There are just over 5 weeks to go before Woodbine horsepeople will be shipping into the barn area for the 2021 racing season and while most kept their horses in Canada for the winter, some headed south and have been racing.
Good news came from Woodbine Entertainment’s senior vice president Jessica Buckley last week as ship-in dates currently remain unchanged in these long and arduous days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ontario is in a state of emergency until mid-February.
In light of the further restrictions implemented this week in Ontario, we wanted to let you know that there are no changes to the opening of the Woodbine Backstretch at this time. As the current government restrictions explicitly allow for the training of racehorses, the Woodbine Backstretch activities will resume as planned and communicated in the year-end letter you received in December 2020. Please see key dates below:
Friday, January 29, 2021 – Stall applications due
Monday, February 22, 2021 – Backstretch re-opens for set-up
Wednesday, February 24, 2021 – Horses begin shipping in
Thursday, February 25, 2021 – Sand Ring and Training Track open- weather permitting
Saturday, March 2021 – Main Track opens – weather permitting and date TBD based on spring thaw
Saturday, April 17, 2021 – Scheduled Opening Day
One of Canada’s longtime successful trainers, MIKE DEPAULO, got his first win of the 2021 year when DON’T GET SMART won a $6,250 claiming race Jan. 17 and DePaulo and wife Josie were there to greet the 4-year-old Ontario-bred.
Don’t Get Smart, by Girolamo – Got Smarts by Smart Strike, bred by James and Janeane Everatt and Arika Everatt-Meeuse, had been third in a December outing at Gulfstream, her first try on a traditional dirt track. She won this past weekend by 2 lengths under jockey Tyler Gafflione. It was the filly’s 3rd career win.
*MAIL ORDER, bred by Jay and Christine Hayden’s Saintsbury Farm in Ontario, won her maiden at 7 1/2 furlongs on the turf, Jan. 12 at Gulfstream Park in virtual front-running fashion. The 3-year-old by Liam’s Map – Agatha by Distorted Humor in this second career start for owner James Karp and trainer Bill Mott. A $300,000 Fasig Tipton August yearling in 2019, Mail Order’s dam Agatha is a half sister to Group 1 winner Agnes World. Mail Order ran the distance in 1:35.42 for a Beyer Figure of 65.
*OLLIEMYBOY won an allowance race at Fair Grounds on Jan. 14 for owner JMJ Racing Stable. The son of Union Rags – Charming Thunder by Thunder Gulch, also bred by the Everatts, posted an 86 Beyer Figure, a career best, in his 4 1/2 length win at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. Trained by Sid Attard at Woodbine and a maiden winner before finishing 11th in the Queen’s Plate, Olliemyboy is trained by Norm Casse at Fair Grounds.
*NORM MCKNIGHT will get 2021 going on Friday, Jan. 22 on opening day at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. McKnight has entered three horses for the first card at Oaklawn, which has been McKnight’s winter home for the past few years. His trainees Strate Remark, He’s Meant to Be and Bode’s Maker are in races 1, 5 and 9 respectively and his Knightquest Stables owns two of them with He’s Meant to Be owned by Mario Gorgione’s Henly Thoroughbreds.
*Trainer BARBARA MINSHALL is hoping that her trainee DIAMOND ORE, a half-sister to 2016 champion 3-year-old Arrogate, can get on the trail to the Kentucky Oaks with her first stakes start in the $100,000 Busanda on Jan. 24, a nine-furlong test for sophomore fillies at Aqueduct offering 10-4-2-1 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to the top-four finishers.
~ With files from NYRA Press office.
The Tapit bay filly, out of the multiple stakes-winning Distorted Humor mare Bubbler, was purchased for $750,000 at the 2018 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
Bred in Kentucky by owner Clearsky Farms and Hill ‘N’ Dale Equine Holdings, Diamond Ore made her first three starts on Tapeta at Woodbine Racetrack, including a good second, defeated a half-length, on November 14 when stretched out to two turns for the first time that garnered a career-best 70 Beyer Speed Figure.
“I thought she was unlucky not to win her last race at Woodbine,” said Minshall. “She got shuffled back at the turn and then came back on and she just missed. That was the first two-turn maiden race at Woodbine on the synthetic.
“I ran her a couple times short just to give her some racing experience, even though I knew she wanted to go long,” added Minshall. “In her last race at Woodbine, she was really unlucky not to win.”
Last out, in a mile and 40 yards maiden special weight on December 24 at Tampa Bay Downs, Diamond Ore made her dirt debut a winning one while racing without Lasix for the first time. With Samy Camacho up, Diamond Ore tracked in fifth before grinding out a half-length score over Purtiz that registered a 57 Beyer.
“The number was a little on the slow side, but she handled the dirt well off of one dirt work,” said Minshall.
Diamond Ore, who is based at Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, Florida, worked five-eighths Friday morning in 1:02 as she prepares to stretch out in her stakes debut.
“It was a good work. She’s strong,” said Minshall. “It’s a deep track here at Winding Oaks and I thought she worked well. She’s feeling good.
“I think she fits. The nine furlongs will be good for her,” added Minshall. “She’s not an overly big filly, but she’s gotten a lot more robust build since she came to me in July last year. She’s a really happy, good feeling filly but she’s not what I would call tall. She’s compact.”
Diamond Ore is slated to ship up to New York on Wednesday and will be piloted in the Busanda by Eric Cancel.
Woodbine Oaks/Queen’s Plate contender DREAMING OF DREW, a sophomore daughter of Speightster, returned to the worktab on Thursday for Minshall at Webb Carroll Training Center in St. Matthews, South Carolina, covering three-eighths in 38 seconds flat.
Bred in Ontario by WinStar Farm and owned by Hoolie Racing, Dreaming of Drew is out of the graded stakes-winning El Prado mare Dreaming of Liz. A winner at second asking on the Woodbine main track, Dreaming of Drew was a close fourth in the Natalma (G1) on Woodbine’s E. P. Taylor Turf Course ahead of a score in the Princess Elizabeth at 1 1/16-miles on Tapeta to close out her campaign.
Minshall said Dreaming of Drew, who arrived at Winding Oaks on Friday morning, is targeting a summer campaign in Canada, including the Woodbine Oaks, but will have a chance to make her dirt debut in Florida.
“If she’s ready to run, we might run her in Florida at the end of February and then maybe go to Keeneland,” added Minshall. “If we run her in Florida, there’s no question she’ll run into some pretty salty horses. We’ll see where she fits on dirt, I’d take on anybody going long on the synthetic. I’m hoping for good things for her, too.”
Dreaming of Drew is a contender for Champion 2-Year-Old Filly in Canada at the Sovereign Awards coming up this spring.
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