Woodbine Leaderboard: Just Ten Days Remaining in the 2009 Meet

The thoroughbred racing season is winding down at Woodbine but there are still plenty of races to be won for jockeys, trainers and horses alike. With just ten racing days remaining in a meet that will end on Sunday December 6th, let's take a look at the current standings.

With 173 wins, Patrick Husbands has easily wrapped up the top spot in the jockey standings over Chantal Sutherland who has notched 128 victories. However, there is a battle on for third place between Eurico Rosa da Silva (115), Jim McAleney (114) and Emile Ramsammy (113). Emma-Jayne Wilson, a fierce competitor who notched a natural hat trick on Thursday's card, is now up to 103 wins on the year and can't be counted out with a strong finish.

Name	Starts	1st	2nd	3rd	Earnings
Patrick Husbands	921	173	153	140	$10,295,840
Chantal Sutherland	917	128	121	138	$7,153,698
Eurico Rosa Da Silva	661	115	103	78	$6,902,516
James McAleney	627	114	81	84	$6,050,894
Emile Ramsammy	829	113	102	98	$5,214,898
Emma-Jayne Wilson	861	103	126	114	$5,729,375
Tyler Pizarro	623	90	94	81	$4,932,331
Luis Contreras	350	64	48	45	$2,654,390
Justin Stein	654	62	75	58	$2,762,745
Todd Kabel	405	59	41	40	$3,139,798
Robert C. Landry	398	44	40	48	$2,752,064
Corey Fraser	392	43	55	46	$2,309,214
Jono C. Jones	447	36	46	65	$2,947,925
Gerry Olguin	419	35	43	46	$2,091,017

Mark Casse tops the trainer standings with 67 wins from 414 starts. Sid Attard (52 wins from 267 starts), Roger Attfield (51 wins from 186 starts) and Steve Asmussen (49 wins from 254 starts) are neck and neck and neck for second place.

Attfield has won 14 Stakes events this season which is one better than Malcolm Pierce. However, that race is all but over as Attfield has Sand Cove and Society's Chairman lined up for the Sir Barton Stakes while Pierce does not appear to have any future Stakes entrants this meet.

*A note of congratulations to Steve Attard who went over the million-dollar mark in earnings for the first time in his career this weekend thanks to wins by Money Shaker and the impressive Kid Canuck.

Name	Starts	1st	2nd	3rd	Earnings
Mark E. Casse	414	67	61	64	$4,601,478
Sid C. Attard	267	52	35	36	$2,831,947
Roger L. Attfield	186	51	23	23	$3,558,671
Steven M. Asmussen	254	49	35	32	$1,798,298
Robert P. Tiller	316	44	54	51	$2,246,065
Reade Baker	291	42	39	42	$2,551,217
Terry Jordan	93	42	9	14	$1,663,016
Scott H. Fairlie	279	40	39	42	$2,201,077
Nicholas Gonzalez	262	39	35	31	$1,915,940
Malcolm Pierce	191	39	22	25	$3,030,525
Josie Carroll	181	30	31	37	$2,247,451
Brian A. Lynch	120	26	21	13	$1,491,262
Ian Black	214	24	38	26	$2,312,314
Daniel J. Vella	193	23	22	31	$1,727,041
Steve Attard	161	22	16	10	$1,014,547
Michael P. De Paulo	173	20	22	18	$1,182,567

Another intriguing battle is for the top Woodbine winner of 2008. There are a handful of horses with five wins each to their name. The most recent horse to join the list is Terry Jordan's Tribal Belle who won the Bessarabian Stakes on Sunday which should lock up the Sovereign Award for Champion Female Sprinter. Tribal Belle is one of several Woodbine runners to make a climb from the claiming ranks to Stakes races this past season including Jungle Wave and Bogue Chitto to name a couple.

Name	Starts	1st	2nd	3rd	Earnings
Step On Up	10	5	2	1	$147,628
Six Pack Sammy	10	5	2	0	$100,938
Spider Rock	9	5	1	0	$86,286
Tribal Belle	6	5	0	1	$360,703

It's been a brilliant 2009 season at Woodbine but I'm sure many of the locals are looking forward to packing up and making their way south for a bit of Florida sun. Personally, I'm looking forward to the mile and three quarter Valedictory Stakes that marks the end of each Woodbine racing season. How fitting for a marathon of a season to end with a marathon of a race. Let's just hope the weather holds this time around as last year's event was cancelled due to extreme cold.

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Woodbine Entertainment Group has launched an extremely helpful race replay channel on Youtube. To view the new channel, check out WEGReplays. (Woodbine racing fans might also be interested in the small smattering of videos located on the TripleDeadHeatRacing Youtube channel which I hope to grow over the winter.

Tribal Belle wins the Bessarabian Stakes


WEG's channel will help provide more exposure to the Woodbine product as media outlets and bloggers may readily grab race replays. As well, handicappers now have a useful tool to find out what went right or wrong with their wagers.

Smokey Fire wins the Kennedy Road Stakes



Triple Dead Heat will look to incorporate these race replays into future posts.

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It's hard to believe another Woodbine thoroughbred season is coming to a close. I'll do my best to keep track of the travelling locals and report on their (Florida, Louisiana, California etc) successes through the dark winter months. As well, I will continue to post ongoing features on a variety of thoroughbred subjects.

For Standardbred racing fans, it's business as usual as the hearty harness heroes continue to battle the elements all Winter long. Brrr...