<%=siteName%>

When you think about it, it is the chance of a lifetime - to be able to come charging down the stretch on the world famous E.P. Taylor grass course. That’s what I got to do yesterday at Woodbine.

680News had entered a team in a corporate race to help race money for the United Way. We were in the last heat on a 7 race card of humans on the racetrack. The first race might have produced the most impressive finish. Woodbine President Nick Eaves destroyed a field of 14 when he ran a mile and a half on the turf course in under 11 minutes, winning by at least a furlong. Eaves is not anyone’s impression of a fat cat - he actually runs a few marathons a year and appears to have the muscle to fat ratio to rival most of the jockeys who compete at his racetrack.

We were treated to five more races involving teams from various companies, many from within the Woodbine complex. Each race allowed the competitors to burst from the starting gate. Our event was the 4 X 50 metre relay and we were one of a dozen teams in this race, including four jockeys - Emma-Jayne Wilson, Cory Frasier, Anthony Stevens and Eurico Rosa da Silva.  The 680News team was compriseed of myself, traffic (tres) belle Eva Fragiskotas and a couple of ringers; Keith McCalmont who writes for Down The Stretch and Leigh Ellis, a student in my College of Sports Media class. In a little pre-race event, we determined that Leigh and Keith were the fastest and Eva and I weren’t, so we decided to stack our speed by having Eva run the first leg, hand off to me, me to Keith then Keith to Leigh  and our strategy almost worked.

 Both Keith and Leigh made up a lot of ground. Leigh was pretty sure he had passed the #1 team, so we were quite disappointed ( and possibly litigious) when they posted team #1 as the third place team. Team 9 actually beat the jockeys for first.

   Inspite of our concerns, expressed in a forthright and dignified manner to the judges ( we came frigggin’ third, you blind idiots!), the results were unchanged.  When we calmed down and tore up all the tickets we bet on ourselves, we were consoled by free burgers, dogs and drinks and the fact that the very well conducted event raised several thousand dollars for the United Way.

and if you’re walking by your local park one night and see a couple of furtive bodies darting furiously back and forth, don’t worry…it’s just Eva and me practising for next year

I really can’t complain about a long Saturday that took me to both Woodbine and Mohawk. Such is the life of a racing newspaper editor ( www.downthestretchnewspaper.com). In each issue of Canada’s most entertaining horse racing newspaper, Down The Stretch features a well-known individual betting $50 of the paper’s money to try and raise money for either LongRun or the Ontario Standardbred Adoption Society; both of these organizations exist to provide dignity and comfort for horses past their racing careers.

I asked Lloyd Duffy to join us for lunch in Favourites at Woodbine and to take part in the betting challenge. Duffy is one of the most loved jockeys in modern history. Over 30 years from the 60’s into the early 90’s  he brought home more than 2500 winners and was always a charming, funny engaging guy with the media and the fans.

Duffy is suffering from a couple of difficult physical ailments, but you wouldn’t know that from his disposition. His sight is very compromised - he  has a degenerative eye condition. And he is moving with the aid of a cane.Strangely, Duffy has done himself more damagae after his riding carer than during it. A few years ago a horse that he was about to take out for a gallop, fell on him, snapping his femur. They fixed that by putting a rod down his leg. Last July he got thrown from an unruly two year-old that he was working and landing on his ass, Duffy broke his hip. Doctors decided to put in a new plastic hip, but after removing the rod from the previous injury, they might have damaged his knee -Duffy tells all these horror stories with the same lack of self-pity you’d expect from someone telling you that the local store didn’t carry their brand of dish detergent.

Our table consisted of myself, Duffy, Down The Stretch associate editor Eleanor LeBlanc and paper contributor Keith McCalmont who surprised us all by bringing in 20 year-old racing programs that Duffy had signed when Keith was ten years old!

  So we gave Lloyd $50 to bet and after about an hour and a half of listening to his hilarious racing stories ( most of which we can’t even publish because of litigious consequences), he finally decided to make a bet, putting $10 win/place/show on a horse called ( most ironically) Life’s Not a Breeze. And, quite frankly, it just didn’t feel fair to watch Life’s Not a Breeze go six lanes wide at the head of the stretch and then have nothing for the final battle, finishing second last. Just $20 on Duffy’s voucher now, but he sure made a spectacular comeback.

Duffy placed $5 win/place in the 8th race on Tenjectory, a horse that went off at 17-1 in the La Prevoyante Stakes, but he was being ridden by Eurico Rosa da Silva who always gives a quality ride and sure enough, there was da Silva  driving Tenjectory from off the pace in a long stretch run on the E.P. Taylor garss course, just getting up before the wire by three parts of a length. it was good news all around - LongRun would get $118 from Duffy’s winnings, Lloyd had wisely put $5 win/place of his own money on the winner and, based on what the former jockey had recommended, I hit the exactor which spit out a nifty $120.00.

Duffy wasn’t done though. In the 9th race, he selected the #12 Heart of Cold, only because the jockey Na Somsanith had offered him a ride the other day in the backstretch. Somsanith had another generous ride in him that afternoon - he gunned Heart of Cold to the lead and no one got close as the filly scampered across the line by almost two lengths. Lovely. Another $120 for LongRun and because Lloyd picked it, I put Heart of Cold in my late doubles, which made the final race rich with anxiety for all of us.

Keith had quietly bet $35 in  20 cent pick fours and was live through the first three races. He had the 2, 6 and 7 in the 10th race and was looking to cash anywhere from $400 - $1200 for his pair of dimes. Sadly for Keith, but not so sadly for me, Emma-Jayne Wilson burst from the pack in mid-stretch with #1 Captain Mark, a 4-1 shot who previously had not shown he was good enough to beat these. In spite of that, I had tossed him in my doubles. The late double of 12-1 paid $213; I had it for $1.

Now it was 5:30 and starting to rain, but I had to go to Mohawk because I had arranged to interview super driver Tim Tetrick who was at the track to drive Crazed in the final of the Canadian Trotting Final. It was fucking pouring ( trust me, that’s a legitimate meteorological term) on the 401 to Mohawk, but I did make it a few minutes before the first race and was easily hooked up with Tetrick who was as polite and obliging as could be.

This guy Tetrick is amazing, by the way. Until 2007, the record for most harness wins in a year was 1077; pretty awesome by itself as it means someone average over 3 wins a day for every day of the year. So Tetrick broke that record last year - by 111. He  won 1178 times…that’s three and a half wins a day, every day of the year ( I don’t like betting on those half wins…they tend to stop after four furlongs).

Tetrick is only 26 and looks more like a high school senior than the best standardbred driver on the planet. You can read my most excellent story on him in the next issue of Down The Stretch, which will be at Woodbine and Mohawk by the middle of next week and on-line at www.downthestretchnewspaper.com.

Tetrick did not win the Canadian Trotting Classic; he finished third with Crazed as Deweycheatumnhowe rebounded brilliantly from the only loss of his career with a most impressive performance. Dewey had to leave from post ten and driver Ray Schnittker decided to gun him to the front. In earlier races, in a driving rain, no one was coming from far back - there was probably just too much spray and slop being tossed around. Crazed made a brave move to assume the lead down the back stretch, but in the final quarter, Deweycheatumnhowe was huge, trotting to the front and surging away from the others to win by over two lengths.

I stood on the tarmac holding my program over my head and found myself standing beside Bruce Murray, the  VP of harness racing for WEG and we were soon joined by Brent McGrath the owner-trainer of Somebeachsomewhere, the world’s fastest three year-old.

McGrath couldn’t say when ‘Beach’ would run again. Apparently he wasn’t 100% when he won the Simcoe Stakes the week before. He was scoped and had some kind of fluid or crap that came up ( like I clearly understand the veterinary issues), so McGrath wasn’t too certain that Beach would try and set a world record for the prompted mile later this month at Lexington’s Red Mile.

I didn’t cash anything at Mohawk, but did interview the world’s best driver, did see the world’s best trotter win and did chat with the trainer of the world’s best pacer, so it was certainly a profitable night. I was all tracked out by the time I got home, well not so much that I couldn’t bet a few races from Australia on HPI!

So far there has not been any success with the daily doubles I have posted at this blog and at www.downthestretchnewspaper.com which is the website of the paper I publish. I believe I have lost $52 from the daily doubles I have suggested this month.

Here’s a stab at today’s racing at Woodbine - Friday September 12:

In the first race, looks to me as if # 3 L.A. Rules will take a lot of money. His last race Beyer figure of 68 is much the best, but I’m going to bet around him, taking the #4 horse, Always a Gentleman. The rider is Chantal Sutherland who has been awesome lately and his bloodlines go back to Great Gladiator, one of my favourite suppliers of DNA to the racing game. Always a Gentleman has never raced, but has several very sharp workouts, and quite frankly, this isn’t a very special group of Maiden Special Weights.

 I’m also taking #5 B’cause B’cause, b’cause, be’cause…it’s ridden by Jono Jones and it just might be ready to run a complete race after two less than brilliant efforts. I like the front-running move he made last time out. Maybe he gets the jump on these and feels brave in the stretch.

In the second race, there’s only 7 horses and I’m going to take 4 of them. If I get the first race winner, I’ll be a lock for the double. I figure both the #6 horse - Giant Act and #7 Laughing Moon will go for the lead against a field not rich in front speed…one of those might very well go wire-to wire… I’m also adding the #5 horse Urn who already has two wins at this distance (7 furlongs)..and # 3  Market Gain, trained by Mark Casse, ridden by Patrick Husbands….and cutting its claim price in half..

So the first race doubles are 4 and 5 with 3 ,5 ,6 and 7. At $1 each, I’m spending $8

We’ll try the late double too and it’s a real challenge:

In the 8th race, I like Robert Landry  on #5 Red Birkin… these are good grassers going a mile and a sixteenth and Red Birkin has already had several very good races on the lawn at Woodbine, Keenland Monmouth and Saratoga. I’m putting in the #8 Northern Kraze because a) you have to take every horse on the grass when Chantal Sutherland is riding and b) yesterday the guy who owns the sire Aljabr called asking to buy an ad in my newspaper, Down The Stretch, so I’m hoping he sees this!.  Also, I like #10 Pleasant Mix, hoping that Jerry Baird can duplicate the winning ride he gave on on 15th at this distance. Pleasant Mix will be more than 10-1.

In the ninth…I’ll go with #3 Silver Pizzazz even though this one hasn’t run in 16 months. I’m adding # 4 She’sminenotyours, a three year-old filly that has shown a little interest in her two races so far…and I’m also including the #9 horse Box Wine Betty, another Husbands-Casse combo that won’t light up the toteboard if she wins .

The late double, then is 5,8 and 10 with 3, 4 and 9 for a total of $9.

This weekend was a great example of why you should always strike a case against the favourite. In yesterday’s Woodbine Mile, with $1Million at stake, Kip Deville, considered the best grass miler in the world was pounded down to 50 cents on the dollar, then staggered in 5th. He’d come in with a three race winning streak and as far as the bettors poring through the racing form were concerned, Kip Deville had the best figures ( remind me to rant about Beyer figures in the future.)

But it had been raining Saturday night and into Sunday morning and the E.P. Taylor course was yielding, which meant the horses’ feet sunk deeper than usual. The fractions for the first two Stakes races on the grass sure indicated that the going was slower - the Canadian Stakes produced 6 furlongs in 1:14, the Northenr Dancer Stakes saw the leaders go that distance in a doddering 1:17 4/5 ( or as track announcer Dan Loiselle might say, slower than weight loss).

So what was Cornelio Velasquez doing going head to head on the outside with Just Rushing in splits of :48.25 and 1:11.93? On the soggy going, that was way too fast. Slade Callaghan ran a much brighter race on the winner Rahy;s Attorney, coming inside of horses as they came into the stretch and holding off the field to win as the $12.65-1 second shot. In fact, if you were brave enough to toss the 1-2 favourite Kip Deville ( who staggered in 5th), taking the next three favoured horses would have given you a $107 exactor. Boxing the seocnd, third and fourth faves in the tri was worth $757. That is a great return if you had the guts to toss the obvious choice.

The night before at Mohawk, the amazing trotter Deweycheatumnhowe was crushed to 15 on the dollar in an elimination for the Canadian Trotting Classic and you should google YouTube for a veritable clinic on how to beat a favourite by Tin Tetrick. Tetrick is just 26, but has already won over 670 races this year (mostly at the Meadowlands, but the guy drive 24/7).  Deweycheatumnhowe looked home and cooled as they came into the stretch, but Tetrick on the second favourite, Crazed did the coolest thing. He drafted directly behind Dewey and I still wonder if Dewey’s drive Ray Schnittker could even figure how close Crazed was. With less than an eighth to go, Tetrick pulled out, kind of like the slingshot effect you see in Nascar and was able to power past Deweycheatumnhowe who was either powered down or just not 100%.

 And therein is the message. When a horse wins, it’s often because he is as close to 100% as he can be. But horses, like us in the people species, are often not at their best. I always recommend betting against the favourites because the payoff, if you get it right, is almost always greater compared to the chance you took. Conversely, betting on a horse that will only pay $2.30 assures that your payoff will be much less relative to the chance of it winning.

Crazed returned $8.50 to win.

So I opened up the paper this morning and saw that Jim McAleney won three of eight races at Woodbine yesterday. Not that I’ m surprised - McAleney has been leading the jockey’s race pretty well from the first week.  But now that we’re into September, it should be noted that he’s having one kick-ass year at the track. His next win will be his 100th of the season which means at the rate he’s going, he could end up with about 170 trips to the winners circle. This morning, Jimmy Mac has a 25 win lead on runner-up Patrick Husbands among all riders at Woodbine. McAleney’s 99 wins have come from 469 mounts, giving him a win percentage of better than 21%, which in this game, is sensational. His horses have earned over $5,000,000, which is tops in Canada. It helps that he’s the go-to guy for Steve Asmussen who seems to have an endless supply of ready-to-run horses that always seem to end up in the right kind of races.

McAleney’s great season is all the more impressive when you factor in the gruesome injury he suffered just before the 2007 started. A horse flipped in the starting gate and McAleney snapped his femur. That kind of massive damage would change most people’s lives; McAleney returned to the saddle less than four months later.

To this point this year, Jim McAleney has had no discernable slump. There probably has been a couple of consecutive cards in which he’s been shutout, but I can’t remember. He shows up every day, rides hard and competitively and gives the bettor the best possible chance for the wager - he’s not only the winningest jock at Woodbine, but his in-the-money rate of 49% is the best of all jockeys.

 I think what makes him such a great and succesful athlete is his mental state. Jim McAleney is perpetually smiling, he laughs easily and he always meets you with warmth and those bright sparkling eyes. The guy is happily married - wife Kim is a former jockey -  as sane as you can be in a sport that can drive you nuts and he’s one of the most well-adjusted human beings you will ever encounter.

He’s also a sweetheart of a guy who understands how important the fans are. Several weeks ago, while delivering the latest issue of Down The Stretch to various locales at Woodbine, I was accompanied by my daughter, Emily and her friend Nadia. I asked them if they wanted to meet the nicest jockey at the track and they got excited. We waited at the finish line and after Jimmy Mac dismounted, we met him as he came off the track. He spoke animatedly with the little girls and had them laughing before he sprinted off to get weighed. We walked away, but moments later, McAleney was running after us with a pair of goggles for each child as a souvenir.

At the end of this year, the names of Canadians  will be submitted to voters to determine the athlete of the year and while Adam Van Koeverdon, Steve Nash and Sidney Crosby are all worthy, I assure you that Jim McAleney will not attract the number of votes he deserves..

Did you see how all the pieces fit together on the weekend? Trainer Roger Attfield was hoping to win the Vice Regent Stakes at Woodbine on Sunday with Queen’s Plate winner Not Bourbon. But Not Bourbon smacked his leg or something a few hours before the race and because there was a visible lump, Attfield, choosing caution for his racing star, had the horse scratched, which I’m sure was disappointing to jockey Jone Jones who has already had some brilliant moments on Not Bourbon.

Attfield had entered a second horse in the Vice Regent Stakes - Sand Cove, a horse that had never raced on turf. To make his work even more challenging, Sand Cove’s regular jockey Richards Dos Ramos had been taken to Saratoga by owner Gus Schickedanz and trainer Debbie England to ride Breeders’ Stakes winner Marlang in the mile and a three-sixteenth Saranac Stakes on the grass.

No problem. Backup rider Slade Callaghan rode a nifty race on Sand Cove, watched the speed then turned his horse on in the stretch to win by half a length at odds of 5-1.   So now, what’s Dos Ramos thinking? I mean at  46, the guy doesn’t win too many Stakes races anymore. Had he cost himself by going to Saratoga? Callaghan’s take from the Vice Regent Stakes was about $7,500.

An hour after Sand Cove’s win, Dos Ramos has a lovely, completely unstressful trip on Marlang. Just as the brochure had suggested, Marlang went to the lead, and never let another horse by, galloping to the wire almost two lengths the best at odds of 5-2.  A win on the second last day in a Stakes race at Saratoga? It doesn’t get much better.

  Oh, and Jono Jones. There wasn’t anyone outside Woodbine with a tin can collecting for him. Jones won 8 races on the weekend. Four of them were Stakes. On Monday, he captured the Simcoe, the Algoma and the Halton Stakes in succession.

There are a million stories of shattering defeat and profound disappointment at the racetrack. The preceding tales are not among them.