It is hard to put into words the incredible bond between a Thoroughbred racehorse and his people. In order to tell the story of Sweet Little Man, I needed to see and hear it from those who fell in love with him over the past decade then banded together to help him when the worst happened.
A few days before Christmas 2019 I got to meet this personable and popular nine-year-old; lucky for me there was a special feed room near his stall keeping Sweet Little Man’s supply of carrots fresh and at the ready. Or he may have just asked me to leave.
“We had to move him to a different stall,” laughed Mike Walsh, farm manager for Joe Guerrieri’s Winview Farm in Caledon East. “He would bang on his door until it came off the tracks and then swing it, as if to say ‘excuse me, where are my carrots? Do you know who I am?’”
It has been four months, much of it spent in a stall, since Sweet Little Man charged his way to a third-place finish in a grass race at Woodbine in late summer despite bones in his left front ankle beginning to break. It was his 52nd race of a wonderful career but one that went on once race too long.
What followed were heroic actions by veterinarians and staff at the Ontario Veterinary College, countless hours of around-the-clock care by dozens of horse lovers and a pledge by owner Joe that everything would be done to save the horse.
Don and JoAnne Amos, courtesy JoAnne Amos
News of Sweet Little Man’s injury spread throughout Ontario, reaching JoAnne Amos, whose late husband Don planned the mating of Kentucky stallion Jazil and his own mare Honey Treat in 2009 that produced the horse.
The Amos’ had owned horses on a small scale beginning in the 1990s and Don had immersed himself in horse racing some 20 years earlier after leaving his job at Bell Canada.
“As a child, Don joined his first cousin Nancy Brooks and her family showing Shetland ponies at the Royal Winter Fair,” said JoAnne. “He would get all dressed up, top hat and all, and show the ponies. Horses were in his blood.”
Don took his first job in racing in the late 1970s as General Manager of Woodbine Sales, which held the annual Thoroughbred auction. It was at that time that I met Don through my Dad, Ewen Morrison, who also worked at Bell. Realizing that he had a horse racing-crazy teenage daughter, my Dad asked Don if he could take me to the races and the horse sale. Those trips paved the way to my racing career.
The first Thoroughbreds that Don owned came by way of Andy Stronach, whose father Frank owned the family’s large racing and breeding farm.
“One Christmas Eve, Andy called and asked Don to go in partnership with him,” said JoAnne. “We didn’t have the money, We had a young family but Don borrowed the money and we went on to have lots of good luck with a small stable.”
Don went on to work for Frank Stronach at Magna International Auto Parts and chief executive officer before retiring in 2006.
Honey Treat gave birth to a jet-black colt on February 24, 2010 at the farm of Cassandra Vickers near Horseshoe Valley. “Cassandra brought him out and said, ‘here’s your little man’,” remembers JoAnne. “I loved that name and tried to get Our Little Man but it was taken. So he became Sweet Little Man.”
Michael Burns photo
When he was ready to begin racing, champion trainer Dan Vella guided Sweet Little Man through the first few years of his career. They knew right away that ‘Slim’ as he became known, was not an average horse. He finished in the top three nine times in his 15 races for Don including once in a $125,000 stakes race.
“He was a nice horse and always easy to get along with,” said Vella. “He was tenacious for sure.”
Niggling aches and pains including a mild, high suspensory issue meant a long layoff for Sweet Little Man from 2014 to 2015. Sadly, was at this time that Don became ill with Pick’s Disease, a rare form of dementia and JoAnne had to sell the horses.
Vella raced Sweet Little Man four times in 2015, including in a claiming race, and that is when Guerrieri paid $20,000 to purchase him from a race.
“I was in the claiming game a lot more that year,” said Guerrieri. “I liked to claim a horse who had upside. I knew he had some minor issues but he was a good runner and just beautiful.”
Pat Parente was in charge of training Sweet Little Man for a few starts for Guerrieri before the horse was transferred to the barn of Martin Drexler in the spring of 2016. He won two straight races and came back in 2017 and 2018 with some amazing runs. He won five races for Guerrieri and finished a remarkable third in the Grade 2 Play the King Stakes behind champion Mr. Havercamp.
But according to Drexler, the rigours of racing were wearing on Sweet Little Man.
“He was never more than body sore but he had soreness all over,” said Drexler. “He was getting chiropractic treatments and magnetic blankets; anything that would help him. He loved to run and he would just go out there and run hard every time. He was the toughest horse I have ever seen in my life.”
Drexler went as far to say that because the horse has a huge heart and so much desire to race, that he, and others, made a mistake continuing to run the horse. “Nobody did that horse any favours, including me. I will take the blame too. Vets, grooms, trainers. Everyone knew he was a sore horse. But I never thought he would break down though.”
After a winter vacation, Sweet Little Man returned to racing this past spring under the care of promising young trainer Krista Cole, who had the gelding looking healthy and robust. But in that fifth start of the season, the gelding’s leg gave way.
“Our jockey Keveh Nicholls said he felt something halfway down the stretch but he could not get Sweet Little Man to stop running.” It wasn’t until well past the finish line that Nicholls slowed the horse down. “We started running down the track to get to him,” said Cole. “But he was on the horse van and headed back to the barn. At the barn, my vet Dr. Candace Allen was there. She said he had to get to the vet college in Guelph right away. Everybody was crying.”
In a turn of fate, JoAnne Amos was also at Woodbine that day celebrating her son Darren’s 45th birthday. “It was amazing he was racing. We had planned a day at the races and since I still follow Sweet Little Man and get notifications when he races, I found out the day before. My girlfriends all sent money with me to bet on him.” JoAnne did not realize that Sweet Little Man had injured himself in the race but later received updates from Don’s cousin Nancy.
“I had no idea what had happened but Nancy told me later and I was just so happy to hear they were trying to save him,” she said.
Guerrieri, who was also at Woodbine for the race, was also shocked when he heard the news minutes after the race that Sweet Little Man had been vanned off the track.
“I got a call from Krista and the Dr. Allen. They said he was really bad. I just told them to try the surgery. Dr. Nathalie Cote was at OVC there and she operated on him. He has nine screws in his leg.” The operation was performed by Dr. Cote with the horse standing up, fearing that if Sweet Little Man lay down, his weight on his leg to get back up would cause more damage.
“He made it through that first night and the vet techs just fell in love with him,” said Cole. “They had buckets of treats outside his stall and gave him constant attention every day and night.”
Dr. Cote and team wanted Sweet Little Man to stay at the rehab portion of the clinic for a month to ensure his injury healed well. The horse was never allowed to lie down but it proved to be the best thing for him.
“After a month he went on a van to head back home to Joe’s,” said Cole. “The staff at the College were very emotional.”
December 20, 2019 – Sweet Little Man is home in Caledon East
Sweet Little Man settled into Guerrieri’s farm and, under the watched eye of Walsh, his daughter Kaylee, horse manager Lori Pinch and others, was able to begin enjoying some hand-walking by December. They expect Sweet Little Man will be able to be turned out in his own paddock early in the new year.
“He is going to make someone a wonderful companion,” said Guerrieri. “I am in no hurry to have someone adopt him, it has to be the right person.”
Drexler, like so many others, has kept in touch with news of one of his favourite horses. “He was a good, friendly horse, a great racehorse and he put it out there every time. If there is one thing that he deserves, it’s a story written about him.”
Don Amos passed away early in 2018 but his passion for horses seemed to reverberate through the career of Sweet Little Man said JoAnne.
“He would have been so proud of raising that little horse I tell you.”
And thanks to the wonderful community of horsepeople, Sweet Little Man will have many more years of giving and receiving that love that saved him.
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