Downs delays start of season

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/05/2021 (1668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The 64th live horse racing season at Assiniboia Downs won’t break from the gate for another week.

The interprovincial travel restrictions and quarantine requirements have resulted in some unexpected travel delays for horsemen who had planned to be ready to race next week. As a result, Assiniboia Downs has decided to reschedule its opening day to May 24.

“There is so much that goes into the opening of the meet so it is disappointing for sure,” said Assiniboia Downs CEO Darren Dunn. “However, we felt it was the responsible approach to give it another week to get everyone here safely, following all necessary protocols. Then we can start the season strong with the first racing program on Victoria Day Monday.”

The two days that are being rescheduled, along with one additional race day, will be added to the end of the racing schedule to offer 51 days of racing as opposed to the original 50 days. Live racing will take place on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings with a post time of 7:30 p.m. and Assiniboia Downs will be one of the few tracks that will be running in Canada this month.

Horsemen will be competing for purses that start at $9,000 for $1,500 claiming races to $20,000 for open allowance and overnight stakes. There will be 32 stakes races in 2021, highlighted by the $100,000 Manitoba Derby on Monday Aug. 2.

While many of the returning trainers will be familiar faces from last year, the jockey colony is a whole different bag of tricks. Due to international travel restrictions, a number of last year’s jockeys have not been able to make it back to Manitoba for the 2021 season.

Defending 2020 riding champ and two-time ASD title winner Antonio Whitehall is back, as are 2020 runner-up Stanley Chadee Jr., Kayla Pizarro, Richard Mangalee, Neville Stephenson, Nirone Austin, Sheldon Chickeness and Shamaree Muir. Those eight returnees will be joined in the jocks’ room by new arrivals Jorge Carreno, Ismael Mosqueira, Leroy Nelson, Dwight Lewis, Hector Rabbitskin and Jamal Mahon, the only apprentice in this year’s jockey colony.

The main challengers to Whitehall’s dominance among the newcomers are expected to be Carreno, Mosqueira and possibly Nelson. Mexico City native Carreno has won 1490 races during his career including numerous stakes, but perhaps his best performance came in the 2017 Arkansas Derby-G1, when he finished a game second aboard Conquest Mo Money (definitely worth watching on YouTube).

Mosqueira, also from Mexico City, has been riding at Woodbine for the past five seasons, and has never failed to crack the $100,000 mark in purses earned since he started riding in 2007. Nelson is the cousin of former top ASD rider Tyrone Nelson and is hoping Assiniboia Downs will be the perfect place to make a comeback from an injury. The leading apprentice at Gulfstream Park and Calder in 2004, Nelson once won four races on a single card at Calder and three on a card at Gulfstream Park.

Whitehall isn’t one to take things for granted and he’s well prepared to defend his title. The 27-year-old from Barbados spent his first winter in Canada with long-time girlfriend Ria Waithe and their son Kyro after last year’s race meeting and was one of the first to return to the local backstretch this year to start exercising horses on March 13.

“I like to work,” said Whitehall, who won the local riding title in 2018 and 2020 and finished third in Canada last year by number of wins with 117. “It helps me stay fit and I like to stay in tune with my horses in the mornings. You have to be dedicated and work hard. I’m very thankful to everyone for the opportunity to ride so many horses.”

Runaway leading 2020 trainer Jerry Gourneau (73 wins) will be back with about 50 horses this year, as will many of the regular stables including those of five-time leading trainer Tom Gardipy Jr. (35 horses), 2012 training champ Shelley Brown (30), Lise Pruitt (30), Jared Brown (25), Wendy Anderson (25), Devon Gittens (25), Steve Gaskin (20) and Courtney Ross (20).

While fans won’t be able to attend the races in person, they will be able to watch and wager on the races on Canada’s leading horse racing wagering site HPIBet.com. Fans will also be treated to new features on the live broadcast, which will now be in full HD format with a new graphics package.

And for those who like to prepare for the races in advance, the ASDLive Handicapping Show (@ASDLiveShow on Twitter) featuring top local handicappers Kirt Contois, Marshall Posner and Glen Sirkis will be broadcast live on the Assiniboia Downs YouTube Channel at 6:45 p.m. each race day before the races.

Additionally, at two minutes to post the @ASDLiveShow handicapping crew will do a 60-second summary of their top picks for each race. “This new feature was built out of a request from our partners in the international markets who were looking for a quick summary of the handicapper’s picks close to post time for their customers,” said Dunn.

“We worked hard to further expand the global audience and we have high expectations in this area. We utilize an intermediate based out of Paris, France, to resell our signal and the indication from this firm was that we should expect expanded interest, specifically from Australia and South America.”

Assiniboia Downs shattered their previous wagering record in 2020 when fans bet $63,264,000 during the 50-day meeting, bettering the mark of $53,394,913 set in a 135-day meeting in 1981. Can they do it again?

Bet on it.