2009 Woodbine Oaks Post Position: 3
* Trainer Jimmy Day is no stranger to Oaks success, having trained a record five winners of Canada’s most prestigious race for Canadian-foaled three-year-old fillies…Classy ‘N Smart (1984), Tilt My Halo (1988), Tiffany’s Secret (1990), Dance Smartly (1991) and Too Late Now (2003). The first four were owned by the powerhouse Sam-Son Farm, while Too Late Now raced in the colours of Come By Chance Stable for Day’s mother, Edna Arrow.
* Each of those Oaks winners, though, was either heavily-favoured or a close second choice. Dance Smartly, in fact, went postward at five cents on the dollar, the shortest-priced winner in Oaks history. Tilt My Halo (1-5) and Too Late Now (3-5) were also odds-on, Classy ‘N Smart was favoured at 7-5 w while Tiffany’s Secret was a 2-1 second choice.
* This time around, Day saddles Cudney Stables’ Secret Wish, who will be a longshot when the field leaves the gate for the mile and one-eighth classic on Sunday. Yet, she’s certainly bred to run all day…by Street Cry out of Awesome Lass, an Awesome Again mare. And she did break her maiden going a mile and one-sixteenth last December in an allowance contest, not a maiden event.
* “We wanted to run her, get another start, it was late in the season but I didn’t want to run her short,” recalled Day. “But she ran a good, solid race and we were lucky enough to win.”
* “We expect the distance will be preferable for her because her sire (Street Cry) is a pretty serious sire….he gets horses that do everything…dirt, turf, Poly, sprinters. He’s probably one of the top sires in the world right now. He gets amazingly good horses...in all categories, not just one particular area.”
* “She was fairly inexpensive for a mare of her potential, considering her pedigree,” continued Day. “I liked her paper, a plain-looking filly but put together fairly correctly, a couple of ‘squiggles’ that you’d like to change but probably if everything was perfect, she’d have been $100,000 instead of $20,000. But she had a nice shoulder, nice balance. And I liked the fact that she was out of that young Awesome Again mare (Awesome Lass).”
* Secret Wish has started three times this year, all in allowance company, a seventh-place finish in a six and one-half furlong sprint, followed by two route races at one and one-sixteenth miles, in which she finished third both times. This will be her first stakes attempt, however.
* “Her last race was okay, but her previous race was disappointing. I thought that would have been a better race. She had a very good trip but it was just a disappointing race in general. Her last race wasn’t absolutely great but it certainly was okay against some very solid older mares. I like her running style. She was well off the pace and came with a fairly decent run, galloped out strong. So her last race was decent, very acceptable. When you train up here and don’t go away for the winter time, you’re naturally way behind. And we weren’t in any great rush with her. But she’s always trained like a quality filly ever since the start of the season.”
* “She trains and conducts herself like a very class horse. The only tricky part is she’s extremely fresh to and from the track in the morning. She just wants to buck and play. She almost dumps riders if you’re not real careful with her. But once she gets on the track, she does whatever you want to do, very willingly and very kindly, but when you’re trying to get her home again, it’s a little different story. She’s not afraid to jump up straight in the air, just playing around.”
Owner – Cudney Stables
Niagara Peninsula native Robert Cudney is currently President and Chief Executive Officer of Northfield Capital Corporation (northfieldcapital.com), which he founded in 1981 and which he has been the CEO since its incorporation. Northfield Capital Corporation is a publicly-traded investment company owning interests in a number of diverse manufacturing and resource industries, such as Gold Corp Inc., Queenston Mining Inc., Guyana Goldfields Inc., Bear Lake Gold Ltd., FNX Mining Company Inc., White Pine Resources Inc., Ground Star Resources Ltd., Aspen Group Resources Corporation and The Grange of Prince Edward Inc.
Cudney has also served as a board member for a number of corporations in the manufacturing, mining and technology industries.
His family background is really show jumping, though, as his father Doug rode in equestrian competitions in the early 1960s. In addition, Cudney’s uncle (his mom’s brother) is Jim Elder, one of Canada’s best known equestrians.
Cudney, a Toronto resident who races under Cudney Stables, has been in the racing game for a decade or so and currently owns a number of horses, either outright or in partnership. Among them is a recent impressive maiden winner, Midnight Mischief, trained by Roger Attfield, which he owns in partnership with John Gunther. In 2002, Streakin Rob, a horse he owned in partnership with Allan Kent, contested the Queen’s Plate but faded to last after setting the early fractions. As a two-year-old, though, he’d won the prestigious Coronation Futurity.
Trainer – Jimmy Day
Jim Day sprang to prominence in 1968 as a member of the gold medal-winning Canadian Equestrian team at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. He then turned his attention to thoroughbreds, where he was first the farm manager, then trainer for Ernie Samuel’s Sam-Son Farm, beginning in 1977.
It was with Samuel that Day enjoyed tremendous success, directing the fortunes of one of North America’s strongest racing outfits. On four occasions he has earned Sovereign Awards as Canada’s outstanding trainer (1979, 1985, 1988 and 1991) and he is the only Canadian horseman to have trained two Eclipse Award winners (Dance Smartly in 1991, Sky Classic in 1992). He was the first Canadian trainer to win a Breeders’ Cup race (Dance Smartly, 1991 Distaff) and he still holds the records for seasonal purse earnings ($5.1 million) and stake wins (23) at Woodbine, set in 1991.
Day has won the Queen’s Plate twice, with Regal Intention in 1988 and with Triple Crown winner Dance Smartly in 1991 and the Oaks a record five times: Classy ‘N Smart (1984), Tilt My Halo (1988), Tiffany’s Secret (1990), Dance Smartly (1991) and Too Late Now (2003), who became the first filly to win the Oaks while unbeaten.
He’s also conditioned five Canadian Horses of the Year (Dauphin Fabuleux in 1984, Imperial Choice in 1985, Ruling Angel in 1986, Dance Smartly in 1991 and Peaks And Valleys in 1995).
In 1994, Day and Samuel parted company and since then, Day has conditioned a public stable, including horses he also co-owns and/or bred. Among the best he’s bred are Sovereign Award winners One Way Love and Too Late Now. Other stakes winners he’s trained in the past decade include First Quarter and Streakin Rob.
The 62-year-old Day currently owns and manages Day By Day Farm, located in Everett, Ontario and has about a dozen horses at the track and 30 at the farm.
Jockey - Justin Stein
Born February 8, 1980 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Justin Stein began his riding career at Hastings Park in 2004. His first score came on August 28 aboard claimer Mayne Stating.
In his first full season of riding, from 601 starts, Stein won a meet-leading 148 races, a Hastings Park record for an apprentice, 44 more than runner-up journeyman Pedro Alvarado. Stein also recorded seven stakes wins, including two Grade 3 events aboard Monashee (Ballerina Breeders’ Cup and B.C. Breeders’ Cup). On July 15, Stein won six of eight Hastings tilts, only the eighth rider in the oval’s history to accomplish the feat. When the meet ended in 2005, Stein moved his tack to Woodbine, where he made a strong impression on horsemen during the final weeks of the meet, winning 13 of 97 races.
In any other year, Stein’s accomplishments would have netted him a Sovereign Award as top apprentice but Emma-Jayne Wilson also enjoyed a strong campaign in her first full season as a rider and won the Sovereign and an Eclipse Award as North America’s outstanding apprentice. Stein’s season didn’t go unnoticed, though, as he was a finalist for both awards.
After deciding to stay in Toronto to continue his riding career, Stein enjoyed an excellent 2006 campaign, ranking fourth with 109 wins. He also recorded $5,300,961 in purse earnings and was a finalist for Canada’s top apprentice for the second consecutive year. He also finished second in the Woodbine Oaks aboard Sweet Breanna.
In 2007, Stein won 67 races at Woodbine to rank eighth, had purse earnings of over $3.6 million and once again finished second in the Oaks aboard stakes-winning Saskawea. Last year, Stein rode 80 winners, won three stakes and had purse earnings of over $3.5 million, once again good for eighth overall.