Richard William Mathes – But please call him “Bud”

R.W. Mathes (Assiniboia Downs)

By Track Historian Bob Gates

“Bud” Mathes was an Alberta horseman with ties to the early days of racing in Winnipeg. As tends to be the case with our history blog, the name of our honouree may not be familiar to all of us. After all, Bud’s time on the old prairie racing circuit dates back anywhere from 65 to 85 years.

Let’s start with a few highlights to help explain his connection to racing history, right here in the Peg. Then we can tell the story of a sincere and honest man who so deserves to be remembered.

• In 1953 and 1954 trained for R. J. Speers’ Whittier Park Stock Farm winning the 1954 Winnipeg Futurity and Osiris Plate with Donalda and the Canadian Derby with Treherne.
• In 1955 won 18 races and nearly $15,000 in purses with two garden-variety claimers, Last Drink and Cloudchaser. This rock star pair cost him a grand total of $1,000.
• Won the Downs leading trainer title in 1958, the first year of racing at Assiniboia Downs when he recorded 23 wins in 42 days of racing.
• In 1964 won the R. J. Speers Memorial with Firerullah and the Gold Cup with Doolin Point.

Now that we have your attention, let’s find out more about the man who was honest to a fault, passionate about horses and wasn’t one to mince words.

Bud was six-years-old when he was given his first thoroughbred. Mathes, who trained for more than 40 years, came from a farm in the Rimbey district, 70 miles southwest of Edmonton, Alberta. In 1939 he set foot on his first racetrack, old Chinook Park in Calgary. He was 19 when he left home in 1940 and travelled to Winnipeg to begin his fledgling career. By 1941 Bud was training his own stable.

Training thoroughbreds took him to Vancouver, and race tracks along the West Coast of Washington, California and Agua Caliente in Mexico. In Canada, he took his show on the road and travelled to Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. In 1950 he stepped away from training and was part of Wilson Dunn’s gate crew that handled the starts for the prairie racing circuit. He returned to training in 1951 and enjoyed a lot of success in the mid-1950s.

During the 1950s and 1960s Bud was one of, if not the best conditioner of thoroughbreds in Western Canada and more than held his own wherever he raced.

Who knew? Bud trained for California oilman, Howard Keck and his Bluemont Stable. If Keck’s name doesn’t sound familiar, it should. This is the same Howard Keck that won the 1986 Kentucky Derby and 1987 Breeders Cup Classic with Ferdinand.

One of the highlights of his career was Treherne’s victory in the 1954 Canadian Derby. One month earlier Jim Speers, Whittier Park Stock Farm’s filly could have been claimed for a modest $1,500. However, on July 1, 1954, 14,000 fans at Polo Park saw Treherne take the $10,000 added Canadian Derby. The winners’ share of the purse, $9,790 made it, at that time, the richest of all Canadian Derbies.

Who knew? Mathes was also part of rare racetrack “drama” in July 1955. Bud “dropped” a claim for Sam Bells Supreme Leader at old Polo Park. Following the race in which Supreme Leader finished third, Bell refused to give up his horse because of a “deep attachment” for the runner. When racing officials couldn’t convince Bell to turn the horse over to Mathes, they would not allow another of Bell’s horses to compete in the race that followed. Later that night, cooler heads prevailed and Bell turned Supreme Leader over to Mathes.    

Bud had a way with horses, and this was never more evident than in the case of his Last Drink and Cloudchaser in 1955. Mathes’ 10-year-old Last Drink, which he purchased for $600, won 11 of her 21 starts, while finishing second, twice and third, three times, earning $8,410. In the fall of 1954 after the Calgary race meet ended, Mathes couldn’t even give the old mare away! In addition, 9-year-old Cloudchaser, a $400 purchase, won seven and placed, five times in 16 starts, earning $6,415. Two nice horses to have in the barn!   

In 1986 he stepped away from the racetrack for good and never looked back. Horse racing missed Bud, but he knew it was time. He had a good run and believed that the greatest thing in life was to have had the opportunity to do something you truly love.

Bud’s daughter Coleen, spoke of the hundreds of “win” photos that featured his runners from the past, and of one picture in particular. The photo was of Ron Turcotte winning the Kentucky Derby with Secretariat and is signed:

Bud, thanks for everything, Ron

In another memory of Bud, she recalled a meeting that he had with Wayne Gretzky in their barn:

I remember Wayne Gretzky sitting on a straw bale, while my dad told him he would not train his horse. “You bought a bum kid, that horse couldn’t outrun the Budweiser team.” Gretzky laughed and later I pleaded , “For Pete’s sake, Dad, it’s WAYNE GRETZKY!” He scowled at me and simply answered. “I don’t care who it is, the horse can’t run.” It was always about the horses. I realize now, that is what made him a great trainer – that singular focus. He knew what was right and he did not waver, not in the face of fame nor in the name of diplomacy. 

Bud lived out his retirement at his farm in Rimbey and passed June 19, 1999. His grave marker reads in part:

When the One Great Scorer
comes to write against your name,
He writes not what you won or lost,
but how you played the Game.

Coleen gave the eulogy at his funeral:

… My dad recognized the sanctity of the horse. He loved
and respected that creation like no one I’ll ever know.
The God of my understanding shines his favour on those
who take good care of His creations. I thought of this when Bud died
at exactly 4:30 in the morning – the exact time he woke
every morning for 44 years to go to the track. I like to think
he had business with a far greater Horseman.

Historian Note:

Getting to tell the story of Bud Mathes was special. While all of the history pieces I prepare are an honour to share, Bud’s was different. It had a unique combination of history from a bygone era and told the story of a man who was an excellent example of a product from an age that is no more. Along the way, I was fortunate enough to meet his daughter, Coleen who put his story into a perspective that you’d never get from researching newspaper articles of the period.

Don’t get me wrong the Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald and our own Free Press and Tribune provided valuable information, but an article Coleen prepared for the Rimbey Record and Red Deer Advocate and Bud’s eulogy, together with emails, Facebook messages and a telephone conversation elevated the experience beyond that which has become the norm for my other stories.

Thanks Coleen and you as well Bud, for you sir lived “A Wonderful Life!”