My Horse Won!
That would normally be my boast when I’ve made a winning bet, but in this case, it actually means a horse I own came first. And I really need to qualify this. I own 1/100th of a trotter by the name of Son Of Paige. I’m involved with Harness Racing Canada, a venture directed by Paul Garafalo who arranges for people to get into the ownership side of horse racing with very little investment. My initial cost was a mere $300. When I joined the syndicate last October, I very quickly felt as if my involvement was nothing more than a jinx for the five year old Son Of Paige. He broke stride in four of his next six races, was forced to qualify at least twice and on one ocassion, was scratched from a race for showing up two minutes late.
But yesterday, in the fifth at Woodbine, Son Of Paige had all the benevolent stars lined up. Driven confidentally by Mario Baillargeon, Son Of Paige left sharply from post 7 and was soon a very comfy second behind the front runner. Baillargeon kept his horse on the rail until almost the top of the stretch and when the field straightened out, Son Of Paige trotted past the leader and held off a challenge from a late-running Kan Wire to win by almost a length. What was really exciting was the time – 1:54.3 – pretty nifty for the class – a condition race with a purse of $19,000.
Son Of Paige appears to have turned a corner. This is his second win in three races with a solid third in the middle. Even better, according to an e-mail from Garafalo this morning, my cheque is “in the mail.”
I did notice that the handle for yesterday’s ten race card at Woodbine was a very unimpressive $822,250. Sunday racing is a bitter point in the feud that is on-going between Woodbine and the Ontario Harness Horse Association which represents the harness group. Right now there is no operative contract between the track and horsemen and OHHA is urging its people to boycott the entry box. So far that boycott has been far from unanimous. There were ten races yesterday with fields ranging from 7 to 10 horses. Today’s entries indicate 11 races, several of which appear to have 7 or 8 horses each.
So the boycott, if I’m interpreting correctly, seems to be about 20-25% effective; that is races that should have ten horses, have 7 or 8. Generally speaking, if a boycott is 100% effective, then the business finds itself inoperative and eventually has to offer a compromise. If the business is capable of conducting itself in a more or less normal fashion, then the boycott isn’t working.
As for that handle of $822,250 – Woodbine says anything less than $ million isn’t a feasible day of racing. Yesterday, over $188,000 in purses were offered. The track’s share of $822,250 in bets would be much less than that.
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