By Al Camp
Chronicle staff

     Patch may become known as the horse that created a stronger bond between older and younger World-Famous Suicide Race jockeys, owners and fans.
     The horse brought jockey Aaron Carden home in first place in each race after the four performances of the Omak Stampede rodeo Aug. 9-12.
     Despite Patch’s dominance, his title was not secured until the finish of Sunday’s race.
     That’s because Taz finished second behind Patch the first three races. If Patch finished out of the money on Sunday, Taz would be the overall champ.
     But it was Taz, owned by Jim and Joan Phillips, that finished with no coin in its saddlebags Sunday after jockey Loren Marchand slipped into the Okanogan River when Taz stumbled.
     Patch put his stamp on the race, leading from river to arena for owner Kevin Carden.
     Aaron Carden, 41, said he returned to the race, which he considers a tribal rite of passage to manhood, for many reasons.
     There was the constant urging of his brother, Kevin, to try the gray horse with an uncrushable spirit.
     Add to that the constant nagging of younger riders for Aaron Carden to come out of retirement, where he’d stayed safe for eight years.
     “Maybe it’s like my second time around becoming a man or whatever,” he said. “It wasn’t me wanting to prove I was great and all this. It was about a great horse proving he was worth paying attention to.”
     In the end, the jockey who really did not have anything to prove after taking overall titles in 1991 (on Seymour, owned by Eddie Timentwa) and 1995 (on Max, owned by Aaron Carden), said he entered to promote tribal values.
     “It’s not about being No. 1 any more, it’s about trying to get the youth to be respectable,” said Carden, who now, like his brother Kerry, has won the race four straight on a weekend. “The older guys are trying to tell the younger guys to do this or to do this. They stopped listening and started being rude.”
     Carden said just entering the race got the attention of the younger guys, who he sees as not learning from their elders about tribal values.
     Carden is the youth coordinator for Colville Confederated Tribes for language and culture, and said he is trying to spread the word about tribal ways.
     “They just want to party and have fun too much,” said Carden of the younger generation. “They aren’t learning anything, and that hurts the reservation.”
     He said winning the race is more than being king of the hill.
     “To me it’s about tradition,” Carden said. “You’re running the race to prove you’re a man every time. You’re a leader. If you want people to follow you, you got to be a better person, to give them a reason to follow you.
     “Somewhere out of that hill you can make something out of it,” said Carden.
     Carden said he didn’t pray to win the race or to be better than anybody.
     “I prayed for a good weekend,” he said. “I did not pray to be better than anybody, but for a great heart. In order to have a good heart, you have to be pure.”
     Part of staying pure, he said, was giving away traditional items such as a jacket or buckle from the race to helpers or others in the community.
     “I could not keep them,” said Carden, noting his brother, Kevin, did the same. “By doing that, it kept our hearts pure.”
     But when the race finished Sunday, he opted to keep the Eddie Timentwa memorial jacket.
     “Eddie was my best friend,” he said.
     Carden may also have felt, just a little, the entry of being mortal, and that he wanted the younger riders to respect and remember past competitors such as Jim Marchand, Gary Waters, Eddie Timentwa and Larry Chaney.
     Patch could be described as the gray quarter horse that doesn’t know how to quit.
     He won two races in 2005 and another in 2004 with jockeys Ralph Moses, Montana Pakootas and Henry LaCourse.
     “The horse is great, he just needed somebody there all weekend to control him,” said Carden. “He’s just a baby.”
     Carden described Patch as a horse a person would not want to ride in the hills alone.
     “But (you) don’t want to be on any other horse up on the hill,” he said. “You hold him back, then give him the starting whip.”
     Patch, who is 9 or 10, entered the Carden family from Steve Palmer, who helped break the colt.
     “He’s always been an ornery, miserable, butt head,” said Carden with a chuckle, noting how Patch likes to rip up the place during shoeing. “I honestly hate the horse. I like gentle horses around my place.
     “But he’s got a natural ability to keep that spirit in the horse,” said Carden of Kevin Carden and his training the quarterhorse. “Patch is high-spirited, high-strung, kind of almost spoiled. That’s what keeps him what he is.”
     Aaron Carden rode bulls until he was 19 before giving the Suicide Race a shot in 1985 as a way to challenge himself.
     He’s come a long way since then.
     “When I came back to this race, they told me the old man needs to go out and show these young guys respect for themselves, show them how to handle themselves,” he said.
     “You have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in your horse,” said Carden to a camera crew covering the race.
     After the race, Carden made sure to gather all the jockeys together for a group portrait.
     “You guys mean as much to me as my children,” said Carden after the race. “I love you guys all.”
     Later Carden said jockeys are like family, that after competition they need to come back together, to become a tribe, to become a family.
     “I just kind of wanted to join the young and the old back together,” said Carden.
     During introduction of the Suicide Race horses in the arena Sunday, it was announced Reuben was retiring after this year’s races. The horse is owned by Vern and Julie Lelone.
     Reuben took Tyler Peasley, who paraded the horse around the arena for the last time, to the title the last two years. The duo won all four races last year.
     This year the duo finished fifth overall.
     Sunday’s race went off with 10 horses after Skar Tar was scratched. The race started with 15 horses on Thursday.
     There were no crashes or serious injuries by either jockeys or horses.
     But Steven Zacherle did suffer a broken arm while riding Sinbad Thursday night.
     Sinbad got bumped from behind, causing Zacherle to fly forward and land on the back of Red A, jockeyed by Arnold Abrahamson. The riders leapt down the hill for several jumps before Zacherle became dislodged.
     Points are awarded to the top five finishers at each race. The overall winner is the horse with the most points.
     Overall unofficial results (horse, owner, jockey, points):
     1, Patch, Kevin Carden, Aaron Carden, 20 points.
     2, Taz, Jim and Joan Phillips, Loren Marchand, 12 points.
     3, Party Boy, Frazier, Whitley, Marchand, Edward Marchand, 8 points.
     4, Sinbad, Chris Corey, Francis Marchand, 7 points.
     5, Reuben, Vern and Julie Lelone, Tyler Peasley, 4 points.
     6-7, Skar Tar, Leroy and Lucetta Cate, Ryan Cate, 3 points.
     6-7, Red Dragon, Kevin LaCourse, Kevin LaCourse, 3 points.
     8-10, The Rock, Melissa Louis, Louis Zacherle, 1 point.
     8-10, Thor, Mick Zabreznik, Eddie Seylor, 1 point.
     8-10, Red A, Arnold Abrahamson, Leroy Abrahamson, 1 point.
     Thursday:
     1, Patch, Kevin Carden, Aaron Carden.
     2, Taz, Jim and Joan Phillips, Loren Marchand.
     3, Skar Tar, Leroy and Lucetta Cate, Ryan Cate.
     4, Reuben, Vern and Julie Lelone, Tyler Peasley.
     5, Thor, Mick Zabreznik, Eddie Seylor.
     Friday:
     1, Patch, Kevin Carden, Aaron Carden.
     2, Taz, Jim and Joan Phillips, Loren Marchand.
     3, Party Boy, Frazier, Whitley, Marchand, Edward Marchand.
     4, Sinbad, Chris Corey, Francis Marchand.
     5, The Rock, Melissa Louis, Louis Zacherle.
     6. Skar Tar, Leroy and Lucetta Cate, Ryan Cate (no points).
     Saturday:
     1, Patch, Kevin Carden, Aaron Carden.
     2, Taz, Jim and Joan Phillips, Loren Marchand.
     3, Red Dragon, Kevin LaCourse, Kevin LaCourse.
     4, Party Boy, Frazier, Whitley, Marchand, Edward Marchand.
     5, Sinbad, Chris Corey, Tony Marchand.
     Sunday:
     1, Patch, Kevin Carden, Aaron Carden.
     2, Sinbad, Chris Corey, Tony Marchand.
     3, Party Boy, Frazier, Whitley, Marchand, Edward Marchand.
     4, Reuben, Vern and Julie Lelone, Tyler Peasley.
     5, Red A, Arnold Abrahamson, Leroy Abrahamson.