BC Racebook Newsletter - July 12, 2022
Saturday July 23, 2022
Gates 12:00 PM | Post 2:00 PM
Live Performances By: FELIX CARTAL & K-OS
Welcome back to the 12th edition of The Cup, our exclusive once-per-year festival touted as “Vancouver’s answer to the Kentucky Derby.” After 3 long years of hiatus, we can’t wait for you to join us to celebrate your unique style, enjoy craft cocktails and champagne all day, cheer on your favorites, vibe to live music, and commiserate with your new derby comrades, all amidst a concourse of high-energy action and sophisticated chill.
Last Call for Early Bird: $65 | Regular: $95
Bailey on the backstretch
by Bailey Williams
A Perfect Example: “Itsmyday” by “New Years Day” Out of Magic Vixen
You see the names, hear the names, remember the names … but have you ever wondered how the names came about?
Some derive from owners incorporating or carrying on a dam or sire’s name. At Hastings you see names including the sire such as Bakken and Eggs, Baklane, Fully Lent or Lent Me Twenty.
Then there is well-known and respected owner Peter Redekop who likes to name his horses with the letter ‘A’, most famously Alert Bay with others such as Anyportinastorm and Anothertwistafate. It’s a long list.
Swift Thoroughbreds, meanwhile, prefer traditional one-word names such as Snuggles, whom they raised, raced and now breed. There are other horses with deeper meanings
behind their names. Champion 2-year-old filly U Did It was a result of her owners’ show horse experience. A lot of times things would go wrong during the course and when Lisa Anderson would achieve a clear round, her mom would be outside the ring congratulating her with the words: “You did it!”
Nite and Day Stable and Joanne Todd’s filly Bayakoas Image got her name from a very famous mare, Bayakoa, one of the first horses to come to America from Argentina with huge success. As a 3-year-old Bayakoas Image lived up to her namesake by winning the Washington Oaks and gaining her own black type victory.
No matter the name, you can rest assured of one thing: there is always a story behind it.
Best Dressed Winners on Canada Day at Hastings Racecourse
Canada Day Best Dressed Winners at Hastings Racecourse.
They each received a Canada themed gift basket valued at $100. Congratulations!
BC Racebook tent at Hastings Racecourse handing out swag, Canada Day stuff, and letting people know how to bet on Canada Day.
Canadian Dressage Olympian Leslie Reid
A SPECIAL MOMENT FOR A SPECIAL PERSON UNFOLDS AT HASTINGS RACECOURSE
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport
It was a bit of a belated birthday gift but not by much. The wait was well worth it.
Leslie Reid – yes, that Leslie Reid of Equestrian-Dressage Canadian Olympic fame – captured her first win Sunday as an owner at Hastings Racecourse with Whiskey Talk in the sixth race.
“The only thing that could have added to the excitement was having Leslie herself in the saddle,” quipped Randy Goulding of the Daily Racing Form.
Fellow owner David Milburn took a much more serious approach with his immediate message on Twitter that read: “Leslie Reid, Olympian, Pan Am gold medal winner twice and Canadian Dressage champion won her first race ever with her 4-year-old gelding Whiskey Talk in the 6th today. Jockey Learie Seecharan in the irons; trainer Kim Kozak. Congratulations, Leslie!”
Born in Vancouver on July 2, 1956, she began riding at the age of two on the family farm in Langley and later attended UBC, majoring in physical education. Leslie has won more than 40 Canadian Equestrian Federation Provincial Zone Awards and was named Coach of the Year by the Canadian Equestrian Federation in 1989. In 2003 at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, she won an individual gold and helped Team Canada capture a silver medal.
Leslie was the first Canadian rider to be named to the 1996 Olympic Dressage Team and competed in the 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing) Summer Olympics, where she achieved 8th position in the team dressage competition.
Next time Hastings Racecourse regulars spot the name Leslie Reid as an owner in the Official Racing Program, it will be cause for a special salute in recognition of a homegrown Canadian Olympic champion.
GOING HEAD-TO-HEAD NOTHING NEW FOR ARCH RIVAL JOCKEYS PEREZ & REYES
With more than one third of this 2022 thoroughbred racing season already in the books, it may not come as any huge surprise that two familiar names from the Hastings jockey colony are again jockeying for top position in the leading rider standings.
Defending champion Antonio Reyes and Amadeo Perez have been embroiled in their own private little game of musical chairs dating back three years. Or in this case, ‘musical saddles’ might be more appropriate. Reyes took the honours in 2021, Perez won the title in 2020, Reyes tied with Enrique Gonzales in 2019 and Perez won it in 2018.
Heading into last weekend Perez held the slimmest of leads over Reyes with 25 wins and Reyes locked in at 24. With Perez riding Uncharacteristic for trainer Rob VanOverschot at Century Mile Saturday in a $50,000 Black Type Handicap, Reyes had a great opportunity to pull ahead of Perez with five mounts at Hastings. The best Reyes could manage was a pair of second-place finishes.
Perez wasted little time Sunday at Hastings with two wins, giving him 27 on the season and Reyes trailing at 25 with one first-place finish on Sunday’s card.
With 26 race days remaining on the 2022 calendar, it is safe to assume the rivalry will only heat up in the weeks ahead.
Angela Straight, the only female jockey at Hastings Racecourse.
