‘This is the grand jewel’
Prince of Wales Stakes put Fort Erie, normally a ‘B track,’ to higher level; Amis Gizmo wins
Fort Erie’s biggest program on its all-too-short horse racing season featured full parking lots as far as the eye could see from the grandstand, and total wagering on one race in excess of $500,000.
That race, of course, was the Prince of Wales Stakes, the second-last race on Tuesday’s nine-race card, the second jewel of Canadian thoroughbred racing’s triple crown and, hands down, the highlight of the racing calendar at Fort Erie Race Track.
“For us, this is the grand jewel, that’s for sure,” said Tom Valiquette, chief operating officer of Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium.
Amis Gizmo, a 6-5 favourite and the front runner at the Queen’s Plate until he was overtaken by Sir Dudley Digges, was the winner after the dust on track’s main dirt racing surface settled. Luis Contreras, the last jockey to win the triple crown, albeit on two different horses, guided Amis Gizmo to a win in 1:56.76.
Leavem in Malibu, with odds of 5-to-1 at post time, placed second, eight lengths back. Niigon’s Edge, a 29-1 longshot, finished third, while Sir Dudley Digges, the Queen’s Plate winner, placed sixth.
Amis Gizmo trainer Josie Carroll said immediately after the race that it won’t be determined until later if the Prince of Stakes winner will compete in the Breeders Stakes next month in Toronto.
Along with Tuesday’s fourth racing, the $75,000 Rainbow Connections Stakes, the Prince of Wales, with a purse of $500,000, Fort Erie becomes more than a “B track” for at least day of the racing season.
“Without the large purses, these horses would not normally race here,” said Valiquette, who worked at Woodbine in Toronto before coming to Fort Erie when the consortium took over in 2010.
Both races were moved to Tuesday nights from Sunday afternoons four years ago in order to avoid headto-head competition with action at larger tracks. Valiquette said because Saratoga Springs in upstate New York, perhaps the premier track in North America, also races Sundays, that was hurting the handle at Fort Erie.
“All the big tracks runs on Sunday, and that affects our simulcast market,” said Valiquette, who estimates 90 per cent of wagering for the Prince of Wales takes place off track.
Despite Fort Erie’s reputation as B track — “We’re limited to a certain set of funding,” he said — the consortium isn’t worried that the track, where the loss of slot machine revenue drastically reduced racing dates to 40 from 68, will lose its signature race any time soon.
“It’s been here for 80 years, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere,” said Valiquette, who pointed out keeping the Prince of Wales was one of the conditions when Woodbine sold the Fort Erie track in 1997.
Lakeshore student in spotlight
Hannah Tumillo, 16, of Fort Erie performed both national anthems between the second and third races. The track invited the Lake Catholic High School student to perform at the track’s biggest program of the season after hearing her and her band, the Young Rebels, perform at last month’s Party on the Patio fundraiser for a new high school in Fort Erie.
It was first time that Tumillo has been asked to perform a national anthem, but after 11 years attending Buffalo Sabres games with her father Joe she didn’t need to learn the words of either anthem.
“Oh, I knew the words all right,” Tumillo said with a laugh.
She admitted experiencing some butterflies, or would they be horseflies given the occasion, when she was being introduced, but the nerves didn’t affect her performance.
“Once the music started, it was all good,” she said. “All the nerves go away, but it’s still so exciting.”
While she was a “little worried” that excitement would push her ahead of the accompanied music, that didn’t happen. Her lyrics were in sync with the melody, note for note.
Two years of fronting a band, at times singing in front of hundreds of people at recitals as well as at Canal Days in Port Colborne, didn’t leave her so jaded that the invitation from the track was just another call.
“I was so excited. I was actually blown away,” Tumillo said, recalling an invitation she received about two weeks ago.
Challenging series
Each year the top three-year-olds bred in Canada are put to the test in the triple crown, a high-profile series that challenges them to compete at different distances, all on different racing surfaces: The first leg, the Queen’s Plate, goes at 1 1/4 miles on a synthetic surface at Woodbine in Toronto, then it’s the Prince of Wales, 1 3/16 miles on main dirt track at Fort Erie; followed by the Breeders Stakes, 1 1/2 miles on the turf course at Woodbine.
Only seven horses have won the triple crown in Canadian thoroughbred racing since the three-race series was established in 1959.
Wando, the last to complete the feat by winning them in all in 2003, is also the last horse to win the first two legs of the triple crown.
In the 12 years since the series have featured 35 winners in as many races. The lone exception was in 2011 when Pender Harbour paced the pack in both the Prince of Wales and Breeders Stakes after Inglorious, a filly, finished first in the Queen’s Plate.
Longest drought between triple crown winners is 26 years. After Canebora completed the sweep in 1963, the elite company of equines didn’t welcome another member until 1989 when With Approval was the fastest in all three.
It didn’t only rain after that long dry spell was broken, it poured. Izvestia turned the trick the very next year, Dance Smartly in 1991 and Peteski in 1993.