Up to 40 and as much as 60 millimetres of rain fell on the Nisku and Edmonton region of Alberta on Saturday, June 20, leaving Century Mile racetrack a sea of slop for the weekend.
Plenty of horsepeople elected to scratch their horses from races, but the show went on including the R.A. Red McKenzie Stakes worth $50,000. Horseman McKenzie himself was present in the dreary weather to celebrate the stakes race named in his honour, which had an exciting match-up between champion mares AVANA and BIG HUG.
It was Avana and jockey Amadeo Perez who prevailed in the seven-furlong race, rallying from far off the pace to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:25.77. Big Hug tried to catch up along the inside, but had to settle for second.
Avana was winning for the 13th time in 17 races and the BC-bred is by Vino Rosso from Revealing Moment by After Market. Trained by Barbara Heads for Hastings Stable, Avana was a finalist for Champion Older Mare Main Track at the Sovereign Awards in 2025. Big Hug was also a Sovereign finalist.
Avana was bred by Bryan and Carol Anderson.
Later on the Saturday card, RAINBOW’S PRIDE won the $50,000 Spangled Jimmy Stakes by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:25.23 for seven furlongs. Ridden by Richard Balgobin, the Florida-bred by Uncaptured was 7-to-1 and got past favoured Lord of Battle to win for trainer Craig Smith. Rainbow’s Price’s owners are Sunil Trehun, Lucky Diamonds Stables, and Dialed In Stable.
Century Mile’s Sunday card was hit by so many scratches that the seventh and ninth race allowance features had just two runners left in the field. In race seven, Don Danard’s Zip It Writ led rival Fancy Like That throughout the seven furlong race and won by 4 1/2 lengths at 40 cents on the dollar.
In race nine, Bobby Dazzler, by Lookin at Lucky, galloped to a 15 3/54 length win over Prime Direction for trainer Colleen O’Hagan.
The mutuel handle total on the Century Mile races on Sunday was just over $120,000, a low sum due to the weather.
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