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Seabiscuit and Woolf immortalized |
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Written by Sherri Gallant LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Tuesday, 17 November 2009 |
Cardston jockey George Woolf and Seabiscuit — the horse he rode to victory in 1938 — will soon be immortalized in bronze, more than likely on the grounds of the Remington Carriage Museum, in Woolf’s home town.
The sculpture, commissioned by Cardston-area rancher Jack Lowe for $130,000, will be completed by Lethbridge artist Don Toney and is to be unveiled in June, a month after what would have been Woolf’s 100th birthday.
For Howard Snyder, manager of the Carriage Museum, it’s recognition that’s long overdue.
“This monumental bronze will stand in tribute to the ‘Iceman,’ George Woolf, and his rise from small-town beginnings to lasting fame in the world of sporting achievement,” said Snyder, who enjoys telling visitors to the museum about Woolf and other famous folk who’ve hailed from Cardston.
Fay Wray, who co-starred with giant gorilla King Kong in 1933, comes from the southern Alberta town as well. Snyder was instrumental in creation of the Fay Wray fountain on main street in Cardston, which pays tribute to the starlet, and arranged for her travel from New York for its unveiling in 1993.
Now, Snyder and Doug Wilson, a Calgary historian, have been working for a year to get permission for Toney’s new sculpture to find a home at the provincial carriage museum.
“Seventy and a half years after the race at Pimlico in Maryland, the U.S. Post Office department came out with a stamp showing George Woolf riding Seabiscuit beating Charlie Kurtsinger on War Admiral,” Snyder said.
“Which shows the undiminished continuing interest in this story, because it is a Cinderella story. That’s why it made a good movie. This was the depth of the depression, people were depressed as well, and they needed heroes.”
Don Toney has used bronze sculpture to capture many historic southern Alberta events.
Born and raised in Pincher Creek, his bronzes are sold through galleries in Calgary, Edmonton, Banff and Kelowna and have been presented to winners at the Calgary Stampede for many years. The Alberta government has purchased dozens of his pieces for official presentation to visiting dignitaries from throughout the world.
Most recently locally, Toney completed a life-sized statue of a Galt School of Nursing student, now installed outside the Galt Museum and Archives.
“He wasn’t particularly known to be a very handsome thoroughbred,” said Toney of the race horse. “He was almost what we might think of as a running quarter horse these days. Some people described him as a cow pony, but I think that’s something of an exaggeration. I know horses, and he was not a stretchy-looking thoroughbred type, but he was a handsome horse, maybe a little stockier and maybe not as tall.
“He was over in one knee a bit, which really didn’t harm him in any way. The fact that he didn’t really look the part, and he had a rough beginning — he didn’t really want to run — is a real interesting part of the story. Then he got a new trainer that really turned things around.”
Snyder said the Seabiscuit story is one of the great inspirational stories in American history, in which an unappreciated horse, a disappointed millionaire, a displaced Colorado cowboy and a young Canadian jockey in decline came together in an astounding combination of circumstance and talent.
“And later, into this circle stepped another Canadian jockey, one whose career had gone from strength to strength,” Snyder said.
Woolf was born on a Cardston-area ranch May 31, 1910, and died at age 35. His mother had been a trick rider in a circus and his father rode in rodeos. He began racing thoroughbreds professionally in 1928 in Vancouver, before going to Tijuana and California, where he eventually used the Santa Anita park race track as his home base.
He earned the nickname Iceman for his calm demeanor and patience, and was known to nap before races while other jockeys suffered from cases of nerves. Woolf suffered from Type 1 diabetes.
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