Saturday’s $50,000 RedTail Landing stake at Century Mile wasn’t a horse race as much as - for the longest time - it was bedazzling theatre.
While second favourite Bling Dancer and Who’s That Baby contested the solid pace of :22 3/5 and :45 4/5, far back and all alone was the 3-4 favourite Avana biding her time like she was on a deserted island.
Six furlongs is not Avana’s favourite distance; longer is better especially on a front-running surface like The Mile.
But then, as much as the heralded five-year-old mare would demonstrate, does it really matter? Quick answer is a definitive no all in upper case with three exclamation marks.
“She knows where the go button is,” said trainer Barb Heads.
“I think she is way better on a mile track.
“Antonio (jockey Reyes) couldn’t believe the response he got. He just clucked to her a bit and she took off. He told me it was a whole new feeling. This was the first time he had ridden her in a race and he was really happy to be aboard.”
When Reyes subtly asked Avana midway around the turn without a tap or even the slightest shake of the reins, Avana was gone. It was like watching a shark swim or taking a pick pocket to a Rolex convention.
Any drama was quickly erased.
Swoosh.
“I wasn’t worried,” said Reyes with a grin as long as Avana’s swooping four-length victory as she swung six wide to avoid any lurking trouble.
It was Avana’s 12th win in just 16 starts
“I just let her bide her time,” said Reyes, who got the mount because of a shoulder injury to regular rider Amadeo Perez and was “really excited” to pinch hit.
“I just let her do her thing.”
That ‘thing’ is magic.
Once again - for the 12th time in 16 starts - Avana won. Easily. By four lengths which could have easily been more.
The six furlongs went in 1:10 2/5.
Bling Dancer held on in a photo to take second over Who’s That Baby.
The RedTail Landing was Avana’s 10th stakes win - five in 2024 including both the B.C. and Century Mile Oaks when she was named B.C.’s Horse of the Year - and four last year.
With another quick turn of foot Avana now has her first stakes victory this year.
Up next for Avana is probably going to be the June 20 R.A. ‘Red’ McKenzie stake going seven furlongs.
There, she is expected to meet Big Hug, last year’s Alberta Horse of the Year, for just the second time.
Asked why Big Hug didn’t run on Saturday Rick Hedge, Big Hug’s trainer and co-owner with Empire Equestrian was succinct: “Six furlongs. Too short.”
The only time Big Hug and Avana faced each other was in last year’s Northlands Distaff which Avana won by a length and three-quarters.
Hedge wasn’t happy with that race and is looking forward to making amends.
“Avana got the jump on us. Raffy (jockey Zenteno Jr.) was still sitting when Avana found a big hole that opened up for her,” said Hedge after that race.
“Avana opened up three lengths on us and it was too much to overcome.
“Not taking anything away from Avana, who is a very nice mare. But she shouldn’t have beat her that day.”
“Everybody has their own option,” replied Avana’s trainer, Barb Heads.
“We’ll see what happens. Big Hug is obviously a very nice mare. It should be a great race.”
Then the drama will really be amplified.
Looking like she was chiseled out of stone by Michelangelo, Avana is a very big mare.
“She’s a tank,” said Heads’ husband Mike.
“Infinite Patience was like a gazelle,” he added referring to the multiple champion who won 22 races - 10 of them in a row - that Heads trained for Edmonton Oiler Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and breeder William Decoursey. Infinite Patience is now a mama with a weanling colt by Hard Spun.
“Avana was always big,” said Heads. “Even as a two-year-old she was really built, big and heavy. That’s one of the reasons we turned her out after just one start at Del Mar, California as a two-year-old.
A Keeneland Kentucky November Weanling purchase for $60,000, sold again for $100,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling sale and then for $150,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ March Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale, Avana was then part of Peter Redekop’s Dispersal Sale.
Redekop’s horses won over 500 races and dozens of graded stakes races.
Avana is currently owned by breeders Bryan and Carol Anne Anderson, Rick Orman, Decoursey, Greg Palmer and Denise Praill.
Except for Orman, all the others had previously owned horses with Heads.
Very well bred which will serve her well when it becomes time for her to be a broodmare, Avana is sired by Breeders’ Cup Champion Vino Rosso and out of the mare Revealing Moment, the 2024 Outstanding Broodmare and a a half-sister to millionaire and multiple Grade 1 winner Belle Gallantey.
“As well as a race horse she is a long-term investment,” said Heads.
Saturday’s co-feature was the well-matched 11-horse $50,000 six-furlong Journal Handicap taken by Rainbow’s Pride in a nail biting, head bob photo over Gotme Good.
Rainbow’s Pride, the slight 4-1 second betting choice, got a nice, stalking trip while 20-1 long shot Gotme Good never left the rail.
Both horses were recent claims by two sharp-eyed trainers Craig Smith and Tim Rycroft.
Rainbow’s Pride was haltered by Smith for himself, Lucky Diamonds Racing and Sunil Trehun out of a $20,000 claiming race on March 26 at Tampa Bay. Gotme Good was claimed for $15,000 last December at Woodbine, Ontario for GSR Stable, Bruce Appleyard and CNK Holdings.
Ridden by apprentice Richard Balgobin, it was Rainbow’s Pride’s seventh career win from 29 starts.
STOCK REPORT - Perez said his shoulder is now “fine.”
He galloped horses last week and expects to ride this weekend.
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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.