Page 6 - May 2007 The Game

6 The Game, May 2007 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
All is Being Assimilated at Assiniboia Downs
By Allan Gray
Assiniboia Racetrack opens a 70 day live meet of racing on May 5 with a multi-level Stakes schedule highlighted by the $100,000 Manitoba Lotteries Derby for 3-year-olds on Monday August 6. On the cusp of another action packed year of racing, many local horse people are feeling that this year could be something special.
A year shy of its 50th birthday - an age at which people tend to buy little red sports cars or get a little nip and tuck - Assiniboia Downs is getting a big new lease on life in its backstretch: trainers have brought in some of the best-bred horses Manitoba has seen in decades.
“Some of the races will look like Aqueduct or Santa Anita this year,” said Clayton Gray, seven-time leading trainer at Assiniboia Downs.
Gray, whose stable has seen such local champions as Merry’s Jay, Turn to Rule, Major Enterprise, and Incorporator will send to the track some of the best-bred horses of his career. One of them, Jezawi, a 4-year-old
colt by Danzig out of an A. P. Indy mare purchased at the January Mixed Sale in Lexington, Kentucky, could be considered thoroughbred royalty. Within four generations you can see the names, Northern Dancer, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed, and that’s the short list.
Emile Corbel (fourth on the all time leading trainer’s list at Assiniboia Downs) has Botany Bay, a 4-year-old colt by Storm Cat a Manitoba first. Storm Cat’s stud fee is the highest in the world at $500,000 (USD) but Corbel was able to make a deal with Darley Farms, a prominent horse owner and breeder, to purchase the colt. Botany Bay came to Corbel’s Winnipeg barn last fall but did not get to run because of some feet problems. However after a winter in Winnipeg, Corbel says he will be ready to go this year.
Ray Bouchard, sales manager and partner in Enns Brothers John Deere Equipment Sales here in Winnipeg had the recent thrill of watching his King of the Roxy score a win in the Hutchinson Stakes at Gulfstream on March 3. King of the Roxy followed that up with a
sparkling second in the Santa Anita Derby on April 9. Bouchard is part of Team Valor, a licensed limited partnership that owns King of the Roxy, who, even though he has proven himself worthy, will probably forego the Kentucky Derby and wait for the Preakness Stakes. After 30 years of owning racehorses, Ray is realizing every horseman’s dream and loving it.
So how does it feel to have a world class thoroughbred? With a big smile on his face, Ray says, “It’s a rush, it feels pretty awesome.”
And what does the Downs’ hottest first-year trainer- and second-hottest in all of North America do for an encore when the season begins May 5? Her goal for her first year of horse training was five wins. Rebecca Welch, only 24, not only accomplished that goal-- she demolished it, win- ning 23 times from 58 starts with three seconds and eight thirds. This works out to an amazing
and almost unheard-of winning rate of 40%.
Welch has been hanging around the barns since she was 11. Her parents had horses with Assiniboia Downs’ trainer Blair Miller. “I was lucky because Blair let me hang around; most wouldn’t,” she says. Learning from Miller and fellow female trainer Tanya Lindsay, Rebecca received her trainer’s license at the end of the 2005 Assiniboia Downs season and showed up in 2006 with
13 horses.
Rebecca returns this year with 14 horses and looks
forward to another good year. Are any horses more special than others? According to her, there is at least one that merits a little special attention: the 3-year-old Times Are Ruff. Becky spent many hours with this horse last year and he just missed getting to the races. Look for him to start this year.
Every horse in her barn except her two year olds got to the winners' circle twice last year--an exceptional feat in itself--and her goal for this year is just to come close to that again. Watch for Rebecca Welch and her father’s Cactus Cowboys, Inc. to once again be familiar occupants of the winners' circle.
Last year Marty Drexler parlayed his 18 horse stable into a third place finish in the trainers’ percentage standings hitting the winners’ circle at 24%. Drexler’s brood has grown to 25 horses in 2007. His clients, Hard Ball Stable headed by one of Assiniboia Downs’s top handicappers Grant Buckoski and radio personality Ace Burpee, have increased their number of horses, and Marty’s father has also acquired a couple more.
Empress Pegasus, impressive winner of last year’s Matron Breeder’s Cup went off to Woodbine hoping to capitalize on her momentum, however the polytrack became her downfall. Returning to Assiniboia Downs, she will take on older horses and Drexler hopes she will regain the form of late last year.
Another of Marty’s acquisitions is Shadow Rush, the top priced yearling at the 2004 Ontario CTHS Yearling Sale. Shadow Rush has been racing at Woodbine for Roger Attfield who purchased the now 4-year-old Skywalker colt for $275,000. With the colt’s new owners Shyman Farms, Marty plans to compete in the older horse category with such horses as Larry Carter’s Elite Mercedes, Assiniboia Downs’ horse-of-the-year last year.
Shyman Farms looks to be a major player here at Assiniboia Downs in 2007 with Marty at the helm. Emma’s Touch will be returning after winning last years Debutante Stakes to compete in the 3-year-old filly ranks. First Cavalry, winner of the 2006 Winnipeg Futurity, ventured south and ran against the likes of Kentucky Derby contenders Adore the Gold and Buffalo Man. Drexler is pointing First Cavalry to the Golden Boy and then hopes he can get this speedy 3-year-old to stretch out. Is the Manitoba Lotteries Derby in
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his future?