“We lost my grandpa yesterday, the only reason any of us ever looked at these stupid horses” – Sabrina
This poignant tweet came from the granddaughter of trainer/steward James Nemett who passed away last week.
Jimmy Nemett was a complete horseman and from a family of Ontario horsepeople including his brothers Jake and Les. He trained over 75 winners including stakes winners such as Jilting Jim, owned by Roger Leslie, Villa Dancer and top runners such as Regal Quillo,, second in the Canadian Oaks in 1976, Purely Conjecture, Cash the Ticket and others.
Nemett stopped training in 1985 and became a steward at Woodbine before returning to training in 2006.
Sabrina shared with Canadian Thoroughbred the accompanying photo and some memories of her grandfather:
He got into racing around the 1950’s with his two brothers Jake and Les, Les was a jockey. They all worked for Bill Beasley in the 60’s, and then he started training publicly in the late 60’s/early 70’s training for people like Roger Leslie, Ron Delmas/Fieldstone Farms who he got into the business, then became a steward in the late 80’s and early 90’s.
He’s also mentioned in Dan Beckon’s biography actually. Then he eventually retired from being a steward sometime in the 2000’s and went back to training mainly in Fort Erie until he stopped around 2013 or 2014.
He was just one of the hard working nice guys.
He left quite the impression on more than a few.
Condolences to all the Nemett family.
More from People:
