THROWBACK THURSDAY Back 35 years ago, I was working for a marketing genius. David Gardner owned Gardner Bloodstock Ltd. Gardner Bloodstock was the predecessor to Arabians Ltd. That was from the era of stallion syndication and limited partnerships on mare packages. For a 32 year old horse trainer, it was an exciting time. Also, for a 32 year old horse trainer, it was a time of all kinds of hype. I just wanted to show good horses. David sent me somewhere to look at some horses. I had been gone long enough that, by the time I made it to the last leg of my trip and I was waiting for a connection for a flight from Dallas to Waco Texas, I was out of clean clothes and cash. I couldn’t wait to get home. Then, like a voice from up above came, “Bill Addis, please pick up courtesy phone for a message”. Shit, it was David Gardner. He said “Hey Addis, I want you to fly up to Muskegon, Michigan to look at a colt that the Bergeron brothers have. “ I said, “Dave, I have no money left and no clothes”. He said, “I’ll buy you a ticket, wire you some money and I can’t do anything about the clothes”. It just so happened my best buddy, Stan Morey, was with me and I said “You want to go look at a colt in Michigan?” and Stan said “Let’s go”. So Stan and I fly up to Muskegon. We get there in the early afternoon. We took a cab to a Holiday Inn. The guy at the desk said that they were booked full and there were no rooms left. I told the guy we had taken a cab and were stuck there. He said alright they had a conference room available but that there would be a meeting in there in the morning at 7:30 AM. The room had 2 sofa sleepers at each end. He said he would put us in there but we had to be out by 7:00 AM. I told him there was no problem with that, we were both early risers and that someone was going to pick us up at 8:00AM. To set the stage: 1983 was the height of the Urban Cowboy era. At the time, I was 32 years old and Stan was 27. It was when I had brown hair, not white, and Stan had hair totally covering his ear and thick as you could get. After we got into our conference room and threw our stuff down Stan and I thought, “well hell, it’s only 5:00 PM, let’s go get something to eat”. It was too early to stay in the conference room with no TV so we went to eat and by the time we were done, it was just 6:30. I asked the waiter “Are there any Country bars up here in Yankee land?” He told us where there was a good one. So, Stan and I get a cab and went to the place and sure enough it was great. Back in those days both Stan and I could give John Travolta a run for his money. So we danced and DRANK until around 2:30 AM. I think we did more drinking than dancing. So, we caught a ride back to our conference room, pulled the beds out and hit the sack. Well, for me, it was a short night. We had a wakeup call for around 6:30 AM. We get up and my head felt like it was the size of a watermelon. Whiskey then beer never fear. Beer then whisky is always risky. Obliviously, I wasn’t thinking about that the last night. I went and got a folding chair and sat it in the shower and sat there in the shower with hot water running on my big ass head and throwing up between my feet. Sure enough by this time it is 7:00Am and here coming in the door are some of the people for the 7:30 meeting and there I am. They closed the door and I got out, Stan and I got dressed and went down to see if I could eat something. Stan was just fine but I could keep absolutely nothing down. We apologized to the desk clerk, checked out and went to sit out on the curb and wait for our ride. Now, keep in mind that Gardner had been doing business with the Bergeron brothers for a couple of years by now and that is a whole other story. Let’s just say, in those days, Jim and Tom Bergeron were hell raisers but they had an impeccable eye for good horses and loved them emphatically. They owned Ruminaja Ali. The Bergerons were all a close knit family and I think Matt was still in junior high school and Tony aka “Duke” was training horses. Well, right at 8:00 AM here drives up Duke. He had an old Chevrolet Impala. It was old but it ran and he had a sound system that could have blasted you out of the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Ole Duke was not a country fan so he had on heavy metal and LOUD. Keep in mind, I was still sick. Stan got in the back and started reading the USA Today. After a few minutes, I couldn’t stand it anymore I asked Duke to turn down that g-damned music. He just laughed, turned it down and ole Stan sat back there and rolled his eyes. Now, on this ride, Duke starts telling me about this colt that his uncles own and how good he is. In all the years that I have gone to look at horses at a farm, I have never had someone say “I would like for you to come to the farm and look at this piece of %#& I have”. They are always great. I am thinking the same will be with this colt. So, we finally pull up to this place where Duke has this colt he has been teaching to stand up. If my memory is right, this little barn was a converted chicken coop. I could see in the stall and the colt was in good shape, bedding up to his belly. Duke put a halter on him. Now, all I can think about is getting out of there and try to keep something in my stomach and get rid of my killer headache. So, Duke brings this yearling colt out, stands him up and both Stan’s and my eyes jumped out of our eye sockets. Our chins drop and Stan and I look at each other and said “Duke, he is incredible!” That day Stan Morey and I, for the first time, laid our eyes on Ali Jamaal and I should say, the rest is history. So Tom, Jim and Duke (Tony) Bergeron were right as usual. I forgot about the hangover real quick. There were no cell phones in those days so when I got the airport and called Gardner, the next available truck was headed to Waco with Ali Jamaal on board. Duke now works in sales for the Arabian Horse Times. He was, and is, a good horseman.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 18:17:38 +0000
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