Mongolian Wind storms to Manitoba Derby title

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/08/2020 (1950 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Andrew Stronach’s three-year-old bay gelding, Mongolian Wind, ran a terrific race late Monday to capture the 72nd annual Manitoba Derby.

But the victory at Assiniboia Downs is just a precursor to a major outing in the fall. The Kentucky-bred horse is expected to run the 2020 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland in early October.

“I want him to run him in the Preakness and I wanted to give him one more race. It’s good for us, it’s good for Manitoba, it’s good for everybody,” said the Ontario-based owner. “My family owns the (Preakness) track and we want to support it. He’s just learning how to run.”

Mongolian Wind, somehow carrying just 7-1 odds in the feature race with a rare 10:35 p.m. post time, with jockey Wilmer Galviz aboard, engaged the leader, Mr. Unusual, midway through the mile-and-one-eighth race and burst ahead for the stretch run.

He held off Mr. Unusual, while pre-race favourite Something Natural finished third.

“The whole bumping thing, the horse seems to get more aggressive. He’s a fighter. He didn’t want to let that other horse by him (down the stretch),” said Stronach. “He likely couldn’t see him because he had blinkers on but he could maybe hear him. He showed heart. He’s got heart.”

To say the Derby had the same gusto as previous editions of Downs’ marquee event of the year would be a bit of a stretch. This one was a horse of a different colour.

But the 2020 racing season at the Winnipeg track has, indeed, been a season like never before, owing entirely to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Just like every other card since the Downs opened in late May — the first track to return to operation in Canada during the pandemic — fans were once again banned from watching from the grandstands.

Most of the appropriately spaced tables inside the Terrace Dining Room were occupied. There were even a few huge, gaudy hats amongst the spirited restaurant crowd of 500 people, and the exhilaration of watching horses battle down the homestretch was still there.

But they formed just a fragment of the horde of spectators that traditionally packs the place for the main attraction.

Downs CEO Darren Dunn said under the extraordinary circumstances, the rare evening Derby was still a solid success.

“I would say it certainly stands out as the day with the most vibe to it, in a year that’s been pretty quiet, with the social distancing and capacity restrictions. We had a fully competitive race with eight strong horses in the field. We had local interest and interest from outside the province, and that bodes well for our racing program and the distribution of our product. Suffice it to say, missing 12,000 fans is the thing that is hard to wrap your head around. There is a lot of room to move out here and we’re not used to it, not on most days and certainly not on Derby day,” he said.

“It’s our biggest day on our calendar but it doesn’t mean that we won’t celebrate it and recognize the winner the same way we normally would. It’s just we’re going to do it with a lot less people and a whole lot less crowd noise. But it warms the heart when you see the fancy hats, that people made the effort to recognize the day, respect the race and continue the history.

The online wagering on the feature race for three-year-olds likely reached a couple of million bucks.

“That’s our expectation at the end of the night,” said Dunn. “The distribution is global, without question. It’s going all over North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, South America… they’re betting on the Manitoba Derby with their brunch, so that’s interesting.

“It’s something we do this year, our cyber-racing, if you will, with a lot of pride and happy to showcase Manitoba to the world.”

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell