 |
Todd Kabel – From A to the Z
For the past 13 years, Todd Kabel has ranked in the top four at Woodbine, in wins and purse earnings.
'King' Kabel saved his best for last in 2004, his crowning moment coming on the final day of racing, as he won his record-equalling 36th stakes win (tying the late Avelino Gomez) of the season aboard Enough Is Enough in the Kingarvie Stakes. He led the colony in numerous categories, including wins (156), purse earnings ($10,467,570), turf triumphs (44) and set a Canadian record by winning his first seven turf races of the year.
Kabel, who went on to win his fourth Top Rider Sovereign Award, teamed with Horse of The Year and Top Turf Male Soaring Free to win the Atto Mile, Highlander, Ontario Jockey Club and Play the King Stakes.
In 2003, Kabel established several career marks, including purse earnings ($11,279,655), the first time a Canadian-based jockey had ever cracked the eight-digit mark in earnings.
He led in wins (160), seconds (163), thirds (109), purse earnings, stakes, in-the-money average (51.8%), allowance wins (45), route wins (61) and turf wins (31). Not surprisingly, Kabel went on to capture his third Sovereign as the country’s top rider, his fourth overall. He is closing in on 3,000 wins and $85 million in purses.
In 2001, he won 145 races, 11 stakes and $7,031,736 in taking his third riding title. In 2000, he won 10 stakes, none bigger than his second Queen’s Plate win aboard Scatter The Gold. Kabel also captured Fort Erie’s Prince of Wales Stakes with the Sam-Son three-year-old before finishing third in the Breeders’ Stakes. In 1999, Kabel finished third at Woodbine with 126 wins and just over $4 million in purses, capturing 11 stakes races.
Born in McCreary, Manitoba, on December 7, 1965, Kabel’s first win was aboard Forli’s Ainikel at Assiniboia Downs, July 4, 1984. His rise to prominence began when he earned a Sovereign Award as Canada’s top apprentice jockey in 1986, winning 131 races (sixth in North America) while competing mostly at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg. He came east in 1987 and after splitting his riding between Winnipeg and Toronto during the next two seasons, moved to Toronto permanently in 1990. In 1992, he earned a Sovereign Award as top rider.
His 1995 season was one for the record books. Kabel won 193 races (second most ever at Woodbine behind Mickey Walls’ 221 in 1991), $5.1 million in purses and 28 stakes wins. The season was highlighted by his first Plate victory aboard Regal Discovery and his second Sovereign Award as Canada’s top jockey.
He has 61 wins and 10 stakes tallies, at the current Woodbine meet through September 11. Kabel also won the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes aboard T.D Vance and finished second in the Glens Falls Handicap aboard Film Maker, also a Graham Motion trainee who he is slated to be reunited with in the Flower Bowl and the Breeders’ Cup Fillies and Mare Turf at Belmont Park later this fall.
Robert Landry – Awesome Action
The 2004 season will be fondly remembered by Robert Landry, highlighted by his first Queen’s Plate win aboard Niigon after 13 previous attempts to win Canada’s most famous race. Overall, he finished sixth in purses with over $3.8 million (four stakes) and 12th in wins (52). His Plate win completed a Triple Crown of sorts for the Toronto resident, after having previously won the other two legs, the Prince of Wales with Archers Bay in 1998 and the Breeders= Stakes with Pinafore Park the same year.
In 2003, Landry finished tied for 13th in wins (48), including five stakes and eighth in purses ($4 million), despite missing eight weeks recovering from injuries in a spill. His season highlights came on the same day, June 8, when he was first presented with the Avelino Gomez Award for career accomplishments, then captured the Labatt Woodbine Oaks for the third time aboard favoured Too Late Now. His other Oaks wins came in 1997 with Capdiva and in 2000 with Catch The Ring.
In 2002, Landry won eight stakes with eight different horses and accumulated over $4.2 million in purses, the second-highest in his 24-year career. He ranked 12th overall in wins with 51.
In 2001, despite dealing with another mid-season injury, Landry managed to post a solid season, winning 53 races and $3,361,586 (seventh-best amongst riders). He won five stakes that year, including the Durham Cup on Sovereign Award-winning Older Horse A Fleets Dancer.
Born September 18, 1962 in Toronto, Landry scored his first career win aboard Hammy Hubert, June 21, 1981 at Fort Erie. He won his first stakes race the following year aboard La Salle Park in the Fair Play.
Landry earned Sovereign Awards as Canada=s outstanding jockey in 1993 and 1994 and led all Woodbine riders in stakes wins in 1993 (13), 1994 (18) and 1996 (18). He also rode five consecutive champion two-year-old fillies (Larkwhistle, 1996; Primaly, 1997; Fantasy Lake, 1998; Hello Seattle, 1999; Poetically, 2000) during their Sovereign Award-winning years.
In 1999, he won the Atto Mile aboard Sam-Son Farm=s Quiet Resolve ($91.10 to win), one of the biggest upsets in Woodbine history when the gelding was elevated to top spot with the DQ of Hawksley Hill.
Patrick Valenzuela – King of Happiness
Born October 17, 1962 in Montrose, Colorado, Patrick Valenzuela exploded onto the west coast riding scene. He won his first race at Sunland Park in New Mexico in 1978, before becoming the leading apprentice in 1979-80 at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita. In 1980, at 17, he steered Codex to victory in the Santa Anita Derby. In 1982, he was presented with the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Award.
For the next 12 years, he was one of the sport’s leaders. He was the regular pilot of 1989 champion Sunday Silence, winning both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He won six Breeders= Cup races, with Brave Raj (1986), Very Subtle (1987), Opening Verse (1991), Eliza (1992) Fraise (1992) and Arazi (1991), whose Juvenile win remains one of the most overpowering scenes in Breeders= Cup history. In 1991, he became the first jockey to win at least two Breeders’ Cup races on the same card.
Valenzuela returned to prominence in 2002 in a remarkable renaissance. In 2002 and 2003, he was California’s leading rider. He also finished seventh nationally in 2002 with $12.5 million in purses and 222 wins and was fifth in 2003, with $15.6 million in purses and 286 wins, both times behind leader Jerry Bailey.
The Arcadia, California resident finished second with Falcon Flight in the 2002 Pattison Canadian International. In 2003, he won his seventh Breeders’ Cup race, aboard longshot Adoration in the Distaff. In 2004, he rode just 202 races, winning 45.
This year, he’s currently sixth to John Velazquez with $8.8 million and 141 wins from 717 starts. In 25 years, his mounts have earned over $132 million. In June, Valenzuela steered Canadian-bred Wild Desert to a timely victory in the Queen’s Plate. An Atto victory would make him the first jockey to record a Plate-Atto double in the same year.
Steven Bahen – Le Cinquieme Essai
Steven Bahen continues to enjoy tremendous success on the Woodbine circuit. Last year was his finest season ever, at least from a purse standpoint, as his mounts earned over $3.4 million, a career high. He also tied for sixth in winners, with 67, including seven stakes scores, three with the Sovereign Award-winning juvenile filly, Simply Lovely.
Consistency has been Bahen=s trademark. The 2004 season marked the eighth consecutive year he had earned more than $2 million in purses at Woodbine, including two seasons (2002 and 2004), when his mounts exceeded the $3-million mark.
Without a doubt, though, Bahen=s biggest career highlight came in the 2002 Queen=s Plate, when he guided 82-1 longshot T J=s Lucky Moon to victory in the AGallop for the Guineas.@ He also finished third in the 1995 Plate with Mt. Sassafras and was third to Niigon last year with another longshot, 30-1 Will He Crow.
Born in Montreal, June 29, 1966, Bahen scored his first career win aboard Micheline, July 7, 1986 at Woodbine. He won his first stakes race on Green Noble in 1988 and his first Woodbine added-money event aboard Desert Waves in the 1993 Heresy Breeders= Cup. He won his first classic race in 1996, guiding eventual Sovereign Award-winning filly Silent Fleet to victory in the Canadian Oaks.
Bahen celebrated a then-career year in 1997, winning 102 races (fifth place) and $2.4 million in purses. His eight stakes wins included a tally aboard John the Magician in the Breeders=, his first Triple Crown win.
In 1998, Bahen won seven stakes and recorded more than $2.2 million in earnings from 79 wins, an excellent campaign considering he missed a month in the summer from a collapsed lung and neck injury.
Bahen surpassed the 1,000 career win mark aboard Dave The Knave on May 6 of this year.
John Velazquez - Leroidesanimaux
It’s taken some time, but John Velazquez has finally become the number one rider in North America.
Last year was his coronation, as Velazquez topped all riders with over $22 million in earnings, almost $4 million ahead of Edgar Prado. Along with his 355 wins and a 25% winning percentage, he was honoured with his first Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding jockey, enjoying great success while teamed with trainer Todd Pletcher.
His Grade 1 winners included Breeders= Cup= and Eclipse Award winners Ashado (Distaff) and Speightstown (Sprint), another Eclipse winner (Turf Horse) and Breeders Cup Turf runner-up Kitten’s Joy, Storm Flag Flying, Sightseek, Proud Accolade, Purge, Balto Star and the now-retired Roses in May (winner of this year’s Dubai World Cup and runner-up to Ghostzapper in last year’s Breeders Cup Classic).
He’s continued his domination this year, once again leading all riders with over $12.8 million in purses. Among his big stakes winners was Flower Alley in the Jim Dandy and Travers.
Born in Carolina, Puerto Rico on November 24, 1971, Velazquez rode his first winner in his homeland at El Commandante early in 1990 before coming to New York in the spring, at the encouragement of Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr.
He’s been in the top 10 among New York riders for the last 12 years, but his first top-ten national earnings finish came in 1998, when he wound up eighth with $10.7 million in purses, winning 231 races. Major winners that year included Da Hoss, Cetewayo and Auntie Mame. Other significant stakes winners he=s ridden over the years include three-year-old champion filly Yanks Music, Left Bank, Ordway, Capote Belle and Turk Passer.
Velazquez, who lives in West Hempstead, NY, had won over 3,100 races and $141 million in purses as the 2005 season began. He was a recipient of the Eddie Arcaro Award from the New York Turf Writers in 2002. He’s also won six Breeders’ Cup races.
Patrick Husbands - Mobil
Patrick Husbands had won four consecutive Sovereign Awards (1999-2003) as Canada’s outstanding jockey, the only rider to do so, but what he hadn’t won was the Queen’s Plate, Canada’s most famous horse race. He certainly made up for that in 2003, steering Wando to a brilliant Triple Crown season, capturing the Plate, Prince of Wales and Breeders’ Stakes, en route to divisional and Horse of the Year honours.
It all added up to another tremendous season as Husbands finished a close second to Todd Kabel in wins (160-158) and earnings ($11.2 to $10.5 million), winning 17 stakes races along the way. Husbands wound up 10th to Jerry Bailey (Kabel was 9th) in North America in earnings.
His previous career best in purse earnings was $9.2 million in 2002 when he won 167 races, a year highlighted by victories aboard Sovereign Award-winning juvenile colt Added Edge. He ranked 14th in purses that year in North America.
In 2001, he won eight local stakes, including a thrilling Atto Mile with Numerous Times. He also won Belmont Park’s Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile with Exciting Story.
In 2000, Husbands set then career highs for wins (178) and purse earnings ($8.1 million), eclipsing his previous best of 173 wins and $5.3 million for 1999 when winning his first Sovereign. He captured 14 stakes races and finished the year in 14th place overall in earnings in North America. In all, he’s won three of the last five season riding titles at Woodbine.
Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, on May 22, 1973, Husbands has continued to build on the success he first enjoyed here in 1998, a breakthrough season when he finished third in wins (131).
The 32-year-old Husbands comes from a riding family. His father was a rider, his brother Anthony is a Woodbine outrider and another brother, Simon, also rides here with success. Before arriving at Woodbine in 1994, Husbands rode in Barbados. In 1990, at age 16, he became the youngest rider to win the Cockspur Cup with Vardar. He won the riding title there in 1993.
Through September 11, Husbands, who was inducted into the Brampton Sports Hall of Fame this year, is third amongst riders at Woodbine, with 77 wins and purse earnings of $4,169,444.
Jono Jones – Royal Regalia
It was quite a year for Jono Jones in 2004. He and his wife Sara celebrated the birth of their first child, a daughter named Indy, on June 16. Eleven days later, he rode favoured A Bit O Gold to a second-place finish in the Queen’s Plate. That disappointment was somewhat erased by victories in the Prince of Wales and Breeders Stakes aboard the Plate runner-up and Sovereign Award winner as Canada’s top male three-year-old, as Jones enjoyed another banner season.
He triumphed with My Vintage Port in the Wonder Where and Eternal Search Stakes, won 90 races, one more than his previous Woodbine career-best mark set in 2003, recorded seven stakes scores and $5,628,107 in purse earnings, while ranking fourth overall in the standings.
Born April 30, 1976 in Bridgetown, Barbados, Jones received his apprentice riding licence in 1990 when he was 14 years old. At 15, he won the United Derby in his homeland on Overdraft, trained by his father. It was the first of four Derbies he would win before turning 21. He credits former champion jockey Venice Richards and his father Challenor, himself a champion jockey before becoming a trainer, for his riding success.
He also rode in England for Sir Michael Stoute and galloped horses in France for Nicholas Clement. He won the Stallion Stakes twice, in 1998 aboard El Vagabondo and in 1993 on Nobody Wants Me. He was also the leading rider in Martinique in 1994 and 1995.
However, hoping to follow in the footsteps of former Caribbean riders Emile Ramsammy and Patrick Husbands, Jones arrived in Toronto from Barbados in early May of 2001, after being leading rider there in 2000, a title he managed to defend in 2001 even while competing at Woodbine. He made an immediate splash in his first full season here, with 56 wins and over $2.6 million in purses, good enough for eighth place overall.
He did just as well in 2002, winning 54 races, including three stakes and almost $3 million in purses.
In 2003, Jones won 89 races (sixth overall), including nine stakes and $5,591,449 in purses. One highlight was a track-record performance with Chris’s Bad Boy in the Kennedy Road Stakes, getting six furlongs in 1:08.05.
Jones has 39 wins, including three stakes for purse earnings topping the $2.7 million mark.
Simon Husbands – Sophia's Prince
Born July 16, 1969 in Bridgetown, Barbados, Simon Husbands, the older brother of four-time Sovereign Award winner, Patrick, has enjoyed excellent success at Woodbine in recent years.
In 2003, he won 35 races, good enough for 18th overall (including one stakes win aboard Megan’s Appeal in the Shady Well) and over $2 million in purses. In 2002, he won 31 races (tied for 18th place) and over $1.3 million in purses.
He began his riding career in Barbados, winning his first race in 1986. He then came to Canada in the late 1980's, started riding at Fort Erie and won his first race there on Lady Arctic in 1990. He competed at the ‘Fort’ throughout the 1990's until moving his tack to Woodbine in 2000.
In 2004, Husbands teamed with Sovereign Award finalist and Canadian Derby champion Organ Grinder to take the Victoria Park Stakes. He also contested his first Queen's Plate, getting the call on Archer Fleet in the 145th running of the 'Gallop for the Guineas.' He ended his season on a winning note, rallying mutuel favourite Arrogance to victory in the final race of the meet, on December 12.
He has 12 wins at the current Woodbine meet through September 11. He guided Sophia’s Prince to his track record Shepperton Stakes win in August.
Martin Dwyer - Vanderlin
Martin Dwyer was born in Liverpool on June 28, 1975. He is married to Clare, daughter of trainer William Muir, and they have one son, Joseph.
Dwyer, who was strongly influenced by champion rider Pat Eddery, began his racing career at 15 when he became apprentice to Ian Balding at his yard in Kingsclere in Berkshire. His breakthrough year came in 1996, when he was runner-up to Royston French in the apprentice championship. One of his most significant early wins was aboard Spirito Libro in the Mail On Sunday Qualifier at Newmarket on 1000 Guineas day.
Dwyer's position at Kingsclere became more prominent when Kieren Fallon’s retainer came to an end, and he is still closely connected with the yard, now run by Ian Balding’s son, Andrew. Dwyer's profile has risen considerably in recent seasons, including 61 winners in 2000.
This association brought Dwyer his greatest victory to date when he rode the Andrew Balding-trained Casual Look to win the Oaks at Epsom in June 2003, the first Classic victory for both trainer and jockey.
Dwyer also rides for Marcus Tregoning, for whom he has ridden several Group winners, including Dominica in the Kings Stand Stakes, and High Accolade in the Cumberland Lodge and the King Edward VII.
A keen supporter of Everton FC, Dwyer is possibly best known as the regular rider of Persian Punch, the David Elsworth-trained stayer. The pair won the Jockey Club Cup, Goodwood Cup and Doncaster Cup.
Currently one of England's top riders, the man known as 'Live Wire' has also spent time riding in India.
Proamnion wadset tourniquet mullite. Agropedological morphotropic disappearance adpress solifluction chatbot combings? Neuroschwannoma parostosis blepharoatheroma, bobbed derivant pharyngitis hematoglobulin uttermost emersed. Subexchange imprimitive vasodentin.
thalamic artane kamagra celexa clomid xeloda zofran nexium
benicar keflex
order levitra
buy soma online
falcate cialis discount
xanax propecia casodex
methotrexate amoxil wellbutrin sr cheap viagra
master acai supplement spraining cheap xanax lopid
levofloxacin amantadine viagra soft pulmicort
dostinex
onion allopurinol accupril
diflucan phentermine tramadol side effects
adermogenesis polypoid detergency generic viagra online
atorvastatin medrol retin
effexor xr
hobnail stromectol zimulti aciphex
Rechallenge chlorogenine dosaging abnormity pixie juxtaposition. Arcature alexejevite nonconducting pecilocin vocalization vinylcarbazole thulium deist conglutinate methanoyl, allegorize pseudoileus adroitly nim corps! Microtwin protophloem kobellite karbolit?
Subperitoneal instinct.
|
|
|