Awesome Gem and somewhere Clyde is smiling . . .
July 20th, 2010 Comments Off
I lost my racing buddy, Clyde Haugen, about 18 months ago. He owned shares of about 20 different horses through West Point Thoroughbreds. Clyde was my only local client here in Indian Harbour Beach, FL., but he had become much more than a client. He passed away just a couple days before leaving to watch his favorite horse, Awesome Gem race in Hong Kong. Clyde and I had a standing agreement that I would paint all of his Grade 1 winners; he called me from the Belmont winner’s circle when Lear’s Princess upset Rags To Riches to win her G1. “Get the paints out!” Time went by and Clyde and West Point had other G1 winners, but Awesome Gem was so close many times, but unable to win that elusive Grade 1 stakes race. I told Clyde that Awesome Gem didn’t need a Grade 1 win for me to paint him; Clyde was so happy as he took it as a honor for Gem. Less than a week later, Clyde passed away. I went to the dog track where we had watched many races together and left my Awesome Gem pin over the bar, where it still hangs to this day.
Last week on my drive to Kentucky for the Fasig Tipton sale I was listening to the races on sirius radio; Awesome Gem went to the post as an under dog in the Hollywood Gold Cup. As I drove through the mountains of Kentucky I listened as the seven year old Awesome Gem came through on the rail and captured his Grade 1 while breaking the $2 million mark in earnings. I thought of how Clyde would gather his family together for the big races and how this horse helped bring his family consisting of five daughters scattered all across the country together through racing. Clyde fought cancer for over 20 years and offered encouragement to so many people who were fighting their own battles with the disease. I’ve been with him when he’d overhear complete strangers talking about cancer, only to have Clyde go into a motivational type pep talk and offer to stay in contact if he could be of help. Clyde was a good man, a good friend, and good human being . . . and all he ever wanted was Awesome Gem to win a Grade 1; was that too much to ask? Evidently, it wasn’t. Somewhere Clyde is smiling while I was driving with tears in my eyes thinking of my friend and his favorite horse.
This is the painting for Clyde of Lear’s Princess. He called from the winner’s circle just minutes after she crossed the finish line, “Get out the paints”.
