Horsemen talk of the communication between a thoroughbred and a Jockey and it was rarely more manifest than when Bill Skuse was riding.

His talents were once summed up in the Vancouver sun this way: "To see skuse ride a horse was to see an artist at work. Jockeys paint contrasting pictures in the mind - Willie Shoemaker is a toy sized passenger holding reins of silk, yet Laffit Pincay seems stronger than the horse. With Skuse you remember the rythm, the perfect harmony between horse and rider".

Quiet, polite and well schoolded in the art of horsemanship at neighborhood gymkhanas, Skuse won his first race at landsdowne Park in 1956 aboard Railworker who was trained by Skuse's mentor, Jackie Russell Jr.

That was the last year the locale saw of him for a decade. His considerable talents took him to California, to New England and to the Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

In 1960 his 231 wins made him fifth leading rider in North America behind Bill Hartack, The Shoe, Avelino Gomez and Johnny Sellers. Immediately behind him were hall of famers Eddie Arcaro and Manny Ycaza.

He was 12th the next year, 13th the next and then he faded under the pressure of a weight problem.

He came home in the late 1960's, overweight and undernourished, but the rythm waas still there, his whip a baton rising and falling in perfect cadence with a horse's stride.

His biggest single victory was booting home Orleans Doge ahead of Guadalcanal in the Choice Stakes at Monmouth Park in 1961. He twice won the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park aboard Annie Lu San when she was probably the best filly in California.

But nature had given him abundant talent and put it in a body one size too large. It was a cruel trick and Skuse never adjusted. Friends said knowing he had the ability but way too big to ride caused him huge frustration.

In February, 1980, after a day spent galloping horses at Exhibition Park and a farm in Langley, he accepted a ride home from a Surrey pub. Police later found the car in an Aldergrove creek and Skuse, five months short of his 40th birthday, was dead.