Jockey Amadeo Perez looked at me like I had just asked the stupidest question ever. Either that or I was growing antlers out of my ears.
After the much anticipated rematch between Avana and Big Hug at Century Mile in Saturday’s seven furlong $50,000 Red McKenzie where favoured Avana defeated Big Hug by a length and a tail, I asked Perez in the if he was ever worried?
Then came the look from Perez. It was a look of utter confusion.
“Pardon me?” Said Perez blinking and looking extremely puzzled after a race that certainly lived up to expectations.
So, I repeated the question.
“Worried?” Said Perez of the race contested over a very sloppy track with steady rain still coming down from the hoary, grey skies.
“Worried?” He repeated for a third time. “No. Never. It was easy. Very easy.
“I saw Big Hug make her move and I was ready.
“When I ask Avana to move, she moves.
“She’s a very, very nice mare.”
No kidding.
The victory was Avana’s 13th in 17 starts. In 2024 she was B.C.’s Horse of the Year.
Big Hug was Alberta’s Horse of the Year the last two seasons.
“(Avana is the) best mare I’ve ever ridden,” said Perez, a multiple B.C. champion jockey.
The McKenzie went as expected with Gee I’m Foxy and Viva La Diva setting the pace in the five-horse field, Who’s That Baby third and at the back Big Hug and Avana.
Big Hug moved first sliding into a narrow lead around the turn and into the top of the stretch. But Avana was moving with her and you could see it coming. At the eighth pole - four wide - Avana took the lead and was once again rolling with one more last-to-first performance.
“Amadeo wasn’t going to let Big Hug get the jump on Avana,” said trainer Barb Heads.
“He didn’t want to let Big Hug get out of her sight.
“Amadeo moved up a little, sat for a bit until he asked her a bit.
“He hit her once and it probably killed him to do it.”
“Big Hug made Avana run hard,” said Mike Heads, Barb’s husband.
“Big Hug is one tough mare.”
But so, of course, is Avana, a big mare built “like a tank.”
“Big Hug ran great,” said Big Hug’s personable jockey Raffy Zenteno Jr. “But Avana ran better. Avana is a tough, tough horse to beat.
“Having a start this year might have made all the difference.”
Rick Hedge, Big Hug’s co-owner and trainer was pleased by Big Hug’s effort. But he wasn’t happy.
“I knew that race that Avana had this year was going to be the difference,” said Hedge referring to the May 30 RedTail Landing which went in 1:10.54 with the last three-eighths of a mile going in a sizzling 34 seconds and which Avana won by four widening lengths.
“Big Hug was making her first start in eight months,” continued Hedge. “She didn’t start training until the middle of March.
“I was worried she might get a little tired and she did.”
“It was a great race,” said Barb of only the second meeting between the two-top mares; Avana also won the first encounter last year.
“Big Hug ran an amazing race for being off for such a long time.
“You can never go wrong having a race under your belt.”
Heads, five times B.C.’s leading trainer, now has trained two of the best mares in the nation having also conditioned the brilliant Infinite Patience, who won 22 of 32 starts including 10 in a row and 13 out of 14.
She is now a broodmare, owned by Edmonton Oiler veteran Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Her first foal is a colt by Hard Spun.
“Avana and Infinite Patience are two very different types. Infinite Patience liked to be in the mix; Avana comes from behind.
“Avana is simple. Very easy to deal with; Infinite Patience was way more complex.
“I’m so blessed and lucky to have had two great mares,” said Heads, who credited her staff and barn several times.
“They all work as a team; they all do a great job.
“It’s been a difficult transition coming from B.C. when Hastings shut down.”
Heads said she got worried that in race after race at ‘The Mile’ the positions of the horses didn’t change. Whoever went to the top won, the horse that got away second finished second. And the horses that trailed early finished well back.
“Nobody was coming from off the pace and that’s Avana’s game,” said Heads.
Heads was also worried about the weights assigned. Avana carried top weight of 129 pounds - three more than she toted in the RedTail; Big Hug was second highweight with 127 pounds despite making her first start since last October.
“Fortunately it all worked out and she was bucking and playing after the race.
“Avana knows her job. She knows where the finish line is.
“She’s super smart; super athletic. A very classy horse.
R.A. ‘Red’ McKenzie, 99, made the presentation to Avana.
Still sharp, McKenzie, now retired, is the oldest trainer to win a race in this country and is the second oldest to saddle a winner in North America behind Jerry Bozzo, who won a race at age 97 in 2018.
“It was real nice to see Red again,” said Barb. “His son, John, shoes my horses.”
In the co-featured $50,000 Spangled Jimmy - Rainbow’s Pride got a perfect ride from 18-year-old jockey Richard Balgobin to win by a length and a half over favoured Lord of Battle, who was looking for his fourth straight victory.
Overlooked - despite having won the Journal in his last start where he defeated four other Spangled Jimmy entrants - Rainbow’s Pride paid $16.60 to win.
Balgobin rode a flawless race.
“The plan was to let Rainbow’s Pride go to the top and if somebody else wanted the lead to let him go and then come on again,” said trainer and co-owner Craig Smith.
That’s exactly what happened. Rainbow’s Pride left quickly but soon was joined by Lord of Battle. As instructed, Balgobin let Lord of Battle go and then rebroke to reassume the lead in deep stretch.
Rainbow’s Pride was another sharp claim by Smith, who haltered him out of a $20,000 claiming race at Tampa Bay, Florida.
The winning time by Rainbow’s Pride was 1:25 identical to Avana’s time for the seven furlongs.
STOCK REPORT - Trainer Colleen O’Hagan got her 100th training win when she sent out Scarlett Letter on Sunday.
There were also three quarter horse races on Saturday - two of them important.
In the $30,000 Futurity for two-year-olds going 350 yards, Great Falls bore out shortly after leaving the starting gate and was running on the grandstand side. But Great Falls, the 4-5 favourite, was the only entrant who had raced this year in California and was winter trained there as well, and had enough to run down Rooters Wagon.
Then, in the 400-yard $30,000 Derby Final for three-year-olds, O Sawyer won in a blanket finish for just his second career win.
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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.