(PHOTO ABOVE - DINAHLICIOUS wins her first start of 2016 at Ajax Downs on May 15 for Marie and Bob Broadstock. Cassandra Jeschke rode the Ontario bred filly in the $17,600 allowance race. NEW IMAGE MEDIA PHOTO)
Quarter Horse racing fans continued to greet the beginning of the new Ajax Downs season with enthusiasm with another record-breaking wagering day. After two racing cards in 2016, wagering of close to $110,000 is up over 73% over the same two corresponding days in 2015.
Marie Broadstock’s Dinahlicious stamped herself a filly to watch in 2016 with her victory in the co-featured fifth race on May 15, the second day of the Quarter Horse season. Making her season debut in the $17,600 allowance race at 250 yards, the sorrel 4-year-old was quickly in front and won by three-quarters of a length in :13.700, an 80 speed index. Speed of Life, owned by Gary McNichol, won a close photo for second place.
Dinahlicious was ridden by Cassandra Jeschke and Bob Broadstock trains the winning filly who had three victories in 2015. Dinahlicious was bred by Brian Farrell in Ontario and she is by Bodacious Jess out of the Blushing Bug mare Dinah Carolina.
The afternoon’s featured race was a $27,000 allowance, the first of 16 overnight series races for fillies and mares at 250 yards and Sign It Down won an exciting battle with favoured Im Aquicktrick to win by a neck for Richard Wincikaby and DK Training Centre. The sorrel mare’s victory wrapped up the late double wager for Wincikaby and DK Training, trainer Don Reid and jockey Brian Bell. Sign It Down was winning for the fifth time in 23 races and she raced the distance in :13.660, translating into an 81 speed index.
In race six, the “Gridiron Gallop”, a 110-yard dash offering a purse of $16,000 was won by Wincikaby and DK Training’s brown 5-year-old mare Lexia. The Don Reid-trained mare won two of her four starts in 2015 and is now four for 13 in her career. The New Mexico-bred by Foose had the all -important sharp start from the gate for the shortest Quarter Horse dash the track offers.
“The start in a 110-yard race is very, very important,” said Bell. “You need to have a horse who has a good head and you need a perfect start.”
(PHOTO - LEXIA, number 7, shows an incredible burst to win the 110yard Gridiron Gallop in the last jump under jockey Brian Bell - NEW IMAGE MEDIA PHOTO)
Owner and trainer Rick Kennedy and jockey Helen Vanek also had a good afternoon at the races as they teamed up to win two races, the first two wins for both in the young 2016 season.
Their first winner came in race one as Purrfect Storm, a big bay 6-year-old gelding with a generous white blaze, won the $9,600 speed index race right on the finish line in his season debut. The son of Thoroughbred stallion Ciano Cat is out of La Ramera by Mister Dot Dash and was bred by Kim Burnie. It was the second lifetime win for Purrfect Storm in his 18
th career start.
The time of :12.580 for 220 yards was good for a 70 speed index.
Vanek then was aboard Pappa Trick for Kennedy in race four, a maiden claiming event and the pair won by a short head over favoured Fames Winner. Pappa Trick is a 4-year-old Ontario bred gelding by Pappasito from Lamplight Lilly, who is a daughter of the Thoroughbred stallion Favorite Trick. Baytonia Stables bred Pappa Trick who ran the 220 yards in :12.550, a 71 speed index.
In other races on the May 15 card:
Race 2, an Ontario-sired maiden race worth $11,500 was won by first-time starter Runaway Ranger who powered to a three-quarter length victory at 2 to1 for owner and breeder Carol Robertson. The bay 3-year-old colt is by Winners Award from Midnight Express B, by Pyc Paint Your Wagon. Bryn Robertson trains Runaway Ranger and Max Badal was the winning rider.
“It feels great to be back riding,” said Badal, who missed a lot of the 2015 season. “Last year I had a horse flip over on me and I had some fractures in my back.” Badal won his first race as a jockey at Fort Erie in a Thoroughbred race last fall and won two races at Ajax last season.
One of the more impressive winners of the young season was the 3-year-old Alakazaam, who took an Ontario sired allowance race by 1 ½ lengths under wraps by jockey Chelsey Willick. This flashy sorrel gelding was even-money in the seven-horse field and sped the 220 yards in :12.390, a 79 speed index.
Owned by Full Circle racing and Cummings Cattle Co. and trained by Greg Watson, Alazakaam won a trial race for the Alex Picov Memorial Futurity last fall but was disqualified and placed ninth. He later won his maiden in his final start of the season.
Next week’s racing card includes the trials for the first stakes race of the Ajax meeting, the $50,000-added Picov Maturity featuring last year’s Horse of the Year, Fiesty Icon.
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