LEADING JOCKEY STANDINGS AT HASTINGS

PROVIDE ADDED SEASON-ENDING SUSPENSE

September 27, 2013

Remaining Stakes Races Could Be the Deciding Factor

Vancouver, B.C. (September 27, 2013) – With just seven live racing days left on the 2013 Hastings Racecourse calendar, Amadeo Perez has a good chance to capture the leading rider honours for a second straight year.

But the title isn’t going to be handed to him on a silver platter.  Perez has 54 wins with Scott Williams in hot pursuit with 51. Still in the running as part of ’40-Plus Winners Club’ are Enrique Gonzalez (45), Frank Fuentes (45), Antonio Reyes (44), Aaron Gryder (44) and Richard Hamel (43).

There are six stakes races remaining on the schedule beginning with two  $50,000 CTHS Sales features on Sunday, Sept. 29.  Then, billed as ‘Autumn Championship Day’ on Monday, Oct. 14, there will be  $350,000 in purse money up for grabs with the $100,000 BC Premiers (Grade III) and $100,000 Ballerina (Grade III) as well as the $75,000 Fantasy and $75,000 Ascot Graduation.

This is where the leading jockey standings get interesting because with the added stakes purses on the line it is when the likes of Perez, Williams, Gonzalez and Gryder shine.

Gryder leads in stakes wins this year with seven:  the Brighouse Belles, Ross McLeod, Strawberry Morn, Emerald Downs, Monashee, New Westminster and Express. The seven stakes wins have contributed in no small way to his total earnings this season of $752,896. Williams is the leading money earner among the jockey colony with $848,939 and his five stakes victories have been a healthy part of those earnings.  Williams has won the Chris Loseth, Boulevard Casino, BC Nursery, the Redekop BC Cup Classic and the Jack Diamond Futurity.

Gonzalez, with five stakes victories, shows total earnings of $782,302.  He rode winners in the River Rock, Supernaturel, BC Cup Debutante, Hong Kong Jockey Club and a CTHS Sales stake.

Perez has won four stakes:  the John Longden 6000, Lt. Governors, BC Cup Stellar’s Jay and the S.W. Randall Plate. Total earnings for Perez this year: $740,444.

HALL OF FAME HORSE BOLD LADDIE TO BE HONORED

Live racing at Hastings resumes Saturday and Sunday with 1:50 p.m. starts.  The season’s final BC Horse Racing Hall of Fame presentation will take place Sunday with 1998 inductee Bold Laddie being represented by owner/breeder Rick Clough. Bold Laddie was bred by A.E. Reuben and raced for Reuben’s Hasty House Farm under the care of trainer Harry Trotsek.  As a 2-year-old Bold Laddie won the To Market and Arch Ward Stakes and the Hibiscus Stakes as a 3-year-old.  He was later purchased by the Jawl Brothers and retired to stud with eight wins from 22 starts. Living to the ripe old  age of 28, Bold Laddie’s final crop of foals consisted of seven registered yearlings.