Athletes amaze fans with remarkable feats beyond imagination, which is a huge part of the allure of sports. Thoroughbred racehorses remind us frequently that on any given day you never know what you might witness at the racetrack.
When a jockey wins two races in a single afternoon, he’s enjoyed a successful day. Three wins signifies a banner afternoon and four is bound to generate buzz among racing fans and horseplayers.
But how about seven wins in a single day? Only on the rarest of occasions will a jockey embark on such a memorable win streak. During the first 69 years of racing at Del Mar in California, no jockey managed to win more than six races on a single card.
Three-year-olds take the spotlight on the biggest day of racing at Century Mile in Edmonton, Alberta, Saturday evening with a competitive field entered in the $200,000 Grade 3 Canadian Derby. The Canadian Derby anchors a card featuring three other stakes races and its distance of 1 ¼ miles will be a test of stamina for the entrants, as all but one have not raced this far before.
There were 44 stakes races run across North America last week, including a memorable King’s Plate card at Woodbine and key graded stakes action at Saratoga and Del Mar, which led to significant changes in every division on the North American leaderboard.