Thistledown’s Girten-Drake Defeats Death; Now Points For Opener And Winner’s Circle
Winston Churchill may have had Shirley Girten-Drake in mind when he said, "There is something about the outside of a horse that's good for the inside of a man."
As Thistledown prepares for Thursday's season-opening program, horses -- especially the 10 thoroughbreds she has bedded down in Barn 15 on the backstretch -- mean more to Girten-Drake than just about anything else in her life.
That's what being near death, only to recover to watch your lifelong companion die, can do for a racetracker, especially one who in the early 1990's was the winningest female trainer in North America.
Girten-Drake, 60, is back conditioning horses full-time five years after being diagnosed with ovarian cancer and a year after the death of her husband, Harmon Drake, her mentor who started the Girten-Drake run of 10 consecutive Thistledown training championships from 1987 through 1996. Drake, 73, struggled for more than a decade with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease until he died in late June of last year.
"His death was such a gradual thing that I thought he'd be here forever," said Girten-Drake. "When it happened, I told myself it was inevitable, but you're never ready for it."
What Girten-Drake thought she was ready for was her own death.
"The doctors told me this could go either way,'' she said of her ovarian cancer that required surgery and 18 months of chemotherapy. "I was in stage three of four stages. It's unusual to beat it. At one point, I thought the cancer had the best of me. But it didn't take long for me to convince myself I had too much to do. And, I was taking care of Harmon."
Girten and Drake met in their Michigan hometown of Hillsdale. Drake was a trainer at the Detroit area tracks, but Girten was working in an office.
"I had never been to a track in my life," she said. "But you know when you're comfortable with a person or an activity and I loved being around horses right from the start. (Harmon) asked me if I liked it well enough to make a business out of it and the rest is history."
Girten and Drake formed a partnership in 1974, on and off the track.
"We were companions for 30 years and married for the last three years," she said. "I think I tricked him when I got sick. He asked me to marry him. Then I got better."
After she replaced Drake as the stable's trainer of record in 1991, Girten-Drake kept the outfit on the winning track. She was running the largest stable at Thistledown with nearly 60 head of horses.
"I think about those days and I wouldn't mind getting back up to the stable size I had in the championship years. I'll know if I'm overwhelmed or not. If I am, I'll just pull up. Would I like to win another title? You never lose that desire. I love doing this more than anything. I missed it terribly when I was sick and when I was taking care of Harmon."
Sickness and death have also convinced Girten-Drake to approach life with confidence and calm.
"I'm here and I'm okay, so I've learned to take it day-by-day."
Girten-Drake may start the new season off on a high note. She'll be running the stable star, Money Card, in Friday's $50,000 Angenora Stakes.