Auction items and donations continue to roll in for Casie Coleman’s special day on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 11 – BC Breeders Classic Day at Fraser Downs
.
“Everyone I approach has been anxious to contribute,” Coleman told Norm Borg on the Trot Radio national network earlier this week. “The response has been amazing.”
Coleman credits the staff at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria for saving her life 10 years ago following an accident in the barns at Sandown Park when she was a 19-year-old groom for trainer/driver Bill Davis. “It was 100 per cent my fault,” she says.
Surrey-born Coleman was mixing an alcohol-based liniment to warm her horse’s feet, when flames ignited and left her with third-degree burns to her legs and right arm as well as first-degree burns to her cheeks and neck. “Those people at the hospital in Victoria put me back together,” she says. “Now I have the opportunity to give something back.”
Proceeds from a unique silent auction in the Atrium at Fraser Downs Racetrack on November 11 will go directly to the Burn Unit at the Royal Jubilee Hospital. Coleman herself has been collecting donations from her travels on the Eastern harness racing circuit, where she has been recognized with two O’Brien Awards (2005 and 2006) as Canada’s Trainer of the Year.
Harness racing colleagues have donated a gold horse show ring, a magnetic horse blanket and human magnetic back pad, vitamin supplies, Wilson tack, a horse rain sheet, gift certificates at training centres, blood labs and for shipping expenses. Trot Magazine has contributed jackets and hats and local standardbred artist Alana Main is in the process of completing a special painting.
Coleman has donated several items from her personalized clothing line of hoody sweaters, fleece sweaters, stable hats and tee shirts and 100 magnets of Sportswriter, her world record-holding two-year-old pacer. The grand prizes come in the form of a Four Starzz race bike and Easy Step jogger with a combined retail value of more than $5,500, the cost having been shared by Coleman and Brodeur Sulky.
Significant cash donations have been forwarded from Merlin House, Leah Clancey and others, with more on their way, according to Coleman.
“With our BC Breeders Stake races on November 11 combined with the Casie Coleman celebrations, it will be one, historic day,” says Fraser Downs Director of Racing Jackson Wittup.
There are four featured stakes scheduled on the November 11 Wednesday afternoon card: the BC Breeders Stake for two-year-old fillies; the BC Breeders Stake for two-year-old colts and geldings; the Mary Murphy BC Breeders Stake for three-year-old fillies; and the BC Breeders Stake for three-year-old colts and geldings.
Eliminations to qualify for November 11 continue Friday and Saturday nights at Fraser Downs with start times at 7:30 p.m.
(Fraser Downs)