Kent Ransom and Brian Bell on a set of gallopers at Ajax Downs, Wed. April 11 2018
TRAINING UNDERWAY AT AJAX DOWNS
Cold and rainy weather getting in the way
Ajax Downs racetrack was open Wednesday for training, the 3rd scheduled day of training for the 2018 season (opens May 6). It was the first real day of training, however, as the first two sessions were virtually rained out. The prospects for Monday’s training are in the air with the heavy rain/ice and whatever else Mother Nature has up her sleeve this weekend.
Horses from the stables of Darlene and Rene Hunderup, Barry Wood, Joe Tavares, Bryn Robertson, among others were getting lots of nice gallops on a perfect main track. Some horses had gate schooling while others had workouts from the gate.
A pair of Darlene Ballis-Hunderup trainees work 250 yards from the gate under Renaldo Holder and Neil Husbands.
JASON PASCOE TRAINEE HEADED TO $930,000 REMINGTON FUTURITY FINAL
Ajax Downs’ 2nd leading trainer by points for 2017 JASON PASCOE will be starting a horse in the $934,500 REMINGTON PARK FUTURITY on APRIL 21 in Oklahoma. His trainee, TAC N DALE (Prospect tot he Top – Docs Dusty Dale), owned and bred by DR. RAYMOND DEITER AND PATTI DEITER’S Dusty Rose Ranch LLC in OK, won a trial for the rich Futurity but his time matched that of another winner. Those two were then were entered in a ‘shake’ to see who would draw into the field.
Tac N Dale was the lucky winner and he will get a chance at big money in just over one week.
“Well looks like we have some Canadian luck. Tac N Dale will be going to the final!”, said Pascoe’s assistant and partner Bryanne Langford on a Facebook post.
Tac n Dale is the only horse Pascoe trains for the Deiters, who have won some 45 Quarter Horse races since 2001. The couple had 1 winner from 8 starters in 2017.
Tac N Dale had one other start before his Futurity Trial win,, a 6th place finish in a maiden allowance for trainer Randy Davis.
Pascoe and Langford are in Oklahoma for the winter months for the first time. Most of the horses they have in training are owned by Burlington’s Milena Kwiecien.
PRESS RELEASE – OHRC: The Oklahoma Horse Racing Commission Stewards held a random shake of pills APRIL 9 in the Remington Park racing office to determine the final qualifier for the $934,500 Remington Park Futurity. Tac N Dale, owned by Dusty Rose Ranch of Oklahoma City won the shake and gets the final berth into the lucrative futurity for eligible Oklahoma-breds.
Trained by Ajax Downs trainer Jason Pascoe, Tac N Dale was ridden to victory in the seventh trial for the Remington Park Futurity on Saturday evening by Berkley Packer. The 2-year-old gelding handled 330 yards in :16.906 over the fast track. Just two trials later, Jess Proved Youwrong also won her heat, in exactly :16.906. The tie in timing had both Tac N Dale and Jess Proved Youwrong sharing the fifth-best time of the night, forcing a shake to decide the final qualifier this morning.
Tac N Dale is by FDD Dynasty from the Oak Tree Special mare Send Me A Candy Tree. She was bred in Oklahoma by The Estate of Carl Pevehouse.
Here are the final five qualifiers from Saturday night, with their individual time, trial race and trainer, headed to the Remington Park Futurity.
Lynnder 16 – :16.789 (trial 1), Jason Olmstead
Koolnfabulous – :16.820 (trial 3), James Padgett
Watah Flash – :16.845 (trial 11), Brian Muse
VF Count Dracula – :16.881 (trial 6), Kasey Willis
Tac N Dale – :16.906 (trial 7), Jason Pascoe.
Joining the qualifiers from Saturday night in the Remington Park Futurity are these five from the Friday, April 6 trials: Memories R Golden, Charlies Fury, Jeaniologi, Jess Let It B and Temptingsecretfly. The Remington Park Futurity will be held on Saturday, April 21.
Photo by Katina Milns – Ajax Downs
FROM THOROUGHBRED RACING TO QUARTER HORSE RACING: PISTON BROKE (right) is a recently retired Thoroughbred who is a natural as a pony. He made his Ajax Downs debut during training on April 11. Piston Broke (by United States) won 4 races and over $66,000 and he won 3 races in succession last year and was retired by Maureen Hewitt-Topp, Alan Desruisseaux and Robin Brohman. He was then given to Katie Browne, who is an outrider at Ajax and trains horses to be outrider ponies, Here is Piston Broke posing for the camera while jockey Chelsey Willick rides a happy grey gelding.
TOWN OF AJAX CONTINUES CASINO FIGHT
The Town of Ajax is in court today (Thursday) to continue to fight for its casino.
Listen to DAVID MCKEE on NewsTalk1010 from Wednesday’s THE RUSH with Jay Michaelas and Ryan Doyle:
at 14:33 of this clip.
“It’s extremely interesting that apparently the government hasn’t signed off on the Durham Live site. The minister of finance has not signed off on it. There was an announcement by Great Canadian Gaming and Durham Live, but no statement by the government…” – Ajax Mayor Steve Parish
Bob Broadstock, president of the Quarter Racing Owners of Ontario, Inc. said:
“We believe OLG has erred in failing to protect the quarter horse racing sector on similar terms to the standardbred and thoroughbred sectors in Ontario and yesterday’s announcement could result in the end of quarter horse racing in Ontario by the end of 2019 if immediate action isn’t taken to ensure the quarter horse racing sector can continue to race at Ajax Downs.”
Story from Durham Region news:
https://www.durhamregion.com/news-story/8384519-ajax-in-court-april-12-in-casino-battle/
Story from the Toronto Sun – Joe Warmington:
