I did the daily double, so to speak of the horse racing awards on the weekend - The Sovereigns on Friday and the O’Briens on Saturday. The Sovereigns broke dramatically with tradition by holding their blingfest at the Ultra nightclub in a far less formal environment than we’d been used to. Though the room might have been a break from tradition, a lot of old school people were honoured for their work. Roger Attfield won his 7th trophy as trainer of the year and when the undefeated Hollinger (4 for 4) won as top two year-old colt, it was the 43rd horse trained by Attfield to get a St. Simon bronze cast trophy. The top jockey of the year was Patrick Husbands, also a 7 time winner and of all the categories, Husbands got 185 first place votes, more than any other entity.
Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper went home empty (except for the hors d’ouvres we were able to grab). We had three candidates for best newspaper story, but Perry Lefko, Keith McCalmont and Eleanor Yeoman LeBlanc were beaten out by Curtis Stock. Lefko lost in the Best feature story category to Bruce Walker and I had no chance to win for best picture, so it was hardly shocking that my shot of Chantal in the Canadian flag lost to Michael Burns Sr. and his dazzling Reflection of Talent which you can see in the January issue of Down The Stretch.
Eye of the Leopard was a handy winner as outstanding Two year-old, even though he failed to win after his gusty Queen’s Plate victory. The elated trainer, Mark Frostad pointed out that it took an awful lot out of the son of Eye of the Sphynx to go from a maiden win to Plate Trial win to Queen’s Plate win in a matter of a few weeks.
I didn’t see Reade Baker Friday night, but it would be interesting to get his input on the voting for three year old filly. With 304 votes cast, there are 27 million possible outcomes, so it was quite remarkable that both Baker’s filly Biofuel and Negligee each attracted 135 votes making this the first dead heat in Sovereign voting. Adding much more irony to the mix is the fact that it was Negligee in the stretch of the Juvenile Fillies race at the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita that dealt Biofuel a much more violent bodycheck than anything we’ve seen so far this season from the Leafs. So here’s a question - if Negligee doesn’t barrel into Biofuel and Biofuel wins that race or finishes second, would the votes have been different? My opinion - yes.
Champs Elysees went home with a pair of trophies…as Champion Male Turf Horse and as Horse of the Year..Champs Elysees had four races at Woodbine in 2009, topped by his spectacular surge to victory in the Grade 1 $2million Pattison Canadian International.
Perhaps the classiest move of the night went unnoticed. In the O’Brien Awards program, driver Rick Zeron, nominated for the O’Brien Award of Horsemanship, purchased a full page ad congratulating the other Nominee, Per Henrikson. When Henrickson won, he gave the night’s best line when he said,
“I’ve never been nominated for anything before, except may idiot of the year by one of my ex-wives!”
Kind of set the tone for the relaxed entertaining night that the O’Briens are.
Now I have to figure out how Down The Stretch, which has 7 Sovereign nominations, can score its first nomination for an O’Brien a year from now.
The most frequent visitor to the podium at the Sovereigns was Eugene Melnyk and who wouldn’t want to be him today. His Ottawa Senators have won a franchise best 9 straight games and he cashed four Sovereigns on Friday..Melnyk was honoured as Outstanding Owner, Outstanding breeder and he also accepted on behalf of Milwaukee Appeal, the Champion Three year-old filly and Marchfield who was named Champion Older Male. Melnyk doesn’t know it yet, but he will also be Down The Stretch’s thoroughbred owner of the month for February, an honor he will most certainly place higher than anything that preceded it..
So I barely had time to recover from that before it was time to doll myself up again for the O’Briens at the Meadowvale Hotel. Woodbien race caller Ken Middleton was joined by racing analyst Dawn Lupul in the hosting category and my bet is, this will be 1 and 1A for a few years to come. Middleton, as usual, ran things with his drole, understated wit and Lupul was a riot, practically fearless with a steady barrage of hilarious one liners that had the crowd smiling all night…
No big surprise that Muscle Hill was named the Horse of the Year. Unlike Zenyatta, a perfect year did the trick for Muscle Hill who was near unanimous in the three year-old trotter category.
Trainer Casie Coleman won as top trainer and also took an O’Brien on behalf of her brilliant pacer Sportswriter who was judged the best two year-old. It’s Coleman’s third O’Brien as best trainer and she hasn’t even hit 30 yet..
Jody Jamieson - and how could this have gone any other way - was named Canada’s driver of the year. Jamieson established a Canadian record of 787 wins and recently was named the United States Trotting Association’s driver of the year.
It was plenty good enough that Middleton and Lupul kept the O’Briens lively and that the food was great and the company stimulating, but I had an appropriate distraction. The horse I own a share in , Son of Paige was racing in the 6th at Woodbine and since he had won the week ebfore, I was quite anxious about the outcome. I actually asked Woodbine President Nick Eaves if he could get race results on his Blackberry and he actually tried ( hey, what good is a Horse racing Executive if he can’t get you race results). Turns out, the race hadn’t gone yet, but as they were announcing the Two year-old pacing filly of the year ( Poof She’s Gone), I dialed horse player results and nearly erupted in my seat when the disemboweled voice advised me that the winner of race number six was #7. Son of Paif went off at 7-1 and ( as I determined from the replay later that night), took mario baillargeon to the lead from the outside and didn’t let anyone by, winning in 1:55.4. Son of Paige won over $22,000 in January alone and I will be standing by my mailbox for the next week waiting for my cut!.
Son of Paige was not on the slate, but Well Said, the highest money making three year oold pacer, was the easy winner in his division. I was sitting with Richard Young, the owner of Put On A Show who was up against Fancy Filly for best two year-old pacing filly. Young, who lives in florida was agonizing before the announcement because his filly had had a sensational season, winning her first 7 starts, then losing to Fancy Filly in the Breeders Crown final - a race in which Put On A Show came second from the nine-hole. Young conceded that because Fancy Filly had nmore wins, more money and a faster mile (1:51.1) that won would probably win and when Fancy Filly’s name was called, Richard Young was the owner of a horse that had won $976,498 in her initial season, but had to settle for runner-up.
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