The old saying simply isn’t true. Sometimes nice guys don’t finish last.

Dave Nicholson proved that again on Friday night at Century Mile.

Named the inaugural Alan Bott Memorial for Sportsmanship and Kindness, Nicholson won the $50,000 Count Lathum - an important prep race for next month’s August 22 $200,000 Canadian Derby - with Tisum in a thriller over Big Curl.

“Come on Tisum. Come on Tisum,” yelled Nicholson running full speed from the paddock to the front of the big infield screen to get a better view.

“Come on jock. Come on. Get through. Get through,” he bellowed as Tisum, sent away at 3-1, and leading rider Jose Asencio tried to split the leaders Need The Purse and Javier in the last eighth of a mile.

Tisum and Asencio did. Barely. 

But still the race wasn’t over as favourite Big Curl was coming hard.

“Come on Tisum. Keep going,” continued Nicholson his yells piercing the warm night air.

“Yes. Yes.

“Did he get there? Did he hold on?”

He did. By a nose in a monumental head bob effort in his first Alberta start for owner Camrose farmer Chris Duggan, who claimed Tisum on June 5 at Churchill Downs for $20,000.

“What a ride,” gushed Nicholson as the photo sign blinked Tisum’s number.

It was certainly that. Tisum, who got away last, rode the rail all the way before coming off the fence at the top of the stretch.

“I didn’t think there was room,” said Nicholson, a hard working trainer who regularly checks in with 99-year-old legend Red McKenzie and daily helps out trainer Danny Jones. “I didn’t think Tisum was going to get through.”

But he did.

Surprisingly Asencio said the wasn’t worried.

“I knew I had horse. (Need the Purse and Javier) were spent and I still had horse. I was alive and they were dead,” said Ascencio showing one more time why he leads the jockey standings this year at The Mile.

As for holding off Big Curl, Ascencio said “My horse is tough. He wasn’t going to give up.”

Duggan, whose grandfather Joe ran a lot of horses in Alberta, and Nicholson had been looking for a Derby horse since February.

“We were looking every day. We got out-shook on a few horses but we kept looking,” said Nicholson, who actually put two claiming slips in the June 5 race at Churchill. 

“The other one was for Bayou Flyer. But we lost the shake on that one. Probably a good thing. He ran last. And we won a four-horse shake to get Tisum.

“We’ll see.”

Nicholson had been following Tisum for a long time.

“I liked his (Beyer Speed) numbers. He was getting numbers like 70, 73 and 74.

“And I just liked the way he was running. He was the favourite in the race we claimed him.”

Tisum ran once - at Churchilll - after Duggan claimed him. He only ran fifth.

“But he had a good number in that race too and it was against some really nice older horses,” said Nicholson, who has now won 15 stakes races.

Ironically the first stake Nicholson won was the Count Lathum many years ago.

Nicholson said probably the best horse he trained was Royal Warrior, who won the Speed to Spare in 2016 and then got photoed out by great local champion Killin Me Smalls a year later - also in the Speed to Spare.

Another top horse Nicholson trained was Tone It Up, who he claimed at Oaklawn Park for $12,500 in 2022 and who went on to win the Century Casino Oaks the same year and ran second in the Sonoma.

Now there is Tisum.

“He just as easily could have been second. What a difference an inch makes.

“But it’s hard on the constitution. We were up until 1:30 in the morning celebrating. Then I was up again at 4:30.

“He seems alright,” said Nicholson, who started training in 1972 after working for ‘Goodie’ Goodwin. “He can be a little quirky. Sometimes he won’t backtrack or won’t go into the wash rack but he trains really good.

“I didn’t do much with him. It was a long three-day ship to Edmonton. I breezed him was about all I did. He was supposed to run in this race last week but bad weather canceled that card and moved it to Friday.

“So far so good.”

There was one other stake on Friday and it was a smasher with Playful winning the $50,000 Sonoma for three-year-old fillies by 10 lengths.

That was despite an arduous trip that saw her have to leave out of the outside 8-post and forced to run three, four and five wide. And, never get a breather.

“She’s getting better and better,” said leading trainer Gonzalo Anderson after Playful’s third straight win having previously won an allowance race and then the Chariot Chaser.

“We love this horse. She’s a happy horse.”

Anderson now finds himself in a bit of a quandary.

He can run in the August 22 $100,000 Century Casino Oaks or maybe the $200,000 Canadian Derby the same day.

“I’m not sure yet. We’ll compare the numbers and see how she is training,” said Anderson, 37.

“I’m going to nominate for both stakes and train her up to whichever race we decide to run her in.”

Jockey Antonio Whitehall, who rides in Winnipeg, took over the reins from Dane Nelson, who was suspended for 10 days for marijuana use.

“Antonio rode her last year to win the Freedom of the City,” said Anderson, who is from Venezuela.

“So he knows her. I asked him if he wanted to ride her again and he said ‘Absolutely.’

“Despite the wide trip I thought he rode her great. He’s got such soft hands.

“I thought she would have won a couple of races in Phoenix this winter but other jockeys would fight her and her head would go in the air. Antonio rides her great,” said Anderson, who won one other race on Friday giving him 25 wins on the meet - nine more than Tim Rycroft.

Interestingly, Playful is owned by New York’s Newtown Anner Stud Farm, a prominent international thoroughbred breeding and racing operation owned by U.S.-based construction magnate Maurice Regan and his wife, Samantha.

Newtown also has a large farm in Ireland. They were represented by two horses in last year’s Breeders’ Cup.

“I’m very happy to have one of their horses,” said Anderson, who came to Canada in 2008 and went to the University of Calgary.

“It’s pretty cool.”

Anderson has only been training horses for five years after working for Tim Rycroft for half a dozen years.

Anderson was last year’s leading trainer with earnings of over $1-million.

“Having talented horses makes my life way easier.”

Anderson, whose father Gonzalo Anderson Sr. is both a doctor and a trainer in Venezuela, said there is no secret to his success: he and his crew headed by assistant trainer Crystal Cates work hard.

“We don’t worry about the wins. We just try and do our best.

“We’ve got some really nice horses.

“Good owners with good horses are the most important thing.

Playful is certainly one of those good horses.

“She was full of herself Saturday morning - playing around.

“I just hope this race didn’t take too much out of her.

As wide as she was she had to run a long way.”