Down The Stretch Podcast

They ran.the Woodbine Oaks and the Queen’s Plate Trial on Sunday. Two days before that, leading jockey, Kazushi Kimura was injured in a fall. So when Jockeys Benefit Association President Daren Gomez justifies a significant increase in riders’ fees, he knows what the stakes are. Veteran Slade Callaghan talks with us after receiving the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award. Powerhouse owner, Brad Grant revels in the thrill of owning Bulldog Hanover, the world’s fastest harness horse. Trainer Paige Austin didn’t need long to send out her first winner and her guy, James Macdonald is making a travesty of the drivers' race at Mohawk. And the multi-talented race caller, Jason Beem makes us laugh with his brilliant parody of Don McLean’s American Pie.

We have the Victoria Stakes and the My Dear Stakes from Woodbine and the first two legs of the Women’s Driving Championship from Hanover and Dresden Raceways. Owner Jack Darling talks with us about Bulldog Hanover whose last 4 mind-blowing races include a world record-setting mile last Saturday at the Meadowlands. Harness drivers winning in bunches...4 for Louis-Philippe Roy on Monday then 6 for Sylvain Filion on Friday. We’ve got Moncton, New Brunswick’s Ailsa Morrison winning on opening day at Colonial Downs. Opening Day? The Saratoga meet got underway and Jon Stettin of Past The Wire tells us he is not a fan of the new location of the starting gate for 1-mile races. Jockey Miguel Nicholls broke his maiden at Ajax Downs and didn’t mind getting soaked for it. We talk with Darren Dunn who tells us why the thoroughbred racing at Assiniboia Downs is producing great betting numbers, and have you ever wondered why racetracks don’t pay off to the penny?

Trainer Katarina Vassilieva tells us how thrilled she is that her 3 year-old Rondure is a likely Queen’s Plate favourite. We meet jockey Micah Husbands whose career got off to a wonderful start. Kevin Attard and agent Leroy Trotman tell us why the sky is the limit for this kid. The Stakes race at Woodbine was the Alywow on Saturday. There were some big pots in OSS Gold races at Mohawk on Monday and there was nothing cheesy about the payoff that Goudawon created in an OSS Gold Friday night. We check out last week’s card of quarter horse racing at Ajax Downs and we ask the question, how does almost 10,000 wins, a Little Brown Jug, a North America Cup, a Meadowlands Pace and a Breeders Crown not get Jack Moiseyev into the US Harness Racing Hall of Fame? Emma Christoforou and Bill O’Donnell weigh in on this.

Wow – did all this happen in just one week? 4 wins for Trevor Henry, 5 wins for James MacDonald. Big moments for Ismael Mosqueira at Fort Erie and Ricardo Moreno at Ajax Downs. The sale of Jimmy Freight. A world record-tying win by Bulldog Hanover. Roger Attfield’s 2,000 win came with a racing rarity. Tim Tetrick’s bizarre and unlikely Friday night. And 6 minutes of the most valuable marketing tips that horse racing has ever heard!

A great cast of characters in this week’s podcast. Jockey Patrick Husbands won the Sunday Stakes at Woodbine, then used his winners circle interview to give props to broadcaster Jason Portuondo, who was working his last day with a microphone before becoming a steward. How about Isabelle Wenc’s karma? Wenc organized a softball tournament to raise necessary funds for her best friend, Sheena Ryan who is recovering from a devastating injury. The day after the tournament, Wenc won a race at Fort Erie. This podcast has 3 huge milestones – Dave Palone steering his 20,000th winner, Bob McClure with # 3,000 and Doug McNair cruising past the $70 million mark.

We have a lot of Neil Diamond in this podcast, because we have a story about Neil’s Diamond, a horse loved so much by Franz and Danielle Crean, they shipped him up from Puerot Rico when his racing career ended.

The $1Million North America Cup was part of an extraordinary night of harness racing at Mohawk Park. We have the one Stakes race from Woodbine on Sunday and Woodbine’s Michael Copeland breaks downs how horse racing will be integrated into the tsunami of betting sites that have erupted in Canada. Two wins for 16 year-old Slade Jones on the weekend and he’s just 16. Canadians Chantal Sutherland and Ailsa Morrison produced an incredible finish at Gulfstream and we have it. We’ve also got Vicki Pappas of LongRun revealing how you can come and see Pink Lloyd and many other retired thoroughbreds. If you have plans to go to Saratoga, we’ll help you out - Ariane Fuller of Racing City Realty tells us why renting a house is better than staying in an overpriced motel. And why are we running all 7 races from last Wednesday's speed extravaganza at Ajax Downs? What did all the winning jockeys have in common?

This podcast has Stakes races from Woodbine and the 154th Belmont Stakes from New York. There were two elimination heats for the North America Cup at Mohawk as well as huge miles from both Test of Faith and Bulldog Hanover. Garnet Barnsdale went all the way to Cleveland to report on the Battle of Lake Erie. We have races from Fort Erie and Ajax Downs; as for the latter - we talk with a buoyant Cheyenne Kerr after she rode her first pari-mutuel winner and we meet John Wilson, who has owned quarter horses for over 60 years. And when this podcast’s host went to Woodbine last Friday, he ran into Zeljko Krcmar, Shale Wagman and Tedson Holder.

In this episode we have two Stakes races from Woodbine and a six-pack of big heats from Mohawk Park. Woodbine’s Director of Thoroughbred Racing, Tim Lawson reveals the details of this year’s Ladies of the Lawn Series. Woodbine conducted its first grass races on Thursday; one of winners was ridden by Slade Jones, who registered his first pari-mutuel victory at the age of 16. Sandy Hawley talks about that, how he’s enjoying his retirement and a park in Oshawa named after him. The 125th season of racing at Fort Erie got underway and thanks to the Fort’s new announcer, Doug McPherson and Ajax Downs race caller Frank Ferrari, we get to enjoy Helen Vanek’s Fort Erie/Ajax Downs double. And did you vote in the Provincial Election last week? We tell you why a horse race is better than an election.

We cover a lot of ground this week, from Woodbine for an upset in the Stella Artois Eclipse Stakes to Sweden for the Elitloppet to Presque Isle Downs where Kazushi Kimura is winning races. We go to Gulfstream because Moncton’s Ailsa Morrison is bringing in price horses and we go to The Raceway at Western Fair where Trevor Henry went crazy and Jimmy Freight was awesome. Everyone loves good six and we have 6 sixes in a row at Mohawk. Racing Secretary Tony O’Sullivan talks about ‘Pop-Up’ races and we have the bizarre story of the filly...who was really a colt.

This week. Jim Lawson and John Kopas help us look at the great life of Dr. Glen Brown. We’ve got the 147th Preakness Stakes and a Canadian-bred filly winning the Black Eyed Susan Stakes. Chantal Sutherland won a big race on Preakness day at Pimlico, Ailsa Morrison had a great day at Gulfstream and Kazushi Kimura tripled up at Presque Isle. We’ve got Mark Casse sweeping the board in the Ruling Angel Stakes and James MacDonald with a strange three-bagger at Mohawk. Down The Stretch spent an afternoon at Ajax Downs, and what is the deal with Flamboro Downs - did they simply not want anyone to notice their biggest race of the year?