By: Jackson Wittup
September? It just can't be September already! September means yearling sales, so good luck to buyers and sellers.
This time of year is a little slower with regard to Standardbred Canada and industry meetings, but I do still have a couple of items to report.
In my last column I forgot to mention that the Board of Directors approved a recommendation from the O'Brien/Cam Fella Committee; commencing with the 2008 O'Brien awards, each vote tally will be made public within a few days of the awards ceremony. The general membership has long been asking for this information and the Board feels it should be openly available.
It seems to me that you always have to dream about something. In the past, I’ve dreamed about owning a colt that could win the North America Cup, and even about cashing in a Lotto 649 ticket to pay for that colt. But now, I have a new dream -- and it may have longer odds than both of those put together. At a recent Bylaw Committee meeting, I proposed that SC take the lead in working with all provincial and federal regulators to implement a cross-country ZERO TOLERANCE policy with respect to medication and horseracing. The timeline? January 1st, 2011. That may sound as though it’s a long time away, but the process will begin with our November board meeting. Then, hopefully, we can get all the stakeholders from across Canada in one room and reach a consensus on how to make it happen.
Medications aside, whipping is another issue that's hot this month. At the SC Bylaw Committee meeting we spent a great deal of time debating it -- but failed to arrive at a consensus. I find it is very ironic that hardly a week later the Ontario Racing Commission announced that they too are working to deal with the whipping dilemma. On behalf of SC, I would like to offer any assistance we can provide to take this issue to a national level. Let's have the same uniform rules across the country.
Congratulations to Chris Davies and Jonathan Drury on their first career driving wins and Bob McClure on his first training win!
I'm sure you've come to realize that I try to keep you up to date on SC news, industry news, congratulations where deserved, and a few warm and fuzzy stories to boot. Without a doubt Somebeachsomewhere, Art Official and Deweycheatumnhowe continue to put standardbred racing into major media outlets throughout North America. It doesn't get much fuzzier than that.
As I write this column, it has been determined that Outlawpositivcharg -- owned by Calgary's Fred Lamont -- will race in the final of the Gold Cup and Saucer. Fred was tipped onto the horse by trainer Doug Stout when the colt was racing in a condition claimer for Connie Kolthammer at Northlands Park in Edmonton, in the spring of 2007. Since that time, the retired Air Canada employee has raced the horse in B.C., Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, anywhere from a $5,000 claimer to the final of the Gold Cup and Saucer. It won't matter how Outlawpositivcharg does -- Fred will be loving every minute of it.