It has been less than a week since the 127 days of racing at Woodbine concluded, but many owners, trainers, jockeys and horses are still busy at work.
A number of owners and trainers have already set up shop at US tracks including Aqueduct, Turfway, Tampa Bay, Oaklawn, and Gulfstream. On Friday and through the weekend Mike Wright, Bill Tharrenos, Julie Mathes, Norm McKnight, Katerina Vassilieva, and Steve Chircop are among the local trainers with horses racing.
Over the next week, Bruno Schickedanz, Woodbine’s leading owner by wins and purses, has 18 horses entered at seven different tracks. One, La Gratte, races at Aqueduct on December 27 with Rafael Hernandez riding.
Jockeys Sahin Civaci and Rafael Hernandez have mounts at Aqueduct once that meeting reboots after Christmas and Luis Contreras is riding at Turfway Park.
Speaking of Mathes, her daughter ALYSHA ROBILLARD took out her trainer’s license in the fall and is racing at Mountaineer alongside her mum. In fact. mother and daughter square off on Dec. 23 at the West Virginia track with starters for Schickedanz. Mathes has Morning Holiday while Robillard, who seeks her first career win as a trainer, sends out Summer Holiday.
Keep an eye out for Ontario-bred MANSETTI (Collected), the Clarendon Stakes winner for Al and Bill Ulwelling, who is scheduled to race in the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct in early January.
Here are a few more stats from the recently completed Woodbine meeting:
2024 Woodbine Owners by Win Percentage
(minimum 30 starts)
Owner – Win % – Starts – Wins
Live Oak Plantation 40 – 30 – 12
Kelly Callaghan 27 – 13 – 8
Rowbothman, Carpenter and Boogmans 25 – 40 – 10
Canuck Racing Stable 23 – 43 – 10
Frank DiGiulio Jr 23 – 79 – 18
Terra Racing 22 – 32 – 7
Gary Barber 22 – 119 – 26
X-Men Racing IV LLC, Madaket Stables LLC, SF Racing LLC 21 – 33 – 7
Stacey Van Camp 20 – 45 – 9
D.J. Stable LLC 19 – 59 – 11
Buttieigieg Training Centre 18 – 114 – 20
Trainers Off the Claim
Trainer Claims – Wins – Win%
Martin Drexker 28 – 8 – 29%
Norm McKnight 23 – 5 – 22%
Bill Tharrenos 10 – 3 – 30%
Steven Chircop 6 – 2 – 33%
Jim Ensom 8 – 2 – 25%
Phil Hall 11 – 2 – 18%
More from Canadian Thoroughbred:
