Horsemen looking to take down this Bull

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/05/2012 (4904 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On the Chinese calendar, this is the Year of the Dragon. But to race fans at Assiniboia Downs this is the season of the Bull. More specifically, Balooga Bull, a three-year-old colt who’s one of the fastest horses seen at the track in years. 

As a two-year-old, he went unbeaten in four races — three of them stakes races including the storied Winnipeg Futurity — disposing of his rivals so easily he was a shoo-in for Horse of the Year honours.

So, one would think, 10-time leading trainer Ardell Sayler should have a cakewalk with this horse on the way to the Manitoba Lotteries Derby in two months. Not so fast. The Bull now has a bull’s-eye on him. Horsemen have been beating the bushes in the big leagues, looking for talent to take him down.

In his first race of the season 10 days ago, when local fans bet the Bull down to a mere $2.30 for every $2 win wager, he needed every bit of energy in a neck-and-neck duel all the way down to the stretch to just hold off Pleasant Closing, a horse owner/trainer Murray Duncan brought in from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. 

“It was scary,” admitted leading jockey Paul Nolan after the squeaky finish.

And one of the Downs’ most seasoned stakes winners, Phil Kives of K 5 Stables (you know him from his K-Tel promotions on TV), has a $50,000 purchase on the way from Toronto to try knock off the champ. 

“He’ll be a bit of competition,” the promoter said with a wry smile. His horse certainly has the gritty name of an animal that could take on a Bull. It’s Runaway Lion. Which is exactly what Kives hopes his horse does.

So the scene is set at the Downs for the most heated confrontations seen here in years. The next one isn’t far off — it’s the annual $30,000 Golden Boy Stakes a week from this Friday. Circle it on your calendar. It’s the day before another must-see race — the Belmont Stakes from New York, where I’ll Have Another attempts to do what Secretariat did almost 40 years ago — become a Triple Crown winner.

Speaking of which, everyone at the Downs on that special day will get…well, you’ll have to wait for next week’s column to find out. But I think you’ll say it’s a “delicious” touch. In the meantime, live racing goes Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. And you’re invited to a meeting at the track Saturday at 5:30 p.m. to find out about horse ownership — including the “honourary” kind, which is lots of fun. And something else is new, too: free VLT tournaments after the races Friday and Saturday. And the live race season is just three weeks old!