On one hour’s sleep, horse owner Glen Todd was back at his Hastings Racecourse stable Sunday morning wondering if life could get any better.
It was 12 hours earlier when Todd had won his first BC Derby with Sorryaboutnothing, describing the moment as “the last thing on my bucket list”.
The victory in Saturday’s 71st running of the $150,000 Grade 3 BC Derby was shared by Todd’s trainer of 40 years Troy Taylor on the eve of Taylor’s 85th birthday. Then to top things off, Todd received a phone call from California early Sunday morning from his unofficially adopted son and two-time Kentucky Derby winning jockey Mario Gutierrez announcing his wife Rebecca had given birth to their first child, 7 lb. 2 oz. Sebastian.
“It’s been a whirlwind of events,” Todd, 70, said Sunday morning as he headed home to bed. “Winning the BC Derby was a long time coming. I’ve been in the racing business 49 years and I’m not getting any younger. This is really, really a great feeling. There have been over 100 congratulatory emails and text messages from all over North America and two from England. I have to say, I’m overwhelmed.”
It was also an overwhelming victory for Sorryaboutnothing, who quickly took the lead in the 1 1/8-mile showcase event and went wire-to-wire under jockey Antonio Reyes. Sorryaboutnothing paid $11.70, $7.20, $5.70, finishing in a final time of 1:50.45.
Among the field of nine starters was favoured Opportunistic, also owned by Todd along with Mark DeDomenico. Opportunistic, winner of the Emerald Downs Derby on July 31, finished fourth.
Both 3-year-olds are expected to face each other again in the $100,000 Grade 3 BC Premiers on Oct. 1.
A streak of five consecutive stake victories ended for even-money favourite Snuggles in the $100,000 BC Oaks for 3-year-old fillies when Victress survived a riveting stretch duel to beat Snuggles by a neck. Victress, owned and trained by Rob and Vicky Gilker, paid $11.00, $3.90, $3.10, finishing in a final time of 1:51.30 under jockey Amadeo Perez.
It was one of three consecutive stake wins on the card for Perez. He rode Touching Promise ($9.00) to victory in the $75,000 Delta Colleen and Calgary Caper ($11.50) in the $75,000 S.W. Randall Plate.
Touching Promise was bred in B.C. by Russ and Lois Bennett and has now won six career stakes under trainer Barb Heada. Calgary Caper, owned by Kim Peacock, Hall of Famer Lance Giesbrecht and Phil Hall, posted the fastest time of the four Saturday stakes: 1:49.91.
Leading rider Richard Hamel guided Pretty Reckless ($3.20) to victory in the $50,000 Champions Distaff Starters Series Final while the $50,000 Final of the Champions Starter Series was won by Western Heritage ($7.00) with rider Rico Walcott enjoying a 5 ½ length victory over Prince Hotel.
Live racing resumes at Hastings on Saturday, Sept. 17, leading up to Sunday’s $100,000 Sadie Diamond Futurity for two-year-old Canadian-foaled fillies and the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity for two-year-old Canadian-foaled colts and geldings.
Both weekend cards begin at 1:50 p.m.
Well, we got a visit from our least favorite relative, Aunty Climax, on Sunday. The days after our premier days are usually a little flat and, let’s just say it, there was a bit of a drop-off from Saturday’s stakes races that included the Derby and Oaks to Sunday’s 4K claimers that constituted more than half the card. Of course, you might have trouble convincing jockey Antonio Reyes that Sunday was not all that exciting since he won 4 of the 7 races on the card. And even if the winning jockey’s 10 percent for the four wins was about half of what he collected yesterday for winning the Derby, a win is a win and four in one day is an event no matter how you look at it.
Great Promise Shows Some
The fourth was a Maiden Optional Claimer for three-year-olds and up at a mile-and-a-sixteenth. The option was a $25,000 tag, not that it mattered as no one was in for the price. Great Promise ($11.80) won the race with a last to first move that began mid-way down the backstretch and put him in the lead before completing the final turn. Once Great Promise hit the front the only questions were how much would he win by and who would be second and third. The answers were, in order, 3 lengths and Sanawar and Santa Fe Trail who took the third spot as the odds-on favorite. Antonio Reyes rode the winner, his second of four on the day. Final time was 1:47 flat.
Great Promise is the younger half-brother of the outstanding race mare Touching Promise, B. C. Bred Horse of the Year in 2015, and like her he was bred by his owners Russell and Lois Bennett and like her he is trained by Barbara Heads.
Tapicero Goes Long
An installment of the Marathon Series went as the fifth race and it fell to Tapicero ($13.20) who covered the mile-and-three-eighths in 2:20.07 under Gabriel Asencio. The 10-year-old Ganbei was along for second and the 95-1 shot War On showed up for third. Promise Glory ran fourth at 29-1 to create one of those hand grenade superfectas where close is good enough. You needed the first three and anything to collect $3,490 for a buck.
Tapicero is by Tapit who stood for $300,000 in 2016. The winner sold for $20,000 in 2012 when the stallion’s yearlings averaged 260K. He may not have been perfect, but he was plenty good today for owner Tamera Baker and trainer James Brown.
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