Winnipeg’s Assiniboia Downs may not have been the first track to open in Canada as it was in 2020, but its 2021 season got underway Victoria Day with seven races and $770,000 in wagering. That number is down from the $1 million in handle May 25, 2020 when it was the first track to open when the COVID-19 pandemic was just two months in.
A year and more into the pandemic there are other tracks already racing including Hastings and Century Mile, but this year’s opening day sum was impressive compared to those two tracks’ business this far.
Jockey LEROY NELSON, who had not ridden in a race in North America for five years, won three races from six mounts. The veteran horseman, 41, is a longtime Florida circuit jockey and was the leading apprentice at Gulfstream Park and the top bug rider at Calder in his early years in the saddle. Nelson is the cousin of former top local rider Tyrone Nelson, who suggested he give Assiniboia Downs a try. The Jamaican-born jockey has ridden with the best in the business including Jerry Bailey, Pat Day, Garrett Gomez and Shane Sellers, and defeated a number of them on his best days.
One of Nelson’s wins was aboard Dr. Betty Hughes’ PURRSISTENT, who won the featured Astral Moon Overnight by a length at 5-to-1. The 5-year-old Manitoba-bred mare by Vengeful Wildcat is trained by Devon Gittens.
https://www.chrisd.ca/2021/05/24/assiniboia-downs-2021-season-opener/?fbclid=IwAR1vwVOduacLwqpkCP4u_hJACHtCq5sxqJKfBS0h6FdehPJlGllGL6HeHU4
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