Page 7 - June 2008 The Game

Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
The Game, June 2008 7 SStorm Cat Pensioned
leading commercial sires, has been pensioned due to fertility at
age 25. According to Ric Waldman, the stallion operations manager for Overbrook Farm in Lexington, Storm Cat impregnated only three mares this season after 68 of 98 mares were impregnated last year.
WAinner of the First Returns By Allan Gray Woodbine in 1963 aboard
back Dick Armstrong to celebrate our 50th anniversary and thrilled that he agreed to be our guest starter for the rst race of the next fty years.
Hastings New Apprentice Begins With A Win
ssiniboia Downs was Grand Garcon. Northern honoured to welcome Dancer went on to win the
t didn't take
George Richard “Dick” Armstrong began his riding career at Edmonton’s Exhi- bition Park at the young age of 16. Taking up the family business--both his father and grandfather were riders--was something he always wanted to do. His rst win was aboard Bat N’ Ball on June 10, 1957.
Armstrong continued to ride at Assiniboia Downs until 1969 when Gardiner Farms lured him to Toronto by asking him to be their contract rider, but not be- fore he captured the 1969 Manitoba Derby astride Fire N’ Desire. His victory in the Manitoba Derby was a thrill and Armstrong still holds it as one of his biggest.
Arriving in B.C. the week of May 12 from his native country of Panama, in his rst mount on Saturday, May 17, the 18-year-old guided his mount, Steel's Lad, trained by Caesar De Marni, to victory.
improving on his English. “Ismael has been a real help to him and some other jockeys are also helpful,” said Loseth. “Even with the little English he knows, Rodriguez did exactly what De Marni asked of him. He listened to Caesar and got the job done.”
Storm Cat entered stud in 1988
for $30,000. He stood for an American High $500,000 in 2002 and was standing this season for $300,000.
Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Queen’s Plate in 1964.
apprentice rider, Jayson
By Jackie Humber
I
Rodriguez very long before he visited the winners circle at Hastings.
torm Cat, one of the world’s
After a spill at
Woodbine where he lost one of his kidneys, Dick stopped riding in 1971. He quickly stepped into the job of horse trainer at Stampede Park
in Calgary. As a trainer he kept up with friendships he made while at Assiniboia Downs and when asked by trainer Clayton Gray to look after a promising sprinter coming back from an injury, Incorporator, he said he would be glad to. The horse was able to take advantage of the shorter distances at Stampede Park.
According to his agent, James Loseth, son of Hastings trainer Jim Loseth, Rodriguez has ridden in 99 races in Panama.
Through May 12, Storm Cat’s progeny had earned $112,209,693, the all-time record for a North American sire.
A year later would
nd Dick Armstrong in Winnipeg for the grand opening of what was touted as the Greatest Racetrack in Western Canada, Assiniboia Downs. “It was a muddy mess,” said Armstrong. “They got the starting gate stuck and had to start all of the races in the same place.” The young native of Maple Creek, Saskatchewan took the rst race of the inaugural season—a mile race--aboard Gold Ern for owner Mrs. D. E. Robertson of Edmonton. And the rest is history.
“He's excited to be here and I'm glad to be his agent,” said Loseth who
is a rst time agent also representing jockey, Ismael Mosqueira.
Rodriguez, who is tacking a mere 105 lbs, is sure to be popular with the Hastings trainers.
Since his arrival, Rodriguez has been
Good Luck this season to both Rodriguez and new agent, James Loseth.
Hastings’ Veterinarian Joanne Weetman and her husband, Jonathon Mc Whir are the proud parents of Nathan Mc Whir. On Saturday May 17, the family of three strolled through the backstretch of Hastings for their son’s rst trip to the track.
“He gets all his energy from his feed!”
Trainer Julia Carey & Groom John Breeze with “Disfunction”
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Armstrong went on to win a total of four leading jockey titles in 1962, 1964, 1965 and 1967 at Assini- boia Downs. He made
a yearly circuit between Woodbine in Toronto in the spring, Assiniboia Downs in the summer and back
to Woodbine in the fall. He rode against some of
the greats such as Johnny Longdon, Bill Shoemaker and Ron Turcotte (who rode Secretariet to Triple Crown victories). “Ron was only
a bug boy at the time,” Armstrong said. Arm- strong even beat the great Northern Dancer in the Cup and Saucer Stakes at
Incorporator won two races, including the Lac Des Arcs Stakes, for Dick before he was sold to new owners that sent him further west to Seattle. Incorporator went on to win the Longacres Mile, one of the premiere races on the west coast for older horses. “Incorporator was de nitely the best horse I ever trained,” said Arm- strong.
Dick retired from training in 1981 and has spent the last 20 years on staff with Edmonton’s Northlands Park. He has been a Clerk of Scales and now is a timer during their harness meet and custodian of the jockey’s room for their thoroughbred season.
RICHARD E.P. MOYLAN Thoroughbred Bloodstock Agent
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