Eleven thoroughbreds entered Saturday’s $200,000 Canadian Derby at Century Mile Tuesday afternoon.
The morning line favourites - B.C.’s August Rain (5-2) and U.S. raced Awesome Road (3-1) - ended up beside each other. August Rain, who has won two of his last three races and four of his last five, will start from post 7; Awesome Road - with a bit of a muddled past performance history - will start from post eight.
“I didn’t have much trouble picking August Rain as the favourite,” said track announcer and morning-line oddsmaker Dylan Beardy.
“Not in this field anyway. He’s won five stakes races at Hastings Park and he has the same connections as last year’s winner Abeliefinthislivin.
“Same owner, Peter Redekop; same trainer, Barbara Heads and same jockey, Amadeo Perez.”
But Beardy had some soul searching when it came to making Awesome Road the second favourite at 3-1.
After all, Awesome Road finished fifth and sixth in his last two appearances.
“On paper his last two races don’t look that good. But then you look at some of the horses he has been running against. The back class is certainly there,” said Beardy.
Here are just a few examples:
Bought for $600,000 as a yearling from Claiborne Farms, Awesome Road is a son of Quality Road, who has sired 15 stakes winners and is one of the most successful sires in North America.
Awesome Road defeated Stronghold in his maiden debut: Stronghold went on to win the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.
In his final start as a two-year-old he faced Honor Marie, who was fourth in the Belmont and won the Grade 2 Jockey Club.
On February 3, Awesome Road ran fourth to this year’s Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan, who also ran second in the Preakness.
Then, on May 5 Awesome Road traded punches with Dimatic, who was fourth in the Iowa Derby and second in the West Virginia Derby.
After that race Awesome Road was purchased privately by four-time Canadian Derby trainer Robertino Diodoro for the conglomerate of Arnold Bennewith; Rick, Clayton and Lana Wiest; R6 Stables, Gary Kropp; Norm Tremblay and Jeff Van Nistelrooy.
Awesome Road’s first two races for Diodoro and his new owners weren’t impressive. He ran a distant fifth in the Texas Derby at Lonestar and then sixth in the Manitoba Derby.
“I don’t like to make excuses but he certainly had some,” said Diodoro, who started his career in Alberta and who has gone on to become one of North America’s leading trainers with 3,221 wins.
“The Texas Derby was my fault. We literally ran him off the trailer. It was 90-degrees. It was dumb on my part to send him there.”
If that isn’t enough Awesome Road also had to deal with a wide trip.
The Manitoba Derby was just as bad. “A five-wide trip and a track that was so deep I’m told it was the slowest Derby in Winnipeg in 76 years.
“Then they had trouble loading him into the starting gate. He’s a bad loader. That’s his only downfall.
“I really believe you’ll see a different horse Saturday evening.”
With trainers picking Saturday’s posts on Tuesday in random order, Diodoro could have chosen a post closer to the rail but opted for post seven.
“With a big field and his temperament you don’t want a horse sitting in the gate too long.
“He’s not bad when he’s in the gate. He’s not a nervous horse and he’s a real gentleman around the barn.
“It’s the same thing with the trailer. He’s okay when he’s in the trailer but like the starting gate he doesn’t like to go in the trailer,” said Diodoro, who has been schooling Awesome Road at the gate since the three-year-old arrived at Century Mile last week.
“Maybe he had a bad experience when he was young. I don’t know what the deal is.
“He’s settled in really nice. He worked real good on Saturday going 49 1/5 and then he galloped out five furlongs real strong in 1:01.
“If he loads good I think we’re good.”
Beardy pegged Classy City, who got post 4, as the third favourite at 7-2.
“Home town favourite,” said Beardy. “He won both the Count Lathum and the Western Canada Handicap.”
In between those races Classy City ran a dismal sixth behind August Rain in the July 6 Chris Loseth stakes in B.C.
But Alberta’s leading trainer Craig Smith said you can pretty much just throw that race out.
“He didn’t ship well. It takes a bit for him to settle in and we just didn’t have enough time. He was dumped around quite a bit in the early running as well. Then he lost a shoe in the paddock.
“It was just a comedy of errors to be honest.”
All three of the aforementioned favourites shouldn’t mind the Derby’s mile and a quarter distance.
The rest of the field will see Roussette (10-1), who has been running south of the border, start from the rail; J Dutton (8-1), who was beaten just half a length in his last start - the Winston Churchill at Hastings - got post 2; McEwen (20-1) second in the Manitoba Derby, starts from post 3; Skipper’s Pride (6-1), second in the Western Canada, landed in post 5; Lord of Battle (30-1), one start; one eight-length victory, is in post 6; Shining Tiger (30-1), winner of the Grande Prairie Derby, in post 9; Northern Force (20-1), an allowance winner, got post 10 and Itsallgoodman, last year’s two-year-old champion and runner-up in the Count Lathum, ended up on the outside in post 11.
STOCK REPORT - Saturday’s 13-race card - the Derby is race No. 12 - is the richest day in Western Canadian history with three other thoroughbred stakes races on the card which doesn’t even include the $34,000 Alberta Stallion Stakes quarter horse Derby.
The $100,000 Century Casino Oaks is race No. 9. Beardy has set Avana, also from Heads barn, as the 9-5 favourite.
The $75,000 Northlands Distaff is race 10. There, the electric Infinite Patience, who has won 20 of 29 races, drew the outside eighth post and meets up with Alberta champion Big Hug, who got a favourable fourth-post position. Infinite Patience is the 7-5 favourite set by Beardy; Big Hug is 5-2.
And then there is the $100,000 Speed to Spare Championship where Varatti, who has crossed he finish line on top four straight times, is the 2-1 favourite. At Attention, also from Heads barn, is the 7-2 second choice.
First post is 3:45 p.m.
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Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.