The final day of the Woodbine season on December 15 provided fans with plenty of exciting race finishes from its 13-race card. The final week of the season, which had 127 racing days completed, offered many good betting races and saw quite a few of the smaller stables pick up some valued wins.
A whopping 26 horses were claimed from races during the four days of the final week, six by trainer Phil Hall for himself and clients and five by Bruno Schickedanz through several trainers.
The two fastest races of the week were Sunday sprints won by Schickedanz horses trained by Martin Drexler.
OLD CHESTNUT put up a 95 Beyer Speed Figure, matching his previous best, when he ended a long winless streak to take race 9 in 1:15.90 for 6 1/2 furlongs. The 7-year-old was ridden by Eswan Flores, who won three races on the final card.
One race later GIANT TEDDY joined the four-win club at Woodbine for 2024 with a sizzling win at six furlongs; he went in 1:09.48 to defeat his stablemate Souper Dormy for a 95 Beyer Figure, a career best. The 5-year-old Ontario bred is by Giant Gizmo and it was his seventh win in 22 races. Sahin Civaci rode Giant Teddy and nine other winners during the week.
Drexler won three races on the final day while JOHN MATTINE won a pair. Mattine sent out MAGIC POWER to win the first race for RCC Racing Stable Ltd. in a maiden 2-year-old race. The colt, bred by Kathy Biers and Northern Dawn Stable, was making his sixth career start. He is by Reload from Lovely Cersei by Best of the Bests (Ire).
Mattine also won with the 2-year-old DOADSTER for Realm Racing Stables. That colt is an Ontario bred by Collected – Molly Mesiter by Bodemeister and bred by Anderson Farms, John Fielding, Peter Kirby and Don Meehan.
Trainer Don MacRae had a busy final couple of weeks as he was aggressive at the claim box (he scooped up three from the last day) and won with another nice 2-year-old, TAKEMYBOURBONNEAT, who won on Saturday for Keowee Racing Stable. The daughter of Souper Speedy is from a previous sales topper in Ontario, Bourbonstraightup (Old Forester), who did not win on the track but is off to a good start as a broodmare.
Jockey RYAN MUNGER won three races on the last day and landed tied for 6th in the standings with 52 wins. The young man from South Africa has made a pleasing impression since coming to Woodbine in 2023.
Sadly, the final day did not go without a horse fatally injured. First time starter Laurenette, owned by Curraghmore Farm, suffered a fatal fracture and was euthanized after leaving the track.
Owners
Bruno Schickedanz had another lopsided win margin with victories, 63 to Gary Barber’s 26, and his horses won at average odds of over 12 to 1.
Frank DiGuilio Jr. had a big year with 18 wins from 76 starters for a lofty 23.7 win percentage while Live Oak Plantation won 12 of 30 races, a 40 percent rate. His PATCHES O’HOULIHAN ran the highest Beyer Figure at Woodbine in 2024 of 103.
The leading Canadian stallions by wins on all weather tracks were SOUPER SPEEDY 45 winners from 96 starters, RELOAD, 30/70 and SILENT NAME (JPN) 23, 66.
More stats!
The average win odds for some of the riders at Woodbine were as follows (from the Woodbine program prior to final week):
Sahin Civaci – 7 to 1
Rafael Hernandez 9 to 1
Fraser Aebly 11 o 1
Ryan Munger 12 to 1
Eswan Flores 10 to 1
Trainers:
Mark Casse 8.5 to 1
Martin Drexler 8.3
Kevin Attard 8.9 to 1
Paul Buttigieg 17 to 1
Bill Tharrenos 6.9 to 1
Woodbine Favourites won at about 32 percent.
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