Decorated jockey Gutierrez targets first B.C. Derby win
Two-time Kentucky Derby winner among riders at this weekend’s races
Mario Gutierrez may have two jewels of horse racing’s triple crown to his name, as well as local fame from his time at Hastings Racecourse, but the noted jockey hasn’t yet won his adopted province’s biggest race: the B.C. Derby.
The 32-year-old Gutierrez aims to change that this weekend astride a Five Star General.
Saturday’s B.C. Derby and B.C. Oaks races will be the best day of racing at Hastings Racecourse in years, says horse owner Glen Todd. Todd has horses in four stakes races, but it’s the B.C. Derby that will be the most hotly contested, with a thriller of a field competing for the $250,000 purse. “Anybody could win,” said Todd. Two-time Kentucky Derby-winning jockey and Hastings hero Gutierrez will be riding for Todd in the B.C. Derby. And while Gutierrez, now based in Santa Anita, Calif., is also a Preakness Stakes winner, he has never won the B.C. Derby.
“Mario is a great rider, and he helps my chances big time,” said Todd. “He’s always got something left at the end.”
Stakes were raised for the B.C. Derby when owner/breeder Peter Redekop, a member of the B.C. Racing Hall of Fame, decided to sweeten the pot by announcing earlier this year he would top up the purse with an extra $100,000.
At $250,00, the Derby is now one of the richest races in Western Canada.
Redekop, who said he fell in love with horses and racing after his first visit to the track in 1968, may win some of that back if his horse, Final Jeopardy, ridden by Enrique Gonzalez, crosses the finish line first.
Redekop, who wandered into Hastings Racecourse out of curiosity in 1968 and has been hooked on the sport ever since, said he has seen some changes over the years.
He said he’d like to see more young people enjoy the races.
“People need to come down and go into the paddocks and see the beautiful horses, make a wager, watch them compete,” Redekop said. “It’s like watching sprinters on the track, these horses are taught to compete and it’s very exciting to see them.”
A bigger purse also means attracting top horses and riders, and this weekend Hastings will have both.
Todd will be racing Five Star General, who won the Sir Winston Churchill Derby Trial — and was ridden by Gutierrez — on B.C. Cup Day last month.
The favourite in the field is Explode, winner of this year’s $250,000 Canadian Derby at the new Century Mile in Edmonton on Aug. 18, ridden by Hastings’ leading jockey Amadeo Perez.
Explode is listed at 2-to-1; Redekop’s Final Jeopardy ridden by Gonzalez is at 3-to-1, with Five Star General at 5-to-2 among a well-matched starting field of nine.
The B.C. Derby/B.C. Oaks Day 10-race card begins at 12:50 p.m., an hour earlier than the normal weekend start at Hastings Racecourse.
People need to come down and go into the paddocks and see the beautiful horses, make a wager, watch them compete.