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Virl Norton



Here is a story about a Virl Norton endurance race that I got to be in way
back when Emmett Ross and I were known as the "Urban Ride & Tiers."

Emmett and I bought a couple of Rushcreek horses from the ranch back in
about 1983. This was when Ellis Ruby was still the manager and the horses
still had his mark on them. (The latest horses off of that ranch don't seem
to be the same type of horses as back then.) One of the horses was
Rushcreek If, if you could catch him, if you could saddle him, if you could
ride him he was yours. We had gotten to know Virl from a number of races
and he invited me up to race against his horses at a horse show outside of
Gilroy. It was to be a 5 mile race on the track and there were to be about
eight horses in the race. He was trying to showcase endurance riding to
this group of horse people and of course 50 miles wasn't possible in this
venue (or almost any venue for the general public).

Little did I know some of the ringers that Virl had in the race on his
horses. One was Becky Hart and another was Dolly Decair. I thought that our
tough Rushcreek horse could do anything that Virl's horses could and when I
had timed myself on a practice track at a mile the time seemed reasonable
to hit what I think was the 12 minute winning time of the year before. I
practiced my splits on the 1/2 mile track and had them all written on my
sleeve. Much to my surprise when we got to the race track I found that it
was a 1/3 mile track! I spent a good part of the morning rewriting my
splits. I had numbers all over BOTH arms.

It was a strange race. I stuck to my splits and the rest of the entire
field took off and pulled away. At one point in the race, about a mile from
the finish, when they were passing in front of the stands I would be all of
the way over on the OTHER side of the track. What was happening? I was sure
I had done my homework and the splits were right. I decided that I had
better make a move. Well, it was  wasn't long before I was reeling them all
in and it sure was exciting for the crowd. It looked like my Rushcreek If
had turned on the after burners. The distance between us all was getting
shorter and shorter. Really he hadn't done anything. The rest of the riders
had just slowed down getting ready for the bell lap. Just as I caught up
with all of them a half lap from the finish they all TOOK OFF. Becky knew
what she was doing.

If had nothing left, though he had been paced to finish in the time to win
he lost to two other horses. I learned a lot about horse racing and pacing
as I slunked back to LA. I also learned never to bet against Virl Norton.

I wonder if Becky remembers that race?

Steve Shaw




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