Another year in the books, and race fans, it has been another very successful year!
Okay, we didn’t have a triple crown winner in Canada or the States. And so what if the Breeders Cup Classic winner Drosselmeyer paid $31 along with many other long shots paying $131, $85 and $57. That just adds value for the gambler as many of the stake races of 2011 were won by horses that were not top choices of the betters.
What we did have for the third year in a row was the Horse of the Year, Havre de Grace, being female. While a big story, for me it wasn’t the biggest. How about Rapid Redux – you want to talk impressive? This horse has won 22-straight races since 2010, 19 races in 2011 alone. Very few horses even run 19 times in a year, never mind winning all of them.
In my opinion a horse and trainer combo couldn’t put a string of 22 wins in a row, even if they fixed the race or used a different horse each time. Something is bound to go wrong; break bad, poor track condition or get into trouble some where in the race. Rapid Redux is in the record books; 22 consecutive wins and counting. We know he is not in the same class as the best horses in the world, but this is an achievement worth noting, and something that we may never see again as race fans!
There were many other spectacular feats last year. At Woodbine race track in Toronto, Canada, trainers and jockeys had outstanding meets. Mark Casse set a record with 119 wins in one year surpassing the previous record of 89, and also compiling $6.6 million in purses, another record. This was his 5th straight year as leading trainer at the Woodbine meet. We definitely cannot count out two other trainers that come to mind. Hall of Famer Roger Attfield, added 12 stake races, which included 7 graded stakes, to his outrageous lifetime achievement. Mister two-year-old himself, Ralph Biamonte, as always kept to his ways with the babies winning 7 “two-year old” stake races.
Enough with the trainers, let’s look at some jockeys who made news. Luis Contreas had a phenomenal year with 212 wins and a record $11.5 million in purses! He won all three Triple Crown races upon two different horses – Inglorious, a filly who beat the boys in The Queens Plate, and with Pender Harbour for the last two legs. Jockey Patrick Husbands was impressive once again, falling just shy of 200 wins and right near the $10 million mark in purses. He has been incredibly consistent since the turn of the millennium.
The Soveriegn Awards, where the best of 2011 in Canada are celebrated, come to us on April 5th. Good luck to all nominees, especially to fellow Fort Erie Race Tracker, Betty Jo Williams.
With this in mind, it can’t go without mentioning that 2011 was certainly missing something – a superstar, and no head-to-head match-ups to create the “buzz”. The Sport of Kings missed that in 2011. Where were those champions of the past such as Ghostzapper, Invasor, Curlin, Rachel Alexander, and the unforgettable Zenyatta? These five spectacular race horses have finished their racing careers, but don’t think that spells the end of their time in the racing industry – they have moved on to the breeding shed!
…and that is the last word.
