Racing needs some good news
By Ivan Bigg
Aug. 7, 2008
Still reeling after the breakdown of filly Eight Belles in the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago, the horse racing world needs some good news.
And the good news could arrive as quickly as this Saturday when the winner of the Kentucky Derby, Big Brown, continues his mission to become the first horse in 30 years to win the Triple Crown, proving he is the best three-year-old horse in North America.
Come out to Assiniboia Downs or watch your horse racing channels late Saturday afternoon (MTS 189-190, Shaw 87) for what could be a very historic Preakness Stakes race from Baltimore, Md.
Will Big Brown, the horse that’s named for the United Parcel Service, continue to win with incredible ease — and then go on to win the third leg, the Belmont Stakes, three weeks later? Does he also have it in him to overcome the jinx that sports writers put on the Triple Crown three decades ago? At the time, some of them were pooh-poohing the Triple Crown, saying it was too easy to achieve — because three horses had accomplished the feat within six years — Secretariat in 1973, Seattle Slew in 1977 and Affirmed in 1978. And what has happened since? Lots of just-abouts, bad trips and bad luck, with Barbaro’s demise in the Preakness Stakes two years being the most emotional. It’s come to the point where nobody wants to be singing the Big Brown blues.
HORSESHOE TOSS: The long winter and cold spring put a chill on “the hottest game in town” last Saturday; the Downs had to cancel its live card because not enough horses were fit enough to compete. But Jeff Goy, president of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, said the extra week of conditioning means there will be four full, action-packed days of racing this holiday weekend — Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday and Monday at 1 p.m. The fun will be ratchetted up with free Texas hold ’em poker after the races Friday and Saturday, Deal or No Deal on Sunday and a $15,000 horseshoe toss on holiday Monday.
The track has also gone to great lengths to demystify the process of betting horses by producing “how-to” videos that can be accessed by going to the Downs website: www.assiniboiadowns.com
One of the videos shows an actual pile of money — $50,000 of it — that patrons can win just by predicting horses that will finish in the money (1st, 2nd or 3rd) in races 3 to 5 every live race day. Two jockeys are on fire: Albertan Janine Stianson teamed up with trainer Jared Brown to win the first four races of this 50th anniversary meet, an accomplishment that is sure to be recalled on the Downs’ 100th. And the leading rider from three years ago, Rohan Singh, showed he’s back to his competitive best, winning five of the seven races he was assigned to last Sunday.
DID YOU KNOW THAT when you hear a race is called a “derby” you can automatically assume it is a special race for three-year-old horses — and that the name itself comes from the Earl of Derby(shire) in England who staged the first “derby” at Epson Downs in 1780?
NEXT WEEK: Dead jockey wins race
