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Thursday,
April 28, 2016
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Vol.
11 No. 14 (Issue #533)
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By
Ivan Bigg
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Weekly
Horseplayer Report and Fun Stuff
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Welcome
to the NEW-LOOK INSIDER – designed to be more
mobile-friendly!
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A
racing icon passes
A
year after his champions were honoured, Phil Kives
dies
As
horse owner and breeder for more than four decades,
Phil Kives, the “as-seen-on-TV”
marketing genius, became almost synonymous with
Assiniboia Downs. Sadly, yesterday morning, after a
lengthy hospital stay, he passed away at 87, leaving an
unparalleled legacy. Said ASD CEO Darren
Dunn: “We lost a giant in the racing
world and an icon in the Manitoba breeding industry.
His contributions to this sport will never be
forgotten. The list of stakes winners and champions he
owned or produced will never be matched.”
Thankfully,
the Downs honoured nine of his champion horses in
overnight stakes races last year (including
Island Fling, Proven
Reserve, Plenty Chilly,
Coral Prospect and Corporate
Shuffle) and he delighted in seeing
Goldencents, the grandson of his famed
Body Works, win two Breeders’ Cups.
Since 2000, his K5 Stables produced 253 wins from 1,377
starts and his horses earned $3.76 million. Burial was
tentatively set for this Sunday at Shaarey Zedek
Cemetery across from Kildonan Park.
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BULLET
BRIEFS . . .
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•
Guess how much money ASD paid out last year
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Jones earns berth in $2 million championship
tourney
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Dickey dazzles in morning works
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Lucky’s new Jamaican rider set to impress
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Crossing fingers, Fonner lockdown to end May 10
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Brian
Norris
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NEW
CONTEST – GUESS ASD PAYOUTS IN 2015:
Let’s
inaugurate the new-look Insider with a new contest:
Guess how much money Assiniboia Downs paid out in total
last year to horseplayers and VLT players when they
cashed their bets or cashed out at the VLT windows.
Entrant who comes closest to the correct amount
(without going over) gets $50 in wagers on May 7 and 8
(Kentucky Derby Day and live racing kick-off day).
Email your guess to theinsider@ASDowns.com by
tomorrow (Friday) at midnight. One guess per person and
per email address please.
DERBY
BET WINNER WAS POLO PARK HOT WALKER:
Brian
Norris, the retired school teacher who won a
$100 win/place bet in The Insider’s predict-prep-race
winners contest, said at the age of 12 he worked at
Polo Park race track as a hot walker. Later he moved to
Brandon where he said he helped late legendary trainer
Bert Blake and enjoyed riding bareback
jumping snow fences. He went on to become a Winnipeg
high school maths teacher for more than 40 years.
He’ll tell us on Kentucky Derby afternoon where
he’ll put his free wager.
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Big
shout-out to Roger Jones
Earns
a berth in $2 million National Championship
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Roger
Jones Gets invited to big tourney
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You
already know that Winnipeg bus driver Roger
Jones has won multiple tournaments at the
Downs and earned trips to the Horse Player World
Series in Vegas on the Downs’ dime.
Now
know him as an online competitor who, this past Sunday,
earned a berth in the invitation-only $2 million
National Handicapping Championship next
January by finishing fourth in an online tournament.
Only the top four out of 290 entrants in that tourney
earned berths. Top prize will be $800,000.
It
was “hard to do,” Jones said, giving a lot of
credit to his friend Marshall Posner
who answers your HPIbet questions below. (The versatile
Posner actually has designed this column and a new ASD
website that will be launched soon.)
About
three years ago, he said, Posner obtained a list of
“hidden turf sires” from a player in a Las Vegas
tournament. And it was a “hidden turf sire”
(City Zip) that resulted in Jones
playing a 7/1 first-time turf horse,
Aragonite, at Aqueduct—who won.
(Players were required to make $2 win/place wagers on
12 mandatory contest races.)
Jones
also got decent odds on a Michael
Maker claimed horse (5/1) who beat a
vulnerable favourite in a turf route race at Keeneland
and got 6/1 on a Linda Rice-trained
class standout at Aqueduct.
The
NHC organizers have already deposited $1,000 U.S. in a
tournament account for his trip to Vegas in January,
Jones said.
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Dickey
dazzles
His
horses post sizzling morning workouts
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Elton
Dickey
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In
his second year as a thoroughbred horse trainer,
Elton Dickey owns some of the fastest
workouts since clocking began on April 18.
His
Hollysindependent, claimed at Fort
Erie last fall, logged the quickest 3-furlong workout
at 35.60 and Major Sugarattack did it in 36.
Major Sugarattack subsequently worked
4-furlongs in 48:80 as did his Gibson’s
Bullet.
Only
Tom Gardipy’s Heavenless Lioness
beat that time at 48.40 while Lise Pruitt’s
Twice the Magic equalled his 48.80.
These
are obvious horses to watch as the 50-day live season
kicks off on Mother’s Day. A former harness trainer,
Dickey had an impressive record of 79-20-16-14 in his
thoroughbred debut year, with 25 per cent wins. His
barn will have 25 to 30 horses.
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A
new hot-shot jock?
Will
Paul Francis be another Dane Nelson?
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Paul
Francis
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The
jockey agent nicknamed “Lucky” appears to be have
latched on to another hot-shot Jamaican jockey:
Paul Francis.
Francis
was third-best in percentage wins at Caymanas Park in
Jamaica last year at 15.7 per cent, behind Dane
Nelson who had 18.5 per cent wins. You may
recall Nelson, whose book was handled by the same
Mark “Lucky” Drabing, was one of
the Downs’ hottest jockeys last season, winning at a
28 per cent clip until heading to Northlands Park late
in the season to wow players with longshot winners.
If
Francis is anything like Nelson, watch out!
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Tournament
Tigers
Will
you be the Tournament Tiger for this Saturday, April
30? You can't be unless you enter Saturday's Player's
Choice tournament. Share in $850 in prize money, enjoy
a complementary buffet and accumulate points to earn
the title of Handicapper of the Year. Sign up
by 9 p.m. tomorrow for $25 and by noon Saturday for
$35. View previous Tournament Tigers here.
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A
day to forget
Talented
players lay a “Big” egg
It
wasn’t easy to do. Two Handicappers of the
Year and a recent top-14 player in Las Vegas
helped construct a $518 “I won big” pick-5 ticket
at Tampa that got exactly one leg correct. One. And
that leg was an “all” leg.
Do
I hear copious laughter? “It happens and you
shouldn’t be too hard on yourselves,” said outside
observer Roger Jones who earned a
berth at the National Handicapping Championship (see
above) but noted the only winner he had in the last
four horseplayer tournaments at the Downs was a horse
he accidently played.
Three
of the group’s missed legs were won by horses that
had shown a bit of early speed on the dirt or grass but
appeared to be inferior. They weren’t. (The pick-5
paid $7,666 for $1 and the pick-4 $1,052 for $1.)
So,
knowing it can’t possibly get worse, the group will
return to the scene of the crime—the Tampa pick-5
this Saturday—the second-last “I won big” session
of the season. It will wind up on Kentucky Derby Day
with play at Churchill Downs.
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THE
WEEK THAT WAS
FONNER
PARK LOCKDOWN TO END MAY 10:
If
there aren’t any more reports of equine herpes virus
in horses at Fonner Park, the quarantine will end
Tuesday, May10, allowing horses to leave the stables
for other tracks. Fonner’s meet ends Saturday, May 7.
The Nebraska track has been in lockdown mode since
three horses contracted the virus in mid April. One
horse was euthanized.
Horses
in that barn have been unable to race but other horses
have – but no horses have been permitted to leave the
track. Among them are horses trained by Jerry
Gourneau and Ardell Sayler
who are expected to have sizable stables at the
Downs.
NEXT
THREE BREEDERS’ CUPS:
You
already know that this fall’s Breeders’ Cup will be
at Santa Anita and next year’s will be at a brand new
venue, Del Mar. Now know that the following season,
2018, it will return to its Churchill Downs roots.
FORT
ERIE TO RACE 40 DAYS:
Fort
Erie has announced a 40-day live meet the goes Tuesdays
and Sundays starting Tuesday, May 31. The final day is
Tuesday, Oct. 26. Its major day is Tuesday, July
26—the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes for
Canadian-bred 3-year-olds, the second leg of the
Canadian Triple Crown that begins with the Queen’s
Plate.
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Where
are they now?
by Rob MacLennan
ASD horses leave the desert for the prairies
The
main group of Turf Paradise horses should be on its way
to ASD. The Don Schnell barn capped
off a good Phoenix meet (109-17-25-18; earnings
$220,600 U.S.) with some close defeats. The 11-year-old
I Am Awesome ran another game third on
the grass this past Tuesday while on Arizona breeders
day the 3-year-old Heber lost a tight
photo in the $50,000 Gene Fleming Breeders Derby. The
4-year-old filly Dance Affair was
third in the Ann Owens Distaff, just a nose away for
all the money.
The
Jared Brown barn (114-15-16-20;
earnings $132,300 U.S.) wrapped up its Turf Paradise
meet with a second by the 6-year-old mare
Elle’s the Boss.
At
Fonner Park trainer Ardell Sayler this
past weekend had a win with the 5-year-old Show
Em Up ($7.20) and a second with the now
6-year-old Zaccheus. Look for the barn
to continue to win a race or two per weekend until
Fonner ends May 7.
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Tips
’n’ Tricks
with
Marshall Posner
Q.
Are there any new features that have recently
been added to HPIbet?
A.
Yes, there are a couple of new features that have
recently been added to the HPIbet system. First, you
can now check payouts for Pick 5 and Pick 6 wagers. Up
until recently, the system only displayed payouts for
doubles, pick 3’s and pick 4’s but this new
functionality has recently been added. You can check
your pick 5 and pick 6 payouts in the PROBABLES
AND WILL PAYS section (view image here).
The
second feature that was added a short while ago is the
Pop-Out Odds Window. Simply click on
the TRACKS tab and when the pop-up
window opens you can click on the arrow in the top
corner (view image here). This
will generate a pop-up window with all of the tracks
currently running, the current race number for every
track, the MTP and the odds for every runner in that
race. You can filter it to only display your favourite
tracks by clicking on the favourites button along the
top. If you have multiple screens on your computer, you
can keep this window open alongside your HPI betting
window to monitor all of the tracks that you’re
playing simultaneously (view image here).
Got
a question for Marshall? Email theinsider@ASDowns.com
Review previous questions and answers here.
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©
Copyright 1996-2016 All Rights Reserved. Assiniboia
Downs.
3975 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3K 2E9
Ph (204) 885.3330 • Fax (204) 831.5348
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