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They had two great grass races at Woodbine on Sunday resulting in one amazing finish and a precedent setting outcome for a female horse and one controversial decision by the stewards.

The $Million Woodbine Mile was won by the five year-old Mare Ventura who kicked in down the long stretch of the E.P. Taylor Turf Course, passing 8 of 9 rivals to win by a length. The win by Ventura is the first by a female horse in the 13 year history of this race. By surging past the field in front of the grandstand, Ventura and jockey garrett Gomez set a record for the Stakes - 1:32.04.  That’s why they designed the turf course the way they did…to set up great finishes and off-the pace charges. This win got Ventura an automatic spot in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but it appears that she will run in the Filly and Mares Sprint at seven furlongs, a race she won last year. Ventura is owned by the Juddmonte Farms who almost pulled off a wonderful double, but the stewards denied them the glory.

Earlier in the day, in the Northern Dancer Stakes - a mile and a half on the grass - Juddmonte’s Marsh Side hit the wire first, but in the last sixteenth, it was clear to all that he had come in sharply, pushing Quijano into Champs Elysee who was making what might have been a winning move along the hedge. Jockey Garett Gomez had to press on the brakes and take Champs Elysee to the middle of track, but the pinch-job cost that horse any chance of winning.

The tote board lit up right after the race; the second, third and fourth place horses - Just As Well, Quijano and Champs Elysee all expressed their unhappiness with the events in the final moments of the race ( well, actually, their jockeys did). After 15 minutes of examination, the stewards, correctly, disqualifed Marsh Side and place the late charging Just As Well on top.  That’s got to kill, seeing your horse win a $750,000 race, only to have it taken away. That being said, the stewards really had no choice.And give the winning jockey Julien Leparoux credit here. In deep stretch, he had Just As Well buried along the hedge and moments before Champs Elysee was crunched, Leparoux had the instinct tull Just As Well acutely to the right to avoid the scrum. Had he not, he never would have got his head into second place at the wire, which entitled Just As Well for the big prize when the stewards made their difficult decision. 

I stuffed my face on the Mohawk buffet the night before and watched as Muscle Hill treated the rest of the field in the Canadian Trotting Classic with disdain, winning by at least three lengths as no other horse seemed brave ( or good) enough to challenge him. Brian Sears allowed Muscle Hill to settle in fifth off the start and as soon as everyone was in single file, he moved the odds-on favourite to the outside and in a benign second quarter that was timed in :30, Sears was able to get Muscle Hill in front. From that point on, it was clear everyone else was playing for second money. Muscle Hill didn’t have to entertain anyone on the outside of him and he trotted happily down the lane to his 17th straight win and an easy $600,000. He paid just $2.20 to win and the $100,000 bet on him in place pool assured a $2.10 payoff for coming in second.

If you’ve been following my wagering adventures, you know that Saturday was day 25 of my 50 days of Doubles, a proclamation imposed on myself to bet only daily doubles. That meant I couldn’t bet the Trotting Classic, not that there was any money to be made.

As for the experiment, I’m sad to relate that I’m down about $300 in my doubles. The problem is, now that I can’ et exactors, or pick threes or win/place, I search for tracks that allow doubles and I’ve been making bets at Fairplex and Philadelphia, and Mountaineer when I might normally ignore tracks like that.

Anyway, I still have almost a month to redeem myself parimutuelly. 

I had quite the revealing visit to the home of jockey Robert Landry yesterday. I’ve written a small feature on Landry, which will appear in the next issue of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper and to be honest, I’ve completely missed the real story.

My piece is more or less a side bar to the report on Careless Jewel, the Josie Carroll trained filly who smashed the field in the Grade 1 Alabama Stakes a couple weeks ago at Saratoga. Careless Jewel was ridden by the 46 year-old Landry who was thrilled to win for the first time at the historic racetrack. Considering that just six days earlier, Landry had won four races on the same card at Woodbine, I decided the timing was right for a full page on Landry.

He does’nt exactly fit the mold of many jockeys ( not that you can easily generalize the jockey culture).  First of all, as Landry pointed out, he’s the only rider born and raised in Toronto and maybe that’s the key here.  There is just something so decent, so Canadian, so un-screwed up about Landry.

He doesn’t smoke and most assuredly he has no alcohol or substance issues. I was talking to him about my use of pot in the 70s and he barely seemed to grasp the idiom (I was explaining how to clean an ounce of pot by letting the seeds roll down a board and he just stared at me wide-eyed). Landry has a real love of animals. He serves as a director of Longrun which finds homes for retired horses, he and his wife Samantha own three cats and he even takes care of a squirrel that he found floating in a pond barely alive several weeks ago.

His house in Nobleton down the scenic 16th sideroad is a clear reflection of who he is. There is, not surprisingly, seemingly endless racing references on the walls - beautiful prints of historic racing oil paintings and countless pictures of the jockey in the winners circle. Landry recently passed the 2,000 win plateau for his career and on one long spacious wall in his den, he has the winners circle picture from every Stakes race he’s ever won. Since the records show that Landry has captured 162 added money events,  this particular wall of fame is spectacular.

Landry has completely and almost single-handedly rebuilt his home from the inside, putting up new door frames and windows and shelving. The original floor was a faded green linoleum; he put down elegant tiles and warm wooden slats. A huge deck accommodates the back of his house, looking over a couple of acres of friendly green around a large pond. He built the deck as well as the gazebo. He’s serious about the woodworking. His garage has been converted into a fully stocked shop with hundreds of tools aligned neatly.

Landry has been married to Samantha for two years; they’ve been a couple for 14. She is a former trainer’s assistant who now teaches. Because I couldn’t get him to admit anything, I asked Samantha if her husband had any vices.

“Well, he is a perfectionist,” she replied with a giggle, suggesting much more pride than grief about that. And nowhere is that issue of perfection emphasized more than in Landry’s documentation of his riding career. He invites me inside to see his computerized database and this is something I have never seen. He has every race he’s ever ridden computed and compartmentalized.

“See this,” he says, pointing at a number on the screen. “I’ve ridden 17,268 times. If I want to see how many times I’ve won for a certain trainer, I can do that.”

Landry types in the the name Danny Vella. Up comes the number of times he ridden a Vella trained horse and the number of times he’s won for Vella. Each entry identifies the date and race, the name of the horse, the name of the trainer and the surface (dirt, grass, poly). In less than a minute, he can determine how many times he’s won four races on a card  and how many times he’s won three times in one day.

“Aside from being really interesting,” I say, “Does it ever do you any good?”

A big grin crosses his face.

“Well let’s say a trainer tells me that we don’t get many winners together, ” answers Landry, “ I go into the date base and show him otherwise. That’s paid off for me.”  

I’ve seen Landry in the jocks room and he always seems to have a racing program with him, always making notes. He brings those home and on pretty well a daily basis, feeds that stuff into his database. Landry the perfectionist.

Landry readily admits that he won’t ever again be the leading jockey at Woodbine. Even with four wins one one day at Woodbine, he only has 22 wins in 237 rides, good for maybe 14th in the standings. He rides a lot for Sue Leslie and Roger Attfield and Danny Vella and the ride on Careless Jewel is one of many provided for him by Josie Carroll.

“I’ve had a great career,” Landry asserts. “I’m a very lucky guy.”

There’s more evidence of Landry’s makeup inside his home. He’s a hockey nut and has assembled a veritable hockey hall of fame exhibit in his den; a couple of seats from the old Montreal Forum, signed sticks from Wayne Gretzky and Eric Lindros, hockey pucks signed by Jean Beliveau, a great framed black and white photograph of Gordie Howe scoring on Johnny Bower.  Much of this memorablia is the residual benifit reaped from Landry’s charitable work. The guy rarely says no to a good cause and often ends up at events that also feature stars like Wendle Clark, Darryl Sittler, Gretzky, Howe and many other NHL stars. Landry’s collection of autographed jerseys would make most die-hard hockey fans salivate.

Anyway, in the next issue of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper, you will find a not-award winning article on Landry with only a slight reference to his database. I told him, I would be coming back to do a second story on him; a piece that shows how carefully and thoughfully he has carved out a near perfect life for himself and Samantha. 

Saturday, September 5 was memorable times two for racing fans. In the afternoon, Rachel Alexandra ran a race loaded with historical implications, winning the Woodward Stakes by a head over Macho Again. To someone not intimately knowledgeable about horseracing, there might the inclination to say,’wow that was close, a head, she almost lost, ‘ and that would be profoundly inaccurate.

Rachel Alexandra was incredible in this race. Calvin Borel put her near the top from the moment the gates opened and the field of colts had no intention of displaying chivalry. One by one, they pushed her, as if there had been a pre-race conspiracy among them to do her as much harm as possible. Da’tara, who shocked at 38-1 in last year’s Belmont went first, pushing Rachel Alexandra to a first quarter in sprinters’ speed of :22.46. Past The Point took up the chase and that meant a half of :46.41, which, generally is way too fast for normal horses running nine panels. Rachel Alexandra coverered the first six furlongs in a gasping 1:10.54 and there was a moment at the top of the stretch, when a few horses fanned out and seemed ready to break the filly’s spell. Bullsbay loomed up with less than two furlongs to go, but his charge sputtered, Past The Point collapsed from his challenge and Da’Tara would stagger in last.

Down to the wire, Rachel Alexandra was in charge, even if Macho Again, whose jockey Robbie Albarado had carved out a most benign trip - in last most of the way - came barelling down the centre of the track to make it close at the wire.The charts say a head, the hearts say she’s a superstar.

And there is good news, both for Rachel Alexandra and horse racing fans. Her owners have pretty well stated she won’t run again this year. Why should she? What more could she possibly prove? She won the Kentucky Oaks by a ton, beat the boys in the  Preakness, the Haskell and the Woodward Stakes and went unbeaten in eight races this year. Owner Jess Jackson has said she will run next year.

By the way, that win on Rachel Alexandra was a rare streak of sunshine for jockey Calvin Borel. Aside from Rachel’s electrifying win, the lights were pretty well out for Borel at the Spa…he went 1 for 43 on all the other horses he rode.

So later that night, they ran the Metro Pace at Mohawk and if you’ve been wondering how we could ever fill the void left by the incomparable Somebeachsomewhere, wonder no more.  Sportswriter, trained by Casie Coleman, parlayed a perfect trip from Mark MacDonald into a monster stretch run to win by a length and a half. Sportswriter, now unbeaten in five lifetime races was timed in 1:49.2, a world record for a two year-old pacer, one fifth of a second speedier than the record set in 2007 by Somebeachsomewhere.  MacDonald steered Sportswriter into 5th down the backstretch and angled out to get benevolent cover from Woodstock. Into the Mohawk stretch, Sportswriter was shown open track and he gobbled it up like, well like a sportswriter at a pregame buffet.

Sportswriter has a few more pages to fill out before he can be reasonably compared with Somebeachsomewhere who won 20 of 21 races, but Sportswriter is definitely off to a great start.

And if summer has to come to an (unofficial) ending, that was some well-appreciated heat on the tracks provided by two fantastic horses on saturday. 

You can’t bet the horses at the CNE, but, as I proved yesterday, you can play the horses while at the CNE. Yesterday, I took my two kids to the EX. My 12 year-old daughter, Emily brought her friend Michelle and I had to pry my 17 year-old son Roger from his computer and Runescape for a day in the sun.

There was a season or two at the venerable Ex where they actually had a temporary off-track betting theatre, but for some reason, the logic of that expired and it is no longer an option. Not a big problem for me. I downloaded the Saratoga Form and through my HPI phone account, advance bet the first eight daily doubles at the Spa. As discussed earlier in this blog, I have embarked on one of the more noble and courageous personal experiments in which I am allowed to bet only on daily doubles. I won’t bore you endlessly here about my religious fanaticism about the daily double; I will simply re-state that the double is the most beneficial and longterm, potentially the most profitable of all the legal gambles available to the Canadian player.

I started my 50 Days of Doubles last Friday and got off to a great start. I cashed $79 for a $1 bet on the first double I played and showed a profit of $80 for all my bets. The next day, I bet a total of $166 in various doubles at many tracks and by hitting for $115 on the last two races at Woodbine, cleared $30 in profits. I lost $80 on Sunday $30 on Monday, $20 on Tuesday.

All three of the children I took to the Ex had their cell phones and the agreement was they could take off on their own as long as they texted me regularly to advise of their status.

Emily and Michelle headed for the rides. Roger wandered into the Food building seeking the largest possible bottle of coke. I found myself having to resist the urge of the crown and anchor and other various gambling possibilities at the EX. In previous years, I could easily drop $50 on clubs or Citation and Tim Tam in the horse racing game - you know the one with all the spinning arrows?

However, I have to remain true to the experiment; to see if it is possible to show a profit over 50 days just betting doubles. That meant avoiding the temptation of the Exhibition casino - last year when I escorted Emily to the Ex, I won $600 at Blackjack while she wandered in and out of House of Horrors and rode the Zipper.

I lost the first race at Saratoga, but Big Flirt hit the wire a nose ahead of Triple Glory in the second and paid $9.50. I was live into the third with two horses. I walked into the Direct Energy Centre, which is just a cluttered shopping mall for the run of the Ex. I bought a couple of nice shirts. I got a text from Emily,

 ”Were in line 4 scorpion.”

I was monitoring the race results by calling 416-623-6337 which gives out payouts within five minutes of each race. At 2:45, the monotone computerized voice tells me that not only did I win the double into the third race, I got a consolation payoff when my other horse was scratched. Only three horses ran the third race. My double paid $15. The consolation paid $9.

I get a text from Roger: “Already drank 32 oz of Coke. Going 4 a record.”

At 3:20. the lifeless voice on the race results line informs me that my horse won the 5th and paid $13.40 I’m alive on three in the 6th, so I celebrate by buying myself a new belt. 

There is a new text from Emily:

“Were in line 4 crazy mouse.”

I hang out at a booth selling powdered dips. After scoffing half a dozen pretzels in tzaziki cream, I buy three of the mixes. After all, I’m alive with a 5-1 first race winner. However, my next phone call brings disappointment -none of my three horses even hit the board.

 This scenario repeats itself in races 7 and 8. I jump with joy when I hear the results of race 7 (and a crowd of bystanders lurches backwards as I fistpump). Silva ( no relation to Eurico da) won the 7th and paid $11.70, but I didn’t have the 7-1 shot that won the 8th. That also meant that my last advanced bet double was no longer alive. To that point, I was down a little less than $40 and resigned to that small defeat. There would be a most fortuitous comeback.

Shortly after 5, after meeting all the kids and roaming through the food building for food (Emily and Michelle share some Chinese, Roger buys a coke), my cell phone rings. It’s Down The Stretch contributor Keith McCalmont, whose Triple Dead Heat blog is much the best racing blog on the net.

“I’m blogging about your daily double adventure,” he advises me. “I’ve even posted my own doubles for Woodbine tonight.”

Woodbine! I’d forgotten. a 6:45 posttime. I could still bet the double at Woodbine! I didn’t have the past performances, but McCalmont is pretty sharp with a form, so I tell him,

“Give me your choices. I’ll bet them in the double.”

Keith laughs and says he likes 2, 5 and 10 in the first.

“The ten horse is trained by Ian Black and I think it’s ready, ” he adds. He also gives me 1, 5 and 9 in the second.

“I think the one will be the favourite, ‘ he says apologetically. 

I bet $2 doubles on all of those, which costs me $18 and leaves $5 in my HPI phone account. There’s another text from Roger.

“Meet me for Swiss Chalet and coke” he orders. We sit in the car in the media parking lot eating chicken while I wait for the first race to be run. Post time is 6:45. At 6:51, my overanxious fingers call the results line and I am advised that the ten-horse, named Fifty Proof, is the first race winner, paying $27.00. Keith rises considerably in my esteem.

That gives me a good half hour of serious anxiety as I await the outcome of the second race in which I have three shots. At 7:22, I get the answer I want - favoured Sans Souci (#1) wins at 8-5 and pays just $5.40, but the double kicks back $93.20, which makes my day a neat profit of $38.20. And here’s why I have such an obsessive infatuation with daily doubles. If you’d taken the first race winnings ($27) and let it ride on the winner of the second race, you would have cashed $72.90. The $93.20 payoff on the double represents almost a 30% inflation on the parlay.

So the 50 Days of Doubles is now into it’s 8th day. Here are the numbers so far:

I have bet a total of  $545. I have cashed $563.30 That’s a profit of $18.30

Some people submit to experimental surgery to make life better for human beings in the future. Others risk their lives to explore hidden jungles or the ocean floor or outer space. Others fight intolerance and prejudice even though the price is often profound.

Me. I bet daily doubles. Everyone is a hero in their own right.