Downs kicks off Canada’s thoroughbred season

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This article was published 24/05/2020 (1579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike Nault sorely missed the roar of an opening-night crowd but the veteran trainer had his livelihood back Monday night.

Even though the stands at Assiniboia Downs were empty — dictated by the COVID-19 crisis — the adrenalin rush of a return to competition wouldn’t be underplayed as the Downs became the first thoroughbred track in Canada to race in 2020 and Nault, a 53-year-old from Laurier, became the first winning trainer of the season.

He was thrilled.

“The atmosphere has been good since they found out we could run,” said Nault, moments after watching Bear Me A Moment win the Don Gray Memorial early Monday night. “Everybody’s excited to run. Whether we have people or not, we want to run. We’ve still got to put on a show.

“People are watching us on television. We’ve gotta put on a show. This is gonna get fixed and we’re gonna get back to normal. I’m not saying this year, not saying next year but we’ll be back to normal.”

Rigo Sarmiento, a leading rider in Alberta last season who came to Winnipeg with tracks closed in the rest of Western Canada, was relieved to bring Bear Me A Moment home a winner.

“Now a little tired after five months no riding,” said a smiling Sarmiento, who left his native Venezuela 16 days ago and hadn’t raced since December.

Sarmiento wasn’t the only one adjusting to the action. Winnipeggers had gone 78 days since watching the Jets on home ice and 220 days without a CFL game at IG Field.

The Downs, which hadn’t hosted a live racing event since Sept. 15, 2019, snapped a 254-day drought.

The return of racing Monday was the culmination of almost three months of hand-wringing at the track. The season was put on pause prior to the usual Mother’s Day opener and Downs CEO Darren Dunn was only given government notice earlier this month that restrictions would be eased sufficiently to permit spectator-less racing.

At the time, Dunn warned the survival of thoroughbred racing in the province was in jeopardy without a season. They are forging ahead.

“When we heard about all the COVID and it started to get a little worrisome, then we got excited because at least we were able to run,” said Nault, who did not have a winner on opening day in 2019 but has star Hidden Grace, unbeaten in nine stakes races, in his stable. “We lost 10 per cent of our purses, which is pretty good, and only $5,000 off the stakes. So we can make a living doing this now.”

Dunn, meanwhile, was able to settle his jangled nerves with a smooth, but downsized operation. Approximately 50 workers were on hand Monday when a normal opening-day crowd of 10,000 requires a staff five times that number.

“I felt the most relief when the first field crossed the line,” said Dunn. “Not so much the starting gate but when they crossed the line safely and my whole team and the horsemen co-operated so well. We sorta had to Lawrence Welk an orchestra here. Everybody had to play their part, their instrument, and they did. We’re on the same page, it’s incredibly encouraging.”

Dunn was also buoyed by the early response of betters across North America watching on television and online.

“We’ve opened a lot of new accounts, so we know we have a lot of new customers,” said Dunn early in the night’s proceedings. “Most of them will probably be sports bettors who don’t have any product and still like some action…

“I’m going to need at least the first three days to get a grasp of where it’s coming from but I can tell you right now, if I had to take a guess, an opening night would probably have seven races and probably bet $400,000 to $500,000. On six races so far, and it’s early and the night’s not over, we’re going to be very close to $1 million (in gross wagering).”

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14