Horse Person of the Month for October Presented by New Holland: Cheryl Dagg

Whether it is a turn of the page or a walk through the shedrow, Cheryl Dagg, for as long as she can remember, has always been fascinated by the next chapter.

An avid reader with a penchant for true crime books, Dagg, a longtime groom in the barn of trainer John Charalambous, has been a fixture on the Woodbine backstretch for nearly 30 years.

“I don’t have many interests outside of horses. I like to read a lot, anything that I find interesting. If I start reading a book and it doesn’t keep my attention, I just move on to something else.”

Her association with horses, however, is quite the opposite.

Dagg’s fascination with them began in Western Canada, specifically, Saskatchewan.

“I was adopted when I was in grade four,” started Dagg. “My dad [Larry Dagg] was into rodeo, so that is where I had my introduction to horses. He also did the chuckwagon races too.”

Years later, when Larry joined the Thoroughbred training ranks – he would win 182 career races, including the 2001 Horizon Computer Solutions Handicap with Watshername – Cheryl was by his side.

She would often accompany her father to Marquis Downs, the five-eighths oval in Saskatoon that opened in 1969 before it closed its doors in 2021.

“I was in Grade 11 or 12 when I started going to the racetrack with my dad. I liked the horses right away. I ended up working for my father at Marquis Downs, so I got to be around the horses a lot. I also ponied horses.”

When she made the move east to Toronto in the mid-90s, Dagg found her way to Woodbine.

After two years working in another barn, she came to Charalambous in 1997.

She has been there ever since.

“My roommate works for him and John needed somebody. So, I went and met John and worked for him for a few days to see if it would be a good fit for both of us.”

It was.

“The horses love Cheryl,” said Charalambous. “She is a valuable member of the team, who everyone identifies with.”

Stand by to Fly was the first horse Dagg groomed for the graded stakes winning conditioner.

“She had some quirks, not letting you pick one foot,” Dagg said with a laugh. “You could pick three feet, but you just couldn’t pick the fourth.”

Not that she is complaining.

“We’re like family at the barn,” said Dagg. “We have all worked together so long that it is just like family.”

Dagg feels the same way with the five horses currently under her attentive eye.

A 6-year-old bay holds status as her all-time favourite.

“I just adore Niagara Skyline,” said Dagg of the 6-year-old son of War Dancer, owned by Paul Braverman and Timothy Pinch. “He is kind, but he is also cheeky. He will kick at you or try to bite you – he always knows where you are. When he kicks, he won’t connect, but that’s who he is, a cheeky guy.”

The Ontario-bred gelding is also keenly aware of when a certain person arrives at the barn.

“He loves mints and carrots. He will let me know when the carrot man is there on Wednesdays. If he sees him beside me, he starts hollering and he won’t stop until I give him some from the new batch.”

Every horse in Barn No. 3 knows when Dagg, who lives in the backstretch dorm, is close by.

“I drive an electric scooter, so sometimes I will drive up and down the road just so I can hear the horses hollering at me,” she said with a laugh.

Whenever she has a horse in a race, Dagg is the vocal one – at least, internally.

“I get very excited, but I also get very nervous. Sometimes it doesn’t show, but I am. By the time they get into the starting gate, I’m calm. I’m usually nervous when I am taking the horse over to the paddock. If it’s a big race, then I get very nervous. Sometimes, I talk to them, maybe to keep us both calm.

“But I just love working with the horses. I always have.”

It’s why the avid reader, perhaps fittingly, does everything by the book with her Thoroughbreds.

“Some of them get out of sorts if they don’t have the same routine. In some ways, I am like that too. I don’t ever want to be late when I get there in the morning. I want to be there at the same time every morning and do the stalls in the same order.

“What matters most is that each one is taken care of and that they are happy.”

Chris Lomon, Woodbine