After we ran photos of the dystopian hell that onetime glorious Blue Bonnets has fallen into lately, we feel obliged to run these pics of happier times at the track, kindly sent along to us at the Coolopolis Towers.
This 1969 photo shows Ugo Magni, the groom, holding the bridle of a special horse from Cuba named Cayajabo in the Winners' Circle.
Thoroughbred racing was wildly popular in Cuba during the pre-Communist era under Batista but suddenly those nags had nowhere to go, as they were banned from running in the U.S.A.
Our own PM Pierre Trudeau had a more charitable view towards those ponies itching to tear down the track, however, so he allowed them to compete here in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada.
"The least we can say is, Cayajabo was saddled down with lots of weight before the race was started. Lots of people carried a grudge against Commies, and in Cuba’s case, the lose of the very profitable Vegas of the Caribbeans by American riffraff," writes Magni.
