We were all grateful for a Thanksgiving Day as gorgeous as the one we were gifted with. It was a beautiful day at one of the world’s most spectacularly set racetracks, that being Historic Old Hastings Racecourse, aka, the Track of the Water and Mountains. There was a free Thanksgiving Lunch in the backstretch kitchen provided by the HBPA of BC and Hastings Entertainment and there was a card that presented stakes races for two-year-olds of both genders.
The Ascot and Fantasy offer juveniles the first opportunity to run a distance of ground and given that they are open stakes, they should have a big say in deciding the two-year-old division champions. Antonio Reyes won three on the card and interjected a hint of suspense into the jockey race as he closed to within 6 wins of the season-long leader Richard Hamel. Definitely uphill for Reyes with only two race days left, but given the way he has been winning races in clumps lately, not impossible. Trainer Barbara Heads continued her strong late season close by winning two, including the Fantasy with Yukon Belle for Edmonton Oiler Ryan Nugent Hopkins.
The handle topped $730,000 for an 8-race card that produced two winning favorites and a horse that paid $124.80 for two bucks.
The Ascot Graduation Stakes
A dominating performance is the best way to describe Strate Remark’s ($10.40) win in the Ascot. He went to the lead right out of the gate despite being under a hold, pulled jockey Denis Araujo to the lead and kept him there until they were home by 5 ½ lengths after a-mile-and-a-sixteenth that went in 1:45.43. Driller and Igor finished second and third, respectively, a neck apart. Aside from the winner, 4 lengths would have covered the field, but Strate Remark only had his shadow for company as he came home in brilliant sunshine to a glorious conclusion of a two-year-old season that saw him win the Sales Stake and run second in the Jack Diamond before taking down the Ascot.
After getting to the lead with consummate ease, Strate Remark soon found that Slicky Boy had established himself in second on his flank where he stayed to just after three-quarters in 1:13.97, at which point Araujo let out a notch and Strate Remark started opening up on Slicky Boy and everybody else. The gap widened around the final turn to two lengths, then three, then four coming down the lane, then five, and five-and-half lengths at the wire. He covered the last five-sixteenths in 31.46. It was a convincing score in a race that will most likely determine the division champion.
Strate Remark is by Sungold out of the Red Rock 24-year-old mare Remarkable Gal who has now foaled four stakes winners (plus one in Macau) and two stakes-placed horses. Strate Remark is a full brother to the 2011 Sadie Diamond victor Sunnyside Gal and a half to Grade 3 winner Trick of the North and multiple stakes winner Remarkable Miss. Trick of the North took the Premier’s at a mile-and-three-eighths and Remarkable Miss won two route stakes, so distance is in the family. Red Rock Farm bred Strate Remark who sold for $35,000 in the 2015 CTHS Sale.
The winner is owned by Riversedge Racing Stable, Ltd. and trained by Cindy Krasner.
The Fantasy Stakes
Yukon Belle ($4.20) was no less imposing than the Ascot winner as she wired the Fantasy under jockey Antonio Reyes in a race that saw her go faster at every pole than did Strate Remark in the Ascot. Runner-up Daz Lin Dawn chased her all the way around and Anstrum ran an even third behind those two, but when they hit the head of the lane the Drosselmeyer part of Yukon Belle’s pedigree, the part that won the Belmont and Breeders’ Cup Classic, kicked in and she drew off from her pursuers to finish 2 ½ lengths clear after a mile-and-sixteenth in 1:45.29.
It seemed likely that Yukon Belle was going to like more ground and that proved to be the case. When Reyes asked her for a little more at the top of the stretch she provided it with a minimum of urging while clearly relishing the extra real estate. Both Daz Lin Dawn and Anstrum acquitted themselves well, but they were not about to run down Yukon Belle.
Yukon Belle is owned by R.N.H. Stable and trained by Barbara Heads. She was bred in British Columbia by Bryan and Carol Anderson. As mentioned, Yukon Belle is by the dual Classic winner Drosselmeyer, a son of Distorted Humor who is emerging as a sire-of-sires. Yukon Belle’s dam, Queen On Line, won only 2 of 31 starts but she won 199K, so she must have been keeping decent company. She sold for $35,000 at the Keeneland November Sale in foal to Drosselmeyer and carrying the winner of the 2016 Sales Stake and Fantasy and quite possibly the Champion two-year-old filly. The winner sold in the 2015 CTHS Sale for $51,000.
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