John Flakes was speaking about his pal John Shirreffs. It wasn’t simple, however it needed to be achieved.
“It is bringing tears to my eyes,” mentioned Flakes, higher recognized across the racetrack as “Quick Man.” “We misplaced a very good man. It isn’t like I am crying or something. However you already know like whenever you get these emotional tears, and your eyes get sizzling?”
Yeah, Quick Man, nearly everyone who knew John Shirreffs is aware of what you imply. Shirreffs was 80, wholesome and completely happy and coaching a full barn, touring with shopper Lee Searing to examine their younger horses in Florida and looking out ahead to the season forward. Then he received sick and died, on Feb. 12, information that splashed like a boulder within the frequent pond of Thoroughbred racing and despatched ripples to the farthest corners of the sport.
A nook like Swansea, In poor health., simply south of Fairmount Park, the place Flakes retired a couple of years again after some six a long time working for trainers like Buster Millerick, Charlie Whittingham, Bobby Wingfield, David Whiteley, Mike Harrington, Lefty Nickerson, and Kristin Mulhall.
“I labored two completely different instances for John,” Flakes mentioned. “We have been about the identical age. I will be 83 in August. I’ve recognized John since about 1970, when he was proper out of the service, working at a farm up in Northern California.Join BloodHorse Each day
“I used to be working for Buster Millerick, and we despatched them a horse named Kissin’ George,” Flakes mentioned. “A great horse, however was getting up there. John had him out within the creek, water working on his knees daily, and we introduced him again.”
Flakes was among the many final of the distinguished Black grooms, riders, and assistants that made the Southern California backstretch hum with righteous vibes. Along with Flakes, the names of Huey Barnes, Eugene McDaniels, Joe Merriweather, Charles Clay, Invoice Albritton, Rudy Roberts, Ed Lambert and his nephew, George, are acquainted to anybody who has spent any time round one of the best barns.
Flakes was an Arkansas child by means of Southern Illinois, the place he grew up within the city of Centreville, a suburb of East St. Louis, and walked hots at close by Fairmount Park for 50 cents a head when he was 12 years outdated.Â
“I assume I am again the place I began,” Flakes mentioned. “Thank goodness, instances have modified. Again at Fairmount, we had white and coloured water fountains. The kitchen had a partition—whites ate on one facet, coloured on the opposite. Lastly they’d stopped that, however some folks nonetheless thought that means. John was by no means a type of guys. For him, everyone earned their means.”
Flakes spent most of his working life within the stalls, caring for Thoroughbreds from the bottom up. He present in Shirreffs a kindred spirit, pushed by a philosophy that gave each horse an opportunity. A few of them have been destined to be maiden claimers; others grew to become Zenyatta , Giacomo , and Manistique.
“John related with horses as a result of he favored them,” Flakes mentioned. “He may really feel inside them. A horse’s first intuition is flight. After that, something goes. As soon as he takes off in flight, it looks like he is received tunnel imaginative and prescient nearly. It is one factor to acknowledge that, however John understood, and people are two various things.
“Not solely would he attempt various things, he had persistence,” Flakes continued. “Most horses perceive persistence. You are taking the time with them, they perceive.
“We had a colt by Tiznow. Man, that horse would do issues. John had Frank stroll him across the coaching observe within the morning after it closed, spending hours driving him utilizing lengthy reins, lastly getting him to the races. It was a miracle, John and horses.”
Frank is Frank Leal, certainly one of a number of long-serving Shirreffs crew members that included Mario Espinoza, Zenyatta’s groom.
Photograph: Wally SkalijMario Espinoza feeds Zenyatta at Hollywood Park
“Once you discuss to guys like Mario and Frank, discover how quiet they discuss,” Flakes mentioned. “It is similar to speaking to John. Many of the guys that labored for John took on his demeanor. I all the time wished to be like John—calm, cool, and picked up. Was a time I may go off the deep finish, however as soon as I received round John I managed myself.”
Flakes counts himself fortunate to have served a few excursions with Shirreffs. Guests would hear the pinnacle man typically name upon Flakes to use classes from his a few years on the observe.
“Oh yeah,” Flakes mentioned. “Any individual’d come to him with one thing, and I might hear him say, ‘Discover Quick Man. He can do it.’
“When Zenyatta first got here into the barn, no one wished that huge, ugly horse,” Flakes mentioned, including a chuckle on the thought. “And Mario wound up together with her. That was humorous. However how many individuals are you aware would have saved Zenyatta going so long as John did? She would not have lasted greater than a pair years anyplace else.
“We had 4 or 5 colts that John would use to work with her–colts who would have been working in stakes races in another barn,” Flakes mentioned. “We even had somewhat filly on the time nearly nearly as good as Zenyatta, named Zardana. She went right down to Louisiana and beat Rachel Alexandra.”
Photograph: Anne M. EberhardtJohn Shirreffs
It is no stretch to recommend that Shirreffs saved a man like Flakes round for egocentric causes, past Quick Man’s all-around set of expertise. Shirreffs known as Flakes “the Music Man” for the candy sounds he would convey to the barn.
“John beloved my tales, and he’d inform me tales,” Flakes mentioned. “We beloved to sit down round and chat. He did not discuss a lot about his time with the Marines. However I did inform him how if it wasn’t for the service I by no means would have been across the racetrack. I attempted to hitch the Military, however they would not take me as a result of I had a coronary heart murmur. So I headed to the observe.
“The final time I talked to him, a couple of months again, he mentioned he had a very good colt, named Westwood,” Flakes mentioned. “The way in which John was speaking, he thought that horse had an actual good future.”
Westwood , owned by Lee and Susan Searing, turned out to be the one of many final two horses Shirreffs despatched to the races. It took 10 begins, however the 4-year-old son of Genuine  lastly broke via with a victory within the San Pasqual Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park Jan. 31.
“There it’s,” Flakes mentioned. “Should you write about John, you discuss how affected person he was together with his horses. You additionally have to say how going into his barn was like being with a household, and we have been all brothers. He was a very good man.”
