Page 16 - June 2009 The Game

16 The Game, June 2009
Road to the Classics Cont. from p14 and Whispered Hope (50-1) are all
winning the Ontario Lassie Stakes as a two-year-old at a distance of a mile and one-sixteenth. The C.E.C Farms home- bred raced her rst two turn event this year on May 17 in a very game effort that resulted in a third place nish in the La Lorgnette, “She ran against seasoned horses,” Fairlie reminds, “She should bounce back for the Oaks if she keeps improving, you need to improve to win the Oaks.” This will be Scott’s rst try at the lly Classic and he highly anticipates his chances, “I’m very con dent and that she’ll run well, she can get the win.” The Oaks will be the daughter of Milwaukee Brew’s third start of the 2009 season, which should see this lly in peak condition and ready for her rivals.
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
pointed in other directions than the boys Canadian Classic. Sam-Son’s Oaks candidates, Torreadora and Forest Uproar, will go elsewhere as well.
(5-2), is an uncertain. O’Neill has not informed anyone at the Woodbine Race Of ce as to whether or not the son of Smart Strike will be coming here for the big race. Square Eddie did not make his highly anticipated run in the Kentucky Derby, due to injury, so that should be
campaign.
Since arriving at the barn of Roger
One Frostad trainee to keep an eye
on though, is Eye of the Leopard (A.P. Indy-Eye of the Sphnx) (40-1); winner of his rst career start on May 10 at Woodbine in a maiden allowance going a distance of a mile and a sixteenth. “Yeah, Eye of the Leopard has been training well and he won his rst race
at two turns comfortably. Hopefully he keeps progressing and if he does, he will be going to the Plate,” con rmed Mark of the chestnut colt, bred by Sam-Son Farm.
a good indication as to why there is still no de nite answer from the colt’s conditioner.
Att eld, he nished a gaining fourth
in his rst start of 2009 at Keeneland going a mile and one sixteenth in Allowance company. His next start
was at Woodbine on April 26, for $79,500 Allowance where he nished an encouraging third. Coming right back
at the same conditions on May 3, Rapid Release experienced traf c trouble in the stretch and nished a close fth in a four horse place photo.
Conditioner Scott Fairlie has a very interesting individual in Milwaukee Appeal (Milwaukee Brew-Appealing
There are a few other notables from the winter book that The Game has been informed will not be making their way to the Canadian Classics.
Rapid Release Assistant Kevin Hoffman
compete in the Plate Trial on Sunday, May 31.
The Charles Fipke owned homebred lly Soul of Nataka (Perfect Soul (IRE) - Nataka, by With Approval) is an Oaks hopeful for the Att eld barn. “The Distance might suit her if the owner is optimistic.” commented Roger, “I’ll have to ask and he is usually optimistic so it might just work.”
Milwaukee Appeal after winning the Star Shoot Stakes
Forum), winner of the April 19 Star Shoot Stakes going six furlongs at the Toronto oval. She is proven at two turns
The Prince of Barn M
Every backstretch is home
to a unique cast of characters, but nowhere at Hastings Park boasts a greater concentration of
The 50-1 winterbook colt by Action This Day - Bail Money, by St. Jovite began his racing career in England under the conditioning of Sir Mark Prescott for owners W.E. Sturt - Osborne House III. He recorded one win, three seconds and a third in seven starts in his 2 year-old
Soul of Nataka’s latest start at Woodbine was May 13 in Maiden Allowance against older horses. She stalked the pace going 1 1/16 miles and closed quickly, fanning 4 wide on the nal turn and driving up for second,
Julie Bell, Woodbine’s Thoroughbred Stakes Manager, made it certain that Jerry Hollendorfer’s lly Pretty Katherine (50-1) is no longer on the Woodbine grounds and has gone back to the U.S.A, leaving her Plate or Oaks dream behind. Also, conditioner Bruce Smither has con rmed that winter book nominee, Among Giants (50-1), will not be going to the Plate for the Estate of Firestone Farms Ltd. And the winter book favorite for the Queen’s Plate, the Doug O’Neill trained, Square Eddie
Dexter appears as eclectic a character as ever graced a backstretch. But as a child he never suspected he might one day call the racetrack home.
from here to Mexico...I’ve ridden with the best—Bill Shoemaker, Fernando Toro...even Pat Day.”
Other Road to the Classics Notables from The Game’s Stacie Roberts:
Trainer Roger Att eld con rmed that his only real Plate hopeful this year
is Rapid Release, who we will see
“We are going to the Plate Trial to prove if running in the Plate would be
a futile gesture.” said Roger, “I’ve got my eye on the Plate but he has to prove that it makes any sense. The Trial is the test and I hope to have a lot more to talk about after the race.”
Continued Page 18
by evenSteven
eccentrics than Barn M. Strategically located at the lowest geographic point on the grounds, this infamous structure hosts the most disparate collection of horse people under a single roof west of the Rio Grande. Here you can also nd horses
of all stripes, some of them fresh off the bush circuit, vying for a shot at the larger Hastings purses. When I rst started galloping, other riders warned me about the dangers of plying my trade in Barn M: “You never know what you’re getting on down there!”
Like many people who make their living on the backstretch, Dexter never imagined a
At this point I can’t resist asking Dexter about his own reputation for using every square inch of the racetrack, sometimes in the course of a single gallop, a tendency which can raise the blood pressure of his fellow riders and occasionally inspire some choice invectives. Dexter laughs and shares his personal coping strategy: “It’s kind of like the yin and the yang—like water, you got to go with it. There’s personalities out there and you’re not going to change them, so you got to just go with it...like water off a duck’s back.”
While it’s true that some of my wildest
rides began deep in the bowels of Barn M, much of
my work this year has kept me away from my humble beginnings. Although absence hasn’t necessarily made my heart grow fonder, it has increased my empathy
for those trainers who still call Barn M home. In his classic book on racetrack life, “Laughing in the Hills,” Bill Barich describes trainers as “Renaissance princes who ruled the backstretch.” While that might be true in some shedrows, Barn M trainers often nd themselves at the mercy of their exercise riders, simply because there aren’t enough exercise riders to go around.
sport of kings through the university. As he explains: “At the time, Simon Fraser was pretty advanced in kinesiology and some of the jockeys went up there for rehab...Basil Fraser was the rst I met. They called me in and said: ‘Hey, come here and see this guy, he’s little just like you. I said: ‘Hmm, interesting.’ I was about four months from graduating when I rst came down here. I learned how to gallop from an old Irishman out in Delta named Paddy Boal. He used to run Crescent Stables. I worked and learned from the bottom up.”
This Saturday past, Dexter walked the talk when he rode Bran Dee Select to victory on the opening day of the meet at Sagebrush Downs in Kamploops, BC. The ve year old bay mare paid $17.00 to win. When I ask how long it had been since he last visited the winner’s circle, Dexter reveals he also won his last race of the year in 2008. With Saturday’s victory he’s now riding a two day win streak. Could a comeback really be in the works? According to Dexter Assoon, the omens are all positive: “I’ve started back with another win...so let’s just keep the focus going!”
Enter Dexter Assoon, the hub around which Barn
M revolves. While more ckle exercise riders ee at the rst opportunity to bigger stables with better light and air circulation, Dexter continues to be the go-to man for many of Barn M’s nest. Born in Trinidad, Dexter emigrated to Canada with his mother and settled in Vancouver in his early teens. With his jocular strut and blue cowboy boots and revolving eet of bicycles,
Dexter groomed and galloped for two years on the backstretch before he rode—and won—his rst race
at Exhibition Park on Poco-C. Soon after he headed to Alberta, reasoning that if he could survive riding
in “the bushes” he’d be able to ride anything. After a couple of years of chasing the bush circuit, Dexter hit the road and worked his way up and down the West Coast. Looking back, he waxes nostalgic about some of his adventures: “I’ve ridden pretty much every track
“When I was younger in Trinidad, I used to have to walk around what they call a savannah, which is like a park. They exercised race horses there. I used to look at it and think those guys are crazy, not knowing one day I’d fall into it myself.”
career in the horse racing industry. As a teenager he was ranked nationally in track and eld and set records for the half- mile, the mile and two miles in British Columbia. He was heavily recruited
When pressed for any stories to dish on some of these racing greats, Dexter offers up one anecdote from a time he shared a track with the great Pat Day: “Pat Day in Colorado wipes me right out...but what am I gonna do? I’m like hey, man, you’re Pat Day, you’re not supposed to do stuff like that...but I guess that’s how he got where he is.”
Dexter looks to heaven
by a number of schools, but ended up going to Simon Fraser University under a scholarship program sponsored by the late Jack Diamond, then owner of Exhibition (now Hastings) Park. Although he majored in history and political science, there was some irony in the fact that Dexter received his rst introduction to the
Mixed metaphors notwithstanding, Dexter obviously still enjoys coming to the track every morning and chasing his dream. When I inquire as to what nally made him decide to hang up his tack, he makes no bones about where he stands on that issue: “I haven’t hung up my racing tack yet—I’m still on a comeback. The only time you lose is when you quit, and I don’t know what quit is. I’m too close now and I’m owin’, I know my action is owin’.”
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