Page 22 - January 2007 The Game

22 The Game, January 2007 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Sovereign Awards: Honouring the Best
Sovereign Award Vote Totals:
Champion Two Year Old Filly Catch the Thrill 115
Sealy Hill 107
Midnight Shadow 85 Champion Two year Old Colt Leonnatus Anteas 199
Barilko 113
Skip Code 46
Champion Three year Old Filly Kimchi 156
Vestrey Lady 96
Strike Softly 76
Champion Three Year Old Colt Shillelagh Slew 214
Edenwold 92
Malakoff 39
Champion Older Female Financingavailable 220 Monashee 72
Hide and Chic 66
Champion Older Male
True Metropolitan 222
Arch Hall 49
Judiths Wild Rush 41
Champion Female Turf Horse Arravale 236
Ambitious Cat 56
Strike Softly 55
Champion Male Turf Horse Sky Conqueror 230
Le Cinquieme Essai 86
Last Answer 38
Champion Sprinter
Judiths Wild Rush 150
Main Executive 79
Just Rushing 45
Horse of the Year
Arravale 182
True Metropolitan 70
Sky Conqueror 67
Outstanding Broodmare
Dream Smartly 129
Braverelle 124
Artic Bleu 65
Outstanding Apprentice Jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson 216
Justin Stein 103
Mario Gutierrez 32
Outstanding Jockey
Todd Kabel 112
Patrick Husbands 84 Emma-Jayne Wilson 76 Outstanding Trainer
Mark Casse 117
Reade Baker 82
Sid Attard 78
Terry Jordan 78
Outstanding Owner
Sam-Son Farms 120
Bahudur Cheema 92
Stronach Stables 65 Outstanding Breeder
Adena Springs 158
Sam-Son Farms 74
Gardiner Farms Ltd. 61
The 32nd Annual Sovereign Awards Dinner took place at the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Toronto on December 16, 2006. About 300 guests, dressed sumptuously in gowns and tuxedos, filled the hall to remember a year of racing thrills and to honour the people and hors- es who won Jockey Club of Canada Awards.
There were a handful of people who had multiple reasons to celebrate. It was another night of collecting the hardware for owner Sam-Son Farm. When their runner, Catch the Thrill, was named Champion Two Year Old Filly, it was the 44th time Sam-Son Farms would accept a Sovereign and the 5th Sovereign won by these owners for a two year old filly.
Tammy Samuel-Balaz, President of Sam-Son Farms and daughter of the founder Ernie Samuel, was certainly the most animated recipient of the night. Not only was she happy about Catch the Thrill’s glory, she also got to lead a throng of ecstatic people to the podium when Sam-Son was named Outstanding Owner.
“It was a phenomenal night,” a smiling Samuel-Balaz said. “Catch the Thrill is from a fourth generation Sam-Son brood- mare. Her dam was a champion, her grand-dam was a champion and, as a two year old, she is the future. It’s a thrill to be nominated and to have those great horses and the team behind them recognized.”
There was a quite a buzz about Arravale, the three year old filly trained by Macdonald Benson and owned by Robert Costigan. She took the prize as Champion Female Turf Horse and was also voted Horse of the Year, making her the first filly since Dance Smartly in 1991 to do this. Robert’s daughter Carolyn accepted the trophy on his behalf.
“Oh it’s a phenomenal experience to be recognized as Canada’s Champion Horse of the Year,” she said. “We’ve been very patient with Arravale. Her last race as a two year old she hurt herself coming out of the gate, so we wrapped up on her early, knowing that we had a champion in the waiting, and when she came out as a three year old we were just waiting for her to sparkle and she did just that. Foreigners should be aware that if they’re coming to Woodbine to get some money, the Canadians are going to put up one heck of a fight for it.”
The five year old mare, Financingavailable, won five of her eight races this year which prompted the voters to make her the Champion Older Filly. The Sovereign is a first for both trainer Lorne Richards and owner K.K. Sangara.
“She’s the best I’ve ever owned,” said a beaming Sangara. “Actually nobody in my family has ever won a Sovereign award. We’ve won a few awards in B.C., but this is the biggest ever,”
With Judiths Wild Rush and Financingavailable winning their divi- sions, jockey Jim McAleney, the rider for both horses, was even more upbeat than usual.
“Every three weeks or so, Financingavailable or Judith would come out, and it’s just like Christmas,” he said. “Every time I saw my name next to either of those horses, I knew I was going to be
in for a moment when they would give me 100%.”
Actually McAleney had even one more reason to be proud. In a bit of tom- foolery designed to loosen up the crowd, one person from each table was lured into a Canadian Idol spoof and McAleney’s air-clarinet was judged the best, for which he won a plastic flashing crown.
“I think I looked pretty good in that tiara,” he laughed.
Shillelagh Slew, owned by David James, was 5th in the Queen’s Plate but the voters thought enough of his wins in the Canadian Derby at Northlands and the Ontario Derby at Woodbine to make him Three Year Old Male of the Year. Shillelagh Slew also won the Prince of Wales through a disqualification of first place finisher Malakoff. We won’t know the official winner until at least March of this year when an appeal filed by Malakoff’s owners, Stronach Stables is heard.
Sky Conqueror was named the Male Turf Champion, making it the first Sovereign for trainer Darwin Banach and the second for owner William Sorokolit.
True Metropolitan, the four year old gelding who won Stakes races at Northlands, Hastings, Stampede Park and Woodbine, took the trophy as Champion Older Male, first time for owner Bob Cheema and trainer Terry Jordan. And it was Knob Hill Stable’s unbeaten Leonnatus Anteas, trained by Kevin Attard who won as Best Two Year Old Male for the Knob Hill Stables.
It’s evident that money talks when it comes to Sovereign Awards. Sky Conqueror, Arravale, Shillelagh Slew, Kimchi, Judiths Wild Rush and Leonnatus Anteas had each won more than their divisional rivals.
That trend played out in the trainer’s contest as well. Sid Attard recorded the most wins this year (78), Reade Baker was second (76), but the man in third place, Mark Casse (67) trained the horses that won the most Stakes (11) and accu- mulated the most money ($4,348,182). When Casse was named Trainer of the Year, he gave an emotional thank-you speech.
“To win as Champion Trainer is some- thing I worked my entire life for,” he said. “I have a large organization that helped me get there. I’ve been up before in this category and I didn’t think I deserved to win. I thought this year I deserved to win. You’re always nervous.”
Todd Kabel was actually fifth in the jockey standings with 101 wins, but his 16 Stakes victories ruled the day and he emerged as the Outstanding Jockey for the fourth straight time.
Emma-Jayne Wilson repeated in a cat- egory for which there will be no three- peat, but the two-time Apprentice Jockey of the Year puts it all in prospective.
“Winning this is secondary,” said Wilson, “It’s the game and the horses themselves. I’m flattered. This year it’s an honour to be Apprentice of the Year and I’m looking forward to the next stage of my career.”
It’s not surprising that a Sovereign Award is coveted by all those who com- pete in the racing game. Thousands of
owners entered their runners at tracks across Canada last year. Only one emerged as Owner of the Year. More than 2,000 different horses ran at Canadian tracks in 2006. Only 11 divisional tro- phies were handed out. There’s close to a thousand trainers who tried to find the winner’s circle at tracks across this land since racing kicked off last April. Just one was good enough for Trainer of the Year. Now the process starts all over for those who would vie for honours in 2007.
In the Media Categories Sovereign Awards were presented to Dave Perkins for Outstanding Newspaper Story, "Threat from the Net"; Paul Wiecek, Outstanding Feature Story, "Saddling up for slaughter"; Dave Landry, Outstanding Photograph, "Grab the Reins"; and Horse Racing Alberta and WhiteIron Productions, Outstanding Film/Video/Broadcast, "Brother Derek's Runs for the Roses"
CTV - Alberta
Owner Bob Cheema accepted the Sovereign Award for his horse,True Metropolitan, for Champion Older Male.
Trainer Mark Casse was named Outstanding Trainer for 2006.
The connections of Arravale accept the Sovereign Award for Horse of the Year. Below - Tammy Samuel-Balaz & Trainer Mark Frostad