There were only five thoroughbreds entered in this past Friday night’s allowance race for three-year-olds at Century Mile.
But it still had all the makings of a stakes race. Even if it was just five and a half furlongs and a short field.
Five horses. Five highly regarded stakes winners.
From the rail out there was Debrusk a winner of his last three starts - all stakes at Vancouver’s Hastings Park - which made him B.C.’s Champion Two-Year-Old.
He won the CTHS Sales stake, the Jack Diamond Futurity and the Ascot Graduation.
Outside of him was Relaxgodoitramone, last year’s Alberta Two-Year-Old champion, with four wins and a second in six outings.
In post three was Big Curl, a fabulous looking horse, who won last year’s Kindergarten Stakes.
Helioo was in post four. He was a winner of last year’s Birdcatcher stake in Calgary,
And to the outside in post five there was the favourite Twickenham, who was one for one with his lone start producing a scintillating open-length romp in B.C.’s Nursery.
It was a race to behold.
While three months away, the hopes for all of the horses that ran last Friday is the Canadian Derby.
This could have been a sneak preview.
The race certainly wasn’t without incident - right from the beginning.
Trainer Dino Condilenios had both Debrusk and Twickenham in the race and his heart fell hard into his stomach when both of them got away slow.
“They were last and second last down the backstretch,” said Condilenios, who came to Alberta with several other trainers following the closure of Vancouver’s Hastings Park.d “I was fretting. I thought I better have much the best if I was going to win.”
Condilenios wasn’t finished worrying. Debrusk shot up the rail and moved into second behind pace-setting Relaxgodoitramone.
Debrusk thought there was room between the rail and Relaxgodoitramone. But there wasn’t and Debrusk’s jockey, Silvino Morales, was forced to check. Hard.
So, once again, Debrusk and Twickenham were at the back of the compact field.
“Silvino told me Debrusk wanted to go before he was ready to go,” said Condilenos. “He was running off with him.
“Debrusk is like a junkyard dog. He sees horses and wants to go and get them. He’ll do whatever he can to win.”
Debrusk had to regroup and rally again.
“Debrusk is just waiting for a spot,” exhaled track announcer Dylan Beardy.
He got it. At the eighth pole, Morales snuck in between Relaxgodoitramone and Big Curl where there was nothing but daylight. Shooting through the gap Debrusk drew away to a length and a quarter victory.
Big Curl, who was bumped pretty hard, showed good run late to take second ahead of a faltering Relaxgodoitramone.
Debrusk paid $8.80 to win for his gutsy performance. “He’s a big solid horse - a real stout horse," said Condilenios, a two-time B.C. leading trainer and just about every year in at least the top five.
“He can muscle his way through things.
“That race on Friday was just like Debrusk’s last start last year,” said Condilenios, referring to the Glen Todd Ascot Graduation he won in Vancouver.
“He got away slow that time too. And he was also boxed in desperately needing room.
“Fortunately, both times, he was able to shake loose and win.”
For Debrusk it was his fourth win in a row for Condilenios and his partners Jordan Froelich and Georges and Terry Georgeopoulos.
“It’s the first step to the Derby hopefully,” said Condilenios. “It’s a long way away but you can always dream.”
While Twickenham finished last - 12 lengths behind Debrusk - Condilenios certainly isn’t giving up on him after this one race.
“I'm extremely confident he will bounce back. He’s just got too much talent not to. If I had to say, I think Twickenham is the more talented of the two.
“I’m not sure Twickenham wants to run a distance. That’s the vibe I’m getting. Debrusk will run all day. He’s already won a route race.”
Condilenios said he “was shocked at how poorly he ran.”
But, it turned out that Twickenham had plenty of excuses for his showing on Friday.
“He broke to the right and caught a hind leg on the starting gate,” said Condilenios.
“I scoped him after the race because he sure wasn’t the same horse that was working in the mornings.”
Sure enough Twickenham’s nose and throat were filled with mucus.
“I knew there had to be a reason why he ran so poorly - even if he broke slow.”
Twickenham’s only other start was that romp last year in the Nursery on August 4 at Hastings Park when he handed Debrusk his only loss going wire-to-wire and winning by four and a quarter lengths.
Condilenios said Debrusk and Twickenham are two very different animals.
“They are two types of players.
“I worked Debrusk and Twickenham together several times. They would wind up on even terms but the feeling I got was that Twickenham could have gone by Debrusk anytime he wanted.
“Debrusk is a lazy horse in the mornings. Twickenham would go in :56 seconds if you let him.”
But who Debrusk is similar to is a horse Condilenios trained 15 years ago: Almost Time, who won 10 of 24 starts - many of them stakes including his final race - the black type George Royal at 9-1 at Hastings. He won $360,000.
“They are identical. Like twins,” said Condilenios, who went to the University of Victoria.
In fact, they almost are. Both Debrusk and Almost Time were both sired by Finality, first or second in nine of his 15 starts.
Well bred, Finality is by Dehere, a winner of six of nine starts including the Grade 1 Hopeful and Champagne stakes. Dehere’s dam, Sister Dot, is by Secretariat.
Furthermore, the dams of Debrusk and Almost Time are three-quarter sisters.
“It’s like training the same horse,” he said of Debrusk and Almost Time.
Twickenham was purchased for $5,134 at the 2024 B.C. Mixed Sale for Swift Thoroughbreds, who Condilenios used to be their private trainer from 2006 to 2018.
Debrusk was bought at the same sale for $6,234.
With a sharp eye for a good horse, Condilenios picked out both of them.
“They are both quality individuals. I’m excited coming into the season with both of them.”
Swift Thoroughbreds, owned by Mark Mache, Naudia Mache and Horatio Kemeny, used to have some 50 horses in training. Now they are down to about two dozen plus six broodmares.
Longtime friends,Mark Mache and Kemeny founded Mindspan, which produced Hardball, the most popular baseball video game of the Atari and Sega eras.
The two launched their stable in 2002 and over the years campaigned many outstanding horses like Snuggles, who was first or second in 12 of her 13 career races and was B.C.’s Horse of the Year twice. At one point Snuggles won six of seven. The sixth win in that streak was in the 2016 Ballerina against older mares.
“I’ve got a few of Snuggles’ babies running now,” said Condilenios.
Other nice horses in the Swift Thoroughbreds barn over the years included Teide, who won eight of 25 races including the Lieutenant Governors’ Handicap, the George Royal, the Sir Winston Churchill Handicap and the Randall Plate in 2009 and 2010, the aforementioned Almost Time and Modern, who won or placed in 18 of 36 starts winning, like Teide, B.C.’s top older horse stakes.
But Condilenios’ best horse was probably Russell and Lois Bennett’s Lord Nelson, who was first or second in 27 of 41 starts while earning $656,000 and being almost unbeatable from 2001 to 2005.
Condilenios’s parents used to take their son to the races all the time when Dino, now 55, was just a teenager.
His dad, Nick, who passed away last year, ended up buying a couple of horses and his trainer had Dino walk them.
“I was hooked,” said Dino, who took out his trainer’s license when he was 21.
He won two of his first 5 starts.
“I thought this was going to be easy.”
Then he went 0 for 30.
“Horse racing can humble you really fast,” said Dino, who is now just three wins short of 600.
“When you are in a race there is no thrill like it,” Dino told the Vancouver Sun ten years ago. “It is a huge rush and fulfilling when you get a horse that has issues and you bring him along, it is very rewarding.
“They are like professional athletes…
“The thing about this sport is a $1,000 horse can become a million-dollar horse. They need the heart and the will. Talent doesn’t always give you the true picture. There are lots of horses who have talent. They have to have the rest of the package. They have to want to win.”
Follow me on X (Twitter) and on Facebook.
Inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2017.
Author: The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty.