Red hot Chickeness wins five in one night

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This article was published 03/09/2021 (1718 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When you’re hot you’re hot, and jockey Sheldon Chickeness is sizzling.

The 39-year-old rider from Poundmaker Cree Nation in Saskatchewan won five of the seven races at Assiniboia Downs on Wednesday evening including every race in the Pick 4. Winning five races on a single card is about as rare as scoring five goals in an NHL game, and to top it off, he did it on his son Kenton’s 14th birthday.

Chickeness won the second race aboard Witt’s Tenny Ten ($9.10) for trainer Jerry Gourneau with a perfect duel-stalking trip and then proceeded to win races four through seven.

He snuck up the rail to win the fourth race on Wolowitz ($12.20) for trainer Lee Delaronde; pulled a wire job in the fifth on Double Time ($3.50) for trainer Steve Thompson; outpowered tough guy Bacoli down the stretch to win the sixth aboard Cimpl Man ($5.00) for trainer Steve Keplin, Jr.; and romped home again for Keplin in the seventh race aboard favoured Funny Flowers ($4.00).

“I didn’t think it could be done,” said Chickeness. “And I did it for my son. He’s my biggest critic too. He tells me where I went wrong.”

Which was basically nowhere on Wednesday night.

Chickeness became the first rider to win five races on a card at the Downs since Chris Husbands accomplished the feat on May 20, 2016. “I just took it one race at a time,” he said. “I only expected to win one or two, and it was just the way the cards fell. I just kept on winning.”

Chickeness picked the perfect evening to start cooking too. According to track historian Bob Gates, Wednesday has always been just the right night to go on a win spree at the Downs.

On Wednesday, June 23, 1976, Jimmy Sorenson set the all-time single card win record at the Downs with seven wins, wrote Gates on the Downs’ history blog. Sorenson broke Bobby Stewart’s record of six wins on a card that was set also on a Wednesday, June 16, 1971.

Only three other jockeys have managed to score more than five wins on a card at the Downs including Salvador Rodriguez, who won six on Wednesday, May 18, 1983; Tom Adkins, who had six victories on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 1984; and Alan Cuthbertson, who booted home six winners on July 15, 2008. Cuthbertson’s big night came on a Tuesday, as there was no Wednesday racing at the Downs that week.

Chickeness’ big night in the saddle vaulted him into third place in the jockey standings with a career best win-place show record of 41-37-34 from 236 mounts. His best previous season in the saddle came in 2003, when he had 33 wins. He’s winning at an 18 per cent clip now, and while he likely can’t catch runaway leader Jorge Carreno, who has 74 wins, second place in the standings is within reach. He’s only two victories behind Stanley Chadee Jr. for second spot.

Chickeness started riding races at the age of 12 in Saskatchewan bush meets with riders that included early teachers Troy Constant, Kenny Moccasin and Mike Watney.

“Trainer Garnet Sanderson started me out,” said Chickeness. “He saw me riding a saddle horse and said let’s go to the bushes. We won five of six and finished second with the other one. After that we cleaned up in the bushes. We won everything. Then Chester Constant took me to the racetrack. He had a real speedball named Casey’s Lad. He was quiet, he never got excited, but he was fast. He could beat quarter horses. They both helped me a lot.”

Chickeness took out his official jockey license in 2001 and has had an up and down career since then, but he’s rolling now. He praised his wife of nine years, Jen Tourangeau, for keeping him on the straight and narrow this year. Tourangeau is the assistant for leading trainer Jerry Gourneau, and two of the couple’s six children, Aiden and Kenton also work in the barn.

“I’m having a good year thanks to Jerry,” said Chickeness. “He gave me a lot of nice horses to ride. I’ll be on Mas Mischief in the Gold Cup on Monday. The further the better. As long as I’ve been working with Jerry I’ve been with that horse. I know him inside and out and he knows me.”

A win in the Gold Cup would certainly be the icing on the cake for Chickeness, and Mas Mischief would likely be the longest priced winner since Trick Charge ($36.80) pulled a rabbit out of his hat to win it in 1996. Luck is certainly favouring Chickeness right now, following a year where he didn’t ride at all, and after two straight years of grinding in the mornings, it might just be a case of preparation meets opportunity. Or…

“Last year just wasn’t my year,” said Chickeness, whose 45-year-old sister Kelly passed away in 2020 from something thought to be COVID-related in Alberta. “That was tough on me, on the whole family. I think she’s here giving me a push right now.”

“She’s helping me.”