Page 5 - October 2005 The Game
P. 5

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, October 2005 5
Ezra's sense of humor doesn't desert him during dark period
for the jockey in all of us
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Canadian Made
By Harlan Abbey
Trust trainer Daryl Ezra to find a humorous light in what has been a dismal racing season so far.
He lost Lucky Tec, the 2004 Horse of the Year, Sprinter of the Year and winner of three stake races, for a mere $5,000 claim. And Ashagio, 2003's Horse of the Year, Claimer of the Year, Male Distance Horse of the Year and winner of $128,583, is also running in $5,000 claiming races -- "and running last," his trainer admits.
Ezra claimed Ashagio from Don MacRae for $7,500 on the opening day of the 2003 season and joked that "Ashagio's success the last two years was off of Don's training. This year, my training methods have kicked in."
But he also went on to explain some hard facts about the business side of horse racing:
"Ashagio is seven years old now, and his aches and pains may be worse. He's always been a prima donna -- throwing his head, pinning his ears, trying to bite you, spooking at strange things. But in his last race he looked like his old self, moving well in fast fractions.
"However, when a Thoroughbred gets good, you run them in harder races against tougher competition. Then they go a little downhill from peak form and generally lose their heart and desire. Last year's short season also was a factor. We shipped our stable to Finger Lakes (near Rochester, NY) and the racing style is different there: they fly out of the starting gate, it's a free-for-all. Here, the jockeys use more tactics. There, he was running against old class horses with 100 Beyer ratings in the past. An 85 was his best Beyer in six races there.
"I'd hoped having the winter off would help him."
Ezra is somewhat of a rarity among Fort Erie horse- men in that he came to the "backside" stable area from the "front side," where the racing fans congregate in the grandstand and clubhouse. His uncles had the concession to sell the Daily Racing Form at Woodbine and Daryl joined them at an early age. His brothers Morrie, a stock broker, and Brad, who owned Lucky Tec, went on to other professions, but Daryl couldn't shake the pull of racing.
His first ambition was to be a race caller, winning a "Call A Race" contest at age 16 and going on to
Groom and co-owner Evelyn Mercier and trainer and co-owner Daryl Ezra with Ashagio, Fort Erie's Horse of the Year in 2003.
announce races at a number of smaller tracks on a part- time basis. He later worked in racetrack marketing and publicity before taking the plunge as a trainer.
"I won with the third horse I entered," he recalled, "which was good. If I'd won with my first starter, I'd have thought it was too easy."
A few years later Ezra started exercising some of his horses and theorizes "After lugging my 170 pounds around, when a ll6-pound jockey like Brian Bochinski (who rides Ashagio) gets on them I like to think they say to themselves 'Hey, this guy knows what he's doing; I'm going to listen to him.'"
As for Ashagio's future, Ezra plans to run him a few more times. If there's no improvement, he'll be retired. Originally, the horse was owned by Ezra and Russell Wintle, an 82-year-old veteran racetracker. When Wintle became ill in 2004, he willed his half of the horse to Evelyn Mercier, his devoted groom. Wintle died on June 11, the funeral was held June 14 and on June 15 Ashagio won a starter allowance race wire to wire by five lengths.
"Maybe Ashagio just misses Russell," Ezra theorizes.
But through all the ups and downs of horse racing, he continues to believe in the old saying: "A bad day at the track is better than a good day any place else."
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The John Simms trained Huckleberry’s Gal checks out the surroundings in the new receiving barn at Woodbine.
The old maintenance barn was cleaned up and renovated to accommodate horses shipping in from out of town to race.


































































































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