With a thundering move from well back of the pace, WICKED DJANGO, the longest shot in the Autumn Stakes (G2) at Woodbine on Saturday, flew to his biggest win in near-track record time.
The handsome bay colt by Wicked Strong – Belcarres by Flatter, just a 2-time winner in his previous 11 races, defeated champion Paramount Prince and several other graded stakes winners in 1:48.65 for 1 1/8 miles, just off the record of 1:48.24 set five years ago by Global Access.
It was hard not to get caught up in the excitement of Wicked Django’s victory. He is the first and only horse of Ryan Brewster, a hands-on horseman who recently jumped headfirst into farm owner and breeder. Trainer Rodney Barrow, who only got the horse in his barn a month ago, had won one race in the last two years.
And Wicked Django, an Ontario-bred who was trained by Krista Cole for his first 11 races, went from an allowance/optional claiming win in June in his season debut to graded stakes company. He had been surprising fans with consecutive third-place finishes in the Dominion Day and Seagram Cup behind Paramount Prince and Stanley House. The four-year-old was recently fourth in the King Edward and second and third in a pair of allowance races.
Brewster moved the horse to Barrow, who started training four years ago, and they added blinkers to the colt’s equipment. Another key team member, jockey Keveh Nicholls, agreed with the change. It seems as if Wicked Django agreed with it too, as he went out and worked a bullet five furlongs on the Tapeta on November 2.
The Autumn Stakes was originally scheduled for last Saturday, but several horse fatalities on the Tapeta halted the races. The delay didn’t matter to Wicked Django, who still got the predicted fast pace up front from Paramount Prince and the invading Forever Souper. That pair went in 23.60, 47.18 and 1:10.80 and that was just too fast.
Some 12 lengths back, halfway through the race, Wicked Django and Nicholls waited patiently and by the quarter pole were starting to rocket past rivals. He was already in front into the stretch while the year’s top three-year-old, Dresden Row, battled on for second place ahead of Stanley House.
Wicked Django, bred by Denny Andrews and Niall Brennan, earned $126,000 for the win, boosting his career earnings to over $288,000.
“I wanted the horse to start running in [the blinkers],” said Barrow. “I have been watching him the whole time and I thought the blinkers would help him a lot.”
Brewster, donning his cowboy hat and surrounded my friends in the winner’s circle, already has young mares at his farm north of the city awaiting Wicked Django when he retires.
Wicked Django is by Grade 1 winner Wicked Strong, an earner of over $1.9 million and now pensioned in Massachusetts. The dam Belcarres was a $100,000 yearling purchase at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale. She never raced.
Second dam Ragtime Road, by Dixieland Band, was bred in Ontario by George Farr and she did not race. Ragtime Road has produced three winners. Third dam High Arch is the dam of stakes winner Spread the News, who earned over $300,000.
As for Belcarres, she has had two other named foals including the two-year-old winning filly of this year, Onjabtoomany, by Reload. Belcarres was retired from breeding recently.
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