Dean of Colorado burro racing Curtis Imrie dies at National Western Stock Show
Imrie, 70, loved donkeys, democracy and drama and died while preparing to show a burro
By Tom McGhee | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | The Denver Post
January 24, 2017
Photo by E. Pablo Kosmicki, Denver Post file
Burro racing veteran Curtis Imrie attacks a steep grade just outside Alma during the Fairplay Burro Days race in 2005.
Curtis Imrie, a rural icon who raised and raced burros, and ran unsuccessfully for both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Colorado legislature, died Saturday night while preparing to show one of his animals at the National Western Stock Show.
Imrie, 70, died of a heart attack as he was walking through a barn to prepare a donkey for the show ring, Stock Show president Paul Andrews said on Monday.
Growing up in Georgia, Imrie was interested in animals. He pursued an acting and modeling career in Los Angeles for several years and then, in 1973 moved to Colorado, after his brother, John, drowned in an accident on the Arkansas River.
He was running in the woods when he met rancher Oscar Chapa, who had burros and partnered with runners to participate in pack-burro racing, the only sport indigenous to Colorado.
Chapa, who provided mules for racers, told him about Leadville’s pack burro race over Mosquito Pass. “You got the legs,” Chapa told him, “I got the ass.”
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