Page 8 - November 2008 The Game

8 The Game, November 2008
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Riding at Assiniboia Downs for the last two years he has run up a remark- able total, last year setting a new record for a jockey in Western Canada with a total of 115 wins on the season and so far this year he’s just a few
Alan Cuthbertson
Vancouver, BC—Sportswriters call them iron men; athletes who seem to hold back the march of time, that keep going with the battery power of the little pink bunny. Alan Cuthbertson is such an athlete.
style any longer but the skills have not diminished. He still has the hands, still rates a horse superbly and that incred- ible sense of timing is still sharp.
short of the leading rider title for all of Canada with only one rider at Wood- bine ahead of him at this writing. An amazing feat compounded by his age and the fact that he’s racing only two days a week.
In Vancouver they call him ‘Ace’ and at 61 years old he’s been a leg- end on the racing scene here for
ve decades. And now, as a senior, he’s riding better than he did as an apprentice in Fort Erie in 1964. Oh, he doesn’t ride that famous acey-deucey
Each week-end, booting home winners with long odds and prices ($93, $53, $24), he gets more from horses than even their trainers expect. Ask those trainers why they like to ride Cuthbertson and they’ll say it’s because he gets that extra effort from a horse but when the animal is beaten he understands and puts away the whip.
Sadly his run will be over in a few weeks as the Hastings meet ends. He is, or would be, riding his way to a Sovereign Award if he was in the east. Certainly every western sportswriter will vote for him but such is the nature of the award voting that his amazing
year will all but be ignored by blinkered Toronto sports- writers. And it’s a shame that such effort and talent go unrecognized in this
Backstretch Employee Appreciation Day
HBPA of Ontario
Saturday, November 15, 2008 Woodbine Race Track
The HBPA will present Awards for:
3 Outstanding Grooms &
3 Outstanding Assistant Trainers
Every Hotwalker, Groom, Exercise Rider, Assistant Trainer & Trainer in A endance at the Grandstand will receive:
Vouchers must be picked up from Corinne at the HBPA Backstretch Office between November 8 to 15. A Valid ORC License must be presented. We wish to Thank Woodbine Entertainment Group for providing the be ing vouchers!
HBPA of Ontario
For additional information contact Corinne at the HBPA Backstretch Office at Woodbine 416-675-3802
$10
Food Court Voucher
$5 Be ing Voucher
day and age when we need heros in our sport.
- Jim Reynolds, The Game
A Night of Firsts
The evening of Octo-
ber 15, 2008, race fans
at Woodbine Racetrack witnessed a night of rsts for a tight knit group with the running of the $125,000 Classy N’ Smart Stakes. The trainer, jockey, owners and four year-old lly Bold Corky, would all enjoy their rst stakes score.
By Dave Catsimbras
Freshman conditioner William Armata had never won a stakes race in six previous tries. His long time friend and rst year jour- neyman, Tyler Pizarro, had also been trying to win his rst stakes, sitting at 0 for 43 in stakes mount in 2008.
All that came to an end that evening as the Armata trainee Bold Corky held off a game You Will Love Me by a neck to win the 1 1/16 mile event.
“It’s like it was a sign from God, maybe He want- ed me and him(Pizarro) to do the rst one together”, says Armata of the duos’ triumph. The friends gave each other a long and well deserved bear hug in the winner’s circle. “ It was
like a feeling I’ve never had before, I can’t explain it re- ally, it’s better than anything that’s happened before, I mean I nally got there. I’ve got to give kudos to Willy and the whole barn; they did a great job getting her ready.” exclaimed an elated Pizarro.
Bold Corky, by Bold Ex- ecutive out of Sweet Corky (cont. next pg)
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Jim Reynolds Photo
Each Recipient to Receive
Financial Reward
Plus Certificate of Excellence
PLUS