We caught up with the former Assiniboia Downs steward, Bob Nokes, on a frigid -35 evening in Winnipeg and helped him go through old win pictures dating back as far as 1958, and he was thoroughly enjoying himself. The lifetime racetracker now bides his time going for coffee with his second wife, Rose, during the winter, golfing in the summer and visiting the backstretch (sometimes with brush and a hoof pick in hand) when the live racing is in full swing.
The former senior league hockey goalie and longtime Legion member has also kept himself busy breeding horses.
Nokes would be one of those little guys who when aggregated together form the backbone of the thoroughbred breeding industry in Canada. They don’t get a lot of attention, but they provide much needed and undervalued support for the racing industry. Nokes has bred four horses during his retirement and two of them are stakes winners. All are out of the winning mare Madd Karol (Madraar—Royal Debut by Slewpy), that he purchased in Phoenix through his son Rob and trainer Clay Brinson.
Now retired and given away to a good home, Madd Karol produced four foals for Nokes including Northern Twister (by Ran South, $16,741), Wouf de Douf (Ran South, $60,976), Madd Edition (Battle Cat, $41,670, Frank Arnason Sire Stakes) and the latest Sound Design (Battle Cat, $17,979, Frank Arnason Sire Stakes).
All four horses were trained by Shelley Brown and primarily ridden by Jerry Pruitt, the oldest jockey in Canada at 65.
“Cam (Ziprick) did all the matings and looked after everything,” said Nokes, who will campaign Wouf de Douf (Nicknamed Woufy), Madd Edition (Eddie) and Sound Design (Blue) this year. “We’d just go out there for coffee.”
Madd Karol received the Manitoba CTHS Broodmare Award of Excellence in 2015.
“I was so surprised I couldn’t say anything at the awards dinner,” said Nokes. “It knocked my socks off!”
The 73-year-old Nokes was born in Winnipeg and moved to Vancouver at a young age, where he got his first taste of the racetrack at Exhibition Park picking up tickets off the tarmac.
“We’d take them home to my dad and he’d go through them,” said Nokes. “We found some good ones too!”
Nokes got his first win picture at Lansdowne Park in Vancouver with My Lands on Aug. 1, 1958. Sadly, it was around the same time that his father Clarence died of heart attack. Nokes was only 14 at the time and it wasn’t long before he was on the road escaping the pain and searching for life’s treasures at the racetrack. He ended up working for former leading Assiniboia Downs trainer Bob Watt and then found himself a home at Assiniboia Downs.
“We had seven 2-year-olds and I still remember Nick Cizik breaking horses with driving lines and sandbags on their backs,” said Nokes.
Nokes went on to become a valet at the Downs in 1962, working for jockeys that included among others Bobby Stewart, Joanne Phipps, Vicki Warhol, Jacques DesAutels, Tom Adkins and Mark Oster. He worked as a Valet until 1984 and also did a stint as the head-check man for the standardbreds during the winter. It was in the latter position that he got his push into being a steward.
Nokes discovered some hanky panky going on in one of the races, and one thing led to another. “Some boys from Ohio were trying to pull a fast one,” said Nokes. “And I ended up in court.”
He was asked to become a steward at Assiniboia Downs and officially became one in 1985. He stayed at it until 2002, minus a few years when he worked in a similar capacity in Saskatchewan.
“I just tried to treat everyone fairly,” said Nokes, who saw all kinds of shenanigans during his time as a Steward, including horsemen trying to fudge workouts.
“I remember once going to watch a filly that needed a work,” said Nokes. “It was a gelding.”
The best horse he ever saw race at the Downs? Canadian Horse of the Year and 1980 Winnipeg Futurity winner Frost King.
“They’d feed him in the morning, do his stall, put him in ice, jog him, bring him back to his stall, give him some hay, ice him again and then send him back out to the track,” said Nokes. “He probably impressed me more than any other horse.”
Shortly after retiring, Noke’s first wife of 37 years, Doris, passed away. His son Rob and daughter Lori, both of whom worked at the track during the early part of their lives, were already grown up and on their own. Doris liked the horses, especially a standardbred named Ringmore Duchess.
“She had a stroke and she was just gone,” said Nokes. “That hit me pretty hard.”
A few years later, Nokes met his second wife, Rosemarie, who also loved the horses, but who also recently fell ill and is now in an assisted living home.
“Rose helped me with everything,” said Nokes. “We handled the horse expenses. We had Hot of the Bench racing and he helped pay the way. We were very lucky that we had a few horses that were picking up some of the slack for us. When Rose got sick three years ago, we sold Madd Karol for a riding horse and she won ribbons in Halter Class.”
Having three horses in training in 2017 will keep Nokes busy, but you could tell something was slightly amiss. He’d like to have Rose at his side when the horses start running this year.
“There’s nobody to talk too when you’re alone,” said Nokes. “And the cold is hard on me. I go to visit her twice a week now. I’m going to take her some racing tapes. She’ll love that.”
And his 2017 winners will warm them up.
