Picture a farm that raises thoroughbred racehorses.
You’re probably imagining a big operation that’s nowhere near Burlington, and you’re thinking big money. Very big money. Something like this:
Well, Jim Stewart (1934-2023) raised them in Burlington. He was a Boston boy but always loved horses. So when he moved out of the city, it was time to make it all happen. He had a “real job” as an asbestos inspector, yet here he is with his first horse in 1968.
The farm? It’s called Burlhill Farm. The staff? Back in the racing days, it was only Jim, his wife Pat and their two children, Jim Jr. and Karen. That’s all.
“The first baby that was born here in Burlington went on to race and win,” says Karen. Here’s that horse, P.J. Stewart (on the right), named after Pat and Jim Stewart, husband and wife.
“But it’s not about the money or even winning. The purses, or prizes, are usually less than $10,000. No money can compare to beauty of a racehorse. I cannot describe the feeling of raising a foal from birth.”
“You teach them everything, working with them every day, training and caring for them and then meeting them in the winner’s circle. And they do it all just to please you.”
It wasn’t always pleasant, says Karen.
“Winters were the hardest. Horses drink about 20 gallons of water a day, so I had to lug heavy buckets of water up the hill to the barn. The water hose would freeze a lot!”
Each horse eats 20 bales of hay and 400 pounds of grain every month. Food delivery comes from Dodge Grain in Salem, NH. The horse manure is hauled away to Lexington Composting Facility. Nowadays, a trainer does the heavy lifting. But when Karen was young, this was family work. “Sometimes my dad would go up to Maine for the lower prices. He would fill his truck and trailer with a hundred bales of hay. When he got back, we all had to help unload and stack the hay up in the hill in the barn. Each bale weighs 40-50 pounds. Plus, all the grain had to be dumped into barrels.”
The racehorses did not spend all of their time on Sunset Drive. Just up the street on Burlington Mall Road, there was plenty of room to run on the future Lahey location and TRW Field at the corner of Stony Brook Road:
Twice a week, they went by trailer to a race track, usually Suffolk Downs in East Boston, for “breezing,” meaning open running at full speed. Karen continues: “Once the horse is approved to breeze on the track, he must be trained to come out of the starting gate. It’s not easy to train the horse to jump into full speed as soon as a gate pops open. But the horse, being extremely intelligent and always willing to please, catches on quickly. Before long, you are ready to race.”
“There are many hurdles when you’re raising horses on a small backyard farm. But my dad proved it could be done over and over again.”
“Why do this? It’s a passion inside, not a choice. I can’t imagine life without horses. My father passed his love of horses on to me.”
Here’s the first victory for Stewart and gang, in 1976. That’s Jim, Pat, Jim Jr. and Karen on the immediate left of the horse.
And a victory for Greenleaf Mountain:
And finally, an amazing story. Jim heard about a baby horse in New Hampshire who was near death from starvation because its mother had died. He rescued the little horse, nursed it back to health, and lo and behold — two victories! Notice the horse’s name.
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