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The most disappointed person on the planet when Rachel Alexandra was beaten at the Fair Grounds Saturday had to be Oaklawn Park General Manager Eric Jackson. After the race, Rachel’s owner, Jess Jackson announced that the 2009 Horse of the Year is not in top shape and won’t be taking on Zenyatta in the Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn on April 9. Oaklawn had jacked the purse up from $500,000 to $5 million if the two sensational lady horses were to meet, but now the best scenario is that unbeaten Zenyatta will show up.

Rachel Alexandra seemed to have the easiest of assignments in Saturday’s New Orleans Ladies Stakes. She faced only four opponents and as far as the Daily Racing Form past performances are concerned, none of those four were even qualified to carry Rachel’s purse, or whatever female horses keep their accoutrements in. Trainer Steve Asmussen blames himself for not having the horse in shape, but jockey Calvin Borel gets few points for style in this race. He swung Rachel way too wide on the first turn (how do you run in the four path in a five horse race?) and admitted after the race that he was under orders not to set the pace. Again, what was everyone thinking. Running relentlessly on the front end is Rachel Alexandra’s game. Strangling her down the backstretch while a glorified claimer cut out easy splits probably discouraged her. Halfway down the backside, Borel took an overly animated look behind him that appeared to pull somewhat on Rachel’s head. Around the far turn, RA did make an impressive move to get the lead, but Zardana, coincidentally an unheralded stablemate of Zenyatta, had a full head of steam and in mid-stretch got past Rachel. The winner of the 2009 Preakness and Woodward Stakes did dig in nicely through the stretch, but Zardana had the momentum and won by less than a length. Zardana is trained by John Sherriffs, who just 24 minutes after Rachel’s defeat, send out Zenyatta in the $250,000 Santa Margarita Stakes at Santa Anita. And if Rachel Alexandra was not race-ready, Zenyatta sure was. The six year-old mare did what she had done in all of her previous 14 wins - she started slowly, loitered in last place for almost a mile and then made an exhilarating move from 8th, swallowing up her opponents with disdain and winning by a widening length and a quarter. At the top of the lane, jockey Mike Smith had tons of momentum and a wall of horses in front of him. He yanked Zenyatta - almost violently - to the inside and she found the smallest of openings and for the final 16th, racing fans saw the definition of greatness as Zenyatta didn’t so much overhaul the front runner Dance to My Tune, she inhaled her.

Rachel Alexandra certainly deserved the Horse of the Year honors she won for 2009, but right now, who would deny that Zenyatta is the greatest horse on the planet. Her race was faster and she ran with a much greater handicap - carrying 127 pounds, at least 11 more than any other horse in her race, while Rachel was beaten by a horse toting just two pounds less.

Zenyatta’s owners Jerry and Ann Moss have assured Oaklawn that she will run on April 9. Although racing fans…and Oaklawn executives are surely unhappy that the two super ladies won’t meet in the near future, Asmussen and Jackson deserve credit - in the case of Rachel Alexandra, they have always acted in the horse’s best interest, never giving in to any personal ego.

You might think in the middle of winter, it would be hard to come up with 24 pages of material for a horse racing paper and you’d be wrong. In this issue, we have full coverage of both the O’Brien Awards for harness racing and the Sovereign Awards for the thoroughbreds. Down The Stretch had five nominations and went home with nothing. The editor, about as much a photographer as he is a slam-dunk finalist, had his Chantal in a flag picture nominated as best picture, but it was Michael Burns winning for his shot, Reflection of Talent. Sadly, Burns died just nine days after scoring his seventh Sovereign Award. His daughter, Patricia and son, Michael were especially helpful in providing me with wonderful images that comprise a two-page spread in the middle; a telling document of the work of a great photographer. Interesting that my e-mails to Michael the younger found him in Vancouver documenting the games as he has done many times before. Kind of Joannie Rochette experience for Michael, just days after losing his father.“He was our best friend,” was how Michael summed up his dad.

Perry Lefko has immersed himself in the heart of controversy for this issue. Lefko has a story on the troubled Bulletbroof Stable, whose owners have all kinds of legal grief, not the least of which is having all their horses deemed ineligible to race in Ontario. And Lefko also writes about jockey Simon Husbands suing the Ontario Racing Commission and three stewards for the temporary one-year suspension he was hit with last fall. The stewards punished Husbands after a ride on Bugs Boy, in which, according to the stewards, the jockey did not persevere. Husbands appealed the penalty and the suspension was overturned, but according to his document, the suggestion that he ‘stiffed’ his horse has resulted in a significant dropoff in interest from trainers for his services.

The big horse racing news this month is that the two champion ladies – Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta are scheduled to race against each other for the first time. It’s the Apple Blossom Stakes on April 9 and Oaklawn Park has put up $5 million to attract the two wonderful thoroughbreds.  Zenyatta has concentrated on beating her opposition on the synthetic tracks of California, but did win this race in 2008 as a four year-old. Rachel Alexandra has won twice at Oaklawn – she took the Martha Washington Stakes by 8 lengths here last February and in April, 2009, she stomped her rivals by almost nine lengths in the Grade II Fantasy Stakes. Rachel likes to go to the lead and dare the rest of the field to catch her. That’s what she did in the Woodward Stakes last summer at Saratoga when she became the first three year-old filly to beat older males in a Grade I race. Zenyatta likes to camp at the back of the pack for the early running and then make an eye-catching late run. This strategy has worked to perfection; Zenyatta is 14 for 14 in her career, including her spectacular victory in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita. I don’t need to say much more. This race at Oaklawn at a mile and an eighth will be great.

Also in the next issue of Down The Stretch – a twisted look at the three men who lead in the drivers standings at Woodbine, how Gardiner Farms has a strong lineup of stallions, especially for those who understand just how lucrative Ontario Sires Stakes can be, some hilarious quotes from the awards banquets,  two full pages of Canadians winning races in the States, Eugene Melnyk as Owner of the Month, another unique take on the status of horse racing by Bob Carson and another full page of Oddities and Entities.

Which is to say, even in the dead of winter, there is more than enough stuff happening in horse racing to fill our paper

We were saddened to hear of the death of multiple award winning photographer Michael Burns, who passed away on Sunday, February 8th at the age of 84. I was aware that Burns was not faring well after speaking with his son Michael a few weeks before the Sovereign Awards. Both of the Burns, Sr. and Jr. had been nominated in the Outstanding Photograph category and I had asked son Michael to provide me with the nominated pictures to run in the January issue of Down The Stretch.

The elder’s submission was a typically stunning shot of a horse and rider reflected perfectly in a small pond underneath. It was titled Reflection of Talent. Michael Burns Jr, sent the picture to me with the comment that his father was too ill to attend the Sovereigns. On the night of the awards, it was announced that Michael Burns Sr. was indeed the winner of his 7th Sovereign, and do not presume it was a sympathy vote for a guy in bad health. The pictures are submitted anonymously to the voters, who have no idea who actually took them.

I am particularly indebted to anyone named Michael Burns. For two years, I have had unlimited access to all Burns horse racing photography at no cost to my paper.  The  low level shot of Emma Jayne Wilson winning the 2007 Queen’s Plate with Mike Fox is one of an endless series of brilliant images provided to racing fans by Burns..

Burns, though was much more than just a racing picture taker. Along with 60 years as official photographer at Woodbine, Burns also covered hockey games at Maple Leaf Gardens, snapped car racing at Mosport and at Indy and Formula One races in Canada and was the official photographer of the Canadian Curling Association since 1958.

Burns is the only camera guy to win three Eclipse Awards for best thoroughbred images in North America and he has some 30,000 pictures from 30 different sports donated to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Burns is survived by Helen, his wife of 59 and children Mary-Ellen, Patricia and Michael.

Have to imagine a finish line picture of Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta captured  by Michael Burns would be a winner. The two great lady horses just might meet at Oaklawn racetrack in the Gr 1Apple Blossom Stakes on April 3. The track is prepared to jack the purse up to $5 million  if both Rachel and Zenyatta run and they have offered to extend the distance of the race from a mile and a 16th to a mile and an eighth. That’s significant, because at 8 1/2 furlongs, Rachel would have a huge edge because of her front-running prowess; Zenyatta simply wouldn’t have enough acreage to pull off another of her dramatic last to first rallies.

Even at nine full furlongs, this would still seem to favour Rachel Alexandra, if her form in the Woodward Stakes holds up. In that race, she was  on the gun all the way with all the colts taking their best shots  and she still prevailed.

Both mares went undefeated in 2009,  but they have never met, although it gets much more intriguing. Each has run once at Oaklawn. Zenyatta won the Apple Blossom in 2008 and wasn’t at all compromised by the shorter distance. Let go as the second favourite at 9-5 (Frank Stronach’s Ginger Punch was 2-5), Zenyatta was second last for the first six furlongs, about eight lengths off the early pace set by Ginger Punch, but when Mike Smith pressed the button, Zenyatta changed gears, and in the space of maybe a 16th of a mile, passed four rivals, and pulled away to win by four and a half in 1:42.64.  For comparison purposes, the mile in this race went in 1:36:59 and we can assume Zenyatta was leading at that point.

Rachel Alexandra won at Oaklawn on February 15 last year in the Martha Washington Stakes at a mile on the dirt. With Calvin Borel steering, Rachel stalked the pace set by Affirmed Truth,  assumed the lead before the stretch and hit the wire best by eight lengths in 1:36:40…or about a length faster than Zenyatta’s mile in the Apple Blossom. Different times, different race-lengths, different fields, but it does indicate that Rachel Alexandra might have the upper hand if the two meet…Oaklawn’s surface is original dirt.

And we’re watching the early returns in the race for harness driving glory at Woodbine. Jody Jamieson took a much needed month off after his record 796 win year. After capturing the Dan patch Award as leading driver in North America, Jamieson was one vote away from the unanimous winner of the O’Brien as Outstanding Driver in 2009. Jamieson has returned to the driving wars and already has ten wins at Woodbine, though that puts him 12th, a fair distance behind Randy Waples who has surged to the top in Jamieson’s absence. Waples has posted 45 wins in 244 starts. mark MacDonald is second with 37 wins and Sylvain Filion is third with 33 wins.  Jamieson is back steering with his stereo-typical obsession. he had five winners the other night at Flamboro and though he’s only been driving since the first week of February, he already has 15 wins in 51 races at the Dundas, Ontario track.

So it might be fun watching Jamieson try and overcome the huge advantage he gave his fellow drivers by taking January off. There is a very good chance JJ will be the leading driver in Canada next December.

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.

It almost sounds silly to brag that you own 1/100th of a horse, but today’s blog is about a guy - i.e. me - who owns 1% of a trotter and because of that, I had a real thrill Saturday night. In the fall of 2008, I acquired one share of a horse named Son of Paige, who is now six years old. Each share in Paige cost $300 and the syndicate is run by Harness Racing Canada, a company that helps people get into the racing game with very modest investment.  The beauty of owning even a tiny piece of a harness horse is that they are a sturdier breed than the thoroughbreds and can generally run 3-4 times a month. So three or four times a month for the last 14 or 15 months, I’ve been able to brag, “My horse is out tonight.”

 My horse was out Saturday night. Son of Paige has been racing at Western Fair for a few months and it has been awhile since I saw him work, so when I was apprised that trainer Wayne Preszcator had brought the son of Angus Hall to Woodbine, it was very convenient for me.

The January issue of Down The Stretch came to my house on Friday morning (actually 4500 issues of it, as delivered by Mclaren Press).  It’s a great issue (easy for the editor to say) with its cover proclaiming 25 ways to save harness racing . As editor, publisher, photographer, writer and delivery boy, I had to get papers to Woodbine, so off I Saturday evening, piling up the papers in the bins and dropping off 150 or so to the racing office, drivers room and paddock restaurant. While in the paddock, I got to visit my horse. He’s a nice looking colt, about average size for a trotter, but the groom, Ian, didn’t seem overly optimistic about his chances in the first race, which had a purse of $19,000 for horses who had failed to earn $10,000 in their last six tries. Since Paige went on an ugly break and finished last six days ago in London, he wasn’t a great bet, though the rest of the field looked equally un-special. I gave my horse a pat on the head and he threw his mane around and I didn’t know what to think of that.

“Get me a cheque,” I implored and left to watch the race from the grandstand.

And it sure was surprising. Son of Paige had shown no early speed in any of his last five races at Western Fair, but driver Mario Baillargeon gunned him from the six-hole and he trotted nicely to the top by the first turn. However the opening quarter of 26.4 made me cringe. Even with a crisp easterly wind barreling down the stretch, that seemed too fast. Down the backstretch, Dougie Brown took his horse out of second and slipped to the front, which couldn’t have been more perfect for Son of Paige because it meant he had cover, that the other horse was breaking the wind and a slower second quarter gave Paige a nice breather. As they entered the stretch, you could see that the rest of the field was struggling and that this one would be decided between the top two. With less than a furlong to go, Baillargeon pulled Son of Paige to the middle of the track and he easily overhauled the leader to hit the wire first by a length and a quarter.

Realizing what was happening, I actually pulled out my cellphone and shot the stretch run. You can barely make out the horses, but you can hear me shouting, “Holy Shit!”

 Son of Paige went off at 9-2 and paid more than $11 to win and unfortunately, I didn’t bet on him.

I raced to the winners circle and was joined by the groom and a man and woman, whose names I was too self-absorbed to get and we all posed in the winners circle as track photographer Clive Cohen took our picture. Baillargeon put me in a headlock just as the camera snapped.

Of the purse of $19,000, Son of Paige won $9500. I’m entitled to 1% of that, but by the tine the trainer, vet, groom, blacksmith, syndicate manager, acupuncturist, secretary, donut delivery boy and equine masseuse take their cut, I’ll end up with about $40. 

I know that doesn’t sound like much, but last year, Paige won 6 of 30 races for about $75,000 and I got close to $400 in cheques that showed up in little amounts throughout the year. Son of Paige is one of Harness Racing Canada’s success stories - everyone who bought in to him has gotten more than their money back and he continues to race and cash cheques. Saturday’s win brings him up to more than $12,000 so far, so he’s on pace to win more than $100,000 in 2010.

This will give me a little to talk about at two important horse racing events this week. The Sovereign Awards are being held Friday night and Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper has five nominations, more than any other horse, owner, trainer, jockey or newspaper. We have three in one category as Perry Lefko, Keith McCalmont and Eleanor Yeoman LeBlanc all made the final for Outstanding News Story. Lefko is also up for Outstanding Feature Story and it would be a travesty of justice if I win for Best picture, but the shot I took of Chantal Sutherland wrapped in the Canadian flag is up against three real photographs in the Outstanding Picture category.

Down The Stretch has no nominations for the O’Briens, the standardbred awards banquet, but I will be attending the event on Saturday and intend to wear the exact same suit that I wear on Friday because I basically have just one decent suit anyway. At the O’Briens, I hope to get some feedback on the latest issue of Down The Stretch, which has a lot of harness material in it.  There’s stuff on the United Trotting Associations’ Dan patch awards - Jody Jamieson won Driver of the Year there and he’s a cinch to be named the Canadian DOY.  Along with our two pager on the 25 ways to save harness racing, we also have a beautiful two page spread of pictures from Boxing Day when the drivers were coming back caked in slop and mud.

We also have a lovely presentation of the four pictures up for Sovereigns and the two nominated for O’Briens. Our layout guy Gord Steventon has them hanging in the Louvre, you know right beside the Mona Lisa….and if you’re wondering about that enigmatic smile of hers…it’s because she had $20 across on Son of Paige!

I have been advised that there are pretty good numbers regarding the masses who visit this blog regularly. Not to puff myself up too much, but perhaps some of you have a certain appreciation for solid sports writing. If so, this one is for you. My colleague, Perry Lefko, conducts a Sports Writing course at the University of Toronto and apparently, there are still a few days remaining to sign up for the next series.

Lefko has a pretty amazing resume. He has written for pretty well all the major papers and has a long list of books that he’s produced. My favourite is Ride of a Lifetime, an awesome bio of jockey Sandy Hawley. Lefko has also written an epic on the Breeders’ Cup and one on Pinball Clemens as well. For a couple of years, he has contributed to Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspapers. That’s pertinent information, because two of Lefko’s 2009 columns in Down The Stretch have been honoured by the Jockey Club of Canada with Sovereign Award nominations. Considering the most nominations you can get for writing is two, Lefko has had a very fine year.  Lefko has a long history of being blinged by the Jockey Club; in 1989 he took the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Feature Story and in 1994, he walked away with the trophy for Outstanding Newspaper Article.

Perry is an edgy, aggressive and funny guy (ok, not as funny as me), and certainly qualified to pass on the skills that are necessary for compelling and accurate sports writing. Below is information he has provided me about the course.   You have less than two weeks to enroll

Have you ever wanted to be a sports writer? Now is your chance.

Perry Lefko, one of the contributing writers to Down The Stretch, is teaching a course on it at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies following the success of the first course that just ended.

It’s once a week on Mondays for 2 1/2 hours beginning January 25 at the St. George Campus and runs for eight weeks.

You’ll learn the basic tools of writing and apply it to sports. Whether you want to do it professionally or just as a hobby, you’ll be given the ways and means to construct your thoughts for multi-media, multi-platform usage.

The course has practical applications for newspaper or magazine work, television, radio and the internet. More than ever, there are opportunities beyond just the traditional ways to express yourself as a writer, in particular a sports writer.

In addition to what I’ll be teaching, I’ll be bringing in guest speakers, many of them high-profile individuals whose work you have read or whom you have seen on TV or heard on the radio.

I brought in a high-profile retired athlete for the first course and plan to do that again.

Many students from the first course had articles published. One has gone on to become an intern for a major radio show.

Weekly assignments will be evaluated and discussed.

The course is fun and interactive and there is lots of discussion.

And best of all it’s not limited to guys. Two women signed up for the first class and one had several articles published, while another interviewed a woman sportscaster for a video.

Get into the game.

For more information, call 416-978-2400 and ask about the Freelance Sports Writing Course. The course number is 2360-002. Or you can go to www.learn.utoronto.ca and look for the Freelance Sportswriter Course in the courses section.

Ok, guess I’m still steaming about the selection of Alexandra Wozniak as the winner of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canada’s athlete of the year. This rant of mine is not meant to demean Wozniak. She’s very much a bright light in the darkness that has been women’s tennis in this country, but in 2009, she did not win a tournament. So the voters gloried a woman who did ‘pretty good’, but virtually ignored Chantal Sutherland who had an amazing year, finishing second in Canada in wins with 139.  Earlier this week, Wozniak lost a second round match to a woman ranked 80th in the world, this in a tournament in Hobart, Australia, where Wozniak was the 6th seed.

During the same time frame, Sutherland showed her courage and guts. In the last race Sunday, January 10, she was on a longshot, Nana Beach and as the field turned into the stretch, Nana Beach was losing touch. instead of making a left turn to follow the field, the filly, perhaps smelling the hot dogs under the stands, went straight to the outside rail. At the last moment, Sutherland avoided disaster by throwing herself off the horse and landing ingloriously in a heap on the track. Three days later as racing resumed at Santa Anita, Sutherland was back in the saddle ( or what passes for a saddle for a jockey) and she rallied The Town Lady from last in the six-horse field to victory at odds of 2.90 in the mile and a sixteenth starter’s allowance. This is Sutherland’s third victory of the Santa Anita meet and - not to be cruel - three more wins than Wozniak has in the last 13 months.

The Ontario Racing commission dealt recently with a couple of harness driving infractions and had a different response to each case.  Both Jody Jamieson and Doug McNair had been punished with fines and suspensions for violating the same rule that restricts what a driver is allowed to do with his whip.  Jamieson, who ran up 15 whipping violations in 2009 was originally fined $1000 and suspended 10 days for his work in the stretch on Lucky Terror at Georgian Downs on August 20.  The ORC ruled that Jamieson “did use his whip in an excessive manner during the stretch drive.” At the time, Jamieson appealed the penalty and was granted a stay of the penalties. Since JJ was chasing down the Canadian record for victories, it was pretty obvious that he wanted to stay on track and this decision did not come down until December 30, at which point, Jamieson’s 796 wins were already in the bag. At the appeal, the ORC viewed the tape of the race which indicates that Jamieson used the whip on Lucky Terror as many as 19 times ( Jamieson claims it was just 14).  The panel deciding Jamieson’s fate actually agreed with the driver that the action was just ‘tippy taps’ and that no brutality was involved; however, under the new rules, 14-19 uses of the whip without a break is a clear violation. The ORC decision  makes the point that not only has been Jamieson been a multiple offender, but he actually sat on the board which hammered out the new rules.  It’s interesting that in his defence, Jamieson pointed out that he has participated in more than 3000 races in the last year, so 15 whip violations isn’t really that much.  The new whip rule has almost polarized the industry and puts drivers in a difficult situation - i.e. should they break the rule to ensure their horses win?  Just speculating here, but perhaps Jamieson is playing a little harness driving politics here - do what he has to do to win and pay the price later.

The other decision came down hard on 19 year-old Doug McNair for his whip abuse on OK Commander in the 6th race at Mohawk on August 16. At the time, McNair was fined $500 and suspended five days because he ” did use his whip in an indiscriminate manner during the stretch drive.” McNair appealed the penalty, but here’s where it got ugly. Apparently he changed his mind about the appeal and left a phone message the night before the hearing at 10:15 advising the panel that he was abandoning his case. To this, the ORC wrote,

“Mr. McNair’s conduct, in respect to the due process system as so enshrined to protect the rights of all licensees, is despicable.” 

Now that’s a bit harsh, don’t you think. Despicable?The guy is just a kid, a teenager. He’s been called to the principal’s office and he’s probably a little scared. At first, he thinks, ‘oh I’ll just stand up to them and declare my innocence,’ but as the date drew closer, he probably got cold feet, understanding he had little chance of winning.

The ORC was clearly pissed that he scheduled the hearing, then stiffed them. Because of this, McNair’s fine was doubled to $1000 and his suspension extended to 7 days. McNair has also been fined an additional $1500 for ‘frivolous appeal.”  This would be McNair’s 11th whipping violation in 17 months

So what do we learn from this? The ORC is trying to protect the horses and make racing look gentler and kinder. Jody Jamieson gets off easier than Doug McNair because he knows how to play the game a little better.  Even so, the new whipping rules aren’t sitting comfortably with either the horsemen or the fans. There are different applications in every jurisdictions. For example, fans betting on the races at the Meadowlands are likely to see the drivers being much more aggressive with the whip than their Ontario counterparts.

New whip rules also exist for the thoroughbreds and that could create a very disastrous outcome. Imagine a French or British jockey winning the Patisson International on a world champion, but doing so with an extra flick of the whip (only three allowed, then a break). Would the stewards risk an International conflagration by DQ-ing the winner?

Discuss amongst yourselves 

Below you will see the voting for the Canadian Athletes of the Year.  Sidney Crosbie was the runaway winner of the Lou Marsh Award and tennis player Alexandra Wozniak was chosen for the Bobbie Rosenfeld bling.  This is a horse racing blog, so when I ask, ‘Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?’ you should see where I’m going. Sidney Crosbie    72      15      2    248George St. Pierre 11      19      7      78Steve Nash           2        10      12    38John tavares         3        6       15    36Jason bay             0       11      12    34 Daniel Nestor        4        7       7      33Justin Morneau     3       8       5      30Alexander Bilodeau 2     5       4      20John Kucera           1      5       7      20Alexandre Despatie 2      4       2      16Patrick Chan           1      3       7      16  

No argument about Sid the Kid and mixed martial artist George St. Pierreapparently had a huge year (not that I’d recognize him on the subway). Steve Nash has had better seasons on the hardcourt and I admit that Tavares, Bay and Nestor all deserve votes. But why have both jockey Patrick Husbands  and harness driver Jody Jamieson been completely ignored?

 Husbands was the best rider in Canada this year. he won 188 races and unlike every person on the list of athletes who attracted votes, Husbands had no slump. He won at least one race every single week of the very long Woodbine meet that went from the first week of April to the second week of December. Husbands also won 20 Stakes races and his horses accumulated almost $11 million in purses.  In 1973, when he won 515 races to lead all jockeys in North America, Sandy Hawley was chosen as Canada’s best athlete. So why is it that when Jody Jamieson leads all drivers in the world with 796 wins (and whatever he adds in the afternoon card today at Woodbine) he doesn’t even get a sniff? A couple of weeks ago, Jamieson broke the Canadian record of 739 wins in a year. He’s had a remarkable year in a demanding sport, but apparently the sports editors across the country don’t recognize harness drivers as athletes. But come on…did Alexander Bilodeau and  John Kucera both do better in 2009 than Husbands and Jamieson? I had to google them, because as a mainstream sportscaster for  more than three decades, I barely knew who they are. Bilodeau is a free-style skier who earlier this year won four straight world cup events. Fair enough. Kucera is a skier who competed in 20 events this year with two wins. Jody Jamieson competed in 3322 races this year and won 796 of them.   As for the voting for the Female Athlete of the Year, you can see that jockey Chantal Sutherland came in 11^th.  Athlete                          1st       2nd      3rd       Tot
Aleksandra Wozniak      20      16        10        102 
Priscilla Lopes-Schliep   12       10        12         68 
Christine Nesbitt             15      8           6          67 
Hayley Wickenheiser      10      8          13         59 
Joannie Rochette              5      15         9          54 
Kristina Groves               11     8           4         53 
Jennifer Heil                    10     6            9          51 
Annamay Pierse                6     4            6          32 
Emilie Heymans                2     6            9          27 
Lauren Woolstencroft       2      7           3          23Chantal Sutherland           2      4            5          19  This is interesting because Sutherland won 159 races this year and in each case beat male jockeys. The 2009 Bobbie Rosenfeld Award winner, Alexandra Wozniak won….no tennis tournaments this year. Yes it was an excellent year for Wozniak, but she will probably do much better in 2010 and get nothing at year-end, because the voters will gravitate to the women who won medals at the winter games. If the awards are really for the ‘Athlete’ of the year, then Sutherland deserved to be ranked much higher. The physical skills required to ride race horses are many – get on a fractious two year-old colt if you really want to know. A professional jockey must be remarkably fit, have the most advanced muscular vascular system, incredible courage, reflex and intellect capable of making split second decisions that make the difference between victory or catastrophic injury.  Anna May Pierse is a swimmer who finished second at the World Aquatic Championships. Does that top the 12 Stakes races won by Sutherland?  This is really an indictment about how marginalized horse racing has become. The media guys at Woodbine, for example, send out hundreds of press releases each year, but for the most part, they are ignored by the newspaper editors, who comprise most of the voters for these awards.  Husbands and Jamieson deserved more recognition for their spectacular year. Chantal Sutherland continues to write an amazing story – she’s a professional female athlete, earning more each year than any other Canadian pro and doing so in the only sport where women compete daily on a level playing field against men. That she is – voting-wise - the 11^th best female athlete in the country does not compute.

Timing is everything in the world of sports. Harness driver Randy Waples hit the winners circle for the 5000th time, but because he did it sometime past 11:00 pm Saturday night, it received all the attention of a Scarborough High School  jr girls volleyball match. Waples steered Keystone Horatio to victory in the 10th race in the cold at Woodbine. It was a $50,000 pace and Keystone Horatio won easily at 2-1 in 1:50.3, an excellent time considering the -7 conditions.

Waples is what you could call a survivor. He’s only 44, but he’s been driving for 25 years and 2009 is one of his better years. He’s up to 277 wins, far off the 550 he piled up in 2001,  but purse-wise, Waples’ horses have accumulated over $7,000,000 and that will be the second highest total he’s put together.

Waples might be the most interesting man in a sulky in this country. He has taken a few mild stabs at acting and though that has never translated into a sitcom or co-starring role with Will Smith, the son of the legendary Ron Waples has a wicked sense of humour and an appealing presence on television. He may have a strong sense of himself, but Randy Waples is always the first to ream himself for a bad drive.

Sometimes Waples has been just a little too much fun at the track. Several years ago, after a winning drive, he would stand in the sulky like a Roman Chariot driver. The authorities told him to cool the grandstanding. Two years ago, while being interviewed on the The Score following a win, Waples pulled a Mike Myers and sent out a greeting to “my girlfriend, Alotta Fagina.”  That too did not resonant positively with the Woodbine suits and Waples had to serve a suspension. A paddock incident in which another driver suffered a helmet blow to the head led to Waples being banned from Woodbine for a period and his win totals in 2005 ( 197) and 2006 ( 131) reflected that.

As well, a dreadful spill three years ago caused Waples to break both of his arms.  There’s a great story here about his wife doing everything for him that he was unable to do for himself and we’ll leave the specific details to your fervent imaginations.

Suffice it to say that Randy Waples is fully functional these days. He has resolved his difficulties with the Woodbine Entertainment Group (and when pressed, the bosses easily admit that a guy like Waples is a most marketable commodity).  Anyone watching can see that Waples is focused on the job at hand - which is winning harness races. There is one terrific stat and it’s not easily explained, but Waples win a disproportionate number of races in the second half of the card. It’s uncanny how many times you see Waples on the winner in the 10th, 11th and 12th races on the Woodbine card, but it reminds me of how many goals Wayne Gretzky used to scored in the last ten minutes of a game, because by then, his opponents were gasping from chasing him all game.

Ok, so Randy Waples may not be the Wayne Gretzky of harness racing - more like the Will Ferrell. But he’s putting the finishing touches on a tremendously successful year and the guy is a riot in person.

Would it have been too much to ask that the papers print, say, one paragraph on Sunday or Monday about Randy Waples winning for the 5000th time. Why is it I have to be the only one to do this? 

I had multiple reasons for going to Woodbine this weekend. The 25th edition of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper arrived at my door - all 5500 copies of it - Friday morning and that meant, for me, a day of distributing the paper at various locations. Our next issue will hit the bins on December 18, but we already know that Patrick Husbands will pull off the three-peat; he will be the leading rider at Woodbine for the third straight season. So the first piece of business for me on Saturday was to get 15 minutes of quality time with the personable native of Barbados.  That’s not always easy during the card at Woodbine because Husbands’ agent Gary Kemplen busts his client’s ass, booking him on as many mounts as possible day to day. That’s not too hard, because Husbands, simply put, is the more reliable and consistent jockey in Canada and the trainers pretty well crawl over each other for his services. Husbands stats this year are awesome. He’ll end up with close to 200 wins. He has more seconds and thirds than any other jockey. He will ride more horses than anybody else. He has the most wins in sprints, the most wins in distance races and the most wins on the turf. His 20 Stakes victories - yeah- most in the nation. He rides to win.

I did get fortunate though, because I noticed that Husbands was not riding in the 7th and 8th races of the 11 race card on Saturday and that would give me ample time to sit down with him.

Before meeting with Patrick, though, there was some minor unpleasantness in the jockeys room. Robert Landry, who is one of the more positive riders with regards to what we do in Down The Stretch, confronted me and hissed, “You screwed up!”. Landry does like to yank my chain, but he was a little pissed as he grabbed a copy of the paper and slapped the cover. Our very attractive cover in its eye-pleasing hue of pink declaring Year of the Ladies. he gestured at the pictures of Chantal Sutherland, Emma-Jayne Wilson, Saratoga champion trainer Linda Rice, Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, harness trainers Casie Coleman and Tracy Brainard.

“You left out Josie Carroll,” he accused and my heart sunk. Josie Carroll did deserve to be on the cover. If you’re going to do a theme about women in racing, you should include the leading female trainer. Landry has a special loyalty to Carroll, who trained the brilliant filly careless Jewel, whom Landry rode to several Stakes win this year, including an amazing win in the Alabama at Saratoga during the summer.  That Landry and Careless Jewel ran last as the favourite in the Ladies Classic at the Breeders’ Cup does not in anyway diminish Carroll’s work.  We would have been a little better if we’d put Josie on the cover.

That difficult moment passed and I interviewed Patrick Husbands and that should be a very readable feature in the next issue..

I left the jocks room and went back upstairs to the second floor where I ran into trainer Sid Attard, who seems to hold court just in front of the betting windows outside the Finish Line Bar. I needed two favours from Sid. I tried to persuade him to place a seasons’ greeting ad in our paper and I asked him for the phone number of owner Lou Tucci, for whom Attard trains horses. Sid was a little indefinite on the first request, but pulled out his cellphone and found Tucci’s number for me.

 Lou Tucci and his Tucci stable are the third leading owner this year. Down The Stretch is embarking on a project that may turn into a regular feature - the owner of the month and I elected to write about Tucci first.

Sunday was one of those days where many things converged. I called Mr. Tucci and he was pleased to meet me. He had a horse in each of the last two races, so asked me to meet him at 3:30 at the Finish Line Bar. That gave me time to solve a media pass problem. Woodbine issues accreditation to those of us who require access, but I’d lost my plastic pass, which, among other things, entitles me to discounted chicken and pizza at the food carousel. I presented myself to security and they gave me a form that I had to take to the media office for approval. As I returned to the second floor, I ran into Glenn Crouter, the VP of media for WEG. With him was the every smiling Sandy Hawley.   I thrust the security form into Glenn’s hands for his inkage. “Who are you?” he asked jokingly. Actually, Crouter informed me that he was taking up my quest. He had read the column in Down The Stretch, where I promoted jockey Chantal Sutherland as the rightful recipient of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award of Canada’s Female Athlete of the Year. Crouter intends to push the issue with the mainstream newspaper sports editor. Suddenly, as I was shmoozing with Crouter and Hawley, a man came and introduced himself to me. It was Lou Tucci.

He gave me a terrific interview. He’s an articulate, positive guy who clearly gets a thrill racing horses. Tucci Stable is third in Canada this year with over $1 Million in purse earnings. Lou told me he had a horse in the 10th and a horse in the 11th. Needless to say, I pumped him for a tip.

“Artie Hot has a real shot in the 10th,” he said. “I really don’t know about Shananie’s Honour in the last race though.”

A couple things here. I’ve had a very poor year betting the horses. Two weeks ago, I decided to power down and not bet until the end of the year. After the Breeders’ Cup. generally speaking, there’s not much to gamble on anyway. So in spite of Tucci’s optimism, I decided I would just watch and abstain.

Too bad. Under a perfect ride from Emma-Jayne Wilson, Artie Hot sat off the pace and came on nicely in the stretch for a confident win at odds of more than 7-1. This was Tucci’s 22nd visit to the winners’ circle and I did manage to get a terrific shot of Lou, jockey Wilson and trainer Nick Gonzalez locked arm in arm in victors embrace.

I didn’t bet the last race either. Tucci’s horse, Shananie’s Honour was burdened with the 13 post and with apprentice jockey Miek Mehak went off at 40-1. Do you see where I’m going with this? Mehak waited until late in the stretch to make his move and got Shananie’s Honour up by half a length. The winner paid $83. I had nothing on it, but Tucci did.

“Once I saw Sid betting on it, I knew I had to,” he said referring to trainer Sid Attard.
I had $20 across.”

I can do the math. $20 across returned about $1200 to Tucci who had a very good day at the track, considering he won purses from the final two races. I had to be content with a very strong story line for my first owner of the month story.

And I am boasting to anyone who care that Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper has the most nominations for this year’s Sovereign Awards, the annual bling given out by the Jockey Club of Canada. Perry Lefko is up for best newspaper story and best feature story. Keith McCalmont and Eleanor Yeoman LeBlanc are also in the best  newspaper category and I have a shot for best photograph (yeah, I’m a professional photographer in much the same way that Chris Bosh rides thoroughbreds on his off-days). I snapped this image of Chantal Sutherland with the Canadian flag around her and she gave this perfect look. Thanks to the automatic focus on my camera, it wasn’t even fuzzy.

Strangely, I’m up against two pictures from Michael Burns and son Michael Jr. Thanks to the Burns, I have been able to print a steady stream of skilful and professional racing pictures that they provide me for free.