BC Racebook Newsletter - September 21, 2023
76th BC Derby Winner (Left) - Accidental Hero ridden by Kimal Santo
Bailey on the Backstretch
by Bailey Williams
Last year’s leading apprentice jockey and BC Oaks winner Kimal Santo continued his Derby Day success by capturing the 2023 BC Derby aboard WYN Stables’ Accidental Hero.
It was the first Derby victory for trainer Larry Grieves, more affectionately known as ‘Larry the Legend’. Larry and his assistant Ian Jewel care for all of the WYN horses in honour of his sister, the late Donna Wyn. No doubt she was cheering from above along with her famous chant “Come on; come on” as the gelding ran down favoured Sunbird in a late battle to the wire.
After guiding Accidental Hero to victory, Kimal’s evening of celebration was just beginning. He and long-time girlfriend Jazmine Langset both work for the stable and what better way to seal your love in front of friends and colleagues.
Throughout the buzz in the very barn where the Derby winner stood, Kimal dropped to one knee and propose to his now fiancée.
With the thoroughbred racing season at Hastings wrapping up in four weeks, the call to the post might soon be chiming wedding bells.
HORSEPOWER 4 HORSEPOWER DAY, September 9th, 2023
In support of The Virtue Foundation, 50+ exotic cars were on display at the track.
Wayne Russell: A Happy Return to Hastings
Wayne Russell a Natural For BC Racing Hall of Fame
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport
Catching a glimpse of Wayne Russell’s majestic smile on BC Derby Day brought back a flood of fond memories for long-time regulars at Hastings Racecourse.
This is a man who can accurately say: “I came directly to the race track from Vancouver General Hospital the day I was born.”
That would have been 79 years ago this past August. His parents – Jackie and Leona – lived in a trailer by the far turn at Hastings. Wayne’s father, Jackie Russell Jr., was a 1988 inductee into the BC Horse Racing Hall of Fame following a noteworthy career as a jockey and trainer.
Wayne was walking hots in the barns and galloping horses as a young boy. He was working on the starting gate in his early 20’s when he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his dad fighting the infamous barn fire that ravaged Hastings in 1969 while horses fled in terror.
Jackie Russell Jr. suffered a heart attack that night and died in the ambulance rushing him to hospital. “He took his last breath at Commercial & Broadway,” Wayne says.
From starter to paddock judge and patrol judge, Wayne went on to spend 20 years as an accredited steward at Hastings, rising to the rank of senior steward for GPEB, the Gaming Policy & Enforcement Division of the Ministry of Finance.
The Russell family spans five generations at Hastings dating back to when Jackie Russell Sr. – Wayne’s grandad -was riding horses. Today Wayne’s son Corky is an exercise rider, custodian of the jockey’s room and paddock judge. Corky’s wife Lisa is the head clocker and Daily Racing Form correspondent and their son Jack was a clocker while working his way through Simon Fraser University.
Wayne and grandson Jack were a beaming duo in the winner’s circle as guest decorators of the $75,000 BC Oaks during last Saturday’s BC Derby card.
“I have been so lucky and blessed to have worked in a profession I love, especially with my family involved,” Wayne once told racing writer Randy Goulding. “I came to work every day with a smile on my face.”
The name Wayne Russell has not yet been added to the Builders Category of the BC Horse Racing Hall of Fame. It will be - it has to be – if not next year, certainly soon after.
