Quickness and Fitness: Betting Woodbine in the Spring

Woodbine opens its 70th racing season on Saturday, April 26 and entries will be drawn on Wednesday, April 23. The 2024 opening day of Woodbine had 10 races, 71 entries and wagering of $4.5 million.

The main track, Tapeta, has been very fast in recent days and workout times have illustrated this. To view workouts, go to the Entries tab at www.equibase.com.

In the early days of the meeting, the majority of the races are 5 and 5 1/2 furlongs. Essentially, when you are betting these dashes you want a horse that is quick (not necessarily simply a horse with early speed) and a horse that is fit from winter racing or training or has been known to run well after a layoff.

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Here’s a checklist for picking a winner in the spring:

1 – Gate speed, quick horses

2 – Racing and training fit, horses who were south

3 – Trainers

4 – Specialists

5 AND 5 1/2 FURLONGS – Gate speed

These are specialist distances. Just because a horse has speed to win at 6 and 7 furlongs does not mean they are quick enough to enjoy these shorter distances. Quickness is the ability to break very sharply and/or get to the front in a 5 or 5 1/2 furlong dash while reeling off fractions in :22 for the first quarter and faster, :45 for the first half-mile and faster. Speed in longer sprints or route races is horses who tend to race on the lead from the start, but aren’t necessarily really quick, from a pace fractions perspective*.

(* the condition of the track surface will play a role in the fractions of races – some days a :22 4/5 first quarter is just as quick on a slow surface as a :21 4/5 on a fast surface; use these as a guide, but look at a horse’s overall record at the short dashes also.)

Take a look at Maximum Fifty’s race record from Daily Racing Form:

This quick filly won three races at 5 and 5 1/2 furlongs in 2024 and often, she had the lead going very quickly in the opening furlongs. Any horse in a race she was in that had speed, but not the same quickness as her, would pay the price chasing this Robert Tiller trainee.

Let the first and second columns in a horse’s past race times be your guide!

SHIPPERS/WINTER RACED OR TRAINED

In 2024, half of the 40 races on the first two weekends were won by horses who were coming off races at Gulfstream, Tampa Bay Downs, Turfway Park or Fair Grounds, or had been working in Florida.

Also, from the first four racing days of the last two Woodbine seasons, the larger stables that had horses at tracks in Florida, Kentucky or New Orleans did a lot of winning. Their horses were simply sharp and fit.

Of course, the bigger stables of Mark Casse and Martin Drexler have an edge because of numbers in addition to some of their starters being winter trained or raced. Kevin Attard, who also has one of the larger stables, prepares most of his horses in the winter at a Caledon East training centre.

TRAINERS

There are plenty of smaller barns that have good, recent records of winning races in the spring. They include Darwin Banach, Ross Armata, Ted Holder, Steve Flint, Mike DePaulo, and Katerina Vassilieva, to name a few.

Take note that trainer Barrington Siddo has won races on the opening weekend of Woodbine in each of the last two years. Others to note include Bev Chubb, Phil Hall and Zeljko Krcmar.

SPECIALISTS

Like the example of Maximum Fifty (above), look for horses who do their best racing in 5 and 5 1/2 furlong dashes in the spring. Their trainers know they like the shorter distances, so they will have been pointed to these races.

Here is a recent race record for the fast Florida-based mare Epona’s Hope, who is the boss in short dashes down south. Note that the horse to her outside in this particular race, Kerry, has shown speed, but at six furlongs. While Kerry has won at 5 1/2 furlongs in her career, she is never on the pace in those races. On this particular day, Epona’s Hope was easily the quickest from the gate in a 5 furlong dash and won easily.