TASTE ALERT:  Did you know . . . that tonight's (and every Thursday night's) all-you-can-eat Prime Rib buffet features delicious chicken, pork and seafood entrees as well? And, of course, creative salad bar, gourmet soup, freshly baked breads right out of the oven, choice of desserts and more. All for just $14.95. Put down the can opener and book a table now. Call Samantha at 885-3330 ext. 0.

HORSEPLAYER CONTEST SATURDAY:  Sign up by noon Saturday. (By 9 p.m. Friday at OTBs.) Tracks: Woodbine and Churchill. This is the second-last contest leading up to the awarding of the Handicapper of the Year title in December.  Sign up.

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Here is the program cover for the very first day of racing at Assiniboia Downs.       June 10, 1958 Who had a horse in the first race and is still going strong? This man. What a life! And what accomplishments!

IS THIS HORSEMAN THE TRUE "PATRIARCH" OF ASD?

Even if you think so, for heaven's sake don't tell him

       "By any chance, do you remember the first day of racing in 1958 when you entered a horse in the first race?" I asked, hardly expecting a positive answer. 

       "Yah, I remember it well," he said quickly.

       "You what?" I gasped.

       "It was a lovely sunny day," he said.  Then, running his finger down the yellowing program page for the first-ever race at Assiniboia Downs on June 10, 1958, he said:  "This trainer went to Calgary, this trainer is dead, this one's dead, too, and this one went to Edmonton and ...."

       I was astonished.  Who wouldn't be?  At 90, the person I was interviewing, legendary horse trainer, A. E. (Bert) Blake, is no ordinary 90-year-old.  (And, yes, library records support his recollection of a beautiful sunny opening day. Temperature 80F.)

Juno Beach

        At 4, he rode his pet pony around his parents' home in Brandon.  File that experience away. Move on.

       At 25 in the Canadian army, he rides horses around a castle commandeered in England to be the Canadian army headquarters during the second world war.  On D-Day, June 6, 1944, he gets seasick crossing the English Channel to fight the Germans at Juno Beach and

Trainer Bert Blake and wife Eileen who won the Powder Puff Derby

wrest the city of Caen from German occupation.  "Yah, there was a dead body or two around me," Blake recalls casually.  Was he scared?  "You're never scared when you're among your own."  So...been there, done that. Move on.

       Back in Canada, he has a way with horses that gets him noticed among horseowners at Polo Park and then at Assiniboia Downs which opens in 1958.  Present Day, a 5-year-old chestnut mare he trains for a Torontonian,  finishes up the track in the first race ever held at the Downs on Tuesday, June 10.  (The race is won by filly Gold Ern.) But, under Blake's savvy tutelage, the mare overpowers classier rivals a few years later in the first-ever race for women riders, the Powder Puff Derby.  And who's the rider?  His wife,  Eileen, a showjumper from Brandon where both of them were born and met.  (They married in 1957.) Okay.  Been there, done that. Move on.

       Training for John Sifton from the mighty publishing empire that once included the Winnipeg Free Press, Blake wins the prized Gold Cup in 1967 with Pool to Market and, the following year, with Clique.  Been there.  Move on.

       Trains horses for a few seasons at Gulfstream Park in Florida, one season at Santa Anita in California and 10 in Lexington, Kentucky where he impresses the governor so much that he's given the title "colonel."  Okay, done that. Have a heart attack. Move on.

       And what about the biggest race of the year in Manitoba?  Royal Frolic and Prime Time T.V. win the Manitoba Derby for him, Royal Frolic doing it in 1993 and Prime Time doing it in breathtaking fashion in 2005, sweeping from last to first. Recalls track announcer Darren Dunn:  "My eyes and lungs almost fell out of my body watching that incredible move."  But to Blake?  Sell Royal Frolic.  Attend to the sudden death of Prime Time T.V.  a year after his Derby win.  Move on.

       Blake runs on tomorrow--always tomorrow.  Maybe that's why his mind is as sharp as men half his age. "If you have a good horse in training, it keeps you looking forward,  he said.  And, of course, he DOES have a good one in training, he says--so watch out next spring!   And, oh yah, tread softly with any compliments.  Over the past three decades, he's won 25 per cent of his starts and had 53 stakes victories but  "it's the horses that perform," he snapped when I asked him what makes him such a good trainer. 

       Maybe that's why you hear the words "crusty" and "curmudgeon" interjected into conversations about this talented (can I say "talented," Bert?) veteran trainer. He doesn't suffer idle chatter gladly, commenting that people are prone to say dumb things and ask dumb questions. 

 All horses are for sale

       I'm just glad that racing historian Bob Gates and I didn't fall into that category when we spent four hours with him and his lovely (yes, in looks and in personality) wife, Eileen, recently in their gracious spic-and-span condo in St. Norbert. "Don't look at the dust," she pleaded

Favourite horse, Clique, with favourite jockey, Bobby Stewart, July 20, 1968. (Blake is just left of Clique.)

when I stooped to examine a clutch of racing trophies on a bottom shelf in their living room. Dust? Was she kidding?  You'd need a magnifying glass.

       What was Bert's favourite horse?  He hemmed and hawed and finally said "Clique," a horse that raced in the 1960's, capturing the Gold Cup in 1968.  But you could tell he spread the likability factor among all his charges--and didn't become particularly attached to any of them.  Royal Frolic hadn't even cooled down from winning the Manitoba Derby in 1993 when, in response to a question from a potential buyer, he said:  "All my horses are for sale."  Within weeks the star of his barn was gone, sold to Californian interests.  Move on.

       In the late 1980's he had a horse, Nifty, that did a Secretariat, posting faster and faster fractions throughout the race.  That was special. He nob-nobbed among racing legends:  R. J. Speers, founder of Whittier Park and Polo Park,  Ontario horseowner E. P. Taylor.   He remembers special moments:  Speers eating in the cookhouse at Polo Park to make sure the food was of the highest quality for those who worked in the backstretch. Of Free Press racing writer Elman Guttormson, who owned the magnificent stakes horse, Major Enterprise,  he said:  "He died every time the horse lost."  

 Horse stabbed  

        Not all memories are good ones.   Won By Default won the Minnesota Derby for him in 1982 but, in a stall at Lexington, the horse was mysteriously stabbed in a horrifically bloody incident, he recalled.

        Blake was a racing steward for a while in the early 1960's because, he said, the money was good:  $100 a day "when a buck was a buck."  

        His favourite jockeys?  Larry Bird (rode from 1973-98):  "He's consistent, gets along with horses, has moxie."   And six-time leading rider Bobby Stewart who died in a hail of police bullets in a farmer's field in 1985.  "Nothing bothered him.  He had style, he knew who he was." Stewart rode from 1958 to 1976.  I could go on forever but I'll leave that to Bob Gates and his book. 

       Blake's only extended absence from Assiniboia Downs was the 10 years he spent in Lexington, Kentucky, the centre of the horse breeding and racing world.  A heart-attack, though, at the age of 65 convinced him he needed to get out of the rat race and return to the placid pace of the Canadian prairies.  And this is where the legend has remained since.  Whoops!  Did I say "legend" again? 

       Downs operations manager and track announcer Darren Dunn has a better word.  He calls Bert the "patriarch" of Assiniboia Downs.  But, hey, Bert, just for the record--I didn't say that.  And, really, what have you done really impressively lately?  Anything in the wings?  Like maybe a sequel to Prime Time T.V.'s brilliant Derby move?  C'mon, you're only 90!

THE STUNNING DERBY MOVE:   Click here to watch the electrifying last to first move by Bert Blake's  Prime Time T.V. in winning the 2005 Manitoba Derby.  "My eyes and lungs almost fell out of my body," recalls race-caller Darren Dunn.

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Pride in numbers:  4 nines, 7 children

FREEROLL POKER SATURDAY:  Saturday night's two big poker winners boasted about their big numbers--and it wasn't just at the poker table.  Businessman Rick Dow, who won the 10:30 p.m. game, could proudly point to getting four 9's in a table-crushing hand at the final table.  But car salesman Ron Young, who won the 7:30 p.m. game, was talking big numbers of another kind:  He has seven children, he said, "five who won't move out--but I love them!"  So bring them out for poker, Ron.  Look at all the increased chances that one of you will earn a trip to Vegas!  See current poker standings here.

FRIDAY'S FREEROLL POKER: Pipe fitter Ron Good won the early game and welder Romel Ghelmeci (who loves Australian racing) won the second.  Every winner gets $50 and earns points toward being rewarded with a bigger opening stack at the February finales that will send three players to Las Vegas.

5-ALIVE FRIDAY:  No overall winner so caretaker Roger Nolin and retired clothing designer Savitri Sukhdeo split the $50 consolation prize. Tomorrow's jackpot:  $150.  Jim Roberts won one of the betting sprees, bet conservatively (show tickets on a bigtime favourite) and collected $52.50 for his $50 in bets.

LADIES' NIGHT FRIDAY--SPA DRAW: Gail Rogers won a $300 package courtesy of Finger & Toes Day Spa, Fabutan Sun Tan Studios and Assiniboia Downs.  When are the other special events in the casino-style VLT lounge?  See November calendar. 

GOOSE WATCH:  Still hangin' and honkin'!   This is 11 days later than the day they left last year!  Maybe they'll get so fat they won't be able to fly and will have tough it out among the stables.  (Yah, sure!  You mean Winnipeg without a proper -40 degree winter?  Highly unlikely even with the El Nino factor.)  Here again are the departure dates predicted by those of you who entered my "When will the geese leave" contest.                                     

UPCOMING EVENTS:  Horseplayer contest, Thanksgiving

As mentioned at the top of today's column, Saturday is your second-last chance to play in a horseplayer contest for both cash and points for a Vegas trip.  Sign up by noon Saturday. (Friday 9 p.m. at OTBs.)  The final contest is Saturday, Dec. 12. 

BIG THANKSGIVING WEEKEND:  A week today marks Thanksgiving in the U.S., one of the prime weekends of classy racing.  Hollywood features a three-day turf festival from Friday to Sunday, culminating in the $300,000 Hollywood Derby on the turf on Sunday.

Early Insider next week!  Look for it on Wednesday,

the day before Thanksgiving in the U.S.