[caption id="attachment_4312" align="alignright" width="270"] Hugh and Ruth Jackson with Mayor Steven Juba. Manitoba Derby 1976.[/caption] by Bob When it comes to Derby memories, it gets no better than Merry's Jay win on August 2, 1976. And it couldn't have happened to a nicer couple. Hugh and Ruth Jackson were another one of those special husband/wife…
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Woodlands’ Wizard – Ed Pawluk
[caption id="attachment_4303" align="alignright" width="270"] Ed Pawluk's Tigger Bay was voted 2003 Alberta Champion 3-Year-Old Colt.[/caption] by Bob When he's not falling out of trees, Woodlands' Ed Pawluk can be found hard at work on his 40-acre farm with his partner-for-life, Joyce. Some 40 odd years ago, Ed and Joyce sold the trailer park they owned…
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Paralyzed Canadian jockey Alyssa Selman faces long road to recovery but…
[caption id="attachment_4275" align="alignright" width="270"] Alyssa Selman at the Health Sciences Centre on Thursday.[/caption] by George Paralyzed Canadian jockey Alyssa Selman was told by doctors this week that she has only a five percent chance of ever walking again, but she bubbled with talk of a dream house and horses on Thursday night in the Rehabilitation…
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Mike Smith. Good guy. Done too soon.
[caption id="attachment_4269" align="alignright" width="270"] Mike Smith, Leading Trainer 1981. Irwin Driedger, Leading Jockey. Adrienne Gobuty presenting.[/caption] by Bob If this was a tale about the old west, Michael Somerset Smith would have been one the guys wearing a white Stetson. You know -- the one the good guys wore in westerns. Simply put, Mike loved…
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Glen Royce Ball, the man they call “GB”
[caption id="attachment_4248" align="alignright" width="270"] Glen Ball with Taboga[/caption] by Bob Originally from Edmonton, GB came to Winnipeg with his family when he was a youngster. Glen always loved to be around horses and got his start with show horses. Horses were his passion, but he made his living as a "car guy." GB operated a…
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The day that shaped the face of Assiniboia Downs, September 25, 1957
[caption id="attachment_4237" align="alignright" width="270"] R. J. Speers and Scotty Kennedy. 1948 Canadian Derby.[/caption] by Bob If it is possible to single out a date that marked the "birth" of Assiniboia Downs, Wednesday September 25, 1957 would be that day. On that historic Wednesday Jack Hardy, President of James Enterprises Ltd. announced the appointment of Alexander…
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