Dont Tell Me Again Harness Pacer Pennsylvania

A man who could just naturally make a horse get fast, Walter Case Jr., for those unfamiliar with the proper noun, was similar the Aaron Merriman of the 1990s on the racetrack.

Alcohol and drugs all the same, things he had seen all effectually him while growing upwardly, were a large office of his un-doing as a top harness driver - to the bespeak that he served almost 5 years in jail after stabbing his wife while drunk. Since getting out of jail, the man known as one of the nigh talented reinsman of all time has suffered more nifty tragedy in life, just at present, seemingly on a straight path, he would but love to be able to drive horses over again. Past Debbie Little.

The story of the phoenix is legendary and is perhaps one of the best-known myths. Life, decease, cosmos, destruction and even time itself tin can all be tied to the tale of the phoenix.

In harness racing, the phoenix would exist Walter Example Jr., whose storied career captivated the sport, albeit for a shorter than expected time.

The Greek discussion phoenix ways crimson, the colour that Instance drives in, and in that location'due south no question that his career has emerged from the ashes more than one time and could do so again before long.

Instance, who turned 59 on March v, may not exist as familiar to younger harness fans or participants, since he's only had 78 starts in almost 17 years.

The best way to describe Case for those who don't know him is that he was the Aaron Merriman or Tim Tetrick of the 1990s.

He set the single-flavor dash-win record twice and even though both Merriman and Tetrick take passed his number, they each needed over 1,700 more starts to exercise information technology.

At the time, people thought Instance could become the greatest of all time, but bad choices took many of those glory days from him.

When Instance spiralled downward, he spiralled down large time. Alcohol, drugs, excessive driving penalties and eventually time in prison robbed him of his most prized possession and passion: driving horses.

And even so he has never given up on what he loves. Experiences that would accept made others think twice nigh standing just fuelled Case for some other rising from the ashes.

Case has always been a guarded private who was never particularly comfortable giving interviews, speeches or accepting awards.

"I could bulldoze the worst horse in the earth and not exist nervous at all but put me in front of a chiliad people to give a spoken communication and I'm shaking like a leaf," said Case.

The reasons for his actions in life could be linked to his childhood, and even though he has never given a reason for why he put up those walls, they certainly be.

Case grew upwards in Lewiston, Maine, in a trailer park on the Lewiston Raceway fairgrounds, where he could open his sleeping accommodation window and hear and lookout man the races.

As the son of a trainer, Instance spent his babyhood at the track, as did his friends, like Greg Bowden.

"Nosotros were track rats equally kids," said Bowden, who met Instance when he was 11 years onetime. "We were pre-teens that ate, slept and lived that rail 24/7. We couldn't get enough of it."

Bowden said his all-time times with Case were when it was just the two of them, but when a oversupply came around Instance would become quiet and cautious.

"Y'all've got to understand, he was a very beau, doing corking things," said Bowden. "He achieved things that nobody had ever seen before and in harness racing, drivers don't have agents so he was his own representation and did everything.

"He used to tell me 'I tin can't even explicate the gift I take. They merely go.'"

At 16, Example got his license and likewise started his unhealthy human relationship with alcohol.

"If you have a corking night, you party," said Bowden. "If y'all have a bad night, you have consoling drinks and zippo good comes from information technology merely you don't realize it at the fourth dimension.

"[Case] was a perfectionist. If nosotros were playing puddle he could win nine games but that i game that he lost would totally cloy him. I've seen him win seven races and lose the 8th one and be so mad at himself that he was inconsolable."

Instance admits he's ever been difficult on himself.

Luc Ouellette competed against Case during his heyday at Yonkers Raceway and thinks he was amazingly talented. And insecure.

"In his mind, he was no good if he went 0-for-x because he had no self-worth," said Ouellette. "He could actually brand a equus caballus fly and I found that the horses actually liked Walter, besides. I recall Walter really got inside their head and they produced for him.

"Walter wasn't self, if anything maybe because of the drug problems he had, winning 7 races made him feel proficient, maybe fabricated him feel the way he should have."

In his early 20s, Case added cocaine to his cocky-medication listing, but luckily for him information technology didn't follow him throughout his career.

"The last time I did cocaine was '95. One night I had done just a little likewise much of it after the races and I thought I was having a heart set on. My heart was pounding and I idea I was going to die. Information technology scared me plenty [to finish]," he said.

Just as bad every bit his alcohol and substance abuse were, they weren't the most detrimental addiction of his career.

The i thing that probably stole more competition time from Case than anything else was his failure to keep both feet in the stirrups, sometimes called kicking. It's a habit he picked upwardly from drivers at the Meadowlands between 1984 and 1987.

"There is a difference," said Case. "That's why a lot of states call it foot out of the stirrup, considering kicking sounds like you're abusing the animal and I didn't similar the wording of that.

"I took my human foot out of the stirrup but I didn't come dorsum and boot the horse in the butt or anything."

In 1992, his 3rd full year at Yonkers, Case notched 843 wins and broke Herve Filion'southward single-season dash tape of 814.

Merely as Case'due south success grew, and then did his penalties.

Frank Pellegrino, the current presiding judge at Yonkers Raceway, and an associate judge for most of Case's fourth dimension at YR, remembers several occasions when Case was chosen before the judges.

Pellegrino says Example was always respectful and repentant, merely equally oft every bit he'd hope to never do information technology again, he'd go correct dorsum to dropping his pes.

Case even came up with a bungee cord that would agree his human foot in the stirrup, only someone from the New York Country Racing and Wagering Board made him remove it because they deemed it unsafe and he went back to dropping his foot.

"Information technology was like a disease that he had," said Pellegrino.

Over fourth dimension, penalties for his subconscious human foot action went from increasing fines to a few days and eventually a lot more days.

But no matter how long Case was gone, he was always sought subsequently when he returned.

"He'due south the just man that I remember if he was gone for two, three months, the day that they knew he was coming back he'd accept ii or iii choices in every race on the very kickoff dark back. Information technology was unbelievable." said Pellegrino.

Following his record-setting year in '92, Example'southward starts quickly decreased, only in 1996, after giving up coke, things seemed to be on the rising until the end of the yr when he received a suspension from the New York Land Racing and Wagering Board for an indefinite period.

It was his third drug-related positive in three years. In 1993, he failed a drug examination and in 1994 he was cited for driving under the influence in Lewiston.

While it was hard for Case to sit out all of 1997, he appreciated the time it gave him with his married woman Cathy and sons Ryan (10) and Eric (vii).

In 1998, Case returned to the track, and for the showtime fourth dimension in his career he was clean and sober.

"I think that'south why I excelled that yr," said Case. "I went to meetings every day. I went to the gym. Information technology was the all-time year I've ever had. Jan 1st to January 1st clean as a whistle."

It was indeed the best twelvemonth of his career every bit he obliterated his own single-flavor dash record by raising the bar to i,077 victories, with 978 coming at Yonkers lone.

To put his accomplishment into perspective, Dave Palone is 2d to Case on the listing of dash-wins at one track in one year with 804 at the Meadows.

That year, Case won an astonishing 36 percent of the fourth dimension while hitting the board at a 67 percent prune. In Tetrick's record yr (1,189 wins), he won 25 percent of the time and striking the board at 55 percent. Merriman's 1,095 and 1,143 bettered Case's dash tape, only with win percentages of merely 23 and 24, respectively, and on-the-board percentages of 53 and 56, respectively.

Example remembers being contacted that year past Yonkers Vice President and General Managing director Bob Galterio, who said that Sports Illustrated wanted to practise a story on him.

Case arrived at the rails early wearing his colours then he could exist interviewed.

"For harness racing that would have been awesome," said Example. "Well, they didn't run the story because they found out well-nigh the kicking. They thought they'd accept a problem with people reading it and learning about the boot, like I was abusing animals. So they never ran the story."

Post-obit up on a career year had non been piece of cake for Case in the past and 1999 was no exception.

For whatever reason, he couldn't go along his sobriety. Perchance it was because there was so much alcohol around him while he was growing upward. Perhaps it's because he and Cathy divorced or because he had racked upwards 258 penalty days, the near of his career to that point. Regardless of the reason, the drinking returned and he moved on to Northfield Park in Cleveland.

"1 of my biggest mistakes was leaving Yonkers," said Example. "I knew the slots were coming at some point and I got up and left and went to Cleveland and that was a big, big mistake."

Ouellette as well thinks that the move to Northfield was bad for Case because he didn't really take anyone looking out for him.

"People exploited him when he was at Northfield," said Ouellette. "He was up to no good over at that place and he was however allowed to race considering he was expert for the handle. From far away you lot could see the guy getting worse and worse every twenty-four hour period.

"He was sick and people were just taking advantage of him. He was contesting demons and not enough people around him were thinking about what was best for him. He never took accuse of his own life and so opportunists were effectually him and they took charge instead."

During his time at Northfield, Case married his 2d married woman, Nadine, who was the rails's outrider.

Example was the U.South. Harness Writers Driver of the Twelvemonth in 2002, so he and Nadine were in Las Vegas for the banquet in 2003 when they got married on a drunken whim.

Case was not in an emotionally expert place during almost of 2003 as he had 27 rulings against him that totalled a career-high 259 days. He left Ohio, either past selection or necessity, to race at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire, simply he started gathering penalties at that place as well.

He was starting to run out of places to race when he applied in Michigan towards the end of the year. He was hopeful because he had come up with a new apparatus that would assistance hold his foot in place, only Michigan was unwilling to take a run a risk.

He and Nadine had only been married a little over a twelvemonth when it was obvious that things were over, since she had taken out an order of protection against him.

Case nevertheless has no memory of exactly what happened on the nighttime he stabbed his wife, other than that he was drinking heavily and plainly not thinking clearly.

"I can tell yous I was under the influence of alcohol, no drugs," he said. "It'due south all a blur and I actually tin't believe I did something like that."

"I never attempted to make any contact [with Nadine considering of the club of protection]," he said. "If I was able to, I'd become up and repent and give her a big hug but that'south probably never going to happen because they won't let me."

Nadine carries scars from that horrific night, but so does Case. That does not in any way excuse what he did, but it would be unfair to recollect that not remembering what happened has left him unscathed.

He spent 4 years and viii months of a five-year sentence locked up for felonious assail in Ohio's Belmont Correctional Institution, where he was reported to be a model prisoner.

Case worked in the prison house library and spent hundreds of hours training dogs in a program that prepared them to aid the handicapped.

Dogs are not horses, only for Example, working with them gave him peace. They wanted nothing and gave unconditional beloved, which was something that Example was not used to, except when he was around horses.

During his time backside bars, Instance had merely one visitor, TROT Mag's Bob Carson, who won a Hervey Honour for the feature story he wrote on Case in prison.

Carson and Case didn't really know each other prior to the interview and Example chuckled when he said it must accept been a weak moment that fabricated him agree to practice it.

"I didn't want my family to come run across me," said Example. "I couldn't handle it because when they had to exit I merely knew I'd suspension down. Like my sister, brother, mother, I didn't desire them going to Ohio and seeing me like that in prison garb and then have to say goodbye to them.

"I had a lot of fair-weather friends. When I was winning races and could drive their horses they always wanted to be effectually me, only when I was in trouble or down-and-out I couldn't find them. They lose your number. In that location were very few that accepted my calls. I was surprised."

When Case was released in 2008, while he was working on getting his three years of parole transferred to New York, he was allowed to leave Ohio a few times to race at the end of the meeting at Plainridge Racecourse in Massachusetts.

Subsequently non being in a sulky for five years, Example competed in 25 races, winning x and hitting the lath 21 times.

Case finally felt similar his career would be dorsum on runway when his parole transfer to New York was granted and he moved in with his brother Tim. Simply nada except driving was always piece of cake for Example.

The Massachusetts Racing Commission refused to grant him a license in 2009, then he institute himself once once again without a identify to race.

He spent his days going to the barn with Tim, who was serving a 5-year suspension from the New York State Racing and Wagering Lath for a TCO2 positive.

On the reverse side of the befouled from Tim, Example met trainer Luanne Kroninger, who became the third Mrs. Case.

Even though things were good for Case and Luanne, things weren't so good with Tim, who was drinking quite a bit.

Since Case was on probation, his parole officer would practice periodic checks to take urine or requite a Breathalyzer test.

"[My parole officer] came 1 forenoon real early in the morning and she saw a liquor bottle on the counter that Timmy had left there," said Case. "The parole officer said there isn't supposed to be any liquor where you're living. I said my brother left it at that place and she said I don't want to meet that again."

Tim was unhappy when his brother moved out, and the two had not spoken for six months when Case received some bad news.

One forenoon, when he was going to put one of Luanne's horses out into a paddock, horseman Pete Pellegrino came past.

"He says 'Sorry Walt'," said Case. "I say 'Lamentable for what'? He said 'Wow you don't even know do you lot'? And I said 'What are you talking nigh'. He said 'Your brother'due south expressionless'."

Tim, 44, had apparently hung himself the day earlier and even though people at the track, the night earlier, had known, no one mentioned it to Instance.

When Example'due south parole was finally over, he thought that he would exist licensed somewhere soon, simply again he would get turned down, this fourth dimension by Pennsylvania, which stated that he could use again in five years.

It wasn't until 2017 when Case would finally be licensed to race once more, and this time it was his habitation country of Maine giving him another chance.

This should have been a happy fourth dimension for Case, but he only wasn't set up to be in that country of mind, due to a late-dark telephone call he hadn't answered many months earlier. The morning time afterwards that call came, Case learned that it was from his son Ryan.

"Ryan's girlfriend wasn't going to permit him see his kid and he was just in a bad place, and he left a message on my phone and said 'Dad, I need you lot. I really need you effectually me now,'" said Case.

"And so [the next morning] I texted him back because he didn't answer his phone and I said 'I'll get you a aeroplane ticket and you tin come down here and stay with the states for a while' and he never acknowledged it and he killed himself."

Case thinks about his son every solar day and blames himself for what happened, feeling that if he had only answered the telephone, he could take prevented Ryan from hanging himself. Ryan was 28. Case and his other son Eric have been estranged since Walter went to prison, and although Case has reached out on numerous occasions, Eric remains uninterested in reconnecting.

With his license to bulldoze back again even so, and as a famous son of the state, Case's return to Scarborough in 2017 was big news.

"When I first got there that day, there were TV cameras there and I was getting wobbly and nervous. I but wanted to go on a horse," said Instance.

The fans also showed up to come across their native son's return and gave Case such a welcome when he was introduced in the post parade for the first race that the track announcer paused for a fleck before introducing the next equus caballus.

Case was non expecting that kind of response and was extremely appreciative of the reaction of the fans.

He won his second race on the card and remembers how happy he was to celebrate that moment with Luanne, who he considers to exist his best friend and who has always supported him.

"My proudest moment with [Luanne] was when I won the second race, she came out in the winner'due south circumvolve and I thanked her," he said. "I was crying.

"That day I was looking up at the sky and wishing my son was nonetheless alive."

Co-ordinate to Greg Bowden, who had time to sit and conversation with Case on his second weekend back, the commute to Maine from where Case lived in Ohio was also tough to go on.

"[Case] said this is great but I'one thousand not even breaking fifty-fifty," said Bowden. "Nosotros have to rent people [to expect subsequently our horses in Ohio] when we come up up hither and I make several hundred or a thou dollars but it costs me almost $ane,500 to $ii,000 to be here.

Case only drove at Scarborough a total of vi days in 2017, winning eleven of his 53 starts while striking the board 27 times. On Nov 12, 2017 Walter finished quaternary on pacer Cruzin Maverick in the ninth race at Scarborough Downs. His 5% take was $xiv - he'south never driven in a race since.

---

Case and Luanne ended their spousal relationship in December of 2019 and he currently resides in Southern Florida. His plans are to once over again apply for a license in Maine, merely according to the Maine Harness Racing Commission, he has non done so nevertheless.

Information technology is of import to annotation that since getting out of prison house, Instance has not received any penalties for kicking or having a pes out of the stirrup. And even though he'due south had less than 100 starts during that fourth dimension, the by performances definitely show some hope.

"That'southward where I get my tranquillity, on the track. I have to jog and railroad train horses in the morning time because that gives me peace also, but driving horses is the best. It'south a bully task," he said.

Case posted a quote in January on Facebook proverb, "Never estimate a person till you've walked in their shoes for a day."

Information technology would be easy to approximate Case for squandering the ameliorate part of his career, but unless you've walked a mile in his shoes, perhaps information technology is possible to discover some compassion for unfulfilled potential and a man just trying to do what he loves.

"Every bit a society I call up we've come a long manner," said Ouellette. "When Walter had his worst problems, 30 or 25 years ago, people didn't understand drug problems as well as they do now. They just saw him as a f__k up.

"But that's not it, the guy had a sickness. And he had problems that were brought on non even past himself, but past other people around him. I think he was someone that was in pain all the time."

In 2017, Example showed that the three-time USHWA nuance champion and three-fourth dimension Harness Tracks of America's Driver of the Year can still draw a crowd and bring excitement to a rails.

Handicappers know amend than to pick against Case, considering his past performances show that he's a survivor, and another rise from the ashes is never impossible.

Stay tuned.

This feature originally appeared in the March upshot of TROT Mag. Subscribe to TROT today past clicking the banner below.

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Source: https://standardbredcanada.ca/trot/march-2020/legend-walter-case-jr.html

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