When Phil Giesbrecht crossed the finish line in second place behind Boleto A Mexico with Ruler of Dragons in the $90,000 Moore’s Mile - one of two stakes races at Calgary’s Century Downs - he was was happy.
Little did he know that happiness was going to an entire new level.
“Dave Kelly (driver of Boleto A Mexico) drove up to me and asked if I was second or third,” said Giesbrecht.
“Second,” answered Giesbrecht.
“Well you’re going to be the winner,” said a subdued Kelly. “I’m going to get tossed.”
Kelly was right. Boleto A Mexico was disqualified and placed ninth and last for interference for interfering with Libra Mundi and driver Brandon Campbell coming past the grandstand for the first time.
“I was told Boleto A Mexico put in a bad step causing Brandon’s horse to break stride. To be honest I didn’t know any of that,” said Giesbrecht. “I was quite a bit back and didn’t see any of it.”
But the judges did and had no choice to disqualify Boleto A Mexico.
“Boleto A Mexico put in a weird step,” said Jamie Gray, trainer of both Boleto A Mexico and Ruler of Dragons.
“I didn’t know what happened until after the race when I got back to the barn. Boleto A Mexico caught his right front shoe. The foot is quite a mess; I’ll have to rebuild it.”
Gray said getting first-place with Ruler Of Dragons but being disqualified with Boleto A Mexico was “bitter sweet.
“I went from finishing first and second to being first and last.
“The good thing was that Boleto A Mexico or any of the other horses didn’t get hurt.
“Boleto A Mexico almost went down to his nose,” continued Gray. “It could have been a real mess but Dave Kelly did a great job getting him back up and pacing.”
Gray said if Boleto A Mexico, who was the 4-5 race favourite, hadn’t caught a shoe he was going to win.
“No doubt,” said Gray. “The proof is in the pudding. He finished first despite having to race three-quarters of a mile with one shoe missing.
“He raced his guts out; he raced huge. I’m happy getting the win with Ruler of Dragons. I’m unhappy with what happened to Boleto A Mexico.
“But you have to take the good things. I learned that a long time ago. You have to take the good over the bad or you’ll lose your sanity,” concluded Gray.
As for Ruler Of Dragons, Gray said that horse put in a great race in the race for three-year-old Alberta-foaled three-year-old colts and geldings.
“He was far back in seventh-place, then had to tip three wide around the turn and he just kept on trucking,” said Gray.
“He raced fantastic.”
Giebrecht agreed.
“I wasn’t worried about being three-wide. He’s got such a great stride and he was pacing so well.”
Cleverly, Giesbrecht pulled three wide down the backstretch when he did to keep Vladdy G from doing the same thing.
“Vladdy G was one of the horses I was most concerned with,” said Giesbrecht, who showed why he won the recent Western Regional Driving Championship and will now contest the Canadian Championship.
“I had to beat Logan (driver/trainer) Gillis to the punch. I went first before he could think about it.
“I had to get going.
“Logan told me ‘You outdrove me.’”
Finishing a length behind Boleto A Mexico, Giesbrecht held second in a photo just ahead of Vladdy, who was moved from third to second.
“As it turned out that photo was for the win but I didn’t know that at the time. Like I said I was a long way back from the interference,” reiterated Giesbrecht.
“He powered through the last turn and showed his class.”
Giesbrecht said the Moore’s Mile was one of his biggest victories.
“I’ve won the Western Canada Pacing Derby twice and the Filly Pace twice. And I’ve won a couple of $100-grand stakes in B.C. But this rates right up there.”
Ruler Of Dragons, who paid $12.40 to win, has never finished worse than third in any of his 10 races.
The mile went in 1:54 4/5.
“Very consistent horse,” said Gray, who trains Ruler of Dragons for British Columbia owners Rick Mowles and Paul Sanders and himself.
Bred by Jordon Cook, the partnership will divide the $45,000 winner’s cheque.
“He’s not a big, powerful animal but he thinks he’s six feet four inches. He’s also got big lungs and he’s a long horse,” said Gray, a much deserved finalist for the 2025 O'Brien Award winner for Horsemanship.
Ruler Of Dragons finished second in the Moore’s Mile eliminations the previous weekend to long shot Y V Weller when Ruler Of Dragons cut the mile.
“That’s not his game,” said Giesbrecht. “He wants to have a target to run at. He didn’t like racing on the front end.”
“Both of my horses raced great,” said Gray.
In the other stakes race on Saturday’s card - the $90,000 Shirley McClellan - open to Alberta-foaled three-year-old fillies - Blue Star Aspire rode the pocket trip behind even-money favourite Blue Star Strike before pulling around the final turn and on to a one-length victory in 1:55.
Both Blue Star Aspire and Blue Star Strike, who duelled heads apart for about the last half mile, are bred by William Zaretski.
“I waited. I waited. I waited. I waited,” said Blue Star Aspire’s driver/trainer and co-owner Rod Therres, who took the lead just outside of the sixteenths pole.
“I could have waited some more but my hands were getting sore. I had Carpal Tunnel surgery on both wrists two years ago and they both still bother me.
“At the wire I was tired and so was Blue Star Aspire,” said Therres, 56. “Maybe I’m just getting old.”
But they both had enough left.
“It was fun,” said Therres, who bought Blue Star Aspire for $20,500 at the Alberta Yearling Sales for himself, KFC Farms and the late Dairen Edwards, who died just a week before Therres’ horses won a pair of $100,000 races on the same day last year in B.C.
“To win against these fillies is pretty special and to draw the rail was really exciting.
“It’s a game changer.
“I was able to get a pocket trip behind the horse I thought was the best, Blue Star Strike, who I knew was going to leave fast,” said Therres, of the even-money favourite.
Blue Star Aspire, at 2-1, was the second betting choice and paid $6.80 to win.
“She was the one to follow. It worked the way I was hoping it would go,” said Therres, who has more than 1,000 wins as both a trainer and a driver.
“I was excited to get that kind of a trip.”
Therres said Blue Star Aspire won a stakes race for him as a two-year-old and sent her to Chris Lancaster.
“But then she got sick and was no good the rest of the year so I turned her out for the entire winter. So far it has worked,” said Therres, whose father Dave trained thoroughbreds for 40 years.
“I’m a lifer,” said Therres.
“I quit school early and became a groom for my father. But we lived close to my school and my home in Cloverdale, where they raced harness horses. That’s how I got into standardbred racing.
Therres, said his 1,000ths win as a trainer and again as a driver, were very special.
“My whole family were there so it was extra nice.”
Interestingly, Blue Star Aspire went off at 126-1 four starts ago and 47-1 three races ago.
But she was just 3-2 winning a division of the Shirley McClellan.
“I got the easier division. I wouldn’t have been 3-2 in the other division,” said Therres, who put blinkers on Blue Star Aspire for the first time two starts ago.
“They helped. I think they woke her up a little.”
Therres said the Shirley McClellan victory on Saturday surprised him and didn’t surprise him.
“I didn’t know if we could beat Blue Star Strike.
“In horse racing anything can happen.”
Just watch the Moore’s Mile to see it for yourself.
STOCK REPORT - There are two exciting thoroughbred stakes races this Saturday at Century Mile.
The drama will be ripe for the R.A. ‘Red’ McKenzie stake which both B.C.’s Avana and Alberta’s Big Hug nominated for. For that matter it will be the race of the year so far if both of them meet for just the second time. At press time Avana’s connections weren’t sure if they are running in the ‘Red’ McKenzie or possibly run in the Spangled Jimmy against older horses.
Avana and Big Hug, two of the top mares to run in Alberta, have only met once before when Avana got the jump on Big Hug in last year’s Northlands Distaff and won by a length and three-quarters.
Avana was B.C.’s 2024 Horse of the Year; Big Hug has been Alberta’s Horse of the Year the last two seasons.
Avana comes off a sensational come-from-far-back win in the RedTail Landing. Big Hug is returning to action after a long rest. Big Hug didn’t run in the RedTail Landing because of the six-furlong distance. The ‘Red’ McKenzie is seven furlongs.
It should be epic if Avana, who has been assigned a staggering 129 pounds for the Spangled Jimmy, runs in either race.
Speaking of… there were 18 nominations for the Spangled Jimmy including Avana.
With or without her, the Spangled Jimmy has enormous potential with a who’s who field.
Just look - in alphabetical order - at the nominations:
- Avana. ‘Nuff said.
- Crusher Royale, who has won two local starts easily after being purchased in Tampa Bay.
- Gotme Good, who was a nose behind Rainbow’s Pride in The Journal Handicap.
- Lord of Battle has won his last three races but hasn’t started in a year.
- Accidental Genius, a winner two starts back.
- Al Reichert, who won The Journal last year.
- Attack, who recently worked four furlongs over a ‘good’ track in :47 2/5.
- Rainbow’s Pride won this year’s Journal in the final jump - a bob of the head outcome.
- Stonevicious, third by three-quarters of a length in The Journal.
- Sunbird, first or second in 12 of 17 starts.
- Thatswhatimherefor: The speedster.
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Inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.