NICK NOSOWENKO was a winner at Tampa Bay Downs on Wednesday, March 13 as his AWESOME CITY won a maiden $25,000 claiming race by 4 3/5 lengths at even money. The son of Awesome Slew, ridden by Antonio Gallardo and trained by Gerald Bennett, ran 6 furlongs on the dirt in 1:10.70 for a career-best 65 Beyer Speed Figure according to Daily Racing Form. The four-year-old went through the Fasig-Tipton December Digital sale for $6,500.
Nosowenko, who trains his own horses and those he owns with his father Mike, at Woodbine, has won 99 races as a sole owner.
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Five horses were the first to have recorded workouts at Woodbine for 2024, three on the training track and two on the main track (Tapeta). Sovereign Award finalist KEVIN ATTARD sent out a trio of three-year-olds to work 2 furlongs in an easy 26 on March 12. The filly Moddassah, for Al and Bill Ulwelling, and colts North Warden (Canuck Racing Club) and Quiet Knight (Terra Racing) also worked the same distance in the same time. Frost Bitten, trained by Laura Krasauskaite, worked 3 furlongs on the main track in 36.20. That trainer also sent out the unraced colt Bourbon North, a son of Collected, to work four furlongs in 51.40.
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Trainer MARK CASSE said King’s Plate winner PARAMOUNT PRINCE, recent winner of an allowance/optional race at Gulfstream in his four-year-old debut, may race once more at Gulfstream before aiming for Woodbine’s Grade 3 Eclipse Stakes on June 1.
Also, Gary Barber’s MY BOY PRINCE, the probable two-year-old champion for 2023, is being pointed to the $250,000 Palisades Stakes at Keeneland on April 7. The Palisades is 5 1/2 furlongs on turf for three-year-olds.
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Retired jockey GARY BOULANGER has taken a job as farm manager at Shirley and Anthony Camilleri’s CAMHAVEN FARM in Caledon, ON. The Camilleris, currently stabled at Fair Grounds with trainer Steve Flint, opened their lavish, full service farm early in 2021.
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The training track at ASSINIBOIA DOWNS opens on March 16 (Saturday) and the backstretch has been filling up. It is snowy in Winnipeg, but that has not slowed down eager horsepeople – among those trainer DEVON GITTENS, who comes off a career year.
From author G.S. Thompson in the Inside Track newsletter from Assiniboia:
The 39-year-old Gittens is entering his sixth year as a trainer at the Downs and looking to build upon his best year ever in 2023, in which he compiled a record of 25-34-23 from 164 starts for purse earnings of $363,920. Gittens has really made his mark at the Downs as a developer of young horses and Manitoba-bred champions, and he took it to yet another level in 2023 with the perfect Canyouhearmerunninn (Reload-Joaquina by Holy Bull), who went 4-for-4 and won the Graduation Stakes, Osiris and Winnipeg Futurity for owners Pink Cloud Racing and Ron Wiley.
First Year Groom of the Year (2022) winner Skyla Blanchard and Marco Difonte were in the barn tending to the horses, and Gittens will have more excellent hands arriving soon.
Gittens traveled to Woodbine after the meet here last year and it didn’t take long for his talent to get noticed by top owners. They could have stolen him away from us but they haven’t yet and we’re certainly glad to have him here. Gittens will have 30 or more horses in training at the Downs again this year, including purchases from Ontario and Florida.
And if past success is an indicator of the future, he’ll once again be the one to beat in the Manitoba-bred 2-year-old races and beyond.
Steve Gaskin, always one of the first trainers to arrive in the spring, also shored up his stable with some new purchases from Florida and Ontario, and he’s got a few beauties in the barn that could be any kind, but he’s not telling, at least not yet. The Gold Cup-winning trainer is going to let his horses do the talking, and there’s definitely a chance of that.
Trainer Wendy Anderson will have more horses coming, and we spotted her top hand and former Groom of the Year Jaydean Lamothe smiling at the Equicizer Thursday morning. Anderson had another stellar year in 2023 at the Downs highlighted by triple stakes winner Magic Tiger, who won the Bocage Overnight Stakes, the R. J. Speers and the Gold Cup for Wind Dancer Stable and Bill Meikle. Anderson compiled a record of 36-32-25 from 173 starts in 2023 and her horses earned $443,652.
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