[caption id="attachment_3910" align="alignright" width="270"] Bobbie Dimma aboard Norway House. June 29, 1968.[/caption] by Bob This week we remember two promising young apprentices who got their start at Assiniboia Downs in the 1960s, Bobbie Dimma and Vernon Sayler. Most of us are familiar with "Bobbie". Yes, that's how his name appeared on his birth certificate, Bobbie…
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George Howell, son of a blacksmith, spent two decades training for the “House”
[caption id="attachment_3867" align="alignright" width="270"] George Victor Howell[/caption] by Bob "He was a real gentleman." That's how people who knew the man that trained horses and ran Jack Hardy's JY Farm in St. Adolphe for the better part of 20 years, described George Victor Howell. The Howell family hailed from Saskatchewan, but made their home in…
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Irwin Driedger, the Jock with the Golden Locks
[caption id="attachment_3839" align="alignright" width="270"] Irwin Driedger aboard Sovereign Award winner Liz's Pride. Gerry Hart photo.[/caption] by Bob Clifford "Shorty" Gray hired 11-year-old Irwin Driedger as an exercise rider. The young blonde schoolboy from Russell, Manitoba tipped the scales at 78 pounds and got his first win on a race track at the Neepawa Fair Grounds…
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