It was a fascinating week in Canadian racing with Fort Erie having a strong opening day on May 28, Century Mile in Nisku, Alberta, continuing to yield remarkably fast times for its races and Hastings Racecourse plugging along despite its serious horse population issue. Assiniboia Downs, holder of the dream dates of Monday through Wednesday night, still tops $1 million in wagering each night.
At Woodbine, a strong weekend of racing, including the Super Stakes Saturday, added a much-needed $13 million in wagering to the coffers following a sluggish start to the season. Fans got to see tons of Thoroughbred stars last weekend, horses and human, and there so many more to come; Horse of the Year from 2022, Moira, has been working up a storm for trainer Kevin Attard and is nearing her return.
Coming up this week at Woodbine are the first two major stepping-stone races to the Woodbine Oaks and King’s Plate. While both races are 7 furlong sprints, the Fury and Queenston for Canadian-bred three-year-olds will begin to sort horses out on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
The big event in North American racing this week is the four-day Belmont Festival, which will be held at Saratoga while Belmont is under construction. There will be stakes races galore with the gem of the Thursday to Sunday meeting being the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, shortened to 1 1/4 miles. A field of 10 is expected to be drawn later on Monday for the Belmont including Kentucky Derby (G1) winners MYSTIK DAN and Preakness Stakes (G1) winner SEIZE THE GREY.
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The Woodbine Tapeta was quite slow all week to the point where horses who were setting slow pace fractions in route races were still not holding on (see Coleyville’s win in the first race Friday). Even sprint races featured slow pace splits and winners coming from off the pace.
There were plenty of kudos for trainer SUZANNE DRAKE, who owns Silver Duck Racing Stable in King, ON with husband Tim, as she won on Friday with PASSTHEPUDDINPLEAZ, a son of Frac Daddy who went gate-to-wire in a claiming sprint race. The win by the gelding, who was ridden by Leo Salles, was the Drake stable’s first win since 2022 after going 0 for 55 a year ago. It was also Drake’s 50th career win as a trainer.
If you like longshots, there were plenty of those over the four racing days. Through Thursday and Friday’s cards, just two favourites won the 16 races. On Saturday, two public choices won, the same for Sunday. On Sunday, plenty of rain sped the track up a bit more and speed horses and closers had equal chances to win.
Jockeys who had multiple winners last week included Kazushi Kimura, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup at Santa Anita on Monday aboard Mr. Fisk and then won four races during the week at his home track. Emma-Jayne Wilson won four races and Ryan Munger won three, as did Rafael Hernandez.
On the trainer’s side, it was another week of widespread wins across barns. Thirty (30) different trainers won over 36 races with doubles from Kevin Attard, Julia Carey, Darwin Banach, Mike DePaulo, Bill Tharrenos and Mark Casse.
MY GIRL DELLA, a Canadian-bred three-year-old filly owned by John Fielding and trained by Kevin Attard, won her maiden in front-running fashion on Saturday and earned a 79 Beyer Speed Figure. The daughter of Medaglia d’Oro – Kate Baby is a Woodbine Oaks contender.
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