Sweet sendoff for apprentice jockey

Three outside smoothies and a crunchy ride up the rail in the $40,000 Frank Arnason Sire Stakes on Tuesday vaulted apprentice jockey Ciera Pruitt into the top 10 at Assiniboia Downs for the first time this year.

The crunch came first. And she won’t be here much longer.

Pruitt led all jockeys on the week with four victories, the first coming aboard Manitoba-bred Bromeo in the 39th running of the Frank Arnason, for her mother, trainer Lise Pruitt. Bromeo and Pruitt duelled from the inside throughout and prevailed after a long, tight drive up the rail to take home the $24,000 winner’s share of the purse for longtime owner/breeder Barry Arnason.

“I just got really lucky, honestly,” said Pruitt. “Everything kind of fell into my hands. God was looking after me this week and it all worked out in my favour.”

The smooth outside rides came aboard Pruitt’s other three winners: the seventh race on Tuesday aboard Dynamic Strike (8-1) for trainer Wendy Anderson, the third race on Wednesday with Preachers Secret for trainer Jason Homer (5-2), and the sixth race on Wednesday aboard Neytiri (8-5), also for her mother.

The stakes win also gave Pruitt a new line on her Equibase page, something Mom was quick to point out.

“When I look at her title, it says stakes winning jockey. I was like, Woohoo!, you’re a stakes-winning jockey now!”

Bromeo is a homebred for Barry Arnason, by Speculating out of the mare Zero Zee. It was the second stakes winner this year for Speculating, whose daughter Rise Again won the Hazel Wright Sire Stakes on July 15 for trainer Mike Nault. That should bode well for Speculating’s yearlings in the upcoming Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale on Aug. 20.

Lise Pruitt has known the colt since the day he was born.

“I remember it like it was yesterday,” she said. “Last year he was a little big and awkward. On his first work this year, I’m like, ‘Whoa, Bromeo!’ He had a huge reach on him.”

Barry Arnason, one of the principals at Arnason Industries, which manages major northern construction projects, brought 24 family members to the races for the big night, and the winner’s circle was packed. The Frank Arnason Sire Stakes carries the name of Barry’s late father, a founding figure in Manitoba racing who served as president of the CTHS and whose Arnason Farms produced numerous stakes winners.

“The stars aligned,” said Arnason, who also won races at Fort Erie and Canterbury this week. “My brother was in from Calgary, and I had everybody around, so I figured we’d go for the dinner.”

For Lise, watching her daughter and a homebred she raised from foal cross the wire together in a stakes race was its own reward.

“It felt amazing, just amazing,” she said.

Pruitt’s stakes breakthrough was also, by her own account, a debt paid.

“I wouldn’t have had that stakes win if it wasn’t for my mom believing in me,” she said, adding thanks to Jason Homer and every other barn that has put her up on horses since she started.

Pruitt almost had the longest shot of the week with Dynamic Strike, but that honour was wrested away by former Hastings Park jockey Kerron Khelawan, who gave Pay My Way ($20.70) a perfect trip to win the fifth race on Wednesday for trainer Charlene Miller and her two-horse stable, also out of Hastings Park.

Khelawan, 29, is quietly building a season worth noticing. The Trinidad and Tobago native first came to Canada in 2017 and won a race at Assiniboia Downs before heading to Hastings Park. In 2018, he won two legs of the Trinidad and Tobago Triple Crown aboard General JN and continued to ride in his home country during COVID. He returned to Hastings Park in 2022 and finished third in the standings in 2024 and 2025.

When Hastings closed this year, Khelawan moved his tack to Assiniboia Downs, where he is quietly climbing in the standings. Two weeks ago he won the $50,000 Derby Trial for trainer Cindy Krasner aboard Really Ralis, who is now the local favourite for the Manitoba Derby on Aug. 3.

While Khelawan has climbed his way into third in the standings for top agent and former leading Hastings Park rider Richard Hamel and appears on his way to an excellent year here, Pruitt is moving on to what she hopes will be bigger and better things at Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania.

“I have an agent there,” said Pruitt. “He has horses lined up for me, and they need an apprentice there.”

Pruitt is expected to ride here next week, and then head to Presque Isle.

She couldn’t have scripted a better send off.