Alberto appeared to have no chance in Saturday’s first division of the Rocky Mountain Boys stake at Century Mile for two-year-olds colts and geldings.
He was a guppy in a pool of sharks. A pop gun versus a machine gun.
For starters, Alberto was a maiden. A stakes race is hardly the easiest place to break a maiden.
His form was also little to get excited about: nine starts, no wins, two non-threatening seconds and a pair of equally unremarkable thirds.
Alberto had the rail and top driver Mike Hennessy aboard. But that was it.
Trainer Christopher Lancaster, however, felt differently. Much differently.
“When we were in the paddock before Saturday’s races Chris told me Alberto will win today,” said Hennessy, who has 1,731 driving wins.
“I just said OK.”
But it was a disbelieving OK. One of those surprising OKs. Like sure. And the world will end tomorrow OKs.
“I just remember thinking ‘He’ll win? Yeah sure.’” said a very skeptical Hennessy.
But amazingly enough Alberto - at 7-1 - did win coming from well back and weaving through horses down the stretch to take a three-horse photo over Scouts Command and 3-5 favourite Dungannigans.
“I was just hoping to get a trip on the rail and get a piece of the pie,” said Hennessy, who is battling it out for top driver honours with Phil Giesbrecht at The Mile. “Instead, he got it all. He just got there. He just kept going at them.
“He got by some tiring horses.”
Owned and bred by Alice and Fred Gilbert of Brandon, Manitoba, Alberto is by Mcwicked out of Real Pretty.
“Alice and Fred did a real good job raising that colt,” said Lancaster.
Alberto paid $17.90. A $1 exacta to Scouts Command paid $145.
The mile went in 1:58 3/5.
“Surprised me,” said Hennessy, who also won the first division of the Brad Gunn for two-year-old fillies with precocious Amazon Huntress and two other races.
“Chris was right.”
Lancaster said the win was due to his dad, Ron.
“We went old school,” said Lancaster.
“I used to train Alberto a couple of fast miles before a race. This time I only gave him one fast mile and a lot of long and slow miles leading up to the race.”
Ron, a former trainer and blacksmith, didn’t suggest any equipment changes.
“Just basic things he tried back in the day that worked,” said Chris.
“Diet. Feed supplements. Things like that.
“Everything he suggested worked,” said Lancaster, who will now rest Alberto.
The other division of the Rocky Mountain - won by Somewhat Tipsy in a very quick 1:54 3/5 - was virtually the opposite of Alberto’s victory. This time nobody was surprised when Somewhat Tipsy won by five and three-quarter lengths and was sent away at 1-9 to return just $2.30 to win.
Y V Michters was second; Sam Credit, who raced a big race, was third. A 60-cent trifecta paid just $3.35.
Owned by B.C.’s JJJ Stables and 4wracing, Somewhat Tipsy recorded his fourth straight win. Trained and driven by Giesbrecht, he took the $90,000 Super Final by another five lengths. He won The Shooting Star by five more lengths and he won the Lonestar by two widening lengths.
Back to Amazon Huntress: this is a two-year-old filly with a big future.
Her win in the first division of the Brad Gunn on Saturday was just so easy. Sitting in the catbird seat just behind Dixieland Delight with Hennessy holding the reins tight, Amazon Huntress pulled entering the final turn and that was it. Goodbye and see you later.
The mile went in 1:57 which was nothing considering she had broken her maiden in her only other start in 1:55 3/5.
Purchased in foal to That’s How We Roll for $33,000 by Edmonton’s Lorne Duffield and Jean Crochetiere of Beaumont, Amazon Huntress won by five and a quarter lengths while being eased up.
“She was a good buy,” said Duffield, who is best known as the owner of the fabulous Shark Week. “She just seemed to be jogging in her only two starts. I don’t know if she’s ever even taken a breath.
“In her first start all of a sudden she went a hundred miles an hour. I went ‘Wow.’
“She should be able to go in 1:53 or even 1:52.”
Trainer Rod Hennessy - Mike’s dad - said “How many times do you see a two-year-old win its first start in 1:55 and change? Not many.
“She’s still green,” said Rod, who was winning his 2,344th race as a trainer. He also won 2,831 races as a driver. “She looks all over the place. It’s like she’s saying ‘What’s going on? What’s happening here?’
“She’s very one-minded - her and nobody else’s.
“And, while she is already big and tall, she needs to grow out and fill out her stature.”
Amazon Huntress is also all about her breeding.
The bay filly is by Huntsville, who won 15 of his 25 starts for more than US$1.7-million.
A free-legged pacer, he won the $600,000 Breeders Crown Two-Year-Old Final and the $738,550 Meadowlands Pace in 1:47 4/5.
Huntsville is also well proven as a sire in both Australia where he was that continent’s leading two-year-old sire and North America where he was the leading three-year-old pacing sire.
Last year he sired the winners of more than $18.8 million including his two- and three-year-olds who earned more than $11.2 million.
The fourth two-year-old stake - the Brad Gunn’s two-year-old filly pace division - on Saturday was won by Midnight Diva Rose in 1:59 2/5.
Going wire-to-wire, Midnight Diva Rose paid $10.80 to win.
She is trained and driven by Nathan Sobey, who also co-owns her with Robert Jones, Diane Bertrand and Robert Gilhespy.
Like Alberto, Midnight Diva Rose was also breaking her maiden in a stakes race.
STOCK REPORT — Alberta’s two-time and reigning Horse of the Year, Big Hug, finished second in a $100,000 stakes race at Del Mar, California.
This weekend’s stakes schedule at Century Mile features the Western Canada Pacing Derby and Century Mile Filly Pace eliminations. If, that is, there are eliminations. Leduc’s Blair Corbeil is sending two powerful fillies, Easy Station and A Clean Deal, for the Filly Pace, and a colt, Tilthecowscomehome, for the Derby.
Easy Station has been racing in stakes races in Ontario and Kentucky and has a mark of 1:49 2/5.
A Clean Deal has won 11 of 20 starts for earnings of over $800,000. She just finished racing in the Breeders’ Crown at Scioto Downs, Ohio. A Clean Deal has a lifetime mark of 1:49 3/5.
Doug McNair, one of Canada’s top drivers who was in Edmonton for the recent Super Finals, is coming back here for the Filly Pace.
Tilthecowscomehome has paced a winning mile in 1:49 1/5 while racing in Ontario stakes.
Jody Jamieson, one of the best drivers on the planet, is coming to drive him.
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Inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.