Digs Girl IGA Horse of the Month
Digs Girl will be honored for being on
a roll at Fraser Downs.
For weeks she has added to her winning
streak, which reached 10 on Nov. 28. Four of those victories
came in November and have earned her MarketPlace IGA horse
of the month.
The seven-year-old mare, owned by
Laurie Davis and the Victoria Pacing Stable and trained and
driven by Bill Davis, captured four straight starts at the
$4,000 claimer level during the month.
Bred in California by Virginia and
James Bagatelos, the daughter of Dignatarian out of J Js
Hope, has been on fire since the start of the Downs meet,
not losing in that time. (She even set a lifetime mark of
1:57.3 on Sept. 19.)
She has 13 wins in 27 starts in 2003.
(Of note under the category: How well this horse does under
the conditioning of Bill Davis. Since he first raced her on
Aug. 31, 2001, she has been in 62 races. Seventeen starts
were with other trainers and she never won with them while
winning 26 times for Davis).
Rob Neufeld, owner/manager of the
Cloverdale MarketPlace IGA, will present a blanket to the
winning connections.
MORE RECORDS: It seems the
Fraser Downs track record archives needed updating again.
Unless, we have missed something else, the track record for
aged mares was lowered by Arturos Choice on Nov. 21, 2003 in
an elimination leg of the Surrey Cup.
Arturos Choice, a four-year-old mare by
Arturo out of Riddle Hanover, paced the mile in 1:54.2,
taking one tick off the 1:54.3 mark set by Clover
Camtankeros on March 7, 1999.
Arturos Choice is owned by Robert
Murphy and is trained by Bill Davis and was driven by Davis
to the track record.
What the archives failed to show is
that on Sept. 19 of this year, My Kinda Cam, also with the
same owner, trainer/driver combination, equaled Camtankeros’
1:54.3 clocking.
Meanwhile, it’s Make Some Noise that’s
doing just that in the open fillies and mares class. Make
Some Noise – yes, another Murphy/Davis chattel – won her
third in a row last Saturday, beating a strong field of
nine. The four-year-old daughter Camluck settled for third
early, after starting on the inside rail, grabbed the lead
on the outside before the three-quarter mark and held off a
fast-closing Princess Jessica N.
Jessica was a length and three-quarters
back but it was another 12 ¾ lengths to third-place Penny
Lace.
Make Some Noise, bred in Kentucky, has
six wins in 31 starts for earnings of close to $83,000 in
2003.
HENSLEY HERE: Eddie is coming.
Eddie is coming.
Eddie is Ed Hensley, well-known driver
and trainer who has been playing his trade for years in
California. Hensley has driven in B.C. before and he will be
here Sunday for a holiday – busman’s as it turns out as he
is expected to drive in some races that day.
“I’m coming up to visit family for a
few days,” Hensley said by phone last Sunday. “I want to see
the new track surface,” and also added he would take a peak
at the plans for the new-look Down s (if slots are
approved).
“Chuck (Downs general manager Keeling)
is hoping that I could get two or three drives while I’m
there.”
Hensley will return to Cal-Expo in
Sacramento on Wednesday.
DAVIS LEADS: Led by four
victories on both Friday and Saturday, Bill Davis led the
way in the driver derby last weekend. Davis added one more
and his total of nine was four better than Jim Burke. Daniel
St Amand had a good weekend with four.
Davis was a narrow leader on the
trainer side with four trips to the winner’s enclosure. Bob
Merschback had three and John Currie, Don Tracey and Erik
Neyhart two each.
WHAT A GOODFELLOW: Ken
Goodfellow of Coquitlam was the sixth and final week’s
winner of the Ironman Handicapping Challenge. Goodfellow won
$250 for his handicapping expertise while Lydia We of Delta
was second and won $150 and Koji Kariya of Surrey was third
and took home $100.
Goodfellow had $85.10 in winnings after
picking three winners (one for $54) and two seconds in the
eight races. We had $72.50 (with five wins) and Kariya had
$68.60.
All patrons had to do was pick a horse
in a designated race from eight different race tracks and
receive dollars for a win, place or show finish. Each week
there were three winners.
DON’T STOP DREAMIN’: If you’re a
surfer fine, but you don’t necessarily have to go to the
beach to fill your board with fun in the Downs’ California
Dreamin’ handicapping contest.
Acutally you probably won’t have time
to get to the beach, you’ll be having so much fun at the
track.
The track is Santa Anita and that’s the
destination, for the Santa Anita Derby on April 3, of the
lucky winner – and guest – of the Dreamin’ contest.
The second edition of the CDHC, where
contestants will be asked to handicap a series of races from
Santa Anita, starts Saturday, Dec. 27 and runs each Saturday
until Feb. 28, a total of 10 weeks.
The contest is based on six races from
the Santa Anita card, races three through eight, and on
which entrants will handicap three. For each of the three
horses chosen, a mythical $20 win, place, show bet will be
placed. At the end of each contest day, scores will be
tallied and the entrant with the highest total will receive
the weekly $250 prize – and be crowned a finalist.
The 10 finalists will battle
head-to-head in the CDHC on Saturday, March 6 in the
Homestretch Party Zone. The ultimate winner will be surfing
– the racing program – on Derby Day.
Entry ballots will be available at the
Welcome Centre the morning of each contest day. They must be
returned before the scheduled post of the second race at
Santa Anita.
NO PAN INTENDED A STUD: No Pan
Intended, this year’s Triple Crown and Breeders Crown
winner, has been retired from racing in order to begin his
stallion career at Glengate Farms in Campbellville, Ont.
Trainer Ivan Sugg and owner Bob Glazer,
who races under the Peter Pan Stable banner, considered
racing No Pan Intended in the Provincial Cup at Windsor
Raceway in Ontario, but decided to go out on top.
On Nov. 29 at the Meadowlands, No Pan
Intended won the $542,500 Breeders Crown by a head in a
career-best 1:50.3. He is the leading candidate for horse of
the year honors.
His stud fee at Glengate will be
$10,000 Canadian.
No Pan Intended won just once in 13
starts in 2002 and earned $115,883. This year, he won 17 of
21 races, finished second three times, and banked $1.46
million. From July 19 through the end of the year, the theee-year-old
son of Pacific Fella won 13 of 14 starts, including the Cane
Pace, the Little Brown Jug, and the Messenger Stakes, the
three races that make up pacing’s Triple Crown.
LEADING ONTARIO TRAINER SUSPENDED:
Colin Johnson, one of the nation’s top trainers, has
been slapped with a six-month suspension and a $5,000 fine
following a positive test at Rideau Carleton Raceway.
The suspension was made public Dec. 5
after the Ontario Racing Commission’s ruling.
According to the ORC report, the
Johnson-trained pacer Coil Hanover produced a positive
pre-race test on Nov. 20 at the Ottawa oval.
The full suspension is slated to begin
Dec. 15 and last until June 29, 2004.
Johnson, 37, of Le Gardeur, P.Q., has
303 training wins this season and has trained the winners of
more than $14.7 million in his career.
MAINMAN’S MOONSHOT: Last week we
looked to Alsboy but the best he could do was seventh. This
weekend we will try Gumpwood, a 10-1 morning line choice, in
the 10th race Sunday.
ANOTHER REMINDER: DON’T FORGET
THERE IS AN IMPORTANT PUBLIC HEARING ON THE OBTAINING OF
SLOTS AT FRASER DOWNS ON TUESDAY AT SURREY COUNCIL CHAMBERS
AT 6:30 P.M. IT IS MOST IMPORTANT THAT ALL INDUSTRY
PARTICIPANTS AND FRIENDS OF HORSE RACING ATTEND AND SHOW
THEIR SUPPORT.
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