Dr. Walker, who sits on the Ontario Racing Commission and LongRun Thoroughbred Horse Society and shares nine horses at her Beamsville, Ontario farm with husband Chuck Nicks, is truly a woman of all trades.
Horse racing and a love for animals has made up most of Dr. Walker’s life since her early years in Pointe Claire, Quebec. “I was watching horses racing on television before I was 10-years-old,” said Dr. Walker.
By the age of 13, she had her first horse and fittingly, it was a retired racehorse who had been competing at Blue Bonnets racetrack in Montreal.
“I was really interested in pedigrees and, even without the internet back then, I spent all kinds of time researching the breeding of racehorses.”
Horses had to take a back seat once she began York University. Her studies included history and science and she graduated with a Bachelor of Science. An interest in veterinary science took her to the University of Guelph where completed the D.V.M. program.
She worked at Toronto General Hospital and Toronto Western Hospital as the vet for the animal research departments.
Dr. Walker had a desire to mix her love of animals with another of her loves, law, so she attended three years of law school and now has her own practice.
“I would say 80% of my time is doing my civil law work which can include animal care, vet issues, and insurance claims.”
Careers aside, Dr. Walker’s main passion is for racehorses and their well being. She recognizes that retired and/or unwanted horses can sometimes end up in slaughter pens and wants to help push the idea of humane euthanization.
“No one wants to really talk about it,” said Dr. Walker. “But too many people don’t have the resources or don’t care enough about horses to do the right thing if they don’t want them anymore. I am working on a program to make humane euthanization, in situations where it is the last option, feasible.”
Dr. Walker has several of her own retired horses but also has a well-bred stallion with an interesting story to tell.
Number Juan, a son of Silver Deputy, raced for top California owner Mike Pegram in 2003 through 2005, winning over $150,000 before winding his way down the class ladder. When the horse arrived at Fort Erie in 2007 and won four straight races, Dr. Walker was intrigued.
“I was looking at a horse to claim for myself,” said Dr. Walker. “But in his last race of that year, he suffered a bad suspensory injury. He was so lovely, I still wanted him and the owner and trainer just gave him to me.”
Number Juan, a stallion, is a well mannered part of Dr. Walker’s horse family and two years ago, they decided to breed him to their mare, Beach Cottage.
The two-year-old, Juan Stormy Night, is expected to get some experience at the track later in 2013.
Admittedly, Dr. Walker knew little about the business when she embarked on racehorse ownership but her love of bloodlines landed her as a number one fan of the stallion Storm Cat, grandsire of Beach Cottage. He was the sire of one of the first runners she ever owned, Night Cat, who raced in the mid 1990’s at Fort Erie.
“I liked the looks of him and his offspring, their personality, their success, everything. I even have [Storm Cat’s] name on my car’s license plate.”
Dr. Walker and Nicks would love to see Juan Stormy Night at the races one day but get a kick out of just having horses at their farm.
“We do this as a hobby, we love the horses,” said Dr. Walker. “Chuck and I each have a riding horse, his grandfather was in horse racing for 70 years, so it’s in our family. If we could produced a horse good enough to even race at Woodbine, we’d be thrilled.”
