YORKTON - It was been a great season to-date for Kain Salmond in terms of chuckwagon racing.
Heading into a huge week where he is scheduled to run three days at the Yorkton, then heading down the road to race Saturday and Sunday in Sheho, Salmond was leading the season results in the Eastern Professional Chariot & Chuckwagon Association.
“Last year I was running pretty tough,” he told Yorkton This Week before the first heats in the city Wednesday. “I was sixth overall last year.”
This season Salmond, who hails from the Bertwell area in Saskatchewan, made a change to the team he runs on the wagon.
“I changed one horse. That really set me up,” he said.
Salmond, 22, explained that the new horse is his right lead horse, which of course is a key member of a team, in part because of its ‘smarts’.
“You can get by with a dumb one on the pole. . . A lead horse has got to be a little smarter,” he explained.
The new horse is the final cog in the engine one might say.
That said Salmond noted the other three horses he runs were with him last year, and that means they have experience, and that plays into a solid running team.
“Three of the four are the same . . . they know each other better,” he said.
Familiarity means cohesion in the traces.
Of course once on top the goal is staying there, which Salmond said will not be easy.
“Anyone can beat anyone,” he said.
For Salmond the top spot in the standing is another step in a driving career that was near destiny given his family lineage. His dad Clint has been driving chuckwagons since he turned 16 – the minimum age to drive.
“Grandpa Wayne was driving horses back in the bush logging when he was 11 or 12,” said Kain, adding he has raced for years.
The family experience is something he draws on too, adding he and his Dad often discuss “who we’re hooked up against, or what the track conditions are like.”
A couple of his horses come from Grandpa too.
Salmond said he certainly wouldn’t be at the level he is today without the help and support of what is a very extensive racing family – he expected 10 would race in Yorkton.
It’s the same with sponsors, another key partner in success, said Salmond.
“We wouldn’t make it down the road without them,” he said.
So Kain grew up around race tracks and horses.
“Every summer I travelled with Dad and Mom,” he said, adding he developed an interest at a young age “and here we are I guess.”
Kain started out driving chariots – as most drivers do – and still runs those too. In fact he often runs two teams, using the spare horses he carries on a second hitch as a way to keep them in shape should they be needed on his main chariot or the wagon.
Interestingly his first wagon run came in Yorkton back in 2021.
“Obviously there were more nerves,” he said, adding he just wanted to “get around the track.”
After the race the excitement manifested.
“I’d been waiting a long time to get in the wagon box,” said Salmond.
