Assiniboia Downs Gains Stability From $63 Million Season

Record-crushing wagering, dominating seasons by trainer Jerry Gourneau and jockey Antonio Whitehall and Assiniboia Downs ended its 50-day Thoroughbred meeting this past week.

The Winnipeg, Manitoba track was the first circuit to get racing started in the midst of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. Racing was held behind closed doors for the most part and was held on Monday, Tues. and Wed. instead of its usual schedule on Wed., Fri. and Sat. nights.

The track received a lot of attention from bettors and fans around the world and mandatory payouts of jackpot bets were a big hit.

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The bottom line? From a 2019 total of $12.4 million in wagering to a stunning $63.2 million.

“The all-time record occurred in 1981, over a 135-day race meet, at $53.4 million. Fast-forward to 2020, only 50 live race days. To do $63.2 million is incredibly satisfying. Unexpected, to be honest,” said CEO Darren Dunn to globalnews.ca.

On the track, trainer JERRY GOURNEAU and jockey ANTONIO WHITEHALL cleaned up.

Gourneau won 73 races, 25 more than Tom Gardipy Jr. As a comparison, Mark Casse has won 46 races at Woodbine this season.

Gourneau is expected to send horses to Woodbine for the fall season.

Whitehall not only led all Assiniboia Downs jockeys 74 to 48, but he has 26 wins at Century Mile this year for a total of 100 to lead all Canadian riders.

MELISANDRE, a 2-year-old filly by Going Commando and full sister to 2019 top filly Hidden Grace, ended the year 4 for 4 with 3 stakes wins.

Melisandre was bred in Russell, MB, by Cam Ziprick at Ziprick Thoroughbreds and Charles Fouillard. She is owned by Barry Arnason, True North Thoroughbreds and Charles Fouillard; trained by Michael Nault, and ridden by Stanley Chadee Jr.

Trainer Jerry Gourneau and owner Henry Witt Jr.

Leading Jockeys

1 Antonio Whitehall 300 74 54 58 $525,895 25%
2 Stanley Chadee Jr. 267 48 46 35 $401,614 18%
3 Rafael Zenteno Jr. 233 46 38 31 $358,859 20%
4 Kayla Pizarro 205 30 33 36 $260,676 15%
5 Richard Mangalee 201 27 16 26 $229,572 13%
6 Neville Stephenson 266 25 28 34 $215,488 9%
8 Shannon Beauregard 160 24 18 22 $167,491 15%

Trainers

1 Jerry Gourneau 300 — 73 49 43 $519,701 24%
2 Tom Gardipy, Jr. 242 — 38 36 41 $258,406 16% –
3 Shelley Brown 177 — 23 34 36 $245,566 13%
5 Jared Brown 113 — 20 19 23 $132,015 18%
4 Michael Nault 74 — 11 14 16 $140,511 15%
7 Steven Gaskin 107 — 10 17 9 $84,654 9%
10 Marvin Buffalo 59 — 10 6 9 $81,261 17%

Leading Owners

1 Henry S. Witt, Jr. 175 48 26 30 $334,171 27% 104 59%
2 Mike Powers 47 13 9 5 $95,823 28% 27 57%
3 Hughes, Dr. Betty 37 6 8 5 $78,792 16% 19 51%
4 Black Diamond 57 11 8 12 $64,866 19% 31 54%
5 Riversedge Racing St. 29 7 9 4 $63,931 24% 20 69%
6 Duncan, Murray, Estate of G Stewart 18 4 5 4 $54,615 22% 13 72%
7 Shelley Brown 32 5 9 7 $53,823 16% 21 66%
8 Barry Arnason 37 4 9 6 $48,899 11% 19 51%
9 Hrymak, Brent, Heather 13 4 3 1 $44,592 31% 8 62%
10 Wind Dancer Stable 32 6 6 4 $43,791 19%

Horses

1 Melisandre Going Commando 4 4 0 0 $49,781 100% 4 100% 61
2 Miss Imperial Maclean’s Music 6 4 0 1 $41,857 67% 5 83% 97
16 Button Mushroom Portobello Road 7 4 1 1 $19,876 57% 6 86% 73
24 Sask Lady Edison 7 4 1 1 $17,086 57% 6 86% 68
28 Mizzenhower Creative Cause 9 4 1 0 $16,937 44% 5 56% 79
29 Bunchofcash Unification 7 4 0 2 $16,861 57% 6 86% 72
30 Purely Given Pure Prize 5 4 0 0 $16,550 80%