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It was a sensational day for female jockeys on May 11 at Fort Erie as the ladies won six of eight races.

Betty Williams guided 3-4 favourite Spectacle safely home by almost a length in the first race, which went five furlongs on the dirt. Spectacle is owned by Woodford Racing and trained by Nick Gonzalez.

When Krista Carignan scored in the second race with 7-1 shot Igotogojoe, the all-ladies double returned $40.10. Igottogojoe won by a neck for trainer John Simms and owner Stephen Organ.

They let a guy, Real Simard take the third race, but veteran Regina Sealock got Running On Clouds up by a neck in the fourth at 5-1 for trainer John Quaranta who sent the four year-old gelding out for Tony’s Investments LLC.

Melanie Pinto got into the act by dancing home first in the fifth on Choreography, a ten year-old gelding who paid $8.50 to win for owner-trainer Edwin Knight.

Omar Moreno injected a little testosterone into the afternoon when he won at 2-5 on Bob N Weave in the sixth race, but the seventh was an all female picture with Sometime Anytime,a five year-old mare taking the five and half furlong sprint for jockey Francine Villeneuve, who moved one win closer to the 1,000 mark  (she’s up to 935) by scoring for trainer Louis Capi and owner Joe Pirone. With Carignan second on Hereisthering and Pinto third on Maria’s Girl, it was an all-estrogen triactor, which paid $443.90.

And Sealock completed the fantastic feat of flying females by winning the eighth race on 5-1 shot, Pauls Pick, who was more than three lengths the best at the end of the mile and 70 yards. Pauls Pick, a three year-old filly is trained by Roger Ellersick for owner Gary G. Jackson and she completed a day in which three-quarters of the races were won by female jockeys, who on the eight-race card, rode just 15 of the 53 horses.

I love going over the charts from important races. The Kentucky Derby had a 20-horse field and the win by Super Saver and jockey Calvin Borel made for a great story.  But 20 horses, running in the mud in front of more than 150,000 often presents some challenges for the three year-olds and May 1st was certainly no exception.

Once again, the Run for the Roses was equal parts thoroughbred racing, NASCAR demolitionand Roller Derby…As I gaze down the chart, I see no less than 14 horses who had compromised trips.

Looking At Lucky, the race favourite at 6.30-1 ( when have you ever seen that?) got stiffed with the rail and was severely munched twice in the first run through the stretch. ‘ Roughed twice early’ is his chart line. In spite of that, Looking At Lucky, who was 18th at the three-quarters, raced bravely, passing a dozen horses in the last half of the race.

The runner-up, Ice Box did not have a clean trip -’steadied, blocked, steadied’ says the chart. But there he was, storming fiercely down the stretch to grab second over Paddy O’Prado.

Make Music For Me came fourth, even though he was ‘pinched back’ and had to go 8 wide in the stretch.

Nobel’s Promise ran a huge race, even if he did fade to fifth after taking the lead at the top of the stretch. This one was pushed inward after the break by Super Saver and that created the pinball effect that harmed Looking At Lucky the most.

The sixth place horse, Dublin was steadied in the opening strides. Stately Victor was ‘forced in, bumped.’ American Lion was ‘ steadied early’. Jackson Bend out of post 13 had to be steadied and was forced to ‘alter course.’

Dean’s Kitten had little to purr about after being crowded early. And Backtalk was bumped early enough to discourage that one into last place.

I certainly enjoyed the Derby. In this blog last Friday, Super Saver was the first horse I mentioned after stating that Looking At Lucky and Sidney’s Candy couldn’t win from their posts and that Stately Victor, Mission Impazible and Ice Box could not repeat their previous wins. I backed my opinion on Super Saver by betting him in the second half of the double at Churchill and thanks to an 8-1 winner in the first leg, I cashed $294. See that…two 8-1 shots produced a 147-1 double payoff. I was also pleased with the very strong races produced by Noble’s Promise (5th) and Paddy O’Prado (3rd).  In my doubles, I had Super Saver, Noble’s Promise, Paddy O’Prado, Jackson Bend (12th) and Awesome Act (19th).

It was a great betting race – a favourite at 6-1, a second fave at 8-1. Not a single horse at more than 32-1. $47,944,683 bet in the win,place show on the race. And then there was the incredibly lucky – and astute – fan who won a contest that allowed him to bet $100,000 on any horse in the race. Glen Fullerton of Texas won the Churchill Downs ‘Dream Bet contest and put the whole $100,000 on Super Saver. Fullerton probably considers Calvin Borel his best friend now. While much of the field smashed and body checked each other, Borel gave Super Saver a dream trip for the dream bet. Not only did Borel scoot his horse right to the rail in the opening furlong, but he somehow managed to keep a few lengths behind horses in front of him – this was critical, because the track was wet and muddy and horses in front tend to kick back crap at trailing horses. Only for a small portion of the race – perhaps when Borel came inside of Noble’s Promise at head-stretch, did Super Saver get any significant mud on him.

Borel is great for horse racing. He’s jubilant, uninhibited, emotional and expressive and after the race assured horse fans that Super Saver will win the Triple Crown. That’s quite the boast..the last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978. Borel’s prediction is promising an end to a 32 year slump.

Meanwhile, the 30th issue of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper is in the hands of Mclaren’s – our printer and will be at the tracks and various Champions betting theatres by the end of the week. As publisher/editor, it behooves me to say it’s another great issue….but it is.

We have the Derby coverage and stories on Fort Erie (Perry Lefko) and Adena Springs ( Keith McCalmont). Every month we present both a thoroughbred and standardbred Owner of the Month, so imagine how delighted we were when both of our subjects scored big wins last Saturday. Donald Ross’s sensational three year-old filly Resentless won the Fury Stakes and is now pointed at the Triple Tiara series for distaff. And Gord Irwin is the owner/trainer of the six year-old pacer Bigtime Ball, who just toyed with his opponents Saturday night in the $42,000 Open Pace at Woodbine, winning in 1:49.1, his second straight sub-1:50 mile.

Man, we sure can pick em, can’t we?

Who will win the Kentucky Derby?  I haven’t got a clue. Every year, the lead-up to the Run for the Roses tends to produce a standout,  a brilliant colt heads and shoulders above the rest of the thousands of three year-olds running in the United States and Canada.  Big Brown, Street Sense, Barbaro, Smarty Jones, Funnycide…But this year…not so much.

True, Todd Pletcher’s Eskendereya, a son of Giant’s Causeway, looked to be the guy after his convincing wins in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream and the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, the first by almost nine lengths, the second by almost ten. But Eskendereya showed some swelling in a front leg and Pletcher has scratched his star.

And that leaves a mess.  Millions will be bet on the Derby at Churchill Downs, which means someone has to be the favourite and it appears that the Bob Baffert trained Looking At Lucky will inherit that burden. I guess you could do worse. Looking At Lucky, a son of the Great Canadian stallion Smart Strike, won five races as a two year-old,  ending his rookie season by capturing the Gr l Cash Call Futurity at Hollywood at a mile and a sixteenth. This year, Looking At Lucky has raced only twice. he won the Gr 2 Rebal Stakes at Oklahoma Park, but was third to Sidney’s Candy in the nine furlong Santa Anita Derby on April 3rd. The chart line indicates that Looking At Lucky did not have the best possible trip; he was steadied and dropped back on the second turn, but still rallied nicely for the show spot as the 4-5 favourite.

Many of the other prep races for this year’s Derby produced shocking longshot winners..Ice Box, trained by Nick Zito got his nose in front of Pleasant Prince at the end of the Mile and an eighth Florida Derby at Gulfstream in March. Ice Box was over 20-1.

Stately Victor went off at 40-1, the longest shot, in the Gr l Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 10, but was pulling away by more than four lengths at the wire. Stately Victor is a son of Ghostzapper and is trained by Michael Maker.

Line of David, trained by John Sadler, surprised in the Arkansas Derby, shading Super Saver by a neck at odds of 17-1.  And Mission Impazible, a son of Unbridled’s Song, won the Louisiana Derby at the Fair Grounds in March, paying $16.20.

If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in five decades of fruitless horse betting, it’s that huge longshots never repeat their wins. So you could toss Ice Box, Stately Victor and Mission Impazible and probably not suffer any regrets. But where to from there?

Well, who ran close to Eskendereya? If Eskendereya was the best of the competitive three year-olds it sort of figures that anyone not terribly crushed by that one will perform well in the Derby. Jackson Bend actually went off as 5-2 second favourite against Eskendereya (7-2) in the Fountain of Youth and came second and then was second in the Wood. Each time the margin was measured in time zones, but no other horse was closer.

Super Saver was just a neck back of Line Of David in the Arkansas; that could easily be reversed. In that same race, Noble’s Promise was installed as the 8-5 favourite, but had a bad break, was bumped early and steadied late.  Everyone will see what appears to be a well-beaten fifth on his resume, but that one might bounce back . Also,  Noble’s Promise was second in the Rebel Stakes to Looking At Lucky. If Looking At Lucky is 3-1 and Noble’s Promise is 20-1, you’ve stumbled on what we like to call ‘value’ at the track.

A horse called Paddy O’Prado won’t be ridden by Edgar Prado,  but I like this one’s second to Stately Victor in the Blue Grass. Paddy O’Prado was leading in the stretch  and made most of the front-running in that race. It was just his second race of the year, so he could definitely have earned some ‘bottom’ and be prepared to run a much tougher race at a mile and a quarter.Paddy O’Prado’s first race this year was a win at nine furlongs on the turf over Dean’s Kitten who went on to win the Gr 2 Lane’s Stakes at Turfway at odds of 6.5-1, so that makes Paddy O’Prado a more attractive selection.

Back to the Blue Grass. The favourite, at 3-1, was Interactif, who did not get a particularly wonderful ride from Rafael Bejarano who took Interactif six-wide into the stretch and simply covered too much territory. This would be another horse that could win, pay $30-$40 and we’d all slap our heads and say, “Why didn’t I see that!”

In the Florida Derby, Rule finished 3rd as the 9-5 lukewarm choice.  There didn’t seem to be any real excuse for his fade job in the stretch, but he’s another who will be making the Kentucky Derby  his third start of 2010 and maybe he just hasn’t raced enough or maybe he comes up with his lifetime best and wins this.

Then there’s Awesome Act, a son of the great Canadian colt, Awesome Again. Awesome Act looked, well, awesome winning the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, coasting to the wire a length and change ahead of Yawanna Twist. Awesome Act paid just &7.70 and being that daddy won the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Queen’s Plate, the ten furlongs of the Derby would clearly be within the capacity of his genes.

They’ll be drawing post positions today for the Derby and that might help the handicappers but don’t let a high post discourage you. There is a remarkable history of horses from the outside winning or hitting the board. Charasmatic in 1999 scored from post 16 and paid $31.30. the next year it was Fusiachi Pegasus out of the 15th slot. and in 2001, Monarchos not only scored at 10-1 from post 16, but he stopped the clock in 1:59.97, fastest time since Secretariat posted a 1:59 in 1973  – from post 10. And in 2008, Big Brown went off at 2.40-1 and won by almost five lengths, despite the fact that they stuck him in post position 20, just a length or two from the valet parking.

What we’re trying to communicate here is that when it comes to the Kentucky Derby, toss out all your conventional handicapping tools.  Steer yourself away from the low-price horses, seek out something that appears capable of running a mile and a quarter and don’t let runner-up or third place finishes in recent races discourage you. It’s a real crap shoot this year. Make sure you get….’value’.

Even without Rachel Alexandra, they attracted more than 44,000 to Oaklawn on Friday to see Zenyatta win the $490,000 Apple Blossom Stakes.  It might have been the easiest of Zenyatta’s wins, but when the 6 year-old mare hit the wire first by a  widening four lengths, she tied Cigar and Citation with 16 straight wins – the record for horses running in unrestricted company. A wonderful seven year-old mare Pepper’s Pride actually won 19 straight without a loss. She retired last year, but you can’t compare that one to Zenyatta.  Pepper’s Pride was brilliantly managed, running only in New Mexico, only in sprints and only against females.  Zenyatta has a chance to script the greatest career in horse racing. Unlike Cigar and Citation, Zenyatta has put together a streak without ever losing ( both Cigar and Citation were beaten in their first year of racing).

Zenyatta’s latest win came in stereotypical fashion. Jockey Mike Smith let her run in last as the four others ran ahead of her down the backstretch in this mile and an eighth test.  The front-runners, wisely set lethargic fractions and normally that doesn’t help a horse that’s languishing in last. But there is nothing normal about Zenyatta. When Smith said, ‘it’s time,’ Zenyatta started to lengthen her strides. Avoiding any trouble, Smith guided her to the outside and even at the head of the stretch, this one was a no-doubter. Zenyatta was bet down to the lowest possible pay-off…a mere nickle for every dollar bet, but there was a surprisingly big exactor payoff of $18 when the longshot of the race, Taptam (35-1) finished second.Basically that means if you’d taken Zenyatta on top of every horse in the race, for each $2 you bet, you cashed $18.  You would have had to bet $360 to win in order to profit by $18.

Meanwhile, the Woodbine meet is off to a lovely start and what a pleasure to see that Eurico Rosa da Silva is the leading jockey. With 11 wins in 33 races, he’s got a margin of two wins over Emile Ramsammy, with Patrick Husbands in third with six wins.  Omar Moreno is fourth with 5 wins and Justin Stein has been money in the bank so far. With only 12 rides, he’s got four wins, four seconds and a third for an in-the-money percentage of .750.

Da Silva was the winner of the Star Shoot Stakes aboard the excellent three year-old filly Biofuel, who simply shot by the field as if she was loaded with rocket fuel. Nice bit of redemption for Biofuel who deserved a much better fate in last fall’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies race at Santa Anita. As Biofuel was making a very dangerous run through the stretch, she was violently assaulted by Negligee.  No Maple Leaf threw as devastating a check in 82 games this year. No Argonaut in recent seasons has tackled a ferociously. Biofuel recovered and was running strongly at the end, but her 4th place finish was much worse than she deserved. Incredibly, at the end of the year, Biofuel suffered the further punishment of having to share Two Year-Old Filly of the Year Sovereign Award honours with Negligee.  In last Saturday’s Star Shoot, Biofuel made no contact and roared past her overmatched opponents with disdain. At this point, Biofuel looks to have an enormous year ahead of her, as she has aleady shown stunning capacity at sprints and around two turns.

It’s hard enough to win at the races. You change your mind at the last minute and your first pick wins at 10-1. You get nosed out for a huge tri. Your jockey goes eight horses wide and gets beat by a head. You win by five and get dq-ed. You explode in jubilation when your two longshots run 1-2, then look at your ticket and realize you punched in the wrong numbers.

Or how about what happened at Northlands Park on Saturday, March 20th. The tenth race was run. There was nothing improper about the race. No cheating, no interference, no unfair starts or broken equipment. The winners cheered as they saw their best come in – win, place, show, exactors, tris, doubles and win threes. The race was announced as Official.

Then it got very stupid. Because of a computer glitch, horseplayers were advised there would be a short delay until the prices were posted. Apparently, the last cycle of bets didn’t make it into the final calculation, or were lost or somehow not accounted for. At Northlands, this might have been a couple hundred dollars. The total parimutuel handle for the  tenth race was about $14,000. Chicken scratch compared to Woodbine.

So some hour and 20 minutes after the last race at Northlands, when most of the fans had departed the track, an advisement appeared on the screens – no announcement – that all bets for the tenth race would be refunded.  Nice break for those who lost, most of whom had already destroyed their tickets, but a decision of extraordinary stupidity for those who had bought winning tickets and now were entitled to just a refund of their original bet.

At first, the track suggested this bizarre decision was a hybrid conclusion between Northland’s management and their Tote system, AmTote, whose computer melt-down caused the mess. But four days later, Northlands indicated they were ordered by the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Association (CPMA), the government body that oversees horse racing, to issue refunds.  The CPMA supports this decision by stating (ridiculously) that horse racing must be “conducted in a way that is fair to the public.”

Let’s poll the guy who had $20 to win on the horse that finished first in the tenth. Or how about the guy who had the superfecta. Let’s ask them – was it fair to watch a race, hear that it’s ‘official’ and then get back only the money you bet?

As a bettor myself, I am unable to cut the track or the CPMA any slack on this. It is a profoundly stupid and thoroughly unenlightened decision. Making it much worse is this – even the daily doubles and win threes going into the last race were screwed up. Regardless of what happened to the pools of the tenth race, the double and win three pools were already determined. There was a finite and exact determination on what would be paid based on which horse won.

Even today, you can still see the charts from Northlands at the Standardbred Canada website and see that Rumers Are Flying driven by  Rod Hennessy came first at odds of 5.90-1 with the favourite Allbouttaj second and 7-1 shot Katies Gun third. That would set up a nice exactor and triactor. $10 win/place would be worth close to $100. The double might be worth $60, the win three was going to pay around $150. Those prices had already been posted. To deny the winners full value (consolation payoffs were announced for daily doubles and win threes) is so blatantly unfair that anyone with a live ticket should consult a lawyer.

Making this even stupider is that this decision will probably cost the track much more than if they’d simply decided that even with the tote system failure, they could have figured out manually what to pay. Now they are obligated to honour any reasonable applications for refunds from fans claiming they bought tickets and threw them away. Any person identifying a $2 or $5 or $10 ticket would have to be redeemed. Since this was the track or AmTote’s mistake, the bettors can hardly be blamed for throwing their tickets away.

Let me cite an historic precedence for this. Not quite the same, but about 25 years ago, executives at Greenwood had to make a decision. A harness race finished 1-1a, back in the days when you could still bet both halves of the entry in an exactor. The computer somehow thought there had been a dead heat and split the payoff in half, issuing an $11 exactor, when just before post-time, the 1-1a exactor had been offering $21. Unlike the stumble bums in Edmonton, the Ontario Jockey Club (well this was in the 80′s) made a very fine decision. An announcement was made that anyone who had cashed an exactor ticket would be given another $10. Since everyone who cashed had yielded their only form of evidence, the track actually paid off everyone who made a reasonable claim. As I recall, Greenwood sustained a loss of a few thousand dollars. But if they’d dug in their heels and refused to compensate the fans and decided, say, the next day to offer the proper payoff, the avalanche of phony claims would have been many times more burdensome.

More important, the OJC made a decision subject to their own expense based solely on what the players were entitled to.

At Northlands in Edmonton on the night of March 20 the winning bettors were screwed out of profits they were fully entitled to. Screwed not by a fixed race or unscrupulous drivers but by a decision that simply illustrates the massive ignorance and incompetence of racetrack officials and those in the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency who have the final say.

I’m hoping there are a few bettors in Edmonton who are refusing to cash for the refund and are consulting their lawyers. With all the problems facing horse racing in this country, it is discouraging to the extreme to realize that the governing officials in this country apparently have no regard for the honour of a winning bet.

Woodbine’s Glenn Crouter calls ( about once a week in March) to remind us that Opening Day of the thoroughbred meet at Woodbine is the surest sign that spring has arrived – certainly it’s a far more reliable barometer than the spring equinox!

Apparently God is a horse-player. According to forecasts, there could be a record high in the mid 20s when the players reconvene at Woodbine on Good Friday. The money guys at WEG are relieved; the winter play on the harness races was depressingly slow – for the first time since maybe the bronze age, handles regularly dropped below a $ million a night and that is the point where Woodbine suggests it’s a losing proposition. Expect the bettors to pour close to $3 million through the windows on Friday.

I have a better reason than usual to pay closer attention to race results this year. Arthur Silvera trains a two year-old colt by Max Forever (who?) and this youngster is owned by David Cassidy, a horse lover famous for being Keith Partridge of the Partridge Family tv series. Cassidy apparently is a huge radio listener and a big fan of Down The Stretch, Canada’s most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper, so when it came time to name this two year-old, Cassidy was adamant.

“We have to name him after Peter Gross!” he insisted. Cassidy recalls his co-star, the very beautiful Susan Dey, talking to him constantly in the 70s about me and it aroused his curiousity (I’m taking some liberties with the truth here).

Anyway, for whatever reasons, there is now a horse working out at Woodbine called Peter The Gross. I visited barn 35 on Sunday morning to meet my namesake and he is a very good-looking horse. Silvera advised me not to get too excited about the horse’s short turn prospects.

“He’s got four white socks,” pointed out Silvera. “Some people think that’s the kiss of death.”  Peter The Gross, however does have a very attractive chestnut colt and is expected to make his racing debut as early as May. My ego being what it is, I can’t help think of the fame and attention I would receive if next year, Peter The Gross should win the Queen’s Plate, or Kentucky Derby or even….the  Breeders’ Cup Classic. I could go to the race, get a pass for the celebrity parties, renew my romance with Susan Dey.

Some great racing on the weekend with some spectacular payoffs and boy did I get screwed. Handicapping the races from Dubai is very difficult because so few horses have actually run at that track. Take the 6th race on Dubai Cup day..the winner was Al Shemali who paid a dazzling $292 to win. I was watching this stuff at home and when the $10,000,000 Dubai Cup was loading into the gate, I attempted to bet $2 win/show on the five-horse, Gloria de Campeao, because I noticed the horse did have one good race on the track. When I tried to punch in the bet, the disemboweled voice at HPI advised me,

“Win/show is not available at Dubai for race eight. You may hang up at anytime.”

I didn’t want to hang up. I wanted a bet on Gloria De Campeao.  But at the races at Meydan, win/show doesn’t exist. If you bet to place, you can finish third and cash. I didn’t know that. By the time I re-entered my bet, the race was off and I got shut out. I think you know how this ends…Gloria de Campeao  went off at 25-1 led all the way, opened up two lengths in mid-stretch and then a 40-1 shot, Lizard’s Desire came flying up late and to the naked eye, appeared to nail Gloria de Campeao on the wire. In fact, the jockey on Lizard’s Desire was pounding the air in celebration for his shocking win. However, after a long look at the photo, the judges were able to see that Gloria de Campeao’s nose was a good eighth of a inch ahead at the wire. It paid $52.40 to win an d$15.50 to place and I didn’t get a dime.

I was also close in the Louisiana Derby on Saturday. I took a horse called A Little Warm on top in exactors. Ridden by David Cohen, A Little Warm went off just a shade under 7-1 and took the lead down the backstretch in this $750,000 Stakes race at a mile and an eighth. A Little Warm led all the way down the lane and looked like the winner until Mission Impazible under Rajiv Maragh came flying up late to win by less than a length. The exactor paid $123, leaving me asking the age-old handicapping question – Why didn’t I take my horse on the bottom?

The Sam-Son Farms hopeful, Hotep, trained by Mark Frostad went off at 25-1, but ridden by Patrick Husbands, he had no punch, loitering near the back of the field and finishing 11th.

The winner, Mission Impazible, a son of Unbridled’s Song, is trained by Todd Pletcher for Twin Creeks Racing Stable. So far no one horse has emerged as a clear Kentucky Derby Candidate, but I would be willing to take another shot on A Little Warm. In the Derby, with as many as 20 horses, you do want one that can clear the mob early and stay out of trouble.

Maybe I’ll bet $2 win/place.

The 2010 Thoroughbred racing meet starts next Friday at Woodbine and that’s usually good enough to bring all the bettors out of hibernation ( they certainly have been sleepy at the standardbred races this winter, considering the alarming drop in mutuel handle). But even the really smart guys at Woodbine could not have thought of the spectacular marketing and promotional bonanza they’re going to receive in the near future – a crowd drawing concept possibly unrivaled in the history of sports ( or as fight promoter Don King would say…”in the history of history!”).

Down The Stretch contributor Perry Lefko ( who turned 50 yesterday) deserves most of the credit for this – maybe Woodbine will give him one of the plastic media cards that i have that works for free chicken and pizza in the food court. Lefko has written a feature story on former Partridge Family lead singer David Cassidy who has owned, raced, bred and sold horses for close to forty years. For the past decade or so, his trainer has been the Woodbine based Arthur Silvera and this year, they’re working on a promising two year-old colt. Turns out the only real problem this young horse had was the lack of a name. At first, Silvera wanted to call it Downthestretch, which would have thrilled us, due to a little publication called Down The Stretch that we publish religiously every month.

“Downthestretch describes the important part of the race,” said Silvera. “Just when the running really happens.”

Sadly, that named was already spoken for and the Jockey Club of Canada had to reject the idea. What could Silvera and Cassidy do? Cue the hero, Perry Lefko.

“I suggested they call the horse Peter The Gross, ” says Lefko. “Everyone knows what a great fan you are of horse racing and how much work you put into Down The Stretch and most important – how much you bet on the races.”

Cassidy and Silvera ( for reasons unknown) loved the idea. This little colt’s dam is Polar Capp and his sire is Max Forever, so perhaps his breeding is not as brilliant as if he was a son of Storm cat out of Dance Smartly and now he’ll have the burden of carrying the namesake of a guy who can’t pick the exactor in a three-horse race.

Must admit, though, it is a thrill to have a horse I<!– /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> named after me. There is a precedent for this kind of thing. There actually was a horse called Harold Ballard that won a few times at Woodbine in the 80s. One glorious day, I took him on top in a triactor and cashed $1000. My buddy Jim McKenny told me that someone once called a horse Jim McKenny, but apparently that one was guilty of crossing over in front of the starters gate on a few occasions. According to McKenny, Jim McKenny (the horse) was carted off the racetrack one day and never seen again.

So I am very much looking forward to track announcer Dan Loiselle calling Peter The Gross’ first race. Which of the following phrases do you think he will use?

“…and away back in last is Peter The  Gross..”

“and then we go back to Peter The Gross who is making short, choppy strides…”

“Peter The Gross has gone very wide into the stretch and seems to be headed towards the betting windows!”  Of course, the day that Peter The Gross makes his racing debut will be one requiring racing fans to arrive early to assure a seat.

Surely a gigantic crowd will show up to witness a horse whose  reputation very much precedes it.

I admit it is boring to hear (or read about) a guy bragging of his racetrack scores, but I had two very nice moments on the simulcast gambling last weekend that served to reinforce my theory that the daily double is the best possible legal bet in this country.

On Friday, working my cash through the races at Aqueduct,  I was examining the 6th race with my typical disdain for the favourite. It was an ugly race for maiden special weights trying a mile and 70 on the inner track. The crowd made Ramon Dominguez the 3-2 favourite on Bob’s Pinup Girl, so I looked elsewhere and bet a couple of horses with minimal form. I included the rail horse because inside trips do very well on the inside track at Aqueduct and verily, there was # 1 Seeing Clearly and jockey Mike Luzzi roaring up in deep stretch to win by half a length at delightful odds of 13.6-1. My double strategy often buys me as many as four horses in the second half and that is what I did that Friday, so when 9-2 shot, Most Happy Fella scored by a neck, it was a very pleasing moment for me. By the way, the great pacer, Most Happy Fella has been dead since the mid-80s; this one is a thoroughbred horse, unlikely to make the same kind of impact on his species .

On Sunday, there was a daily double chaos in the off-track shops. Sounds like the start of a Dick Francis thriller doesn’t it? The first race at Aqueduct was called off because trainers refused to bring their horses to the eligibility barn on time as part of a protest over New York State officials not moving fast enough on the slots program. And at the same time, the first race at Gulfstream was eliminated because of multiple scratches of horses that had come in contact with a sick horse at Calder.

As much as that threw my daily double handicapping into total bedlam, I regrouped for the fifth races, which was really the fourth. The less than knowing punters had installed Air Lord and Ramon Dominquez as the 1-2 favourite and he sure looked much the best, but these kinds get beat all the time. I was just guessing taking a couple of stabs against the choice and in late stretch, the 9-horse Hard Iron came out of nowhere to collar the odds-on choice at the  wire. hard Iron was 12-1 and i had him hooked up with four horses in the second half of the double.

It was a sad bunch of special maiden weights going a mile and 70 on the dirt, but Victor Santiago is now my favourite jockey. He took Book smartly out of the gate, stalked the pace for seven furlongs, then pulled away in deep stretch for a convincing win by a length and a half. I’m sure glad that I read Book correctly. A son of Gold Token out of Spiral Binder (get it?), Book was 21-1 and helped me cash a double that paid $272.00

So in the span of three days, I hit for $151 and $272 in the double. On the Saturday night, like many other suckers, I bet $8 on the 649 lottery and come up with nothing. I have never won over $100 in the lottery, but have lost count of the number of triple digit doubles I have hit in the past three years.

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