A Tale of Two Meets
By Greg Douglas
Raj Mutti, Regional General Manager, BC Racing, describes the 2011 thoroughbred season at Hastings Racecourse as “a tale of two meets”.
“We couldn’t have had worse weather last spring and most of the city was focused on the Vancouver Canucks run to the Stanley Cup final,” Mutti says. “When we opened our 2011 schedule in early April our numbers could not have been worse and they continued that way through May and June.
Photo Credit: Four Footed Fotos
“Then suddenly a renewed energy among horse racing fans began to build in July and it continued right through to our closing weekend of Oct. 1-2. When the 69-day meet ended, the average daily handle showed an increase over the previous year. That momentum will now be carried into 2012.”
Mutti made his remarks as he welcomed the vast family of Hastings horsemen to the 2011 Thoroughbred Industry Awards Dinner.
Special tribute was paid to the latest inductees into the British Columbia Horse Racing Hall of Fame: Owner/trainer Robert (Bob) Hall and the great B.C.-bred champion Lord Nelson, voted champion older horse in the province from 2001 through 2004.
Hall is best known for being owner and trainer of George Royal who won nine consecutive stakes races at Hastings as a 3-year-old and gained international recognition with a win in the 1965 San Juan Capistrano. Hall trained several other champions, including Screaming Sue and Big Brac in 1988 and Timber Music, named B.C. Horse of the Year in 1971.
Lord Nelson was bred and owned by Russ and Lois Bennett. A foal of 1997, Lord Nelson did not race as a 2-year-old and won his first two starts as a 3-year-old for trainer Dino Condilenios in 2000.
Over the next four years Lord Nelson dominated the older handicap division at Hastings. In one streak he compiled a record of 12-7-2 from 21 starts in stakes races and won 16 career stakes for total earnings of just under $675,000.
The ownership team of Glen Todd and Patrick Kinsella recorded 58 wins to capture the 2011 Leading Owners title for an unprecedented fifth consecutive year. Troy Taylor, the 80-year-old icon and member of the B.C. Horse Racing Hall of Fame, won his fifth straight Leading Trainer title with 53 victories, including 10 stakes wins.
Leading Rider honours went to Richard Hamel for a second straight season. The popular 42-year-old from Terrace, B.C. finished the season with 88 wins, three better than Mario Gutierrez. Marlo Dunn, 23, hit the winner’s circle 27 times in 2011 to win the Leading Apprentice Jockey title.
Northern Causeway, winner of the $200,000 BC Derby this year, was named Horse of the Year for 2011. BC-bred Horse of the Year was Swift Thoroughbreds’ Almost Time, winner of the Redekop BC Cup Classic this past season.