Top trainer returns for B.C. Classic – and auction
Casie Coleman is a world-class trainer of harness racehorses.
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Updated: November 10, 2009 5:29 PM
Casie Coleman is something of a superstar in the world of harness racing.
Just 29, she’s become one of Canada’s top trainers – a feat in its own right in a sport typically dominated by men.
But when you add the fact that Coleman has climbed back from a devastating injury, her considerable achievements seem all the more remarkable.
On Nov. 11, Coleman returns to Fraser Downs Raceway and Casino for the 2009 B.C. Breeders’ Classic.
She’s the star attraction at a special silent auction that coincides with the championship sporting event.
“It’s the first time she’s been back since leaving B.C. to take on the big boys back East,” Fraser Downs general manager Chuck Keeling says.
Nearly 10 years ago, the Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary grad almost died at Sandown racetrack in Victoria, where she was a groom for trainer/driver Bill Davis.
She was putting away her horse, Southside Pride, after the Saturday afternoon races when the alcohol-based liniment she was heating up in order to warm her horse’s feet suddenly burst into flame.
When she unwittingly added more fuel – she couldn’t see the flame – the container exploded.
She was badly burnt, and spent three months recovering at Royal Jubillee Hospital in Victoria, where she received six skin grafts.
Since her “self-inflicted barn fire,” she’s risen to the top of her sport, earning two O’Brien Awards as Canada’s Trainer of the Year. She’s based out of Toronto, where her record-setting horse, Sportswriter, has banked almost $700,000 in seven winning starts.
Next Wednesday, Coleman and her family will be at Fraser Downs to help raise funds for the Burn Unit at Royal Jubilee through a silent auction inside the Atrium.
It’s a chance for the Surrey-born Coleman to give back to the hospital that played such a huge role in her recovery.
Items run the gamut, ranging from a $4,000 racebike to a Las Vegas getaway.
“People across the continent are pledging items,” Keeling says. “She has been burning up the phone herself.”
Coleman will be signing autographs. Posters will be given to the first 500 people who show up. Her Toronto-based driver is also coming to the Breeders Cup event, and will be donating any money he makes that day.
“I’m so looking forward to seeing my old racing friends and schoolmates,” Coleman said in a press release.
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