'An Inspiration To So Many': Trainer Shelley Brown Dies Of Cancer
Inspirational Thoroughbred trainer Shelley Brown has passed away four years after a cancer diagnosis that initially gave her just three to six months to live, the Manitoba Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association reported via a Facebook post Thursday morning.
Brown was 47 in the late summer of 2020 when she went to her doctor with pain in her shoulder, only to learn that she had Stage 4 cancer in her lungs, bones, stomach, ovaries, breasts, and lymph nodes.
“For someone to look at you and tell you that, there’s a million emotions,” Brown told the Paulick Report in 2020. “I thought, ‘What am I gonna do? I’ve got horses here, horses in the States, property, horse trailers. … I can’t even tell you. I just totally went numb.
“Your brain can be very hard on you. As soon as I got the diagnosis, I didn’t want to get out of bed. I felt helpless, overwhelmed, and I just wanted to shut down.”
Brown had 40 horses in training at Assiniboia Downs at that time, and a few more she'd sent to her friend, trainer Rob Cone, at Century Mile. One of those was Real Grace.
Fast-forward a few weeks, and Real Grace was entered in the Grade 3 Canadian Derby at Century Mile. Brown had never won a graded stakes, and the 3-year-old had only won a single race. Real Grace went off at 18-1 odds, but somehow found a way to win by a neck.
Brown was in a hospital bed hours away from the track, having suffered a collapsed lung earlier in the week, but Real Grace's win gave her a whole new reason to fight.
She said: “When there’s no reason to get up in the morning, it was the one thing that made me go, ‘You know what? This horse was 18-1, and he showed me what you can do if you just fight.’
“The next day I was a whole different person. It made me feel like, ‘Don’t you dare give up.’ It was almost like a sign to say, ‘This is what you can do.’”
Despite the three-to-six-month life expectancy she'd been given, Brown fought on for another four years. She made her way back to the life she loved at the racetrack, sending out the winners of over 80 more races between 2021 and 2024.
"She became an inspiration to so many, a position she never asked for but wore proudly," wrote the Manitoba HBPA.
One of those she inspired was Lindsay Turcotte, a fellow horsewoman who fell in love with Real Grace on the day he won the Canadian Derby. Turcotte became friends with Brown and eventually came to work for her on the track, before being entrusted with Real Grace when he retired from racing in 2023.
Now, the pair are entered in this weekend's Thoroughbred Makeover competition in Lexington, Ky., contesting the dressage in Brown's honor. Though Brown didn't survive to watch the horse compete, Turcotte recalls fondly the day earlier this year when Brown was able to swing a leg over his back for her first ride in years.
"He just makes a person feel so safe. And I think that’s the biggest gift of Real Grace," Turcotte told The Chronicle of the Horse. "He’s always just what you need at that moment. He’s what Shelley needed when he loaded into the starting gates for the Canadian Derby; he’s what Shelley needed at that time to find the strength to push through, and he’s what I needed to get through some tough times in the last year.”
The Manitoba HBPA's post reads:
"A lover of all things horse from a young age, Shelley was no stranger to horses or racing when she decided to make a trip from Regina to Winnipeg to watch a few races. Reflecting on that trip she later joked it was almost the trip that didn’t happen. Having issues with her truck less than half way into her trip she could have turned around and headed home, but she ended up at Assiniboia Downs.
"Paving her own way, in 2009 Shelley brought a handful of horses back to Winnipeg and started her training career at Assiniboia Downs and never looked back. Proving that hard work will get you everywhere, in 2012 Shelley wrote her own page in the ASD history books as she became the first woman to win the leading trainer title. She became an inspiration to so many, a position she never asked for but wore proudly.
"Shelley continued to mentor, coach, teach and advise in her racing career and in the horse community leaving a sea of better riders, competitors, future trainers, and grooms behind her.
"To know Shelley was to truly know determination, and grit. If she put her mind to something it was going to happen. She proved this over and over and yet again when she received the diagnosis that her fatigue was more than just the late season lack of sleep setting in.
"As Real Grace stepped into the starting gate in the Grade 3 Canadian Derby with the odds stacked against him, Shelley watched from a hospital bed with the odds not in her favor either. Real Grace won that day, Shelley found her fight and was determined this was not how her story was going to end, and it didn’t.
"Shelley rode through life jumping obstacles, and navigating a course she designed with beauty, class and determination. In the end she let go of the reins and trusted her horse to take her across the finish line and lead her home. She did it her way.
"On behalf of the HBPA Board of Directors and the Membership we represent, we would like to offer our sincere and heartfelt condolences to Shelley’s family and friends. We hope you find comfort in the memories and stories shared. May Shelley's memory live on in every life she has touched."
