Woodbine Thoroughbreds Set to Open 67th Season

The 2022 Horse of the Year MOIRA is just one of hundreds of horses who have logged workouts this spring preparing for the 67th Woodbine Thoroughbred season which opens Saturday, April 22.

The opening day forecast in Etobicoke, ON calls for a temperature of 16 degrees Celcius but an 80% chance of rain with up to 10 mm projected. There is a www.HPIBet.com promotion, a giveaway of a fanny pack and the first race is set for 1:10 p.m.

Moira, trained by Kevin Attard, who just missed winning his first Sovereign Award for Outstanding Trainer last week by three voting points, has a huge army of horses once again. Donato Lanni’s X Men Racing syndicate owns many of his horses, including Moira, also owned by SF Bloodstock and Madaket Racing.

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X-Men-3 will have a bundle of two-year-olds this season and already a couple of big-ticket items, BEDARD (Nyquist), a $300,000 Ontario-bred named for the young Canadian hockey star, and VUCCHELLA (Bernardini), a $230,000 filly, have had workouts.

Lanni also has another syndicate of new Canadian owners called CANUCK RACING and it has had some young horses on the worktab at Woodbine this spring.

Attard also trains for another Sovereign Award owner finalist of 2022, the father and son team of Bill and Al Ulwelling, whose stable continues to grow in numbers and accomplishments.

The stakes races don’t get going at Woodbine until the second weekend with the Star Shoot and Fury Stakes. It is expected that one of North America’s most successful trainers, WESLEY WARD, will be well represented in those races. His $695,000 trainee EYE WITNESS (City of Light), bought for that hefty sum by Mrs. John Magnier, Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith et al, comes off a big win on Tapeta in the Animal Kingdom Stakes at Turfway Park.

In addition to Attard, fans can expect to see a lot of horses, and winners, from the Mark Casse barn, Martin Drexler, Norm McKnight, Don MacRae, Bill Tharrenos and many others.

On the jockey front, KAZUSHI KIMURA, the leading rider for the last two years, returns from a smashing winter at Santa Anita and is fit and ready to go. Other riders who have been riding recently include PATRICK HUSBANDS, EMMA-JAYNE WILSON, RAFAEL HERNANDEZ and LUIS CONTRERAS. New to the scene is RYAN MUNGER, a leading rider in South Africa who will be represented by agent Mike Luider.

Also new to Woodbine is longtime leading Alberta rider RICO WALCOTT plus western Canadian jocks DESEAN BYNOE and LENNY SEECHARAN.

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LET’S BET!! CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED will have the WOODBINE SELECTIONS once again (access from the home page). Canadian Thoroughbred is featured on the Woodbine simulcast program race-by-race picks with local selectors Jeff Bratt, Monique Vag, Doug McPherson and Daily Racing Form.

The top picks and Return on Investment stats, plus many other statistics, are tabulated for entertainment and wagering fun by Gabe DiPaolo on Twitter at @JuNioRPicks1 “home for charts and selections.” DiPaolo also includes selections from US-based Brisnet

Below is the final chart for the 2022 Woodbine season showing our leading 308 winners (‘Hits’) from 132 racing days.