TORONTO, April 6 - The 2016 live Thoroughbred racing season kicks off this weekend at Woodbine, the first two of 133 programs scheduled for the meet.
Saturday’s card will feature the unveiling of Woodbine’s brand new synthetic Tapeta (pronounced Ta-PETE-a) main track that replaces the Polytrack that was installed in 2006.
The 10-race Opening Day card, highlighted by the six furlong, $125,000 Jacques Cartier Stakes on Tapeta for four-year-olds and upwards, was drawn on Wednesday. First race post time is 1:00 p.m. Sunday’s card, to be drawn on Thursday, features the Grade 3, $150,000 Whimsical Stakes for fillies, four-year-olds and upwards, also at six furlongs over the Tapeta.
Woodbine’s perennial leading jockeys and trainers will once again be in action. Last year’s leading rider, Eurico Rosa da Silva, a two-time Sovereign Award recipient and 2015 finalist, has seven mounts on Opening Day. Last year, in a stunning campaign, da Silva led all Woodbine riders in wins (201) and purse earnings ($9.76 million) while winning 17 stakes events.
Luis Contreras, a two-time Sovereign Award winner and a finalist for 2015, has seven mounts on Saturday, while eight-time Sovereign Award winner Patrick Husbands is named on five horses.
Alan Garcia, who committed to ride at Woodbine last year after many successful seasons in the United States, also returns for the 2016 meet. Garcia won 93 races at Woodbine in 2015 including 18 stakes scores. Garcia is named on two horses.
Emma-Jayne Wilson, who will partner Queen’s Plate Winterbook favourite Shakhimat in the Grade III Transylvania Stakes on Friday’s Keeneland curtain raiser, has four calls on Woodbine’s Opening Day.
Trainer Mark Casse, a seven-time Sovereign Award winner and once again a 2015 finalist, sends out four horses on Opening Day. Casse, recently inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, comes off a 2015 season in which he won a Woodbine-leading 80 races and $6.2 million in purse earnings.
In September, Casse captured the Grade 2 Natalma Stakes with Catch a Glimpse and the budding star went on to win the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Catch a Glimpse will be among the favourites in the race to be named Canada’s Horse of the Year at Friday’s Sovereign Awards.
Canada’s most famous horse race, the $1 million Queen’s Plate, will be staged on Sunday, July 3, when the mile and one-quarter classic for Canadian-bred three-year-olds will be contested for the 157th consecutive time, making it the oldest, continuously-run stakes race in North America.
The $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, presented by Budweiser, for Canadian-foaled three-year-old fillies, and the $150,000 Plate Trial for Canadian-bred three-year-olds, both at one and one-eighth miles, will be run on Sunday, June 12.
Other major races at Woodbine include the $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes, the third leg in the Canadian Triple Crown, on August 21 at one and one-half miles over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course; the $1 million, Grade 1, turf Ricoh Woodbine Mile and the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf on September 17; the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes on September 18; the $1 million Pattison Canadian International and the $500,000 E.P. Taylor Stakes, also both Grade 1 turf events, on Sunday, October 16.
Saturday’s Jacques Cartier, scheduled for 4:38 p.m., drew a talented group of eight hopefuls, including Stacked Deck who is likely be named Canada’s champion sprinter at Friday’s Sovereign Awards.
First race post times for Saturdays, Sundays and holiday Mondays throughout the year will be 1:00 p.m. Friday racing, also with a 1:00 p.m. first race post, begins on April 22 while Wednesday night racing, beginning at 6:45 p.m., is slated to start on May 18.
Jim Mazur and Jim Bannon will be hosting a ‘Win at Woodbine’ handicapping seminar on the second floor from 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. The first 150 people to register will receive a free, ‘Woodbine Handicapper and Blue Chips Trainer Angles’ booklet.
Canadian Thoroughbred racing will honour its brightest stars of last season at the Sovereign Awards dinner, Friday evening at Woodbine, as a prelude to Opening weekend. The Sovereign Awards were established in 1975 to honour Canada’s best each year.
Woodbine’s 2016 Thoroughbred season comes to a close on Sunday, December 4.
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