The organizers of my recent talk at the library about Rivers of Gold asked me if I could work in some local history. And so it was that Mildred Kane, first woman to have her horse win the coveted Kings’ Plate down the road at the old Woodbine racetrack, became the focal point for the standing-room only crowd.
While the story of Mildred and her horse Willie the Kid, is part of the fabric the Rivers of Gold saga, on this particular evening I had invited my neighbour, 14-year-old India Kane, Mildred’s great great great granddaughter, to share the stage.
India not only provided the actual Kings’ Plate trophy, photographs, paintings and other memorabilia, when asked about Mildred, India graciously and bravely spoke at length about Mildred.
Willie the Kid, incidentally, was the first training assignment of former jockey, Gordon ‘Pete’ McCann. Several years later Eddie Taylor would put Pete in charge of the herds of Windfields Farms horses, Indeed, were it not for the quiet genius of McCann the landscape of the Thoroughbred, world-wide, would be very different….
to be continued…