Page 10 - April 2009 The Game

10 The Game, April 2009
Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
Good ideas...
Outside the Borders Continued from Page 9
Railbird
A Look at Racing in British Columbia By Jim Reynolds
At a time when good ideas are at a premium in our industry the racing brain-trust in the Paci c Northwest have come up with a good one. Hastings and Emerald Downs will open six important stake races this year as part of the inaugural Paci c Challenge. The three BC Cup stakes which have previously been BC-bred only will open
to Washington bred horses. In return Emerald Downs will open three Washington-bred stakes to BC-bred horses. The idea is that a cross-border rivalry will attract fans to reciprocating racetracks.
to bring horses and fans from there and to tap that market.”
The events will
be called the Paci c
Challenge and will be
held at Hastings Racecourse
on August 3, and at Emerald Downs on September 13.
The races at each track will include a sprint for older horses and distance events for both older horses and older llies and mares. Twelve horses maximum, six BC-bred and
six Washington-bred, will be allowed in each race. If less than six Washington-breds are entered in one of the races at Hastings for example, the eld may be rounded out by BC- breds. A point system would be used to determine a winner in the state vs. province rivalry.
as they are fortunate to have an envious strength in depth. The Championship race for 2 mile chasers also fell to Nicholls and owner Clive Smith with the top rated chaser, the six year old Master Minded. Having blitzed the race last, he brushed aside the decent Petit Robin to make a procession of a top class race again this year and dominant though he was, the biggest cheer in the paddock was given by the appreciative crowd to the runner up, the top class 10 year old Well Chief who was making his rst racecourse appearance for 698 days and stayed on really well to nish second.
BC-CTHS president Leif Nordahl obviously sees this
as a good thing. A long time breeder who has given much of his time and thought to the problems facing the BC racing community, Nordahl has been a member of the CTHS for
27 years and had this to say about the initiative designed to increase the tourism base of racing.
Judging the Champion Hurdle by the betting, there
was only one horse in the race, the 5 year old Binocular. Any race at Cheltenham is rarely a cut and dried affair
and this was to prove one of them with Binocular failing
to hold off the challenges of stablemate Punjabi and the Nicholls horse, Celestial Halo. Winning this was bitter sweet for connections of Punjabi as this would have earned a £1million WBX bonus for winning the ‘Fighting Fifth’, Christmas Hurdle and the Champion Hurdle had he not fallen at Kempton in the second event.
“BC bred horses will have an opportunity to go to Washington and run in a $50,000 stakes race that they didn’t have before, and that’s $50,000 American. And the breeders in Washington feel the same—they’d prefer that the races be for Washington-breds only but they know that they have to get the elds bigger.”
“Washington and BC
have comparable breeding industries.” he says. “This
is a start to creating regional competition in the Paci c Northwest. The point system pits Emerald Downs against Hastings in a healthy, competitive spirit that will develop an ongoing rivalry.
In the Triumph Hurdle, Zaynar was always keeping a little in the locker for the persistent challenge of Walkon and both will be worth following in their respective careers. However it didn’t all go the way of Paul Nicholls as Willie Mullins valiantly ew the ag for Ireland with some nice winners. One of these being Mikael D’Haguenet in the Ballymore Properties Novices’ Hurdle, who was the well backed favourite leading up to the race. Traveling extremely well for Ruby Walsh and stayed on strongly to hold off the useful Karabak and Diamond Harry. This is a good horse and if he takes to fences, will have a very bright future over fences.
Ryneveld sees the introduction of the Paci c Challenge as an important step to the creation of ongoing regional racing in the future.
Elsewhere on the festival card there were some exciting performances by young horses giving us a lot to look forward to next season.
$50,000 Muckleshoot Tribal Classic, 3 & UP, 1 1/16 M
Nordahl sees another
area where improvement is necessary—the communication between the different factions of the industry.
“I would like to see all of
the bickering between all the various groups stop and all come together to promote horseracing as a group by bringing stability to the industry. I realize that the track, the HBPA and the CTHS all have their responsibility to their various groups (from the CTHS point of view we want to see the industry prosper so that we can increase that amount we get for our foals). For myself, since I’ve been President I’ve gone from one re to another and that’s not really necessary so I’d like to see more cooperation.”
Reyneveld’s thoughts echo those of Nordahl. His is a broad portfolio with focus on the backstretch at Hastings and given the terrible state it has become over that past few years that gives him a lot to focus
on. “But,” he says. “in order
to clean up that mess, to make improvements, we have to increase revenues.
“What we would obviously like to do is to improve communication and to dispel the myths, so to speak, about what we intend to do. That
has been my goal in other places I’ve worked. We are in partnership with the horsemen so we really need to make sure that the right message is sent every time and that’s not always the case.”
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The World (Stayers) Hurdle also went the way of the powerful Ditcheat stable with Big Bucks scoring over Punchestowns and the French trained raider, favourite Kasbah Bliss in fourth.
Paul Ryneveld, Director of Racing at Hastings also sees this as a good idea whose time has come.
“Were going to have to think outside our comfort zone to get this thing [racing] to work. We have to recreate the sport. It’s about the big event. Big events break through the clutter.”
Quevega was hugely impressive when she won the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle for the Mullins/Walsh combination and the Irish started as they intended to go on by winning the festival opener with the Noel Meade trained Go Native. Forpadydeplasterer made Cheltenham a memorable occasion for the Goat Racing Syndicate and it’s 20 members who erupted with unabashed enthusiasm when their horse won the Arkle Novices’ Chase. Many are regulars at The Goat in Dublin and the lot sang heartily, carrying Tom Cooper the trainer shoulder high into the winners enclosure, the partying and celebrations were probably continuing in Dublin for days after.
“We want to improve the product here and we took that approach (event programming) this year. BC Cup Day and Derby Day are our two most attended days and we have added two more days where we have stacked races—Labour Day and Canada Day which are the most attended holidays here. This year we have an opportunity on BC Cup Day to attract a Washington crowd and with four stakes races we hope
20009 Paci c Challenge Hastings Racecourse Aug. 3 $50,000 BC Cup Sprint,
3 & UP, 6.5 F
However it was Dunquib that really impressed. Always traveling extremely well in the Bumper, he simply ew away from a useful looking eld when Brian O’Connell gave him a nudge and won by an easy 10 lengths. Afterwards O’Connell said, “That was a very good bumper on paper and it rode like a good bumper, but my lad never seemed to come out of third gear. He’s de nitely the best I’ve sat on.” and the plan is to come back for the Supreme Novice’s Hurdle next year............if the owners have recovered by then!
$50,000 BC Cup Distaff, 3 & UP FM, 1 1/8 M $100,000 BC Cup Classic, 3 & UP, 1 1/8 M
Emerald Downs Sept. 13 $50,000 Chinook Pass Sprint, 3 & UP, 6 F
$50,000 Belle Roberts,
3 & UP FM, 1 1/16 M
Citroen Leading Rider again went to Ruby Walsh who in the past has won the award twice, both with three wins in the meeting. Those wins were put in the shade with a
record-breaking seven winners this time around. “I knew coming here that I had good rides, but for them all to run so well and for it all to work out so well is unbelievable,” he said. “The one I wanted to win was Kauto and he has gone and won. You come to Cheltenham every year hoping to ride one winner but to ride seven is unbelievable. It has been an amazing week and one I will never, never forget.”
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The Game April 2009.indd
10
3/25/09 11:18:38 PM
Two-Year-Olds in Training For Sale