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 Professor Pollard, left, and No Hesitation will go head-to-head on Saturday for the Canadian Derby at Northlands. |
You don’t bring back horse racing in a day. But you can bring back horse racing for a day.
They did it last year. Clearly, it will be revealed at Wednesday’s drawing for post positions, they’re going to do it again this year.
For the second year in a row, the Canadian Derby will be a blast-from-the-past special day in sports.
Back as the richest race in Canada west of Woodbine, the $300,000 81st running of the Derby will be featured on a first-time-ever 13-race card with a total purse of just over $500,000 for the day.
108 horses
The card is also expected to break last year’s record of 108 horses sent to the post when the entry boxes close with at least eight horses in every race.
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“If you start with eight horses per race, that’s 104 and I will get more than eight in at least half a dozen of them,” said racing secretary Jason Teague.
The overall goal is to meet or beat last year, which won reviews as the best Canadian Derby day since the ’80s, with the place packed with an estimated 10,000 fans to watch arguably the most talented field in at least a quarter century.
“The field, I believe, is comparable,” said marketing manager Jonathan Huntington.
“The most startling comparison to last year is that a local horse will be the favourite. The top four choices last year were all imports.”
With Vancouver dropping prize money for its richest race by $125,000, the Canadian Derby now offers double the purse of Hastings Park or any other track west of Toronto. As a result, for the second straight year they’ll likely introduce a field featuring seven imports for the race, which for a second year in a row is being telecast live on TSN.
For the second consecutive year (picking up the theme anywhere here?) the Derby will almost certainly feature a full 12 horse field.
Two Derby horses from California, two from British Columbia and one from Toronto, Minnesota and Manitoba are expected.
The California horses are Distorted Dave, who was on the Kentucky Derby trail and Ranger Heartley who won at Del Mar Aug. 1. Kara’s Orientation arrived Tuesday from Toronto.
Cherokee’s Notion is the best three-year-old in Vancouver with Dyna Stroll also expected from the coast.
Cherokee’s Goal is headed here from Winnipeg.
No Hesitation, the hometown hero and winner of four in a row will be the favourite against second-favourite Stachys, a thoroughbred tourist expected to handle the 1,800-km haul from Minnesota (he’s raced in New Mexico, Louisiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Manitoba) who comes with a three-race winning streak.
The crowd last year bet $288,926 on the Canadian Derby race itself. Only twice all year had the handle topped that number — for the entire race card! A stunning total of $1,084,315 was bet in the worst economy of our lifetime.
This year they added the prestigious 65th running of the Speed To Spare for aged horses to the card, to go with the Distaff for mare and the Derby for three-year-olds, resulting in stables shipping their best horses for all three races.
When the entry boxes close a 10-horse field is likely for the Speed To Spare, to at least double last year’s total. The Distaff starting gates will be loaded with likely 10 or 11 and will have champions from Winnipeg, Vancouver and Edmonton, which it didn’t have last year.
“Our motto on Derby Day has become to make it the biggest and best thoroughbred card we can possibly offer,” said Huntington.
For the handicappers, there’s a new late Win 4 which will involve the Derby itself, the Distaff and the Speed To Spare — “the best horses this side of Toronto in one bet,” as Huntington puts it.
There’s also an early Win 4 (races 5 to 8).
$1 million Pick 10
And, for the first time in Canadian horse-racing history a $1 million Pick 10 (involving races 4-13) will also be offered. It’s an insured wager with a Texas company that’s a bit like trying to hit the lottery. But it gives Edmonton handicappers a chance to do something no other punters have had a shot at in Canada.
As was planned in the spring, they’re opening the infield to spectators.
“It’s a good thing. We’re running out of space on the grandstand side so the infield is our last available space,” said Huntington.
“Unlike last year, every box in the grandstand is sold. That’s 90 boxes and we sold out at the start of this week. Every corporate suite is gone. We had to put two large corporate parties in tents in the infield. The 800-seat Colours dining room sold out in 20 minutes at the beginning of August,” he said.
“If the weather is good I believe the crowd should be bigger this year than last year,” said Huntington.
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca