Reflecting on this 2019 thoroughbred racing season, there’ve been many highlights worth sharing on this closing weekend. My ‘high fives’ would be … Here’s Hannah Living up to her billing as 2018 Champion Three-Year-Old Filly in both the BC-bred and Open Division categories, Here’s Hannah dazzled us again with five stakes victories this year that…
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport SCENE & HEARD: One of the highlights of the annual Thoroughbred Industry Awards Dinner is the official introduction of the latest inductees into the British Columbia Horse Racing Hall of Fame. This year’s dinner date is set for Thursday, December 5 at the Newlands Golf and Country Club…
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport SCENE & HEARD: Scotty Bowman, the hockey czar who won an NHL record nine Stanley Cups as a head coach and five more as a member of management, famously insisted “statistics are for losers”. Leading trainer Phil Hall for a third consecutive year at Hastings, might tend to…
Infinite Patience & Capilano Canyon Win $75,000 Stakes Vancouver, B.C. (Oct. 14/19) –Thanksgiving weekend could easily have been mistaken for a Father’s Day celebration Sunday and Monday afternoons at Hastings Racecourse. When Jose Asencio rode Capilano Canyon to victory in the $75,000 Ascot Graduation Monday, the first person on the scene in the winner’s…
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport SCENE & HEARD: An Emerald Downs ‘Royal Family of Racing’ will be represented with three entries in today’s 59th running of the $75,000 Ascot Graduation for two-year-olds. Kay Cooper, daughter of the late Washington Racing Hall of Fame trainer Jim Penney, has been carrying on the family tradition…
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport SCENE & HEARD: The traditional and continual trash-talking among the found-ins behind the door marked Jack Short Media Lounge at Hastings gets more heated than ever during the closing days of the racing season. It’s that time of year when handicappers Drew Forster, Randy Goulding and Mike Heads…
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport SCENE & HEARD: Having one of his horses run at the Breeders’ Cup was never on Gord Christoff’s bucket list for the simple reason he never thought it would happen. But that all changed when his four-year-old Kentucky-bred Brave Nation won the Grade 3 $100,000 BC Premiers a…
By Greg Douglas – Dr. Sport SCENE & HEARD: Heavy rain and cold winds failed to dampen the spirits of New Stride supporters two Sundays ago for a seven-race card that featured the 89th running of the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity. As recipients of the Community Day Program sponsored by Hastings Racecourse, a gathering…