Vancouver, BC—Sportswriters call them iron men; athletes who seem to hold back the march of time, that keep going with the battery power of the little pink bunny. Alan Cuthbertson was such an athlete. In Vancouver they called him 'Ace' and at 62 years old he was a legend on the racing scene there for five decades. And as a senior rode better than he did as an apprentice in Fort Erie in 1964.

Oh, he didn't ride that famous acey-deucey style any longer but the skills had not diminished. He still had the hands, still rated a horse superbly and that incredible sense of timing was still sharp. Each week-end, booting home winners with long odds and prices ($93, $53, $24), he got more from horses than even their trainers expected. Ask those trainers why they like to ride Cuthbertson and they'll say it's because he gets that extra effort from a horse but when the animal is beaten he understands and puts away the whip.

Riding at Assiniboia Downs for the past few years he had run up a remarkable total, in 2008 setting a new record for a jockey in Western Canada with a total of 109 wins and finnished the year with 129, just a few short of the leading rider title for all of Canada. An amazing feat compounded by his age and the fact that he was racing just two days a week.

Sadly his run is over — Alan Cuthbertson died September 6^th. It's a shame that such effort and talent go unrecognized in this day and age when we need heros in our sport.