The 2014 Canadian live Thoroughbred racing season will kick off this Saturday at Woodbine, the first of 133 programs scheduled for the year.
The Opening Day 10-race card was drawn Wednesday and features 87 horses. First race post time is set for 1:00 p.m.
Woodbine’s perennial leading jockeys and trainers will be in action on Opening Day. Luis Contreras, a two-time consecutive Sovereign Award winner and a finalist for 2013, has eight mounts, while Eurico Rosa da Silva, who won more stakes races (27) than any other rider at Woodbine last year, is named on seven rides. In 2013, Contreras was Woodbine’s leading rider in wins (168) while da Silva, a 2010 Sovereign Award winner, led in purse earnings ($8,427,148).
Trainer Mark Casse, a five-time Sovereign Award winner, and, like Contreras and da Silva, a 2013 finalist, will send out two hopefuls on Saturday. Casse comes off a 2013 season when he won a Woodbine-leading 85 races and over $5.4 million in purse earnings.
Patrick Husbands, a seven-time Sovereign Award recipient, has four mounts on Opening day, while Emma-Jayne Wilson, winner of the Sovereign and Eclipse Awards in 2005 as North America’s top apprentice, will debut on Sunday, after fulfilling commitments in the United States, including a ride aboard the Reade Baker-trained Asserting Bear in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday.
Making a full-time return to Woodbine is Chantal Sutherland-Kruse, the 2002 Sovereign Award winner as Canada’s top apprentice, after three years competing at tracks in southern California. She’s been named on four horses on the card.
“I’m excited. It’s good to be back,” Sutherland-Kruse said. “I’m out here now looking for two-year-olds and hoping that I can find three good horses. If I can find three good horses, the rest should fall into place.”
Canada’s most famous horse race, the $1 million Queen’s Plate, will be staged on Sunday, July 6, when the mile and one-quarter classic for Canadian-bred three-year-olds will be contested for the 155th consecutive time, making it the oldest, continuously-run stakes race in North America.
The Woodbine Oaks, presented by Budweiser, for Canadian-foaled three-year-old fillies, and the Plate Trial for Canadian-bred three-year-olds, both at one and one-eighth miles, are scheduled for June 15.
Other major stakes to be contested at Woodbine during the season include the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes, the third leg in the Canadian Triple Crown, on August 17 at one and one-half miles over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course; the $1 million, Grade 1, turf Ricoh Woodbine Mile, won the last two years by U.S. Horse of the Year Wise Dan, on September 14; the $1 million Pattison Canadian International and the $500,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes, also both Grade 1 turf events, on Sunday, October 19.
First race post times for Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays throughout the year will be 1:00 p.m. Friday racing, also with a 1:00 p.m. first race post, begins on April 18 while Wednesday night racing, beginning at 6:45 p.m., is slated to start on May 28.
Woodbine Entertainment Group is also launching a number of marketing initiatives to welcome back racing fans for the new season.
On site, there will be several activities on Saturday to celebrate 2014, the Year of the Horse, according to the Chinese Zodiac.
A number of jockeys will be participating in a meet and greet session on the second floor from 12:00 – 12:30 p.m. There will also be a postcard handout featuring Queen’s Plate promotional material. A Handicapping seminar, with host and author Jim Mazur, president of Progressive Handicapping Inc. will begin at 11:00 a.m. on the second floor, East, as well. There will also be a Mystery Card Cash Giveaway from Noon until 3:00 p.m., offering the first 2,000 fans a chance to receive pre-loaded vouchers ranging from $2 – $1,000.
On the wagering front, Woodbine will continue to offer the horseplayer 20-cent Triactor, Pick 3, Pick 4 and Superfecta minimum bets. There’s also a $100,000 guaranteed pool for the early Pick 4’s each weekend. The 20-cent Jackpot Hi-5 (first five finishers in the day’s last race), inaugurated last year, will continue to be attractive as a carryover, until only a single ticket wins the entire pot.
Canadian Thoroughbred racing will honour its brightest stars of last season at the Sovereign Awards dinner, Friday evening at Woodbine, as a prelude to Opening weekend. The Sovereign Awards were established in 1975 to honour Canada’s best each year.
Woodbine’s 2014 Thoroughbred season comes to a close on Sunday, December 7.
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Woodbine Communications Office
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