Post by Peter Gross on Dec 1, 2009 6:32:36 GMT -5
I had multiple reasons for going to Woodbine this weekend. The 25th edition of Down The Stretch, Canada's most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper arrived at my door - all 5500 copies of it - Friday morning and that meant, for me, a day of distributing the paper at various locations. Our next issue will hit the bins on December 18, but we already know that Patrick Husbands will pull off the three-peat; he will be the leading rider at Woodbine for the third straight season. So the first piece of business for me on Saturday was to get 15 minutes of quality time with the personable native of Barbados. That's not always easy during the card at Woodbine because Husbands' agent Gary Kemplen busts his client's ass, booking him on as many mounts as possible day to day. That's not too hard, because Husbands, simply put, is the more reliable and consistent jockey in Canada and the trainers pretty well crawl over each other for his services. Husbands stats this year are awesome. He'll end up with close to 200 wins. He has more seconds and thirds than any other jockey. He will ride more horses than anybody else. He has the most wins in sprints, the most wins in distance races and the most wins on the turf. His 20 Stakes victories - yeah- most in the nation. He rides to win.
I did get fortunate though, because I noticed that Husbands was not riding in the 7th and 8th races of the 11 race card on Saturday and that would give me ample time to sit down with him.
Before meeting with Patrick, though, there was some minor unpleasantness in the jockeys room. Robert Landry, who is one of the more positive riders with regards to what we do in Down The Stretch, confronted me and hissed, "You screwed up!". Landry does like to yank my chain, but he was a little pissed as he grabbed a copy of the paper and slapped the cover. Our very attractive cover in its eye-pleasing hue of pink declaring Year of the Ladies. he gestured at the pictures of Chantal Sutherland, Emma-Jayne Wilson, Saratoga champion trainer Linda Rice, Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, harness trainers Casie Coleman and Tracy Brainard.
"You left out Josie Carroll," he accused and my heart sunk. Josie Carroll did deserve to be on the cover. If you're going to do a theme about women in racing, you should include the leading female trainer. Landry has a special loyalty to Carroll, who trained the brilliant filly careless Jewel, whom Landry rode to several Stakes win this year, including an amazing win in the Alabama at Saratoga during the summer. That Landry and Careless Jewel ran last as the favourite in the Ladies Classic at the Breeders' Cup does not in anyway diminish Carroll's work. We would have been a little better if we'd put Josie on the cover.
That difficult moment passed and I interviewed Patrick Husbands and that should be a very readable feature in the next issue..
I left the jocks room and went back upstairs to the second floor where I ran into trainer Sid Attard, who seems to hold court just in front of the betting windows outside the Finish Line Bar. I needed two favours from Sid. I tried to persuade him to place a seasons' greeting ad in our paper and I asked him for the phone number of owner Lou Tucci, for whom Attard trains horses. Sid was a little indefinite on the first request, but pulled out his cellphone and found Tucci's number for me.
Lou Tucci and his Tucci stable are the third leading owner this year. Down The Stretch is embarking on a project that may turn into a regular feature - the owner of the month and I elected to write about Tucci first.
Sunday was one of those days where many things converged. I called Mr. Tucci and he was pleased to meet me. He had a horse in each of the last two races, so asked me to meet him at 3:30 at the Finish Line Bar. That gave me time to solve a media pass problem. Woodbine issues accreditation to those of us who require access, but I'd lost my plastic pass, which, among other things, entitles me to discounted chicken and pizza at the food carousel. I presented myself to security and they gave me a form that I had to take to the media office for approval. As I returned to the second floor, I ran into Glenn Crouter, the VP of media for WEG. With him was the every smiling Sandy Hawley. I thrust the security form into Glenn's hands for his inkage. "Who are you?" he asked jokingly. Actually, Crouter informed me that he was taking up my quest. He had read the column in Down The Stretch, where I promoted jockey Chantal Sutherland as the rightful recipient of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award of Canada's Female Athlete of the Year. Crouter intends to push the issue with the mainstream newspaper sports editor. Suddenly, as I was shmoozing with Crouter and Hawley, a man came and introduced himself to me. It was Lou Tucci.
He gave me a terrific interview. He's an articulate, positive guy who clearly gets a thrill racing horses. Tucci Stable is third in Canada this year with over $1 Million in purse earnings. Lou told me he had a horse in the 10th and a horse in the 11th. Needless to say, I pumped him for a tip.
"Artie Hot has a real shot in the 10th," he said. "I really don't know about Shananie's Honour in the last race though."
A couple things here. I've had a very poor year betting the horses. Two weeks ago, I decided to power down and not bet until the end of the year. After the Breeders' Cup. generally speaking, there's not much to gamble on anyway. So in spite of Tucci's optimism, I decided I would just watch and abstain.
Too bad. Under a perfect ride from Emma-Jayne Wilson, Artie Hot sat off the pace and came on nicely in the stretch for a confident win at odds of more than 7-1. This was Tucci's 22nd visit to the winners' circle and I did manage to get a terrific shot of Lou, jockey Wilson and trainer Nick Gonzalez locked arm in arm in victors embrace.
I didn't bet the last race either. Tucci's horse, Shananie's Honour was burdened with the 13 post and with apprentice jockey Miek Mehak went off at 40-1. Do you see where I'm going with this? Mehak waited until late in the stretch to make his move and got Shananie's Honour up by half a length. The winner paid $83. I had nothing on it, but Tucci did.
"Once I saw Sid betting on it, I knew I had to," he said referring to trainer Sid Attard.
I had $20 across."
I can do the math. $20 across returned about $1200 to Tucci who had a very good day at the track, considering he won purses from the final two races. I had to be content with a very strong story line for my first owner of the month story.
And I am boasting to anyone who care that Down The Stretch, Canada's most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper has the most nominations for this year's Sovereign Awards, the annual bling given out by the Jockey Club of Canada. Perry Lefko is up for best newspaper story and best feature story. Keith McCalmont and Eleanor Yeoman LeBlanc are also in the best newspaper category and I have a shot for best photograph (yeah, I'm a professional photographer in much the same way that Chris Bosh rides thoroughbreds on his off-days). I snapped this image of Chantal Sutherland with the Canadian flag around her and she gave this perfect look. Thanks to the automatic focus on my camera, it wasn't even fuzzy.
Strangely, I'm up against two pictures from Michael Burns and son Michael Jr. Thanks to the Burns, I have been able to print a steady stream of skilful and professional racing pictures that they provide me for free.
I did get fortunate though, because I noticed that Husbands was not riding in the 7th and 8th races of the 11 race card on Saturday and that would give me ample time to sit down with him.
Before meeting with Patrick, though, there was some minor unpleasantness in the jockeys room. Robert Landry, who is one of the more positive riders with regards to what we do in Down The Stretch, confronted me and hissed, "You screwed up!". Landry does like to yank my chain, but he was a little pissed as he grabbed a copy of the paper and slapped the cover. Our very attractive cover in its eye-pleasing hue of pink declaring Year of the Ladies. he gestured at the pictures of Chantal Sutherland, Emma-Jayne Wilson, Saratoga champion trainer Linda Rice, Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra, harness trainers Casie Coleman and Tracy Brainard.
"You left out Josie Carroll," he accused and my heart sunk. Josie Carroll did deserve to be on the cover. If you're going to do a theme about women in racing, you should include the leading female trainer. Landry has a special loyalty to Carroll, who trained the brilliant filly careless Jewel, whom Landry rode to several Stakes win this year, including an amazing win in the Alabama at Saratoga during the summer. That Landry and Careless Jewel ran last as the favourite in the Ladies Classic at the Breeders' Cup does not in anyway diminish Carroll's work. We would have been a little better if we'd put Josie on the cover.
That difficult moment passed and I interviewed Patrick Husbands and that should be a very readable feature in the next issue..
I left the jocks room and went back upstairs to the second floor where I ran into trainer Sid Attard, who seems to hold court just in front of the betting windows outside the Finish Line Bar. I needed two favours from Sid. I tried to persuade him to place a seasons' greeting ad in our paper and I asked him for the phone number of owner Lou Tucci, for whom Attard trains horses. Sid was a little indefinite on the first request, but pulled out his cellphone and found Tucci's number for me.
Lou Tucci and his Tucci stable are the third leading owner this year. Down The Stretch is embarking on a project that may turn into a regular feature - the owner of the month and I elected to write about Tucci first.
Sunday was one of those days where many things converged. I called Mr. Tucci and he was pleased to meet me. He had a horse in each of the last two races, so asked me to meet him at 3:30 at the Finish Line Bar. That gave me time to solve a media pass problem. Woodbine issues accreditation to those of us who require access, but I'd lost my plastic pass, which, among other things, entitles me to discounted chicken and pizza at the food carousel. I presented myself to security and they gave me a form that I had to take to the media office for approval. As I returned to the second floor, I ran into Glenn Crouter, the VP of media for WEG. With him was the every smiling Sandy Hawley. I thrust the security form into Glenn's hands for his inkage. "Who are you?" he asked jokingly. Actually, Crouter informed me that he was taking up my quest. He had read the column in Down The Stretch, where I promoted jockey Chantal Sutherland as the rightful recipient of the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award of Canada's Female Athlete of the Year. Crouter intends to push the issue with the mainstream newspaper sports editor. Suddenly, as I was shmoozing with Crouter and Hawley, a man came and introduced himself to me. It was Lou Tucci.
He gave me a terrific interview. He's an articulate, positive guy who clearly gets a thrill racing horses. Tucci Stable is third in Canada this year with over $1 Million in purse earnings. Lou told me he had a horse in the 10th and a horse in the 11th. Needless to say, I pumped him for a tip.
"Artie Hot has a real shot in the 10th," he said. "I really don't know about Shananie's Honour in the last race though."
A couple things here. I've had a very poor year betting the horses. Two weeks ago, I decided to power down and not bet until the end of the year. After the Breeders' Cup. generally speaking, there's not much to gamble on anyway. So in spite of Tucci's optimism, I decided I would just watch and abstain.
Too bad. Under a perfect ride from Emma-Jayne Wilson, Artie Hot sat off the pace and came on nicely in the stretch for a confident win at odds of more than 7-1. This was Tucci's 22nd visit to the winners' circle and I did manage to get a terrific shot of Lou, jockey Wilson and trainer Nick Gonzalez locked arm in arm in victors embrace.
I didn't bet the last race either. Tucci's horse, Shananie's Honour was burdened with the 13 post and with apprentice jockey Miek Mehak went off at 40-1. Do you see where I'm going with this? Mehak waited until late in the stretch to make his move and got Shananie's Honour up by half a length. The winner paid $83. I had nothing on it, but Tucci did.
"Once I saw Sid betting on it, I knew I had to," he said referring to trainer Sid Attard.
I had $20 across."
I can do the math. $20 across returned about $1200 to Tucci who had a very good day at the track, considering he won purses from the final two races. I had to be content with a very strong story line for my first owner of the month story.
And I am boasting to anyone who care that Down The Stretch, Canada's most informative and entertaining horse racing newspaper has the most nominations for this year's Sovereign Awards, the annual bling given out by the Jockey Club of Canada. Perry Lefko is up for best newspaper story and best feature story. Keith McCalmont and Eleanor Yeoman LeBlanc are also in the best newspaper category and I have a shot for best photograph (yeah, I'm a professional photographer in much the same way that Chris Bosh rides thoroughbreds on his off-days). I snapped this image of Chantal Sutherland with the Canadian flag around her and she gave this perfect look. Thanks to the automatic focus on my camera, it wasn't even fuzzy.
Strangely, I'm up against two pictures from Michael Burns and son Michael Jr. Thanks to the Burns, I have been able to print a steady stream of skilful and professional racing pictures that they provide me for free.
