Trainer Carl Anderson with stakes-placed Princeoftheprairie. (George Williams)
By G.S. Thompson
I had the pleasure of sitting down with master horse person Carl Anderson this week, just to reminisce about some of the good horses he has trained over the years. Anderson doesn’t pull any punches, and you can tell he knows his craft better than most. His stories are real.
He started walking horses at Assiniboia Downs at age 13, grew up on Sturgeon Road just down the road from the track, and took out his trainer’s licence at 19. He’ll be 81 in May. He has won 1,208 races, 10 trainer titles in Saskatchewan, a title here at the Downs in 2009, and was Canada’s leading trainer by wins in 1989.
Carl Anderson (second from right) in the winner’s circle with Secret Cipher after winning the 1983 Assiniboia Downs Gold Cup.
Anderson has won the Gold Cup four times, with Black is Beautiful, Secret Cipher, Deputy Country, and Albarino, all game horses with physical issues and modest bloodlines, turned into Gold Cup winners by a trainer who outworked their problems. As long-time client Dr. Ross McKague said in a previous interview: “He trained for his owners and not for training titles.”
Anderson also did a masterful job training Bill Drew’s McKague, who we wrote about here a few weeks ago. McKague is not in the barn this year, having been retired 100 per cent sound as a 10-year-old after a long and lucrative career. Nice work, Carl.
Bill Drew named the horse after his vet, Dr. Ross McKague, without telling him first, then spent the next two years hoping the horse could run. He could. McKague compiled a record of 9-11-10 from 34 starts and earned over $200,000, with Anderson taking over for his three-year-old season and never looking back. One more detail: McKague the horse shares his birthday, May 25, with both Dr. Ross McKague and Carl Anderson.
You can’t make that up.
Carl Anderson with multiple stakes-winner McKague in 2022. (Ethan Cairns / Winnipeg Free Press)
Anderson’s resourcefulness has never been in question. On a Sunday in June 1974, he was hauling a mare named Sylvadust to the Downs for the second race when his truck and trailer got flat tires 10 miles from the track. No help was coming. He saddled the mare, galloped her cross-country, talked his way past security with the first race already running, and got her ready in time. Sylvadust went gate-to-wire and won by three lengths. That’s Carl Anderson.
But the best horse he ever trained never got to show the world what he could do.
His name was What a Hoist. Anderson worked him twice before his first start, a half mile in 46 1/5, five-eighths in 57 4/5, and then worked him against his Gold Cup winner Secret Cipher and another good horse. “He just circled them like it was nothing,” said Anderson.
In his first career start in Calgary, What a Hoist fell on his head leaving the gate, blinkers full of mud, went around the field, and finished a fifth of a second off the track record without being asked. In his second start against the five best two-year-olds in Alberta in mud, which he hated, he again drew away to win, getting the six furlongs in 1:12 2/5. The best older horses on the grounds that same afternoon went in 1:13 4/5. “What a horse,” said Anderson. “He was the best I ever had, but he had breathing problems and was never able to reach his full potential.”
Carl Anderson with Silver Sign and groom Lisa Deboynton. (George Williams / Winnipeg Free Press)
There is one more chapter, and it’s an important one. In a profile on ASDowns.com, ASD historian Bob Gates wrote about Anderson’s brother Leonard passing away in his arms on December 14, 2015. Anderson sold his tack and quit. Clients walked away with him. He was gone four years. He returned in 2020 because he missed the mornings and the horses.
Twelve horses in the barn now. A couple of nice two-year-olds. Still going at 80. “Lots of 4 a.m. mornings,” said Anderson. “Lots of hard work.” Sixty years’ worth. Every one of them earned.
Some things you just can’t stay away from.