Manitoba-bred stars highlighted two of the three stakes this week at Assiniboia Downs, and a bargain invader from south of the border took the other.
The winners of all three stakes were so good it’s difficult to decide who to mention first, so we’ll go with ladies first.
Mechanic Susie won the $40,000 Distaff Stakes on Tuesday for trainer Elton Dickey, his ownership partners Tom Payne and breeder Larry Falloon, and groom Kenroy (Cuba) Rowe, and she was doing it for the second year in a row.
Jason Halstead / Assiniboia Photo
Groom Kenroy “Cuba” Rowe and jockey Antonio Whitehall with Mechanic Susie after their win in the Distaff Stakes.
Last year, the five-year-old Manitoba-bred mare by Nonios out of Quantum Mechanics by Einstein won six races in a row, including the Distaff, on her way to being named champion older mare. Ahe looks like she’s going to do similar this year.
“She’s just a nice horse,” said Dickey about his stable star. “She makes like $10,000 a start.”
Purchased by her owners for $1,000 at the 2021 Manitoba CTHS Yearling Sale, Mechanic Susie has now earned US$153,390 from a record of 11-3-5 in 22 starts, and she’s regained her fine form again for Dickey.
Susie gave three-time leading ASD rider Antonio Whitehall his first of two stakes victories on the week, moving him into a tie at the top of the standings with Damario Bynoe.
“She’s all heart,” said Whitehall. “She’s very special. She’s kind of like a once-in-a-lifetime type of horse.”
Whitehall also won the $40,000 J.W. Sifton Stakes on Tuesday, but with a totally different style of ride. Instead of coming from just off the pace as he did with Mechanic Susie,
Whitehall put Betterlucknexttime on the lead in the 1 1/8-mile race and set what might have been the slowest pace of the year, catching all the other riders napping.
The race was basically over after a quarter mile in 26.64 seconds and a crawling half mile in 51.77.
When trainer Mike Nault was asked what he was thinking after watching his horse set such a slow pace, he said, “Merry Christmas.”
He knew the race was over after a half mile, as did every other handicapper.
Betterlucknexttime gives his best every time, and he doesn’t need the lead to win, so the Sifton was a free gift for his trainer, jockey, owners and groom Brittany Bergen.
“He would have been in the top three regardless,” said Nault.
Unlike Mechanic Susie, Betterlucknexttime was not a bargain purchase in the local yearling sale, depending on how you look at it.
The Manitoba-bred three-year-old gelding by Nonios out of Nickel Candy by Silver Deputy was purchased for $25,000 in the 2023 sale, and has now earned US$91,129 from a record of 6-2-1 in 12 starts for owners A2 Thoroughbreds and True North Thoroughbreds.
The Sifton was the third stakes win for Betterlucknexttime, who won the Buffalo Stakes last year and the Frank Arnason Memorial Sire Stakes earlier this year.
It was the second stakes winner of the week for sire Nonios, who also sired Mechanic Susie.
Jason Halstead / Assiniboia Photo
Trainer Dewey Williams smiling at assistant Eugene Burns after winning the Orisis Stakes.
Back to the bargains for the $50,000 Osiris Stakes on Wednesday, $3,500 yearling Marking Broadway dug deep to get by late in one of the best races we’ve seen this year.
Purchased by owner-trainer Dewey Williams out of the 2024 fall Arizona mixed sale, the two-year-old by Marking-Lights on Broadway by Real Solution has now earned US$38,413 from two wins and a second in four starts, and he looks like he is only going to get better.
He did, however, receive a dynamite ride from jockey Shavon Townsend.
“Make sure you put that in there, he’s a good rider,” said Williams. “He never complains. You want him to come and gallop a horse in the morning? He’s right there.”
Williams, who bought the colt because he owned his full brother, admits he didn’t expect this kind of success.
“I didn’t think he was very fast, I didn’t know,” said Williams.
But like many horsemen know, racing can surprise you. Williams has been working with horses for 50 years, and at 71, he’s philosophical about the physical demands: “My feet don’t follow my brain anymore,” he said with a laugh.
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On the tough luck side of the equation, trainer Devon Gittens finished second in the Osiris with Mighty Mikee and second in the J.W. Sifton with Mr. Splash, both of whom ran very strong races.
Gittens flew in from Toronto, where he is sixth in the standings at Woodbine with 20 wins, training for Canada’s leading owner Bruno Schickedanz, as he continues to live up to the promise we saw in him when he first started training here six years ago.
While Gittens returned to Woodbine, Williams and his crew of owner/trainer Eugene Burns and blacksmith Chance Dales were thinking of returning to the US to prepare for the winter meeting at Turf Paradise in Phoenix.
They can’t do that now after Marking Broadway’s big win in the Osiris. The $50,000 Winnipeg Futurity is on Sept. 30.
Williams is a sharp trainer, but the horse is in charge now.