A family affair Racehorse trainer Jerry Gourneau leads a close-knit First Nations stable team through a wildly successful summer By: Jason Bell Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Sep. 11, 2020

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This article was published 11/09/2020 (1603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jerry Gourneau figures he was about 11 years old the first time racial slurs were directed his way as he bounded down a basketball court.

The unfamiliar words stopped him in his tracks. They cut deep and left a scar.

“The first time it struck me that some people thought this way was in the fifth grade. We went to a community close by (Rolla, N.D.) to play, and they were yelling at us, calling us little savages,” says Gourneau, a Native American who spends nearly half the year in Winnipeg training racehorses.

The product of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa near Belcourt, N.D. — just 30 kilometres from the U.S.-Canada border — is having another sensational season at Assiniboia Downs and is one of the most decorated thoroughbred trainers in the track’s long and storied history.

Gourneau recalls it wasn’t the players on the opposing sides hurling the ugly insults.

“Kids are kids. They don’t care who you are or where or you come from — Black, white, Indian, whatever. No, this was the parents,” he says. “We were beating their kids and they didn’t like us for it.”

Gourneau says the coach of the hoops team made a courageous move that day, one he’s never forgotten.

“My parents were both working and providing for our family and weren’t at the game that day. Our coach, a Native American man, cleared us off the floor, put us on the school bus and we went home. He said, ‘I never want you to be exposed to that again.’”

The pledge, though noble and well-meaning, ultimately, did not ring true.

Gourneau admits he’s been subjected to other instances of racism since then, and is well aware of the stereotypes thrown at Native Americans and Canada’s First Nations people.

“It affected me for a long time, to the point where I didn’t want to associate with anyone outside of my reservation,” Gourneau says. “After high school I went to (North Dakota State College of Science) in Wahpeton and had a Black roommate, and that’s where it all changed. I saw what he was going through — the same thing I went through — and it just wasn’t right.

“I wanted to try and make a difference in people’s lives… to try and inspire our people, help them understand that pride comes from within. Show people you shouldn’t be afraid to speak up for yourself.”

Gourneau and Lyn Blackburde, partners for 25 years and married for the last 12, sat down with the Free Press Thursday morning in the west end of bustling Barn 5, a short walk from the Downs main track.

Blackburde is the education director for the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. The couple met briefly at a powwow in the early 1990s south of the border but didn’t start dating until a few years later when they were reintroduced during another gathering in Sagkeeng First Nation near Powerview-Pine Falls.

Both were deep into their respective careers in education.

“I was a teacher and he was a principal when I met him, and we clicked. Both our parents were married for 50 years, so we witnessed what a true commitment really is,” says Blackburde, who was born and raised near Sprague but acknowledges home as Rainy River First Nation in Ontario. “I always wanted to inspire children. Right now, I work with our chiefs, helping make sure our administrators and teachers in First Nations communities get what they need for our children.

“My favourite saying is from a First Nations elder. He said, ‘How many people depend on how you live your life?’ That struck me.”

Gourneau and Blackburde have no children of their own but have been helping guide young people for decades. Nine of the 10 workers in the Gourneau barn are First Nations, including four teens.

“We talk about this a couple. What will we do with the rest of our lives? We feel we’ve been gifted in our lives and in a perfect position to be inspiring to our youth and our First Nations people. We don’t drink, we don’t do drugs — things that can be a roadblock for our people,” she says.

Only two race days remain in a 2020 season vastly altered owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Gourneau and his stable of conscientious, two-legged team members pressed on Thursday with the morning regimen of feeding, watering and exercising about four dozen horses on an off day.

“What I want to do is promote the idea of First Nations people and how we are horse people, and the industry is pretty respectful of our heritage,” he says. “The teacher in me comes out. I want to teach them everything that I possibly can, to get them to the next level. I don’t care if they’re my competition three years down the road. That means I helped somebody out to do what they love.”

The hours are long and the work can be strenuous, yet there’s a noticeable sense of joy as the crew goes about its business.

Jennifer Tourangeau from Cote First Nation near Kamsack, Sask., is spending her first full season with the Gourneau operation, which includes her husband, Sheldon Chickeness, and her 15-year-old son, Aidin. The teen returns home to school Monday.

“It’s such a family oriented situation. It’s great to work with people who understand our own sense of humour,” Tourangeau says. “We’re working all morning, sleep in the afternoon and then do our chores at night, and then back to bed to get ready to get up at 4 a.m.

“Jerry is really willing to teach us all he knows about horses. He’s so calm and understanding… makes you feel like a big part of the team. And having the season we’re having, it’s been amazing to be a part of it — trying to reach that goal.”

Tourangeau is referring to the Downs’ single-season record of 78 wins by a trainer. But it’s a longshot now. After getting shut out last Wednesday night, Gourneau heads into the last two nights (Monday and Tuesday) of racing with 70 wins, still eight back of the record set by Tom Dodds exactly 30 years ago.

Dodds hit the number during a 117-day season in 1990, while Gourneau is going after the record with only 50 race days. Horses he trains have also finished second 47 times and third 41 times, while the season earnings at the Downs for horse owners Henry S. Witt, Jr., Mike Powers and Gourneau’s brothers is just $1,500 shy of $500,000.

“The bottom line is we’re trying to do everything we can to help our owners. So, to have a successful summer like we had is a major accomplishment,” Gourneau says. “We just have a lot of fun, we’re laughing and joking. If you know anything about First Nations communities, the main thing we like to do is joke around, cut each other up. Nothing personal but just having fun, playing music and enjoying our days together being together.”

Gourneau, the youngest of six kids, remembers fondly his mom and dad loading up the family camper and hauling the group north to Manitoba for a few weeks of summer vacation, which included plenty of nights watching the ponies run at the Downs.

When he turned 16, he started working at the Downs when the Grade 11 school year was done, learning from many of the great trainers of the day, such as Gary Danelson, the track’s all-time leader in wins. He spent every summer at the Downs and in the off-season completed a master’s degree in education, which led to positions as a teacher and school administrator.

But in 2006, he turned his attention to training full time and has split time between Manitoba, Nebraska and Oklahoma. The track in Winnipeg, he maintains, feels most like home.

“The work gets monotonous. It works on you and it plays on us. But to have that extended family feeling with our First Nations people is a plus,” he says. “A home to me is where I have people that make me feel like I’m part of their family. And I make them feel like they’re part of mine.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell