It must be getting to be getting close to Canadian Derby time. The Count Lathum, the first real Derby prep runs this Saturday, and it has attracted no less than 20 nominations.
“Holy! Twenty nominations?” reacted Tom Rycroft, trainer of American Blaze, the very likely favourite. “I guess that means there will be 10 horses in there for sure.
“I guess everybody wants to see if they’re good enough to run in the Derby,” he said of the $200,000 August 26 classic.
High-weighted in the Count Lathum at 124 pounds, American Blaze exits a three-quarters of a length victory at Century Mile in a one-mile allowance race. In his previous start the three-year-old finished second in the six furlong $50,000 Western Canada Handicap also at Century Mile.
Before that American Blaze has been running in New Jersey, Phoenix and Kentucky.
“He’s had 10 starts but he is still learning,” said American Blaze’s owner Terry Hamilton, who lives in Lethbridge, and who co-owns the horse with Murray House. “He’s still green.”
But trainer Tom Rycroft said “He’s sure coming around nice. He’s acting like a race horse. He was hard to gallop when we first got him. But now he likes to train. If he runs his race he’ll be tough to beat.
“He won his last start fairly easily. He only won by three-quarters of a length but then he doesn’t like to win by a big margin. He likes to win but not by very much.
“In the Western Canada he broke slow and was wide but he passed a lot of horses in the stretch. The Western Canada was only is furlongs and that’s too short for him anyway,” said Rycroft. “He wants to run long.”
The Canadian Derby is a mile and a quarter and the Count Lathum is eight and a half furlongs.
American Blaze won his debut by a ridiculous 17 lengths at Kentucky’s Ellis Park.
“We really thought we had something special,” said Hamilton, who bought American Blaze out of a March two-year-old in training sale in Kentucky last year for $27,000 U.S.
“The phone was ringing off the hook after that race. We got offered a lot of money.”
But, American Blaze failed to win his next five starts including the $204,000 Sapling Stakes at New Jersey’s Monmouth Park. The phone stopped ringing.
American Blaze was then sent from Kentucky to Phoenix, Arizona where he won the $75,000 Turf Paradise Derby at 8-1. Then he won again - taking an allowance race as the even-money favourite.
Then, he came to Edmonton.
“His last start was a good,” said Hamilton. “It rained heavily just before that race and he got a lot of mud thrown in his face. It was a good learning experience for him.
“We don’t know if he has hit the top of his game or not.”
Hamilton has had great success as an owner winning 154 races for earnings just shy of $6 million.
Heart to Heart, who he bought for $20,000 as a yearling won 15 of 41 starts - 13 of them stakes - for earnings of over $2 million.
Inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Heart to Heart won two Grade 1 stakes. He took the 20118 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap and then picked up another Grade 1 in his next start when he won the Maker’s Mark Mile stakes.
“He was a heck of a horse for me. He had 17 Beyer ratings of over triple digits. In addition to the two Grade 1 stakes he lost a couple of other Grade 1 races in photos. Shoemaker Mile by a neck.”
Now a sire, Heart to Heart had his first winner as a sire this past weekend.
Then there is Spooky Channel, who has won 13 of his 29 starts for just under $1 million. Still running, Spooky Channel has won three Grade 3 stakes.
An owner for over 30 years - he started off with standardbreds with former Alberta trainer Travis Umphrey - he owned his first thoroughbred 20 years ago. “I’ve had a lot of success. I haven’t bought any real expensive horses. I’ve been fortunate.”
The $200,000 Canadian Derby is the second leg of the Western Canadian Triple Crown which begins August 7 with the $125,000 Manitoba Derby, the Grade 3 Canadian Derby and then the September 16 $125,000 Grade 3 British Columbia Derby.
If a horse wins all three legs they get a $100,000 bonus making the Western Canada Triple Crown a $550,000 excursion.
American Blaze is not going to Winnipeg. “I don’t like shipping horses very much,” said Rycroft, whose son Tim, Alberta’s leading trainer the last five years, has nominated Ontario-based One for Chap, to the Count Lathum.
“I like to keep my horses fresh and shipping a horse can be hard on them. That’s why we’re not going to Winnipeg.”
One trainer that is going to run in the Manitoba Derby - and then hopefully the Canadian Derby - is Robertino Diodoro, who plans on sending both B Minor and Heroic Move.
Heroic Move exits a third-place finish in the listed $250,000 Iowa Derby on July 8 at Prairie Meadows. He also has a pair of thirds at Kentucky’s Churchill Downs and Arkansas’ Oaklawn Park while earning good numbers.
B Minor has been running in allowance company in Oaklawn and Kentucky.
Heroic Move is owned by Arnold Bennewith, Rick and Clayton Wiest, Randy Howg, R6 Stables, Gary Kropp and Norman Tremblay - most of the same connections that won the 2018 Canadian Derby with Sky Promise. Howg was part of the ownership of Broadway Empire, who won the 2013 Canadian Derby and then the Oklahoma Derby.
“Both horses are training very good,” said Diodoro, the former Alberta trainer who is now one of North America’s leading trainers with 3,103 career victories.
When Tom Rycroft was asked which horses he is most worried about he said “Your horse,” referring to Kystone, who I own a fifth of and detailed his journey in last week’s Horse Racing Alberta story.
“Kystone ran a big race beating older horses last week,” said Rycroft. “He looks like he will be tough.”
“Kystone came out of his last race super,” said trainer Rick Hedge, also a part owner. “We’ll see how he runs in the Count Lathum and make our Derby decisions then.”
Among the other horses nominated to the Count Lathum are Northern Jewel, who was runner-up to American Blaze last time out and B.C.’s Sunbird, who won last year’s Ascot Graduation at Hastings Park and won his only start this year on July 8 in an allowance race at Century Mile.
STOCK REPORT - The two stakes that got smoked out this past weekend - the R.K. ‘Red’ Smith and the Century Mile Handicap - will now be run this weekend meaning there will be four stakes.
On Friday In addition to the Red Smith there will be the scheduled Sonoma Handicap for three-year-old fillies which is headlined by Big Hug, last year’s Alberta Two-Year-Old Filly champion, Bootiful Rose, who just defeated Big Hug, and Super Caro.
On Saturday, in addition to the Count Lathum, the 10-horse $100,000 Century Mile Handicap also goes. It’s a powerful field headed by the likes of B.C.’s In Addition, last year’s Alberta Older Horse Champion, Maskwecis and former Horse of the Year Greek Geek.
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