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History was made in
a cornfield today, folks! A few hours ago, with reporters at the site and
cameramen flying overhead, lopping shears were used to slice into a
cornstalk barrier at Murray's Maze near
Stonewall. It marked the
official opening of a corn maze depicting the biggest-ever horse racing
image on earth. Using
sophisticated Global Positioning System technology, two dueling horses
were cut into a 10-acre corn field, essentially etching on the face of
the earth a race image so big it is viewable from many miles away in
space.
Talented
graphic designer Brent Polson
created the image for Assiniboia Downs as the track elevates its
"hottest game in town" to a new level by creating a
puzzlement of fun for thousands of expected visitors to the maze. It's also a pre-launch to the track's
50th anniversary celebrations next year.
The maze itself is the biggest in Canada. "Fly over" the maze by
visiting the Downs website
tomorrow where film of today's fly-over will be posted. Go to www.assiniboiadowns.com Want to
visit the maze? It opens to the
public tomorrow. See map and
details on the Downs
website. Two-for-one tickets are
available at Guest Services at the Downs for $7.
Other
news?
• The Downs' pick-7 was
won on Labour Day, with five winning tickets
paying almost $8,000 each.
The final leg of the bet was a heart-stopper. That story follows.
•
If
you like dirt racing and predictable winners, you'll love Fairplex, the Los Angeles County Fair
track that begins its short meet tomorrow. Tyler will love
it, too.
Details below.
•
Is
your worst enemy you? See
"horseplay tip of the week." Now, let's get lost in this maze of horse-racing
triumph and trivia . . .
LABOUR DAY DRAMA: Late closer puts $8,000 into pockets
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It doesn't get more exciting than this. You're holding a pick 7 ticket with a
potential payoff of almost $8,000 but your horse, Cuddle Me Katie, is labouring
near the back of the pack while the horse on the lead, Trick N Twist, is within a few
lengths of the wire. Then, with
a huge turn of foot, Cuddle Me Katie with Paul Leacock at the reins is
almost a blur, charging from nowhere to beat the leader by a whisker. Gary Fournier, manager of the
Red Lion Inn, held one of five such winning tickets Monday. While
buying drinks for friends, including sudden new friends, he patted his
heart to illustrate the tension he felt in the stretch drive. "I haven't won anything like
this since standardbreds were here,"
he said, recalling two $7,777 pools he picked up last century when the Downs
was staging harness racing. He said his winning $7,962 ticket Monday
cost only $40 and he used a technique he read about in a handicapping
book to key Imperiale Lover, a $20.40 horse in the
fifth race. Two other ticket-holders profited by the heart-stopping
last-race result too: they spent
$24 and $48 respectively to each win $7,962. A trio holding another ticket also
won but they wished the horse on the lead had won instead; they had
also included that horse on their $180 ticket and would likely have won
the entire $40,000 pool. I wasn't able to account for the fifth and
final winner of the pool that day. This drama wrapped up pick-7-itis
for this live race season but, remember, there are plenty of exciting
carryovers from other tracks almost every day. Yesterday's pool at Del
Mar grew to $5 million, mandatory pay-out day, the final day of Del
Mar's meet.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "Are you kidding me?
Jimmijazz!"
-- Downs announcer Darren Dunn
Saturday night, calling the sixth race in late stretch as 42-1 longshot
Jimmijazz just got up at the wire with
late-closer specialist Robert
May aboard.
CHASING A DREAM: Sales-topper fetches $15,000
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One on One
fetches $15,000
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What
will $15,000 get you these days?
To a horseman, hopefully a horse that has the stamina,
determination and breeding to have you smiling in the Winners' Circle
next summer, accepting a trophy and big cheque. With a good crowd looking on Tuesday
evening on the main floor of the
grandstand, less than 39 yearlings went under the gavel at the 27th annual
Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society auction, with $15,000 being paid by
Manitoba Jockey Club director Ken
Lee and friend Dennis Mitchell
for Manitoba-foaled One on One
whose sire, Prized, was a stakes
winner of $2.26 million. CTHS president Grant Watson who sold many of his horses at the auction
said it was a good sale, where "top horses got decent
money." Six horses fetched
more than $10,000; seven ranged from $7,000 to $10,000. Gross sales for 25 sold yearlings was
$122,000, average price $4,880, an increase from last year when the
average for 33 sold yearlings was $4,290. Last year's gross for the larger
number of horses was $141,600.
BACK TO DIRT: You can bet Tyler's counting the hours
Dirt racing (remember?) returns to Southern California
tomorrow at the 2 1/2-week Fairplex meet and
you gotta think that jockey Tyler Baze
can hardly wait. He and Martin Pedroza
own the track because hustling a horse to the lead is a winning
strategy at the most speed-biased track on the continent. When I interviewed Tyler
when he rode in the Manitoba Lotteries Derby, he said he loved to gun a
horse but had to change because of the off-the-pace bias of synthetic
tracks. He's going to be in his
glory at Fairplex. If you know who's going to be on the
lead, you pretty much know the winner but you're going to have to
accept less-than-even-money odds much of the time. Favourites win 41 per cent of the
races at this Los Angeles County Fair track, eight per cent more than
the national average. Watch out for trainers Jeff Mullins and Doug
O'Neill. For laughs, watch
the long-eared mules in the first race or two of each card. Canadian laws don't allow betting on
donkeys (yes, I know what you're thinking) but these real donkeys are a
yuk to watch.
FUN 'N' GAME$: It's crunch time for
Vegas trips, folks!
Two trips to Las
Vegas valued at several thousands of dollars
each are three weekends away for the top horseplayer and the top poker
player among you. If you have
serious designs on being awarded one of them, you must get into (1) the horseplayer challenge
finale on Saturday, Sept. 22 or (2)
the poker finale on Sunday, Sept. 23.
Top two poker players each Friday and Saturday get into the
finale. You can buy your way
into the horseplaying tourney--either by qualifying by predicting three
winners on Saturday's live card or by paying $50 by Friday, Sept. 21 to
get in. In Las
Vegas, you will be entered into the big
horseplayer or Texas hold 'em tournament for
life-changing cash prizes.
Last
weekend's best parlayers: At the track Saturday, Harvey Meekis turned
his $10 into $174 by letting his money ride in the show pool in races three to five.
Playing at Days
Inn OTB
Sunday Mario Macatangay
turned his $10 into $77. Other top winners last week:
• Friday's Insta-Frame Fantastic
Fan: Cameron
Caldwell's name was drawn
from show parlay entrants to
make a Winners' Circle presentation and get a
framed photo
and jockey's autographed picture marking the special
occasion. Cameron is a very big guy and he joked afterward
about whether he was being
sent a message by making a
presentation to a winning horse named Heart Smart.
• Great Mascot Race: Won by relay team consisting of
mascots Domo Roo,
Bipper
(Insurance Brokers of Manitoba) and Goldie (Winnipeg Goldeyes)
• Who's winning the newspaper selector's race? And
down the stretch
they come in the 70-day race with George
Williams
of the Free Press
has a likely unbeatable 33-length lead over the Sun's Bill Bilous 165 to 132.
HORSEPLAY TIP OF THE WEEK:
Know your enemy
Bet the races as if you were an army general going into
battle. What does a general
do? He plans his battle strategy
ahead of time; he doesn't just wander onto the battlefield. He has goals. He knows his enemy and looks for ways
to defeat that enemy. In
horseracing, your biggest enemy is you.
Lack of patience, lack of discipline, lack of effort. If you're happy, continue that
way. If you're not, appoint
yourself general and map out a way to win.
CURRIED HAWAIIAN SHRIMP WITH PISTACHIOS could
only mean one thing: Tonight's Taste the World all-you-can-eat buffet
is freshly Hawaiian. From 5
to 8 p.m.,
$14.95, in the Terrace Dining Room.
Menu.
Next
Thurday's theme: Texas Barbeque.
NEW WINNING LUCKY NUMBER$ for this week: Did you pick
up a free Lucky Number card for September when you were at the track on
Sunday or Monday? If the
number on your card matches one of these numbers, you're a winner! $25 winner:
0380 $10
winners: 0443, 0463 $5 winners:
0993, 0435, 1173, 0948, 0648. Claim
your prize at www.assiniboiadowns.com See
additional lucky numbers worth up to $200 posted weekly on the Lucky
Numbers page on the website.
UPCOMING EVENTS: Belmont's 33-day
fall meet opens tomorrow as players focus on talented horses in
the north-eastern U.S. that will
make it into the $24 million Breeders' Cup Championship races that will
be staged at Monmouth in New Jersey on Saturday,
Oct. 27.
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