Will wedding horses be wearing diapers?

WILL THEY OR WON'T THEY?  The world is dying to know!  Will the horses pulling Kate's carriage at the royal wedding next Friday be wearing diapers?  And, if they are, who will be the designer? Settle down and take a deep breath. Only eight sleeps until we find out. And, oh yes, royal-watchers are in a tizzy about another wedding issue. You could win some cash if you fuss over it, too!  See "Will & Kate & Steve & Iggy" below. The entry deadline is Sunday.

ALERT #1:   VLTs will be closed Friday and Sunday for Good Friday and Easter Sunday.  Racing, however, will continue as usual. 

ALERT #2:   Horseplayer contest cancelled.  The "So you think you can handicap?" horseplayer contest scheduled for Saturday, April 30, has been cancelled because of the need to continue installing Amtote equipment to be ready for live racing which begins Sunday, May 8.  Watch for the first tournament on live racing on the last Saturday of May where you can earn a trip to Las Vegas.   

ALERT #3:   No "Road to the Derby" contest this Saturday.  The final contest race will run on Saturday, April 30.  (See Fun and Games below.)  

TONIGHT'S CONTEST RACES FOR $100:  (1) Predict the winner in race 7 at Lone Star and (2) the pick-3 in races 7 to 9 and put your picks in the subject line of your email and send to theinsider@ASDowns.com by 8 p.m. tonight.  Prizes:  Correct winner--$20, correct pick three--$40 AND winners receive a $20 bonus if present at the announcement 8 p.m. Friday in the Race Book. (Draw will determine winner if there are multiple correct answers.) Usual rules. Last week's winner: Luke Jakobucci, among only four who predicted the race 7 victor, won $20.  There were 31 entrants.

And down the stretch comes your car.  Your car?  Could be. This sporty Chrysler 200 could belong to you at the end of the live race season.  Someone MUST win it.  To get a chance, just enter Horses & Horsepower that starts the first day of live racing on Mother's Day Sunday, May 8.  And multiply your chances of winning simply by dropping into the dealership the car comes from--Winnipeg Dodge Chrysler Jeep just down the road from Assiniboia Downs in the Pointe West Autopark.  See details in next week's Insider.

Perry Winters

Watch out, top jockeys at ASD last year!  Perry Winters, seven-time leading jockey from Alberta, is in town with one thing on his mind:  To reach the rarified mark of 3,000 wins.  He needs 41.

"I'm looking at making it happen in August," said the determined but amicable jockey who began his riding career at age 20.  He's now 48.  He's even factoring into the equation a run at becoming leading jockey.  He'd likely need more than 55 wins to reach that mark or about one a day in the 60-day meet.

 

So, watch out Larren Delorme and Janine Stianson, who finished second and third in the standings last year with 68 and 67 wins in a season that was five days more than this year's will be.  (At least Winters won't have last year's leading jockey, Vicky Baze, to knock heads with.  She and husband Gary will be riding at Prairie Meadows this summer.)

 

Winters came to the Downs, he said, because there are about one-third the number of jockeys he would have to compete against compared to Northlands Park where he was 12th in the standings last year with 24 wins.

He also says he likes the three-day week, the longer track with sweeping turns and "the people are really friendly." ASD is 13/16th miles in circumference compared to Northlands' 5/8ths. He was leading jockey in Alberta seven years, in the late 1980's and the early 1990's, winning the Canadian Derby and Alberta Derby aboard Cozzy Grey in 1992 and the Speed to Spare Stakes riding Chilcoton Blaze in 1987. He's no stranger to winning stakes races at the Downs, either, having won the Gold Cup in back-to-back years with Alberta invader Exclusive Run in 1999 (paying $25.50) and 2000 (paying $17.10). 

He's been working horses in the mornings for trainers Shelley Brown and Ardell Sayler, said his agent, Kirt Contois, who is also acting for Stianson and a new bug rider, Jennifer Reid, who won 25 races last year on the "B" circuit in Alberta (Lethbridge and Grand Prairie).  It will be a feather in both his and Winters' cap if they reach the magical 3,000 milestone.  It will be fun for the fans to watch, too!

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Will & Kate & Steve & Iggy
Insider hits a new high with Pomp & Politics Double!  (New low?)

How long will Kate's train be?

Okay, The Insider confesses.  It's getting caught up in the daily double of hoopla--the royal wedding and the Canadian election.  Yes, I know, there's only a tenuous connection to horses, as in the fact that magnificent equine creatures will be pulling the royal carriage to the church. And an election is often referred to as a horse-race and those running are often dismissed as certain four-legged critters resembling horses.  Be that as it may, if you loved The Insider's "when will the geese leave" contests (and you did, judging by the avalanche of entries), then you should go ga-ga over this one which I've dubbed the "Pomp & Politics Double."  (Although you might want to call it the "Ivan Has Reached a New Low Double.")  Whatever. Just hold off on your guffawing until the end of this piece. Just remember--the prizes ARE for real. 

(1)  Predict the length of Kate's wedding gown train at her wedding on Friday, April 29.  (Princess Diana's was 25 feet.) 

(2)  Predict the number of seats the Conservatives and Liberals will win in the May 2 general election.  (At dissolution,  Stephen Harper's Conservatives had 143, Michael Ignatieff's Liberals had 77.)

 

Email your answers by this Sunday midnight to theinsider@ASDowns.com.  Subject line:  P & P Double.  One entry only per person and per email address, please.

 

Prizes: (1) $50 for the entrant who is closest to the length of the train without going over.  (2)  $50 for the entrant who is closest (over or under) to the correct number of seats for each of the two parties.  The entrant who wins both halves of the Pomp & Politics Double gets $250.  In the event of a draw, prize money will be divided.

 

I was going to make the contest a pick-3 by also asking you to predict the date it will be announced that the Phoenix Coyotes will be moving to Winnipeg.  That should be happening any day, too.  But have fun with the double.  I'll bet you never thought the length of a wedding gown could suddenly take on the importance of the number of lengths a horse wins a race by. But there you have it: I. Bigg staying on top of what is hot and current--and in need of a long vacation.

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Quick bits  . . .

Horse of the Year to be named Saturday

You'll find out Saturday night whether the horses you liked best at Assiniboia Downs last year won any awards at the annual horsemen's banquet at the Downs.  Tickets to the banquet are still available for $50 and may be purchased at the Downs General Office. 

 CARELESS CIG FLICK KILLS HORSES IN FIRE:  In a bizarre incident last Friday, a cigarette flicked from a car passing a horse van apparently landed in straw in the partially open van, causing a fire that killed all six horses.  One of the two people in the cab suffered burns trying to put out the fire.  The accident happened in North Carolina with horses being transported from Florida to New York.  One of the horses was a 2-year-old just purchased for $60,000 at the Ocala horse sale  by trainer Richard Schosberg and a few friends new to horse ownership.

 

Track walk at Santa Sunday

CLASS ACT AT SANTA:  Hundreds of people who donated at least $10 to California's City of Hope cancer centre walked on Santa Anita's historic race track after the track's season ended Sunday, many of them giving touching accounts of their encounters with cancer or those suffering from it.  The track did a first-class job organizing the event. Among the women who led the walk were actress Bo Derek, who is now a member of the California Horse Racing Board, and Canadian jockey Chantal Sutherland.  The event raised about $100,000.  Racing moves to the Cushion track of Hollywood Park starting today and will return to Santa at the end of September for six weeks.  Who won The Insider's wagering prediction contest?  See Fun and Games.

 

BLUE GRASS INEXPLICABILITY CONTINUES:  Keeneland's $750,000 Blue Grass stakes Saturday continued in the tradition of the previous four run on Polytrack--it's a lottery.  Neither of two horses picked by Daily Racing Form handicappers as their best bets of the day were even among the top four finishers.  The odds of the top four were:  19-1, 24-1, 13-1 and 18-1.  The superfecta paid $129,000.  If someone boxed the seven longest horses in the 12-horse field for $84 in the U.S., where there are dime supers, he would have picked up

Running out of time to win big

almost $6,500.  That's probably the way to go with Polytrack.  You may remember last year Stately Victor won the Blue Grass on Poly and paid $82.20, the highest ever for a Blue Grass winner.

"I WON BIG" GROUP STILL LOOKING:  Time's running out for the "I won big" workshop participants to nail a pick-6.  Our ticket on Tampa last Saturday looked good for the first three legs that included one tricky horse and an 11-1 longshot (see Tip o' the Week below).  But the next two legs were won by formless horses. Keying the first and last leg could have led to a winning ticket or at least 5 of 6.  (6 of 6 paid $51,000)  So back to the drawing board Saturday at Aqueduct.  Bring your arguments for keying three legs.  Everyone gets a free $5 share, coffee and muffins--11 a.m. in the Clubhouse.

Take an 11-1 horse I loved at Saturday's "I won big" pick-6 workshop. When the group talked about keying another horse (which had beaten my horse two races back) in our pick-6 ticket, I explained that my horse, which came out of a "key" race where all three top horses won their next races, would have to be caught--and probably wouldn't be.  Especially since he had had a 5f tightener before Saturday's mile race. That was my logic. But, also, I felt in my gut this was the winner; I could "see" him on the lead not being caught.  That's exactly what happened.  So it was a combination of reason, gut and imagery that sealed the deal.  If, in my day-to-day betting, I just play horses with only that trio of characteristics, I'd be living in a castle.  But I don't and I'm not.  But maybe making this point gives you pause to reflect on what works the very best for you and waiting for just the right opportunity to pounce.  Here's that program page.  Look at #4 All the Bases.  Would you have  played it?  Note the italicized horses highlighted in his second-last race, indicating that was a "key" race, a huge handicapping angle.