HORSES PUT UP FOR SALE WITH TRACK CLOSED
Big-name colts on the market with latest shutdown of harness racing in Alberta
The harness racing shutdown by the Province of Alberta as part of measures taken due to rising COVID-19 numbers had a major rebound effect Wednesday.
Leading trainer Jim Marino and the co-owner of Major Custard, winner of 17 consecutive races and expected to be voted Canada's harness horse of the year, has decided to put all his top horses up for sale as a result of the government shutdown of Century Mile.
Another top trainer, Albertan Brent Bodor, also announced the same plan, also on Facebook.
Marino wrote: “Due to COVID shutdowns, I have multiple horses for sale. Horses trained by myself in B.C. and horses trained by Mike Campbell in Alberta, including Major Custard. Serious inquiries only.”
Bodor wrote: “Due to COVID shutdown in Alberta. Entire barn dispersal. Yearlings. Two-yearolds. Aged racehorses. Serious inquiries only.”
Marino won 66 of 321 races this year, 80 of 431 races last year and 84 of 513 races two years ago.
Bodor won 30 of 368 starts this year and 59 of 495 last year.
Major Custard won the Western Canada Pacing Derby as well as the 17 races in a row.
Meanwhile, the four-legged action attraction at Century
Mile in Edmonton and Century Downs in Calgary, where the harness horses raced most of their season this year with the thoroughbreds spending the entire season in Edmonton, will race his expected final race for Marino here on Saturday. It will be part of an unprecedented 20-race card to get in one last race for as many horses as possible before the midnight deadline shuts down horse racing for the remainder of the calendar year.
What this might mean for the future of standardbred racing in the province is suddenly open to debate, but Marino says he's making the move as a business and financial decision, not as some sort of statement.
“Because of COVID, the track closures, the casino closures and the uncertainty of purse money in the next year or two, I think it makes the most sense to focus on the yearlings and regroup. Hopefully, I'll have some good stakes colts.
“The race track has been great to me. The COVID thing is on everybody. But I have a lot of employees and if we have to stop racing, I have no choice. I have to sell a few. I don't know how many horses I'll be able to sell. I have 40 horses total.
“I've decided to sell the top ones at the track and focus on the young ones. I have 14 yearlings in the barn right now,” said the Surrey, B.c.-based horseman.
“We were really lucky to have such good stakes colts this year in B.C. and Alberta. We had
Major Custard, Rockin' With Custard, Custard Smoothie … you might see a theme there,” Marino said of horses sired by Custard the Dragon.
If I'd Only Known and Sent by Angels were two others who will likely draw the most interest.
Marino said it's going to be a challenge for the harness horse owners who only had a short mini-meet at Fraser Downs in Cloverdale, B.C., and have no purse money building with the casinos closed.
“We had a good year in the stakes and there's a lot of horsemen going to have a tough time and I'm sure a lot of people in all lines of small businesses in Alberta and B.C. are having a tough time. If I can sell horses during the break, that's what I thought I would do.”
Major Custard has won $315,000. He won 17 in a row, lost one and then won the Western Canada Pacing Derby. He's entered in the Brad Gunn Memorial stakes race Saturday.
“You hate to see him go, but we don't know what's going to happen now,” said Marino. “In B.C. where I live, I can't see the casinos being open until 2022. Major Custard could be bought for the right price and, to be honest, I think he deserves the chance to be racing in the United States.
“I was really lucky to have such colts as that on such a crazy year as we had. Two were three-yearolds and the rest of them were two-year-olds.”
Marino makes it clear he's doing what he feels he has to do. He hopes the other horsemen figure out what to do, too.
“It's got nothing to do with Alberta; I can't wait to get back to Alberta,” he said. “Horsemen are tough and they're resilient and have shown time and time again that they can bounce back. Alberta, I think, is the future of horse racing in Western Canada and we just need to get past this.”
Horsemen are tough and they're resilient and have shown time and time again that they can bounce back.