Broadway Empire crushes field at Canadian Derby
Blacksmith patched cracked hoof together
EDMONTON Not long after a deluge pelted Edmonton, a storm of a different kind rumbled down the stretch at Northlands Park. His name is Broadway Empire, Saturday’s winner of the 84th running of the Canadian Derby.
Turned loose entering the final turn of the mile-and-threeeighths marathon, Broadway Empire exploded — opening up an insurmountable seven-length lead before coasting home an easy three-length winner.
“I looked behind me and I didn’t see anyone,” said Broadway Empire’s jockey, Rico Walcott. “I got pretty frigging excited.”
Reporting Star, who had run second to the great Verrazano — a horse whose only defeat to date came in the Kentucky Derby — came second. Vancouver’s Shooting Jacket was third.
The 7-5 favourite, Broadway Empire paid $5 to win.
“He really is special,” said Broadway Empire’s trainer Robertino Diodoro. “I’ve never had a horse like this before. I get goosebumps just watching him work. Even when he was in California, he would be working and there would be a couple of Bob Baffert’s horses working in front of him that had earned a million dollars apiece and Broadway Empire still stood out for me.”
Amazingly, it almost didn’t happen.
Nine days ago, the horse injured his right front foot during a five-furlong work popping a quartercrack — a stress fracture of the hoof wall — an injury which was kept quiet until after the Derby was over.
“Robertino phoned me and said I had a lame horse,” said Randy Howg, who owns the horse with Rick Running Rabbit and Bob Butz.
“The next thing I did was call my wife and tell her there wasn’t going to be a Derby. We were only going to be spectators. It didn’t look like there was any way he was going to be able to run in the Derby.”
But veteran blacksmith John McKenzie had other ideas.
“It didn’t look good at first. The day after he worked, he was limping around the barn area,” said McKenzie.
“The first thing we had do was get the infection out and it wasn’t coming out. After we got that taken care of, I wired the cracks together.”
McKenzie then made a fibreglass patch. Then he built a special shoe to hold the crack together.
“If it wasn’t for John McKenzie, there is no way we would be in this winner’s circle,” said Diodoro. “No chance at all. It was a big team win.”