If the early evidence is any indication -- and there was lots of it Friday night -- the next 50 years at Assiniboia Downs is going to belong to the women.
Jockey Janine Stianson, making her Assiniboia Downs debut, got the track's 50th anniversary season off to a stunning start Friday evening, winning the first four races of the 2008 live racing season.
Stianson hooked up with veteran Downs trainer Jared Brown on all four victories and served early -- and defiant -- notice that the pairing will be one to watch this summer.
Indeed, the four-peat was the first in memory for a Downs jockey and might just be the first time that a Downs trainer has done it, although no records were immediately available Friday night.
"It almost seems surreal," said Stianson, "but I'm going to enjoy it, because you never know how long it will last."
Stianson, 25, comes to the Downs from the tiny track in Lethbridge, Alta. That track is so small that the stewards with the Manitoba Horse Racing Commission didn't recognize the wins she recorded there, including two track riding titles.
Because those wins weren't recognized, the stewards ruled earlier this week that Stianson would be treated as a raw rookie and gave her the 10-pound weight advantage that is accorded apprentice jockeys.
The ruling caused a stir on the Downs backstretch, particularly among Stianson's fellow riders, who felt it was unfair of the stewards to give a rider with hundreds of races worth of experience a rookie's weight advantage.
Those hard feelings surely only grew as Stianson's victories mounted last night. She was so prolific, in fact, that her 10-pound weight advantage was reduced to five pounds after just the first three races.
Things got so bizarre that Downs announcer Darren Dunn actually started laughing during the his stretch call in the fourth race when it became apparent what was about to happen.
"Is this a broken record?" Dunn asked the crowd as Stianson hit the finish line first yet again.
Stianson brought home winners at odds of 5-1, 3-2, 7-2 and 6-1 respectively.
It was a striking start to the 50th anniversary season -- something that wasn't lost on Dick Armstrong.
Armstrong won the first race at Assiniboia Downs in 1958 and was flown in by Downs management to press the start button for the first race of the 50th season.
Armstrong said the idea that a woman would even be at a racetrack, much less riding a horse at one, was completely foreign when the track opened in 1958.
"It was a man's game back then," Armstrong said. "There weren't too many woman at the racetrack in those days -- and certainly no women jockeys."
But women are there now and credit went to Brown last night for spotting Stianson's talent before anyone -- including, apparently, the stewards.
Brown has a big stable of 35 horses this year -- he expects it to grow to 45 soon, most of them physically fit after wintering in Louisiana's Delta Downs -- and Brown was delighted with his quick start.
"It means a lot," he said. "(I wanted) to get off on the right foot and the right start."
paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca
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