an honourable, hard working, dedicated and caring man, and the best thing that has happened to the Woodbine backstretch.”
Shawn Kennedy is as comfortable on a horse as he is dealing with the needs of the men and women workers along shedrow. He was five times Champion Canadian amateur jockey, two times runner-up and ranked 10th in the world in 1996. Before assuming chaplaincy duties at Woodbine in 2004 he was a full-time youth pastor at Winnipeg’s Assiniboia Downs, and later a youth pastor in Kansas in 2000.
What are Shawn Kennedy’s major challenges? “ Funding the chaplaincy is an ongoing challenge. We operate on a bare bones budget. HBPA is our main source of income, along with the net proceeds from our annual golf tournament and private donations. Also, people have no idea who I work for. Some think I work for the HBPA, others think I am employed by WEG. The chaplaincy is a stand alone, non-denominational, non profit religious charity whose operation is overseen by council members, whom I report to on a monthly basis. The chaplaincy council oversee the activities of the chaplaincy and the chaplain, and are responsible for a yearly budget, an accounting to those who fund the chaplaincy, and making sure that the ministry is following the guidelines of Revenue Canada and the constitution of the Race Track Chaplaincy of Canada”.
Accomplishments! There are many. Chaplain Shawn gets the entire backstretch community involved with programs like Operation Chosen Soldier, contributing packages of useful items to send to a chosen female and male soldier overseas , and Operation Christmas Child. Horsepeople pack hundreds of shoe boxes crammed full of the necessities of life that bring joy and hope to poor and disadvantaged children around the world. Workers also collect food to end hunger in surrounding communities by supporting the Daily Bread Food Bank.
The Backstretch Health Clinic: It all started in 2014 with an errant phone call from the Rexdale, Community Health Centre who wanted to conduct a diabetes screening clinic at Woodbine Mall, across the street from Woodbine Racetrack, but ended up setting up shop on Woodbine’s backstretch with Chaplain Shawn arranging all of the details for this vital service for the workers. In 2015 nurse practitioners each Wednesday visited Woodbine to conduct tests for diabetes screening and offered valuable nutrition classes, and flu shots. Today, a full blown medical clinic, staffed with a doctor and nurse practitioners, is available each Wednesday to diagnose and treat any ailment. Prescriptions are readily available and x-rays and ultra sound procedures are quickly arranged at nearby Rexdale health clinics. Every worker is guaranteed a doctor’s help, regardless if they have OHIP coverage, or not.
The implementation of these valuable healthcare programs for Woodbine’s horsepeople, along with the numerous beneficial programs and activities he has implemented, and the excellent relationships he has established with all facets of the Woodbine community, and beyond, is enough to make Chaplain Shawn Kennedy stand nine feet tall, and indeed a most worthy recipient of the Toronto Thoroughbred Racing’s Club’s Award of Merit.
For additional information, contact Bill Galvin at billgalvin2000@yahoo.ca
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