Working and playing at Fort Erie's biggest day
FORT ERIE, Ont. --- Prince of Wales Day at the Fort Erie Race Track is one of my most favorite days of the year. The pageantry, the excitement, the $1.99 breakfast, and the fact that I can play the horses while I work, or vice versa.
Here's how my day, and my bankroll went. (All dollar figures are Canadian).
First race:Legendary Ella came flying on the outside and opened a daylight lead while jockey Jerry Baird looked through his legs and over his shoulder to see that none of the other six fillies in the field were nowhere close in this opening dash for $7,500 claiming fillies with a purse of $12,880. (Total purses on this, the Fort's biggest day of the year, will be $683,605.) ... This 6 1/2 furlong dash was Legendary Ella's first trip over the Fort's track. She was dropping in class after finishing seventh three times in a row over the Polytrack at Woodbine and won by 6 3/4 lengths. ... I bet $34 on various combinations and am alive in the daily double with two horses --- Beautiful Lily (No.3) and Princessjadynatto (No. 6). The first will pay $11 and the second $18, so no matter who wins, I lose.
Second race: Jockey Gerry Olguin shot 8-5 favorite Beautiful Lily to the top and led every step of the way of the mile and 70 yards and just held off Daniel David on Tee Cubed to win by a neck. ... Key to this race may have been trainer Erika Winkelmann's change of jockeys from apprentice Krista Carignan to veteran Olguin from Toronto. ... This may be the start of a good day for Olguin, who's attempting to win his second Prince of Wales Stakes with long shot Keino West, subject of a feature I wrote in today's paper. Olguin won the 2005 Prince of Wales on Ablo.
Let's see, I bet another $24 and collected $11.15 on the daily double, and $15.70 on the exacta. That leaves me $21.15 in the hole.
Between races, Sam Lima of the horsemen's association presented trophies to Mike Newell and Chad Beckon for being last year's top trainer and jockey respectively. Beckon is in the hospital after an accident at Woodbine and his trophy was accepted by trainer Nick Gonzalez. Newell is currently the 2009 leading trainer too, with 15 wins, one more than John Simms and Daryl Ezra, who have 14 each.
A young lady just sang the national anthems. O Canada got slightly louder applause than The Star Spangled Banner.
Third race: What do you know? Olguin takes even-money favorite County Wage wire-to-wire to beat a bunch of 2-year-old filly maidens by 11 lengths. County Wage, with six starts under her belt, was the most experienced filly in the race. I had County Wage in my exacta box, but not the second horse, Sing to Me Dolly. So now I'm down $31.15.
I bumped into Gonzalez in the dining room and asked him if any of his horses had a chance today? He said he liked Stuck In Traffic in the sixth race and Approved by Nick in the 10th. The latter, he said was not named for him, but was already named when he purchased him.
I'm on the free food list today and am eating a piece of pumpkin pie from the clubhouse buffet. A few more winners and I'll think it's Thanksgiving.
I also ran into mutuel manager Chad and congratulated him for negotiating a contract to get Fort Erie's races into the Western Region OTB system in Western New York. He said the Fort --- which races Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays --- could not get into the OTB lineup on other Sundays (except today) because OTB did not have any more room. Hopefully, that can be renegotiated in the future. I think an OTB presence will help both OTB and Fort Erie.
Fourth race: Bent Attorney, the even-money favorite, outdueled Dancing Allstar to win the $50,000 Ernie Samuel Memorial Stakes over 5 furlongs of grass.
Trainer Don MacRae, who's been at Fort Erie since 1996, said it was his first stakes win at the Fort (he won a stakes at Calder Race Course in Florida too) and his first win of any kind on the grass. MacRae claimed the 5-year-old mare for $50,000 last year and she's rewarded him with three wins and three seconds and has more than earned back her purchase price.
"I just liked her form. I like horses with consistent numbers. She fit the mold," MacRae said. "We claimed the horse, we never expected to run in stakes. She's progressed nicely for us."
Jockey Stewart Elliott said Bent Attorney "won easy" but added that Dancing Allstar, ridden by Eurico Rosa da Silva "started to blow the turn. I went to let my filly run up in there and then he got his horse back and I don't think he realized I was there. He kind of come down on top of me a little bit."
Publicity director Daryl Wells Jr. said the exacta, which paid all of $4.15 for $2, "was the easiest exacta ever." Wells and his TV sidekick Elissa Blowe pick a Win-4 combination every day for races 4 through 7. They had both horses on their $36 ticket and are alive with three horses in leg 2, the next race. I lost $17 on the race (I'm dead already in the Win-4) and now am out $48 for the afternoon.
Fifth race: Musical Storm, a 3-year-old filly ridden by Sunny Singh for local trainer Bill MacKinnon romps in the fifth race to become the first long-shot winner of the day, paying $15.80 to win an $7.60 to place. I also happened to bet her but, unfortunately, the other members of my exacta ticket finished nowhere. And if you're wondering, the Wells-Blowe pick 4 is also out the window. I wagered $14 and got back $23.40, so now I'm down $38.60.
MacKinnon clever trainer who runs a small but surprising barn. Two years ago he won the $125,000 Rainbow Connection Stakes with Flashy Pink, a long shot who was the center of a controversy with a jockey's agent. ... I him just this morning at breakfast. He was wearing a sport coat so I should have suspected he was planning on getting his picture taken.... This was MacKinnon's first win in 17 starts this year and his first in nine starts at Fort Erie. ...Until last month, Musical Storm had been trained at Woodbine by David Cross, who is famous for winning the Kentucky Derby in 1983 with Sunny's Halo.
Sixth race: Olguin wins his third of the day getting even-money favorite Drunken Love up in the last stride to nip 15-1 shot (which I bet) Marco Be Good at the wire to win the $50,000 Daryl Wells Sr. Memorial Stakes. ... In the postrace TV interview, Olguin discloses that he's won his last seven races at Fort Erie. Next up for him is Better Than Enough in the seventh race.
Drunken Love, a son of Whiskey Wisdom and No Sugar, is running for the first time since being claimed for $62,500 by trainer Norm McKnight, and the first time the 4-year-old gelding has raced on grass. Two races back he finished fourth at Woodbine in the New Providence Stakes, named for the winner of the Prince of Wales Stakes, and the Canadian Triple Crown, in 1959.
Brad McKnight, the trainer's son, said "He's a little bit paid for now, not all the way but we're getting there."
I'm out $62 as I tried to shoot the moon for a four-horse exacta box. Maybe playing and working don't make the best combination.
Seventh race: Olguin's streak is stopped as Better Than Enough gets off slowly and can't catch T Que under Eldridge Lindsay, who paid $19.60 in a 6-furlong dash for $5,000 claimers. I lost another $12 (that's $74) and really have to get to work as the Prince of Wales is next.
Eighth race: Wow! What a finish! Milwaukee Appeal took the lead, then Gallant passed her on the first turn. Then Milwaukee Appeal fought back and stuck her nose in front. Then Gallant got up to win in the final stride by a margin so close, if it had been any closer it would have been a dead heat.
After a big race, my job gets crazy. Down by the jockey's weigh-out scale, Bill Tallon of the Daily Racing Form and I interview losing jockeys Mike Smith (Mr. Foricos Two U) and Eurico Rose da Silva (Eye of the Leopard). Then we realize we missed Stewart Elliott, the guy whose horse lost the photo.
We high-tail it back to the jocks' room and grab Elliott for a few comments. By then winning jockey Corey Fraser is being interviewed on television, followed by Ricky Griffith, assistant to winning trainer Mark Casse, who is in Toronto and didn't make the trip.
Then it's up to the publicity office to interview Fraser ("Do I sit or stand? I've never done this before," said Fraser after winning the biggest race of his career.
Then Tallon makes a call to Casse at Woodbine and a bunch of reporters interview him on the speaker phone. Now it's back to the press box to write a story. Oh, yes. I bet $5 to win and $5 to place on Milwaukee Appeal, the horse I picked in the paper, and another $6 in the exactas. So I lost $7 on the race and now am down $83.
Ninth race:Because of the above activity, I didn't see a step of the race until I noticed No. 5, Nightnightnight was in the winner's circle. He was ridden by Christopher Griffith, younger brother of the aforementioned Ricky Griffith. Chris is an old friend who will always be remembered as the guy about whom I was writing a long feature story on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. ... Anyway, I didn't have his $7.50 winner, but I have him in a $12 daily double combination with four horses in the next race. So if I don't bet any more, I will lose only $95 for the day.
Between the ninth and the 10th races I was engaged in what some might consider a bureaucratic nightmare.
When I saw the photo finish picture on the TV screen, I thought it was so dramatic that I wanted to get a copy of it for the readers. I asked the head of the photo finish department if he could e-mail me a copy but he said I would have to get approval of the stewards.
So I went up stairs and the stewards said it was OK with them, but they'd have to ask the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency. So a stewart walked me down to the agency's office, where I was told they'd have to check with headquarters in Toronto. I gave up and went back to work and was happy to hear a little while later that my request had been approved.
10th race: I took a break from the keyboard to watch Seafields beat Approved by Nick in a stretch drive decided by 1 1/4 lengths. The winner was ridden by Rui Pimentel, who leads the Fort Erie jockey standings with 49 winners. I had both of them io my double ticket, along with Manderlay, who finished third.
Too bad I didn't hook them up in the trifecta, which returned $191.90 for $2. Instead, I caught a double worth $17.50, trimming my loss for the day to $77.50. Guess I shouldn't quit my day job.
--- Bob Summers
You can't beat the horses, but it's fun trying.
Posted by: Don H | July 13, 2009 at 09:12 AM