Brown red hot
Also Davis scores in Wild Rose country, driver
okay after spill in qualifier, bye, bye Scotty and B.C. mare
battle
Tim Brown got off to an impressive start in the driver
derby as Fraser Downs kicked off the 2002-2003 meet last
Friday with a 14-race card.
Brown raced to five wins, driving I Wish I Might,
Callwood Pharoh, Jay Tee Lucas, Miss Lead and Cat Street to
victory, in 10 starts. Jim Burke was the only other driver
to get more than one win, grabbing a pair of firsts.
Two of Brown's wins came with horses trained by Ray
Gemmill. John Currie also had two training triumphs while
Larry Micallef, who has taken over as head trainer for Dr.
Jim Findlay's stable, picked up his first victory in B.C.
since arriving from Ontario on Aug. 30.
Micallef has 18 horses in the stable, with all owned in
whole or in part by Findlay and/or his wife Colleen...
DAVIS MARCHES ON: Brown's cohort Bill Davis also
put on a driving clinic last Friday, winning five races on
the nine-dash card at Stampede Park and in doing so, pushed
himself past the 3,500-lifetime win plateau. Davis had seven
drives, collecting wins on Freedom Street, Camp Out,
Lindwood Topsider, Red Star Tina and Digger Odell. When Camp
Out crossed the finish line in the third race, Davis also
passed the 3,500-win threshold. Davis has been among Western
Canada’s leading drivers for years. The 40-year-old has now
won 177 races this year in 668 starts, good for purse
earnings of $902,548. Lifetime, Davis is now a winner of
3,503 races and $10,870,077 in purse earnings...
URQUHART OK: There was a spill during qualifying
last Saturday when two-year-old filly Tri Vinnie stumbled
and threw driver Paul Urquhart heavily to the track. Tri
Vinnie was able to walk from the track while Urquhart was
treated by track first aid and helped from the track. A
visit to medical professionals determined Paul suffered only
bruises and scratches and he was back looking after his
horses the next day...
SCOTTY'S A GOOD LAD!: Congratulations to good
friend John (Scotty) Gunion who has retired. The veteran of
many years of working for Downs security was honoured with a
race last Friday. Scotty took over the reins of the security
department when long-time headman Ray Miller retired a
couple of years ago. Now it's his turn to step down. Sandy
Miller is now the Security Supervisor with Kevin Jackson of
administration and Don Sinclair of maintenance assigned some
security responsibilities. If you are afraid you may miss
Scotty -- and the fact that you knew things were OK when you
could hear him arriving in the area -- he has promised he
and his Scottish brogue will still be livening things up on
many visits to the track.
BATTLE OF B.C. MARES ON HOLD: The much anticipated
battle between top B.C.-bred mares Fast Lane Cruizin and
Samantha Square will have to wait. It was rumoured that the
two would tangle Friday at Mohawk Raceway in an open fillies
and mares event. They came close to, but never met in B.C.
before moving east to Ontario. But Fast Lane Cruizin, owned
by Phil Coleman and Jerry Blanchet, bled in her last start
and will get an extra week off to go onto Lasix. Meanwhile,
Samantha Square, owned by Rick White and June and John
Kauffman, will get this week off before heading into
eliminations for the Milton Stake. An injury had kept
Cruizin out of action in 2002 until two weeks ago. She
returned to take on the top fillies and mares Aug. 6 at
Mohawk but did not get the best of trips and had to settle
for seventh in the race which went in 1:51.4 (Eternal
Camnation crossed the line first but was set back to third
for interference). On Aug. 17 at Woodbine, Eternal Camnation
captured the $337,000-plus Roses Are Red Stakes in 1:50.3
with Samantha Square third. Since then Samantha has had some
time off but White, co-owner of the four-year-old daughter
of Albert Albert, reported last week she is ready to return
to action.
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