My Week At Woodbine

On Thursday night, I visited Woodbine's new $11.5M Harness Paddock and Retention Centre - a building whose sole purpose seemed to be blocking the view of the start of seven furlong races. After my visit, I can now appreciate the magic of this new building. On approach, the building rises before you like a cathedral and perhaps a different soul purpose as the backstretch towers provide heavenly lighting. The stable itself houses hundreds of standardbreds readying for the evening's races and the building literally hums with excitement.


(Triple Dead Heat in need of a haircut.)

My task for the evening was to snap photos of Down The Stretch editor Peter Gross wearing Randy Waples colours for the next edition of our paper. We spoke with driver Jody Jamieson who helped us out by providing a horse and bike for Peter as props. Jamieson, with over 4,000 career victories, has won every important race you can name including the Little Brown Jug and the North America Cup - it was great that he took care of us despite a busy card.

On Saturday I watched the races from Woodbine's sixth floor press box and met track announcer Dan Loiselle, who on introduction declared, "Sure...Triple Dead Heat. I've read that, good stuff!" I nearly fell off my chair. Loiselle is a gentleman, full of stories and always smiling. It took some time for me to adjust to listening to Loiselle speak without looking at my program to see which horse might be surging to the wire. The man's voice could make a public reading of the Rules of Civil Procedure exciting.

A nice day of wagering was capped by an exactor of Shut It Down to win the Frost King Stakes at 11-1 on top of Wildcat Fashion for a $109.50 payout. Tyler Pizarro celebrated his brilliant ride with a series of fist pumps. Shut It Down had never been further than two lengths behind the hot favourite Mean Green in two previous outings and was sitting on a big race. Mean Green bounced to finish fourth.

A great weekend was topped off by meeting Sandy Hawley and Laffit Pincay Jr. The two legends spoke at length on Saturday at Woodbine and then made their way on Sunday to Greenwood Teletheatre to do it all over again. A big crowd showed up to both events for the chance to meet a four time Queen's Plate winner (Hawley) and a Kentucky Derby winner (Pincay Jr.)

(15,980 wins - Pincay Jr., Triple Dead Heat and Hawley.)

I surprised both jocks by showing up with a program from the 1988 Rothman's International won by the filly Infamy.



In 1988 I was 14 and already a big racing fan. International Day brought the best jockeys from all over the world to the track and the opportunity for a starstruck kid to collect a few autographs. Some of the legends riding that day included Ray Cochrane, Robbie Davis, Eddie Maple, Angel Cordero Jr., Chris Antley, Jose Santos as well as Hawley and Pincay Jr.

At first Laffit was certain he was not in Toronto for that race, but Hawley pointed to his now 20 year-old signature on River Memories and it all started flooding back. I didn't get to meet Hawley on International day, but Sunday he took the time to sign the program for me while shaking his head in wonder at the names of jockeys he competed against.

To meet heavy hitters like Hawley and Pincay Jr is the equivalent of a baseball fan meeting Joe Dimaggio and Hank Aaron. The energy created by the two friends will do far more to bring the public back to the track than any number of television screens in distant teletheatres.

Well done Woodbine. With some racing luck, next year's Woodbine Oaks day might co-incide with a Legend's Race - and hopefully make a few new fans for a sport where the average age of attendees is 45 and rising.