Star-Studded Cast For George Royal Ready To Go Saturday At Hastings

April 27, 2009

With back-to-back weekends of fine tuning the launch of the 2009 thoroughbred season, Hastings Racecourse moves forward with its first stakes feature of the year next Saturday.

The $50,000 George Royal has drawn an outstanding list of nominations that includes British Columbia’s 2008 Horse of the Year Krazy Koffee, two-time Sovereign Award winner True Metropolitan, the champion B.C. sprinter the past two years B R Remark and the ever-popular Spaghetti Mouse, all-time leading B.C.-bred money winner and top handicap horse at Hastings last year with four straight stakes victories.

“These are our super stars,” says GM Raj Mutti. “The George Royal traditionally marks the first of our stakes schedule and Saturday’s race will definitely be an explosive lineup for this early into the season.”

Krazy Koffee, under trainer Cindy Krasner, scored five consecutive wins last year including the B.C. Derby. “We’re pleased with the way he’s been training,” Krasner says. “We’ll just have to see what he can do now as a 4-year-old.”

True Metropolitan, having won the George Royal the last two years, is the likely favorite for Saturday’s showdown. But trainer Terry Jordan is taking a wait-and-see approach. “He tailed off at the end of last year,” Jordan says, “and while he’s been training well, we must remember that he’s a 7-year-old.”

Spaghetti Mouse, last year’s runner-up in the George Royal, is “extremely sharp” according to trainer Lenore Daponte after spending the winter on a farm in Abbotsford. “It wouldn’t surprise me if The Mouse ran a big race on Saturday,” Daponte says.

Racing starts at 1:25 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at Hastings, where the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby will be shown via simulcast with parade to the post at 3:04pm local time.

For Media & Entertainment Inquiries: Howard Blank @ 604.303.1000