Assiniboia Downs trainer pulls a card for the ages

IT was only a matter of time. And not much of it.

Five-time leading trainer Jerry Gourneau shot to the top of the trainer standings this week on the strength of a record-tying night Wednesday at Assiniboia Downs. Gourneau won five of the six races carded on Wednesday, tying a record for wins on a card by a trainer.

The record was set by Gilbert Ducharme on Oct. 9, 1985 and equalled by Ardell Sayler on May 10, 2014. Ducharme accomplished the feat on a 10-race card. Sayler did it in eight. Gourneau had six races to work with, and his winners weren’t all favourites.

Gourneau won the first race with Layla’s Song ($4.40), the second with Brooklyn Alley Cat ($11.70), the third with Girl From de Bayou ($4.50), and made it four in a row with Lexington River ($10.30). He then won the sixth race with Prints Money ($6.80).

Gourneau also won the third race Tuesday for six wins on the week, but the question everyone was asking was why he didn’t win the fifth race on Wednesday, which would have made him the first trainer in the history of Assiniboia Downs, and maybe anywhere, to sweep an entire race card.

“I told Jerry I was mad at him,” laughed Henry S. Witt, Jr., who owned five of Gourneau’s six winners on the week. “He said, ‘What are you mad at me for?’ I said, “’Why didn’t you have one in the fifth?’ He had one for that race, but he didn’t want to run the horses back on short rest.”

Witt wasn’t really mad, rather the exact opposite, and why not? The eight-time leading owner at the Downs is off to a great start in his quest for a ninth owner title and eighth in a row.

“It feels really good,” said Witt. “That was really a fun deal. I’ve got horses scattered everywhere, in Nebraska and Texas, and they’ve been doing good, but we got off to a late start up there.

Gourneau and Witt teamed for one win in the first week of racing here, but made up for it in week two. Gourneau sits atop the trainer standings with seven wins, one more than last year’s leading trainer Steve Keplin, Jr. Both are from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in Belcourt, N.D.

If Gourneau or Keplin wins the trainer title this year, it would mark the 12th consecutive year the title has been won by an Indigenous trainer, and fourteenth time in the past 18 years. Gourneau has three times the number of horses Keplin has, but his numbers were depleted slightly over the first two weeks via the claiming route.

“I think they claimed five from us in the first four nights,” said Witt. “Everybody thinks I get mad about that, but you know, we’re going to run them where they belong. If they claim them, they claim them, which is all right, you know, because that means I’ve got to get more. And then we’ve got more competition too, which is better for the track, for the bettors and for everybody.”

A former champion racing car driver who now runs a successful auto glass business in Texas, while also operating a large cattle ranch and a horse breeding and racing operation, Witt loves to win, and his partnership with Gourneau has led to some incredible numbers here.

Over the last 11 years at Assiniboia Downs, Witt has won 326 races in 1,740 starts (21 per cent) and finished in the top three 898 times (53 per cent) for purse earnings of US$3,175,977. He’s won seven straight owner titles (2019-2025) and eight (2016) overall, while also finishing second in the standings in 2017, and third in 2015 and 2018.

“You’ve got to work at it,” said Witt, who was herding cattle in the rain while we were talking on Thursday. “If you work hard enough at something, you’re going to win. If you just spend the time that it takes, you’re going to win. If you don’t spend the time, you’re not going to win. And you’ve got to learn while you’re doing it. It’s really hard. I can tell you that. But I make the time because I like it.

“Somebody asked me when I was going to retire. Retire from what? If you love what you’re doing, it’s not work. I’m having fun.”

Who retires from having fun?