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We're clo-o-o-se!
Just six sleeps to the Big Reveal!
And eight
sleeps to opening day of the 50th season of live racing; nine sleeps to
the 134th Kentucky Derby. Just the
biggest week of spring racing, n'est-ce
pas? You say you want some
insider info on the Big Reveal?
All I can say is this: It's
big, very big, judging by the gasping reaction of people who needed to be
brought into the loop. And heed
this advice: Play a show parlay every chance you
get. It could be more significant
than you realize. There! Now you know more than most
people. The Big Reveal will take
place at a news conference at the Downs next Wednesday afternoon.
The show-stoppers on this
week's agenda:
• War Pass will miss the Kentucky Derby due to a bone fracture
• What's new for
live racing? Pick-4 carryovers and more
• Memorable moment: North Dakota horse catches
and passes a hoity
toity blueblood
• Learn the
secrets to successfully
playing big race days! It's
happening Saturday.
LIVE-RACING PREVIEW
Pick-4 carryovers, marathon races, Cuth's
3rd title?
When the starting gates spring
open at Assiniboia Downs next Friday at 7 p.m., it will launch the biggest anniversary of live racing since an
apprentice jockey by the name of Dick Armstrong rode a horse
called Golden Ern to victory in the
first race ever run at the Downs 50 years ago. What's new? What should you look for in this golden
anniversary year? Here's the
lowdown on the racing side. Next week, I'll give you the scoop on all the
promotions including the Big Reveal.
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Hard-riding
Cuthbertson.
Can anyone
beat him?
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THE JOCKS: Cuthbertson
says "catch me if you can." Getting-better-with-age
Alan Cuthbertson, 61, last year's
leading jockey by far, intends to rack up his third riding title, showing
his heels to young bucks who will test him again--Rohan
Singh, Mark Anderson and Kirk Johnson. There are some exciting new riders this
season including three new female jockeys, one who was riding at
Canterbury and Turf Paradise, and the other two who are arriving from
Alberta. Male jocks from India, Mexico and Jamaica also intend to make
their mark. Should be an eclectic,
competitive group as usual.
THE TRAINERS: Will trainers overwhelm Marty with sheer numbers? Marty, Marty, Marty. Who's going to beat Magical Marty (Drexler), the Czechoslovakian champ who swept
every trainer category last year--most wins, highest percentage, most
purse money. One thing's
sure: they're going to go after
him with larger stables than usual.
Ardell Sayler
has 60 horses, Carl Anderson up to 40, sharp Saskatchewan trainer Tom
Gardipy 20-25 horses, Clay Brinson
will be bringing 20 fit horses from Phoenix, Jared Brown has 30
including some that raced down at Delta in Louisiana during the winter,
Portland Meadows leading trainer Jim Ferguson is returning with
20, Randy Gray has 30, Aaron Sayler 30
including K-5 stakes winners, Chad Torevell
had 30, Jack Robertson 20, Clint Wilson, Blair Miller,
Emile Corbel and Becky Welch (star percentage trainer in
2006) all have about 15 and all-time leading trainer Gary Danelson has about a dozen, Shawn Davis 12-15
from Idaho, Ian Kenney 20 from Portland, veteran Gordie Marsh 8 and watch out for the
master-- Bert Blake--a horse whisperer who knows what to say to
get top performances every time.
NEW MARATHON SERIES:
Three
races--including 1 1/2 miler in September.
BIGGER STAKES
PURSES: $50,000 is the general minimum, an
increase of $5,000 from last year. (That is the required minimum purse
for a horse winning a stakes race to get "black type" in its racing
history.) Stakes races begin
Saturday, May 31 with the $50,000 Golden Boy, a 6f sprint race for
3-year-olds.
PICK-4 CARRYOVER: When no tickets have
correctly picked all four legs of the pick-4 (races 4 to 7), 25 per cent
of the betting pool will be paid out to those who picked 3 of 4 legs
correctly or a lesser number if no one picked 3 of 4. The balance will be carried forward to
the pick-4 pool in the next live racing card.
PICK-7: The pick-7 bet will be
featured on races 2 to 8, with early pots being "seeded" with a
guaranteed payoff. The pick-7
replaces the pick-6 and will continue to be a $1 bet.
OPENING RACE BONUS: Either a triactor or
exactor in the first race will be seeded with extra money, similar to a
carryover. This bonus money comes
from "overages" during the off season, when mutuel sellers are
"over" in their closing cash balances each day. About $1,000 in
"overage" money will plump up one of the pools, to be
determined next week. Federal
regulations require a racetrack to do this.
HOW SHOULD YOU ATTACK BIG RACE DAYS?
Find out how on Saturday morning
What strategy is a wInning strategy when you're playing horses on big
race days such as the Kentucky Derby, Breeders' Cup, etc.? Four experts will tell you Saturday at 10 a.m. in the Finish Line via a DVD of the Horseplayer Expo sponsored by the Daily Racing
Form in Las
Vegas
last year. Everyone enjoyed the
last expert discussion on workouts immensely, including me, and I
heartily recommend you come out for this one. It's perfect timing for the upcoming
Triple Crown races. Experts
include: Len Friedman, the
man behind the Ragozin Sheets for the last 23
years and host of an annual Breeder's Cup Seminar: Gordon Jones, author of Smart
Money and former racing columnist for the Los Angeles Herald
Examiner; Mike
Maloney, professional horse player from Keeneland and a former member
of the NTRA players panel and Mike
Watchmaker, national handicapper for the Daily Racing Form Everett Shade will host a
discussion after the hour-long DVD viewing.
Complimentary coffee and muffins. "It covers money
management, wagering strategies, past trends, prep races, and many more
useful subjects," Everett says.
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"MY MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT"
"Oh baby, he got him!"
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Blair
Miller
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North Dakota is hardly a
hotbed of horse breeding so no wonder veteran Downs trainer Blair
Miller's most memorable moment was winning the Derby Trial in 2001
with North Dakota-bred Breaker Breaker,
a horse that just happened to be the
unborn foal of a mare purchased for a mere $1,000. Breaker Breaker
obviously didn't read his breeding papers. He closed a whirlwind 16 lengths in
the stretch to blow by blueblooded Guilt
Trip, a $100,000-plus horse owned by Phil Kives'
K5 Stable. "Oh baby, he got him! "
Blair recalls race-caller Dean Fletcher intoning as the horse
he had trained from a baby crossed the wire. Blair also recalls the
flippant comment from jockey Mike McMullin
before the Derby Trial: "Too
bad his best races are behind him." To which Mike's agent, Larry Oberlander had chided him: "Don't be so sure." Unfortunately, though, the horse's
owner, Erling Rolfson,
died prior to seeing his horse win this major race so his wife, Elizabeth,
accepted the huge honours, Blair said.
Breaker Breaker
went on to the Manitoba Derby as the "rags-to-riches"
competitor and only lost that race by a fast-closing head to Scotsman.
Still, what a huge achievement for a mere North Dakota-bred who had
even been gelded, showing how little the owner thought about passing
on the horse's genes. "Putting blinkers on him as a
3-year-old," Blair said. "That's when everything
changed." Even when
Breaker Breaker bowed a tendon the
following year and could no longer compete in thoroughbred races,
said Blair, he was sold to new owners in Calgary who have been having success with him on a chuckwagon team at the Calgary Stampede where the
winner of the final race gets $100,000.
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WINNERS APLENTY
Tit for tat wins it for Romol in Texas Hold 'em
Friday poker: What goes around came around for welder Romol Ghelmeci
Friday night when he lost an "all-in" hand to hyrdo worker Bryan Bartlett, ace/6 to
ace/9. But Romol
won the game because of identical hands--but this time he had ace/9 and
his opponent had ace/6 and declared "all-in." Romol won
$100 cash and Bryan $50 and both win seats into the finale in September
that will send someone to Las Vegas for the qualifying round of the World Series of
Poker. Horse trainer Blair Miller (see My
Most Memorable Moment) picked up $25 for finishing third. This is the last weekend of Friday-only
poker. Next week, when live racing
begins, poker will be held Friday AND Saturday
after the live races.
Show parlay: caretaker Roger Nolin
won $25 in betting vouchers for predicting a three-race show parlay at
Lone Star that grew to $44.85.
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Terry Pagee,
Ken Porter & Roger Jones
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Saturday Player's
Choice horseplayer challenge: Congrats to Mint worker
and horseowner Ken Porter for increasing
his $48 bankroll to $57.20, defeating 31 other entrants in the monthly
horseplayer contest and
winning
$500. Helping his plays, he said,
was friend Bill Drew who spotted a horse at Keeneland that paid
$17 to place. Bus driver Roger
Jones was about $3 behind with $54.40 and third-place finisher,
printer Terry Pagee, hung on by a
whisker and received $100. He was
just 40-cents ahead of Norm Fraser. The top three get to play next
month in a $1,000 winner-takes-all tournament.
Saturday Death
by Santa Anita (Stampede was cancelled
because of snow and cold): retiree
Norm Fraser outlasted 24 entrants to the fifth race and picked up $100 in
wagering vouchers. This Saturday
will be the final "Death by" for the season.
Saturday nite Double Play: Roger Jones, who had
finished second in the horseplayer tourney above, was biggest winner,
picking up $50 in betting vouchers for predicting both a show horse and
the added-up saddle cloth numbers of the top three finishers in race 6 at
Mountaineer. Roofer Dave Boehmer won $25 in race 5. Four winners, Hank Stockman, Jim
Roberts, Ray Pearson and Barrie Outar
picked up $20 each in race 7. No
one predicted all six show horses so $75 MUST be won Saturday night, the
concluding night of Double Play for the season. Total prize money available: $225.
MY MISTAKE: Spike was even better
In the last column, in My Most Memorable Moment, I alluded to Northern Spike's
four stakes wins in the early 1980's.
In fact, Spike was a lot better than that, as pointed out by Stewart
Hayek, brother of Northern Spike's trainer Phil Hayek, who
took over training the enormously talented horse after Spike's initial
trainer, Ivan Dowler, fell ill. "Northern Spike actually
dominated the Downs in the early 80's," Stewart writes, "winning
12 stakes races here (5.5 furlongs up to 1 1/8 mile) and the Stampede
Park Handicap in Calgary. He came second in five other stakes races and
third in six others including the Manitoba Derby and Winnipeg Futurity. He won 18 races out of 41 run (44%) at the Downs and 23 of 64 lifetime. He
set three track records here and tied another." I appreciate this,
Stewart. The Spike memory is worth
preserving.
TIP O' THE WEEK: Watch for sneaky workout
When you're looking at
first-time starters, look for a very quick workout a month or so ago,
followed by slower but regular maintenance works since then. The slower works are often just
maintenance works and the horse may be ready to put out a very good
effort in its first lifetime start.
NEW ORLEANS COMES TO THE DOWNS TONIGHT
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Creole
Jambalaya
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in the form of
a special all-you-can-eat buffet in the Terrace Dining Room between 5 and
8 p.m. featuring chicken simmered in beer, creole
jambalaya, mustard-herb salmon, muffaletta
olive salad, marinated crab salad, shrimp and okra gumbo, strawberry
beignets and, of course, lots more for only $14.95. Next week's theme: Hawaiian
UPCOMING: Hastings opens; Lava Man at Hollywood
Hastings in Vancouver opens its spring meet Saturday.
It will feature additional days of Friday racing this year.
Hollywood Park, which opened its spring/summer meet yesterday, will feature three-time
Hollywood Gold Cup winner Lava Man in a $150,000 stakes race Saturday,
Gold Rush Day, on the turf and the track is guaranteeing a $1 million
pick-6 pool.
Calder races are not being broadcast outside Florida because horsemen have not yet agreed to terms on a
revenue-sharing agreement with the track.
Once an agreement has been signed, common-pooling will begin with
that Florida track.
NEXT INSIDER: The Big Reveal, at last, and other special promotions during live
racing designed to make you drool.
See you Saturday morning at "big race days
strategy" viewing!
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