Friday Night Entries
The first of the season's Friday night racing sessions gets underway this week and there's been a terrific response from trainers, with seven competitive contests slated. First race off at 7pm!
Big Winner!
Many Congratulations to paddock analyst, indispensible race-review writer and winner-picker extrordinaire, Mike Heads, who absolutely nailed the outcome of the 150th Kentucky Derby, picking MYSTIK DAN to win the whole shebang. Not done, he then casually tossed in eventual runner-up SIERRA LEONE for the Exacta. The winner paid a healthy $18.61, while anyone shrewd enough to take Mike’s Exacta advice will have enjoyed seeing the $258.56 dividend. Interestingly, the Oaks/Derby Daily Double Pool paid $118.43 to a dollar for anyone clairvoyant enough to see that Kenny McPeek would train the winners of both races. Mike also put his money where his mouth was, entering the Derby Bar & Grill’s popular Kentucky Derby Handicapping contest and subsequently scooping the pool — we’ll let Mike tell you how much!
Five Star Effort
Former B.C Derby and Longacres Mile winner FIVE STAR GENERAL, who was a five-time winner at Hastings between 2019 and 2021 for Glen Todd, continued his fine run of recent form with a brave third-place finish in the Knicks Go Overnight Stakes at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day. The son of Distorted Humor, who is now trained by Grant Forster, put in a bold showing close to the lead throughout the $200,000 Listed Mile contest and only capitulated late-on under Tyler Gafflione. “The General” has been a model of consistency for his connections of late, adding Fairgrounds’ Listed Tenacious Stakes to his roll of honour in December and finishing second in last month’s Evangeline Mile Stakes. Now an eight-year-old, FIVE STAR GENERAL has won 11 of his 36 races, with six seconds and eight third-place finshes, and has accumulated more than $720,000 in purses.
BC-breds Feature in Alberta’s ‘Night of Champions’
Two racemares familiar to Hastings’ racegoers received awards at last week’s 2023 Alberta Thoroughbred Awards night. FLORAL (Bakken), bred in BC by Canyon Farms and the winner last season of both the RedTail Landing and the R.K. Red Smith Handicaps at Century Mile, was crowned Champion Older Mare in Alberta; while fellow BC-bred and daughter of Bakken, MI REYNA, received the HBPA Trophy for Champion Claimer. While based at Hastings, MI REYNA, who was bred by Elton Gunther, won a division of the CTHS Sales Stakes as a juvenile before finishing fourth in the 2020 Sadie Diamond Stakes. The highpoint of FLORAL’s time at Hastings came with a win in 2020’s SUpernaturel Stakes. Many congratulations to the breeders of both mares and to all the connections.
Champion’s Return
Mystik Dan revels in the attention the morning after his heroic victory in the 150th running of the Kentuck Derby