For Ramsey and Clawson, A Temporary Home North of the Border

For newly married couple Nolan Ramsey and Katie Clawson, working and living in Canada has worked out perfectly. Ramsey, the assistant to trainer Mike Maker and grandson of prominent owners Ken and Sarah Ramsey, and Clawson, who gave up a promising race-riding career last fall because she preferred to gallop horses, are stabled at Woodbine Racetrack and renting a house nearby. Ramsey is used to moving every few months to oversee Maker's fluid operation, so staying in one place for almost nine months has allowed he and Clawson to settle into a new environment.

Ramsey has been to Woodbine a few times to race horses trained by Maker, including Sir Dudley Digges (Gio Ponti), who won the Queen's Plate at 15-1 odds. The horse, who is back training at Woodbine, is owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsey, who also won the 2016 GI E.P. Taylor S. with Al's Gal (English Channel).

For Clawson, in particular, this is a much more relaxed lifestyle– mentally and physically–compared to the hustle and bustle of last year when she was in her first full season as an apprentice jockey.

“Before I even started riding races, I was of the mindset that I was going to ride forever,” she said. “I was going to be one of those old ladies riding races. But as soon as I kind of got into it and was officially a jockey and started riding races, literally the first day I realized I was no longer working a salaried job for a stable and I really missed that.”

As a temporary compromise, she moved her tack full-time from Oaklawn Park to Indiana because it was close to home and she figured she could win one to two races a day. Aside from Nolan, few people knew her riding days were coming to an end.

“I tried to keep that a secret as long as I possibly could, but the people who were close to me they knew,” she said. “But even for me, that was tough because I like to be open and up front and honest about things like that. So that was a struggle for me, but closer to the end people started to figure it out.”

An early-morning training accident in August breezing a filly fast-forwarded the decision. The horse had mental and physical issues, and Katie figured she could correct them. Nolan, who was in Saratoga at the time, had already seen Katie overcome a broken neck because of her riding career and had advised her not to exercise the rogue horse.

The horse ended up bolting to the outside rail by the gap and Katie was thrown off.

“The people who saw what happened said it was like I did a couple of flips in gymnastics,” she said.

She didn't go to the hospital figuring she was physically okay. She called Nolan to tell him what happened and that she wasn't hurt too badly.

“My first reaction was to make sure she was okay and then I got mad at her,” he said. “She should have never been on that horse.”

But she called him the next day and told him she was experiencing some physical problems. After taking a couple days off, she breezed a horse in the morning and raced another one later that day and finished a distant fifth in a field of seven.

“I had no balance,” she said. “I found myself holding on to the mane the whole race, which is terrible.”

She deduced that continuing to ride would further aggravate the effects of the concussion. A prolonged period out of the saddle proved to be a “blessing in disguise” for Clawson, who said she ultimately decided to let go of her career as a jockey permanently. She finished second in North America in apprentice wins with 82 and her mounts earned more than $1.8 million. She became a finalist for the year-end Eclipse Award for champion apprentice jockey, which was won by California-based Evin Roman.

“I'm really happy with what I got to do,” Clawson said of her riding career. “I rode some really nice horses and I galloped some even nicer horse, which was even more fun for me. I got to go to Belmont, Saratoga and it was a lot of fun–but not something I wanted to long-term.”

While Ramsey was overseeing a division at Gulfstream at the start of 2018, Maker decided to start a Canadian string in April at Woodbine instead of shipping horses in and out for specific races there. Ken Ramsey, who is Maker's main client, fully supported the move.

“Mike and my grandfather and a couple of other owners started claiming horses to run at this meet, specifically looking for Ontario-bred, Ontario-sired horses,” Nolan Ramsey said. “We claimed about 10 Ontario-breds this winter alone.”

In April, exactly a year after they were engaged, Ramsey and Clawson wed in Kentucky.

Shortly thereafter they moved to Ontario and rented a house near the track. They expect to train about 25 head.

Ramsey's experiences at Woodbine have given him an understanding of Canadian racing. In 2014, he came to Woodbine to watch We Miss Artie (Artie Schiller), the favorite for the Queen's Plate. Ken Ramsey owned the horse, which was trained by Todd Pletcher. We Miss Artie went into the race as the favorite, but broke tardily and finished fourth. Ramsey saw the pageantry of the Plate firsthand.

Two years later, Ramsey returned to Woodbine to oversee Sir Dudley Digges for Maker. The horse pulled off a major upset winning at 15-1 odds. Maker had to leave immediately after the race, but Ramsey stayed behind and had a chance to fully experience the post-race celebrations and the backstretch barbecue parties that are part of the Plate tradition.

“It was just a really cool experience,” he said.

Last year, Ramsey ran divisions for Maker across the States, so he was quick to embrace the chance to stay in one place for an extended period of time. The move allows Ramsey and Clawson to split their time up between Woodbine and Gulfstream in the summer and winter, respectively.

Clawson said Woodbine has initially left a favorable impression in her first few months at the track.

“I enjoy it from the standpoint of taking care of our horses,” she said. “Happy horses make me happy…It's very oriented around the horsemen. People are friendly, like everyone says, so it's kind of a refreshing thing to see.”

A perfect fit, personally and professionally, for a newly married couple from the States.