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What was playing on the radio
50 years ago--the year Assiniboia Downs was born?
Hard Headed Woman
Elvis Presley
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1958 Plymouth Belvedere
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Well, you did it! Pat yourself on the back for making it through the darkest,
coldest month of the year. It's
onward and upward now! The first future-bet on the Kentucky Derby is
only a week away and the first-ever February long-weekend happens in
just two weeks. I hope my weekly
posting above of musical hits and cars from 1958 is adding a little
rock to your rollin' good times in this, the Downs' 50th anniversary year.
And, speaking of good times, everyone who attended the first Tour
d' Champs day in the Clubhouse last Saturday appeared to
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Baze: 9,997 wins
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have a blast. As promo gal Chelsea put it: "It was
very festive!" Kudos especially to maintenance crews at Santa
Anita for working through the night to re-surface the swampy Cushion
Track so the Sunshine Millions races didn't have to be cancelled. Did you know you could have watched
their feverish activity on a web-cam on Santa Anita's website? And that the newly-installed surface
resulted in a world record time for a six furlong race that
afternoon? More on that shortly.
What else is cooking on the
last day of January?
• Is today the day? Winningest-ever
Jockey Russell Baze is three wins shy
of a
staggering 10,000 lifetime wins heading into today's card
at Golden Gate Fields.
Post time is 2:45 p.m.
• Resting place for a champion: Barbaro's
ashes will be buried at Churchill
Downs
• Locals hit big: Local players win more
than $50,000 on two pick-6 tickets,
including one ticket bought in Palm Springs where player was vacationing.
• How did Downs players fare in Vegas? Dan got a nibble
• Bittersweet memory: A local player remembers
a weekend when he couldn't stop winning. That's right.
Couldn't stop winning.
• What's happening on Super Bowl Sunday? Earlier post times, all-day happy
hour.
Let's go!
BARBARO'S ASHES TO BE BURIED AT CHURCHILL
First Derby horse to be honoured in this way
Out of respect
for perhaps millions of the horse's fans world-wide, the owners of Barbaro have announced they will inter the
horse's ashes at a very public location at Churchill Downs where the horse
achieved his greatest victory, winning the 2006 Kentucky Derby. He broke down two weeks after that
race in the Preakness Stakes and had to be
euthanized after months of failed attempts to help him heal and
overcome debilitating diseases in other legs. The owners, Roy and Gretchen
Jackson, have also commissioned a statue which will be erected
where the ashes will be buried--on a large raised area enclosed by
bricks outside a main entrance to Churchill Downs. The unveiling will take place at a
ceremony in 2009. "After the Derby and then when he got injured, he really became America's horse," Roy Jackson said. "We sort of felt an obligation that
his remains and statue be erected someplace where the general public
could pay their respects."
No other Derby horse is buried on the grounds of the Kentucky track.
PICK-6 WINDFALL
Local players pick up more than $50,000
 The Martin Luther King Jr.
holiday in the U.S. on Monday lastweek proved to be kind
to local horseplayers. Two chipped
in $24 each to buy a pick-6 ticket at Santa Anita and picked up
$25,000. Another local player
vacationing in Palm Springs called to say he had won that pick-6 as well, playing it at a
simulcast facility down there.
The pair at the track bought a ticket that keyed four races, had
three horses in another race and all eight horses in another leg. The first two keys won: an $11.60
horse in a difficult 6 1/2 furlong down-the-hill turf race (hot jock Garrett
Gomez was the reason the horse was keyed) and a $13.40 horse in a
Maiden Special Weight race. The payoffs on the other four legs
were: $7.20, $5.60, $12.40 and
$5.80. The two winning tickets
accounted for about 9 per cent of the North America-wide pick-6 pool
that day.
SANTA ANITA'S TOPSY-TURVY WORLD
Soap opera continues with scrape-and-dump in the dead of
night
Who needs soap operas and
mysteries on TV when there's action and drama aplenty at Santa Anita's polyunfortunate race track? In the dead of night last Saturday
morning, about 2 a.m., veteran local horseplayer and candy-maker Jack Tapper was sitting at his computer, tuned in to
the livecam on Santa Anita's website. "They
were dumping truckload after truckload of something onto the
track," he told fellow horseplayers at the track Saturday
morning. "The trucks just kept coming and coming." Two days of rain had turned the
synthetic Cushion Track into watery porridge and the racetrack was just
hours away from the huge Sunshine Millions races which pitted
California-breds against Florida-breds at Santa Anita and Gulfstream.
Would scraping two inches of the sludge off the surface and dumping
tons of dry material on the remaining mix allow the big day to
proceed--or would they have to cancel racing for the third day in a
row?
Fingers were crossed. Breath was held. A huge sigh of relief greeted Allan
Gray's announcement in the Clubhouse shortly after noon that, yes, racing would proceed--and proceed it did, at a
record-shattering pace. Downs
track announcer Darren
Dunn couldn't believe what he was
seeing. Bob Black Jack set a world record for 6f in the $250,000
Sunshine Millions Dash, a delirious 1:06:53, seven-hundredths quicker
than the previous record, 1:06:60, set in 1995 by stakes winner G Malleah at Turf Paradise--and there were lightning
fractions in other races, too, on a surface jockeys politely described
as "hard."
But wait, as they say in TV
commercials, there was another plot twist. Rains returned Saturday night,
leading to the cancellation of Sunday and Monday cards. The new plan is to race today through
Sunday, if possible, and then work on the track around-the-clock for
four days next week adding Australian-touted polymers to the synthetic
concoction, supposedly to bind the waxed rubber/fibres/silicone
particles into larger chunks to allow water to drain. Santa Anita president Ron Charles,
the most embattled race track manager on the planet, issued a statement
that must have been done with a hope and a prayer: “Once we get it in, everyone
is very confident that we won’t miss any more days for the rest
of the meeting." Soap
opera fans know that firm statements like these only invite unforeseen
consequences.
"MY MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT"
Winningest weekend produces bittersweet memory
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Alden Wiebe at Race Book carrell
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It was late July, 1989, and Alden
Wiebe, 35 at the time, couldn't
lose. "I was in a zone," he
recalls. It started on a Saturday when he won every race and pocketed
$3,600--"more than I ever won before"--including a
race won by Nifty from acclaimed trainer Bert Blake's barn. But that was small potatoes compared
to what was yet to come. Sunday
began with a bang. He immediately
nabbed $400 in a triactor and had accumulated $3,400 on the day when a
chance for really big money came along--the twin-triactor, a bet which
included a carryover pool requiring a player to win back-to-back triactors.
No problem for Alden. He even recalls the winning numbers of the
second tri, 3-1-2, and the monster payoff of $62,000, which he could have
collected all by himself but he shared with a friend. He recalls his thoughts at this point
turning to his father, a church minister, "who was a week from
being kicked out of his house." Alden invited his father to a Dim Sum
Chinese buffet the next day and handed him $10,000. His mother was in tears. It saved the
house. But, Alden said sadly, his father never ever thanked him for that
gift right to his death four years ago. "All he said was: 'I
knew the Lord would look after us.'" That left the best horseplaying
weekend of his life a rather bittersweet memory.
QUICK BITS: Black gets a $$$ nibble: None of the four Assiniboia
players finished in the top 100 of the 800 people entered in the Coast
Casinos $1 million Horseplayer World Series at the Orleans in Las Vegas
last week. But Dan Black
got off to a great start in the three-day contest, finishing in sixth
place after the first day. That
placing was worth $900 in prize money for the manager of Black's
Vintage Books and Antiques!
Winner of the annual tourney was Ken Hopkins who picked
up $307,000 ....... Deathbed Pick-6:
Krys, wife of Downs regular, Lol, who died
three weeks ago, said her feverish husband was muttering pick-6 ticket
combinations from his hospital bed in the days leading to his death
from complications from pneumonia.
She said he was calling out:
two by two by two by one, etc., to indicate the number of horses
he wanted in each leg of his ticket.
A true horseplayer right to the end!
WHO WON? Lots of giveaways on Sunshine Millions weekend
Show parlay
challenge: No winners again last Friday so $50
is carried over to tomorrow, meaning $75 is up for grabs. Simply pick "show" horses
at Sam Houston, races 3 to 5.
$1,000 poker
tourney: Art Solvason
beat nine other players, picking up $100 in betting vouchers and a seat
in the $1,000 finale on Friday, March 28. Get poker details here.
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Flanked by
tropically-clad Chelsea
(left)
and Allan (right),
the top three race-pickers Saturday: Norm Fraser, Weldon Hiebert
(tied for first), Manny
Medeiros (third)
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Elite
Eight: Two of the 58 entrants in the Elite Eight contest
last Saturday--predicting winners of the eight Sunshine Millions races--scored
an excellent six of eight! Weldon
Hiebert and Norm Fraser picked up
$175 each for the first-place tie.
Manny Medeiros received $75 for finishing third for
predicting five winners.
Death by Golden
Gate: Mel Davidson outlasted 40
entrants to the sixth race at Golden Gate Saturday and picked up $100 in betting
vouchers. He also had his name
drawn to win a beautiful burgundy fleece pullover and 1934 burgundy cap
from Santa Anita. Mel was a
standout walking around the Race Book in that classy combo. "This
is the first time I ever won anything," he said happily. Watch for draws every Tour d' Champs
day, the next one being this Saturday.
Other winners in
a draw for Santa Anita garb: Chuck Whalen, Ron Zurba.
TIP O' THE
WEEK: How to sniff out capable first-timers
How will a
first-time starter perform?
Clues: (1) Trainer stats. Good
trainers have their horses ready.
Note stats in the Daily Racing Form under the horse's
listing. (2)
Breeding location. Anything bred in Kentucky should be given a closer look, then Florida, California, New York, Ontario. (3)
Workouts: If you see two identical workout
times in the last three works, that's an excellent indication the horse
is ready for a big effort. Also,
look at bullet workouts, regular equally-spaced-out workouts and
workouts as long or longer than the race
they're running. (4)
Sire stats (look for this
in comments in the DRF) first-timer from a sire who
produces 14 per cent first-out winners or more is well worth adding to
tri and superfecta tickets. A few years ago, I picked up $21,000 in a
Woodbine superfecta by noting that a first-time starter had an
"excellent" debut sire.
The horse won the races at odds of 13-1.
DELICIOUS
DINING: Enjoy French-inspired cooking tonight in the popular all-you-can-eat buffet from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Terrace Dining Room for only $14.95. Menu. Next Thursday's theme: a nice winter escape--Hawaiian.
THIS
WEEKEND: Tour d' Champs continues
Friday: Play $1,000 poker. Plus $75 up
for grabs in "show parlay challenge"
Saturday: Tour d' Champs
day #2. Get your card stamped to win a trip to the Breeders' Cup and
receive an entry for classy merchandise draws. The big feature is the
$500,000 Donn Handicap for older horses at Gulfstream.
Watch for Student Council, a longshot surprise in beating
Lava Man in the $1 million Pacific Classic at Del Mar last summer.
A full field of 14 in the 1 1/8 mile race should produce an
exciting event. The Strub Stakes at Santa Anita should also be a good
one.
 Saturday: Death by Golden Gate and popular Magna Pick-5 continue. First pick-5 leg from Laurel at 3:30 p.m. Magna Pick-5 programs are free.
Super Bowl
Sunday: Note earlier post times for many
tracks so most racing is finished before the Giants take to the
grid-iron and scuttle the Patriots' perfect year. Turfway Park kicks off racing at 11 a.m. Full schedule. Happy hour
bar prices all day in the Clubhouse!
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COMING SOON: Derby future bets start next Thursday
• Racing from Bay Meadows begins next Wednesday--on dirt!
• Future bets on the Kentucky Derby: See special
Daily Racing Form listing
3-year-olds, available next Wednesday (on-track only).
Advance-wager on Derby and
Oaks next Thursday
to Sunday.
• Something new and exciting on Saturday
nights! Watch for details in next
Insider.
• NEW! Tournament of Champions: Top three
winners from each month's
horseplayer tournament, in addition to winning
usual cash prizes, will be invited to a $1,000 winner take
all game in May. Next monthly
contest: Saturday, Feb. 16.
• Horseplayer
Seminar: Saturday, Feb. 16 in the Finish Line
before the horseplayer tournament. Note the earlier starting time: 10:30 a.m. Downs' clocker
Everett Shade is itchy to produce a winning group
ticket on the Magna Pick-5. The
microphone is yours, Everett!
See you Saturday for Tour d' Champs #2!
NOT RECEIVING THIS
COLUMN REGULARLY? I've been hearing this from some of
you. It's usually the fault of
the internet provider. If you
don't receive the column Thursday afternoon, you can go to www.assiniboiadowns.com,
scroll down the page to where it says The Insider and click on
"current column." Columns you may have missed are posted
there, too, in the archives. The
Downs is reviewing solutions to solve the erratic mailing difficulties.
(The Insider is published every Thursday
afternoon.
Columnist Ivan Bigg
is a veteran horseplayer and journalist.)
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