Don’t overlook new Alberta jockey Brian Boodramsingh. If you’re a bettor, a trainer or an owner, keep the 33-year-old rider on your radar.
“I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t finish in the top three riders this year in Alberta,” said his agent Riley Rycroft.
“He’s that good.”
Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Boodramsingh 33, who spent the last two years racing at B.C.’s Hastings Park, was Trinidad and Tobago’s leading rider a startling 9 times.
“He didn’t just top the jockey standings all those years he dominated,” said trainer Rob Van Overshot, who also came to Alberta from Hastings Park this year.
“I rode him a lot in B.C. and I’ll continue to use him in Alberta.
“I’m with Riley. I think he’ll be a top rider here too.”
Boodramsingh was humbled by the praise of Rycroft and Van Overschot.
“Ooh boy. They said that?” said Boodramsingh.
“Of course it means a lot coming from them. They are both very knowledgeable,” said Boodramsingh, who has a wife and two children back in Trinidad and Tobago and who is in the process of getting visas for his family to join him in Canada.
“I’d like to be leading rider here too,” said Boodramsingh, who at one point in Trinidad and Tobago won nine of 17 races.
Another time, in 2018, he rode five winners on the seven-race card including the feature.
“I just do my best.”
Boodramsingh’s last riding title in Trinidad and Tobago came last year despite missing six months while riding in B.C. and a couple of short stints at Edmonton’s Century Mile.
It came down to the final day and the final race on the card when Boodramsingh rode three winners in the abbreviated 14-day racing meet.
“It was good to come back and win the championship. I believed that I could, and the trainer and owners gave me what was needed,” said Boodramsingh, who took out his jockey’s license in 2010.
Those three wins gave him the riding title by just one win over apprentice Tristan Phillips and Dillon Khelawan.
“It was a tough battle but I came out on top,” said Boodramsingh, who won the final race at Santa Rosa Park Arima racetrack - the country’s only racetrack on the Boxing Day card - to give him the narrow decision on 3-5 favourite Theory of Colours, who won by a long length over Alpha Centauri, who was ridden by Phillips.
“Tristan will have his day in the sun soon.”
Amazingly, Boodramsingh won the 2023 riding title in much the same fashion.
Also on Boxing Day, also in the final race of the card, Boodramsingh won the Grade 1 Edmund De Freitas Gold Cup with Hello World.
“Much was owing to Hello World’s champion jockey Brian Boodramsingh,” wrote Jonathan Ramnanansingh in the Trinidad Tobago Newsday newspaper.
“Boodramsingh’s experience showed as he held the inside of the track and squeezed past Crown Prince and In The Headlines to take control of the race.”
Saving ground by moving to the vacant inner lane Hello World would win by three and a half lengths in the 2,000m race.
“I had no place to go,” said Boodramsingh, who finished third in the 2023 B.C. Derby. “I was boxed in. Then the rail opened up.”
In 2023 - Boodramsingh’s first year in Canada - the polite-to-a-fault jockey, who always calls owners, trainers and even fellow jockeys as ‘Sir’ or “Mister” also came to Edmonton to ride Force to Rekn With to a wire-to-wire victory in the $50,000 Sonoma Stakes.
Big Hug, who was voted Alberta’s Horse of the Year last season and doesn’t lose many races, was second after Force to Rekn With was allowed to get away with relatively soft fractions for the one-mile race.
Force to Rekn With, who also won this year at Century Mile, is trained by Van Overschot.
“Brian has very nice hands and a clock in is head,” said Van Overschot.
“He knows how much horse he has; he knows what he has underneath him.
“He’s a very good rider.
“He can adapt. He can win on the front and he can win coming from behind. He can do anything. And, he thinks of the horse for the future. Especially with young horses.
“He’s a natural,” said Van Overschot.
“He’s also nice to be around. He has great manners. Just like he calls me ‘Mister,’ he calls my wife ‘Miss Lyssa.’”
Van Overschot also said that Boodramsingh takes care of himself.
“He’ll gallop 10-15 horses every morning and then he will go to the gym and work out in the afternoons.”
Little wonder then that Boodramsingh doesn’t have a weight problem like many other jockeys.
“My weight is perfect - 112 pounds,” said Boodramsingh. “I have no problem maintaining that weight.”
“He’s very dedicated,” said Van Overshot. He wants to be the best.’
When Boodramsingh decided to move to Alberta from B.C. he said he asked horsemen and jockeys who he should try and get as an agent.
“Many of them said Mr. Rycroft,” said Boodramsingh. “Including Mr. Van Overschot.”
Rycroft, who already has Alberta’s leading jockey of 2024 Jose Asencio, double-tough Enrique Gonzalez and the talented Scott Williams in his stable of jockeys, talked to Boodramsingh several times over the winter.
“He wanted to move his business to Alberta and I agreed,” said Rycroft.
“He’s very level headed, a very good rider and very personable.”
“I’m certainly very glad I made the move to Alberta,” said Boodramsingh, who said his strength is that he listens to trainers.
“It’s a bigger track than Hastings. It’s like the mile track in Trinidad and Tobago.
“And there are more opportunities to ride.
“I’m very happy.”
STOCK REPORT - As is his wont, harness driver/trainer Brandon Campbell dominated the stakes action at Calgary’s Century Downs on Saturday winning four races including two of the three ends of the Alberta Marksman eliminations for three-year-olds with Worldsgreatestsin and Discontinued.
Worldsgreatestsin got in through the backdoor when Rum Runner, who crossed the finish line in front, was disqualified and placed second after he broke stride just before the finish line.
The mile went in 1:56 4/5.
Discontinued went much faster going in 1:54 4/5 going wire to wire and winning by five lengths in the second elimination.
The third elimination went to Westcoast McCoy in an even quicker 1:54 flat for trainer John Chappell and driver Phil Giesbrecht.
There were also two elimination legs for the Alberta Diamond for three-year-old fillies.
Mademechangemymind went wire-to-wire in the first elimination winning by three-quarters of a length in 1:55 2/5 for trainer/driver Nathan Sobey.
The second elimination went to heavy favourite Custard Dolce. Last year’s champion two-year-old filly, Custard Dolce won by two lengths in 1:55. It was her ninth win in 10 lifetime starts.
Meanwhile, Shark Week won his 55th race in 91 starts going in 1:53 4/5
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Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.