Montreal racehorse owner Marvin Walker, who passed earlier this week at age 84, is best remembered in the Quebec racing industry for a race he didn’t win.
Walker was the co-owner, with trainer Pat Lang, of Chester Boy, disqualified from victory in Quebec’s richest race of 1997, the $184,000 Coupe des Eleveurs final for Quebec-bred three-year-old pacing colts, for a pylon violation that was not clearly visible on any of four different camera angles. The stewards placed him last, contending a sulky wheel had passed inside one pylon.
Walker called the decision “ludicrous…absurd. Whatever we have to do, we’ll do. We’re not going to allow this to happen. If they can do this, I don’t want to be in this business…at least not in Quebec.”
He and Lang appealed the ruling all the way to the Quebec Court of Appeal, at considerable expense, but lost. The court said they had failed to prove conclusively that the stewards’ decision was unreasonable.
Walker’s funeral was held Wednesday. Contributions in his memory can be made to the Marvin Walker Memorial Fund c/o The Israel Cancer Research Fund, 5800 Cavendish Blvd., Suite 405, Montreal, Que., H4W 2T5.
Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Marvin Walker.
(A Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)