It is Halloween, Daylight Savings weekend, and cold temperatures have set in, but with six weeks left in the Woodbine 2020 racing season there is plenty of hot action on the track.
Big fields are the order of the days and with big fields come longshot winners and plenty of purse money to go around for stables big and small.
It has been three years since KIMBERLY KOZAK had saddled her first few horses as a trainer at Hastings Racecourse in BC before returning in August of this year to send out the Uncle Mo gelding Mo Nation to a second-place finish at the Vancouver track.
Two months later, Kozak was at Woodbine Oct. 30 with MO NATION, a horse she claimed for $4,000 this year, and her father Brian’s unraced juvenile HUNG JURY and watched both of them win on a cold evening in Toronto.
On Facebook not long after her two boys won, Kozak took to Facebook:
“My boys sure did me proud. So many people to thank, it really does take a lot of helpful people to get things done. My dad who always supports me thru every dream, my horses for their honest efforts and Jerome Lermyte for 2 winning rides today. 2 wins today was an unbelievable feeling.”
Kozak, a paramedic, barrel racer and exercise rider, has been at Woodbine before, she told CanadianThoroughbred.com. She galloped horses here for the late Joe Walls as a teenager.
Mo Nation was also returning to Ontario as the horse was bred by Yvonne Schwabe and sold for $40,000 as a yearling to North American Thoroughbred Horse Company three years ago. She picked up Mo Nation in July of this year when the gelding was dropped in for low claiming in his season debut. He won that day and then finished second for Kozak in August.
Friday night at Woodbine, Mo Nation, testing the Tapeta surface for the first time, came from a dozen lengths behind, 5 and 6 wide, to win a $5,000 claiming race under Jerome Lermyte. That win came just 30 minutes after Kozak sent out her dad’s Hung Jury to win his debut for $40,000 claiming in impressive fashion, Brian Kozak, an accomplished trainer and owner himself, had purchased the Kentucky-bred by Maclean’s Music for just $6,000 last October at the Fasig-Tipton yearling sale.
*Owner KARINA SHAAK, who won 5 races at Fort Erie this year with trainer Daryl Ezra, won a $15,000 inner turf claiming race with longshot SHANGASSAH, bred by Al and Bill Ulwelling. The Shangahi Bobby fellow was the first winner in 2020 for trainer Alison Crook.
*JULIA CAREY continues to have a solid season, recording her 9th win Friday with the mare GEA owned by Discovery Racing. This mare is an Ontario-bred by Animal Kingdom, foaled at the Saintsbury Farm of Jay and Christine Hayden. Gea was up from Florida via New York and this was her 4th local start.
On Thursday afternoon, LOADED QUESTION was a smart debut-winning 2-year-old for owner/breeder Frank DiGiulio Jr. and trainer Bob Tiller. This is the 7th winner for her freshman sire RELOAD and she sped 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:04.66.
There were half a dozen claims over the last 2 days including four claims from Friday’s 2nd race including winner DIDDLEY, who won easily for $7,500 claiming in :57.17 and was claimed by Centennial Farms (Niagara).
Big fields mean big wagering, too, as $5.1 million was bet on the 8-race Friday card.
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