Page 25 - November 2005 The Game

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, November 2005 25
Fort Erie Season Ends -What areYou DoingThisWinter?
Groom Geoff Dapp was looking to get away for the winter. He had worked all season for trainer Thomas Agosti and because Tom was planning on staying put this winter, Geoff went to the barn of trainer Ed Freeman who will be heading to Santa Anita in California for the winter at the end of November. Geoff has been a groom for 20 years now and has been to California before working in Sacramento. Last winter he was with trainer John Simms at Tampa Bay Downs. Geoff is pictured here with a 2-year-old filly in training with Ed Freeman at Fort Erie.
Horse owner Frank Hunt and his wife Karina are planning to continue racing when the Fort Erie meet ends. They are taking fourteen horses to Cleveland, Ohio to race at Thistledown for the remainder of the year. Frank, whose horses currently run under the trainer Robert Grey, has plans on getting his trainers license however, while away, the horses will race under Romeo Omana and he will likely ride local Fort Erie jockeys Eddie Manalad, Dale Hemsley or Pierre Mailhot who will also be at Thistledown for the end of 2005. Frank’s horse Steady Zephyr will be making the trip with them,“We have had good times with that horse.” says Frank, mentioning that overall this season he has had 6 wins and a bunch of seconds with the 12 horses he has had racing at the Fort this year.
Karina, whose father was a trainer in Guyana, works along side Frank in the barn as a groom along with Daryl LaRock who will be travelling to Ohio with them.
left to right - Exercise rider, Tony Rannelli; Groom
Jessica Korpan; 4-year-old gelding, Mountain Stroll (Button Head); and Hotwalker Mary Earle, will all be staying in Fort Erie for the winter working for trainer Lynn Simon. Tony, Lynn’s ‘other half’ has been working with Lynn for nineteen years while Jessica and Mary are fairly new to the barn. Mountain Stroll has affectionately been given the name Button Head because he has a button like node on his forehead.
Trainer Robin Boyce is pictured here with 2-year-old Kiridashi filly, Pride of Lions, who is owned by Damastra Farms. Robin has had 7 horses in training at Fort Erie this season and says that she and her husband Jeff, who works along side her in the barn, plan to stay at home in Fort Erie this winter with their 2 1/2 year-old twins. Pride of Lions is out of the dam Lion’s Raw and is a full sister to I’m a Cheetah.
A yearling sale purchase in 2004, Pride of Lions could make her debut at Woodbine in November where Robin has applied for a few stalls for the remainder of 2005.
Exercise Rider Martine Pare also ponies horses in the mornings and afternoons at Fort Erie. Martine is aboard her 7-year-old American Paint Quarter Horse, Cooleo, as they head back to the barn with the Richard Jukosky trained, 3-year-old filly, Ruby Wren. Martine moved to Fort Erie in 1988 and has been ponying for close to 15 years.
She plans on heading to Woodbine for the end of the 2005 meet and after finding work for the winter she will return to Woodbine in February when training begins until Fort Erie opens in March.
A big, stuffed “California Raisin” has been the barn mascot of John Simms for the past 18 months. The raisin will be heading back to Tampa Bay Downs where John has applied for 12 stalls this winter. They will also have five stalls at Innfields Training Centre, located not far from the Tampa Bay racetrack, which is where John plans to start seven two-year-olds for 2006.
Did You Know....
That Fort Erie jockey Francine Villeneuve, who suffered a shoulder injury on July 31, while second in the rider standings with 47 wins,
announced that she would not return to Fort Erie for the remainder of the 2005 meet and may likely resume riding at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida which is close to where she and her husband Bruce Anderson will spend the winter at their Florida farm.
Photo Right - Jockey Happy Ando will likely finish the 2005 season in the top ten in the jockey standings at Fort Erie. He is seen here in the paddock in early October aboard Wood You Be Mine with groom John Wannemacker.