Page 6 - January 2007 The Game

6 The Game, January 2007 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
13-Race Card Ends Woodbine’s Season
Race fans were given a full buffet on Sunday December 10, final day of the 2006 Woodbine Thoroughbred season. With 13 races and over 160 horses entered, no one could reasonably complain they weren’t given a fair chance to cash just one more time.
In many ways, the final day bonanza was very much a microcosm of this unusual season. Jockeys found themselves racing on four different surfaces in 2006 – the original main track, the temporary inside track, the turf course and finally, the Polytrack.
In her second full year of riding, Emma-Jayne Wilson repeated as the leading jockey. Her win on Marsh Side in the Valedictory Stakes was not only her 9th Stakes
conquest of the year, but her 144th visit to the winner’s circle, putting her 20 ahead of runner-up Patrick Husbands. You only needed to watch the Valedictory to realize the sum total of Wilson’s riding ability. In the rarely run distance of 1 3/4miles, Wilson sat patiently off the pace of front-runner True Metropolitan, then made an authoritative move around the far turn to win by a widening four lengths at odds of more than 9-1. Marsh Side, running for the first time in Canada, is owned by Robert Evans and trained by Michael Dickinson.
Jim McAleney wound up third in the jockey’s standings with 113 wins, two of which came on the final day. ‘Jimmy Mac’ rode Mike Fox to the finish line first
in the fourth race and then guided Lettherebejustice to victory in the sixth at odds of 8-1. Both of those horses are trained by Reade Baker, as once again, the combination of McAleney and Baker was the most productive jockey/trainer duo at the track.
The win totals of Wilson, Husbands and McAleney were all down from 2005. That has somewhat to do with the fact that the installation of the Polytrack removed several days of racing from the schedule, but it also has a lot to do with the fact that Woodbine has become an extremely competitive arena for jockeys.
Justin Stein had a great year. His fourth place finish with 109 wins and purse earnings of more than $5million would have been hard to predict at the beginning of the year when he was fresh to the circuit and hadn’t really established his credentials. His in-the-money rate of 42.9% sim-
ply reflects that he’s a major league jockey who always gives a horse a chance.
Dean Deverell, at 35, one of the oldest apprentice jockeys to ever ride at Woodbine, showed his many years as a quarterhorse rider prepared him well for the Woodbine circuit. Deverell had 33 winners at Woodbine after hitting for 32 first-place ribbons at Fort Erie.
The riding surprise of the year, though, had to be Michelle Rainford. The shorter the days got, the hotter she became. Rainford rode two winners on closing day, scoring on My Cousin Matt in the 10th for her main trainer Scott Fairlie, then closing out the racing season with a huge sweeping move around the field in the 13th race on Goldmart Flash. Rainford had 11 winners over the final five days of action and rose to 9th in the standings with 65 wins.
Rainford’s excellent work on Goldmart Flash gave trainer Sid Attard his 78th win and his third straight train- er’s championship at Woodbine. The last week of racing featured a suspense-filled trainer’s race, because with five cards remaining, Attard and Reade Baker were tied. In the final analysis, Attard was able to enter more horses and he beat Baker by just two victories.
That success, however, was sadly tempered by the loss of Victoria’s Boy who broke down during a race December 6 and had to be destroyed. Victoria’s Boy was owned by George Bigliardi and trained by Attard. Early in the running of the fourth race, something went wrong with Victoria’s Boy and jockey Steven Bahen immedi- ately pulled up the three year old colt. Seeing the catas- trophe, Bigliardi and Attard both ran from the stands onto
the track. There was, sadly, nothing that could be done.
If a positive spin can be created out of this tragedy, it’s that Victoria’s Boy was one of just two horses that were lost on the track in 2006, an indication that the new Polytrack is serving its main purpose of being a kinder, gentler surface for the horses.
The fans seemed to embrace the new track as Autumn wore on. Betting figures show that total handle during the Polytrack era was $157,445,000, an increase of more than $6 million over the same time period in 2005.
The owner standings at Woodbine was led by Sam-Son Farms with 27 wins and earnings of $2,311,566. Sam-Son’s eight Stakes victories were the most of any stables. Stronach Stables compiled a meet-leading 29 wins. Just to give you an idea of the wide-ranging interest in thoroughbred racing in this jurisdiction, the statistics provided to The Game by Woodbine show that exactly 1,000 differ- ent interests entered horses to race at Woodbine in 2006.
It was a year in which a harness track was converted to a runners’ oval; a year in which a dynamic new racing strip was installed at great expense and with some degree of frustration. It was a year in which bettors were introduced to 20-cent superfectas and win4s. And it was the year that Woodbine celebrated its 50th year of operation.
Kind of makes you wonder what they have in store for 2007, doesn’t it? -PG
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