With the Manitoba Derby now behind us, Assiniboia Downs heads into the stretch drive of the 2008 live racing season.
There's now just 21 days of live racing remaining at the Portage Avenue thoroughbred racetrack, but there's still all kinds of money on the table for jockeys, trainers, owners and bettors to win before the meet is over.
Nineteen-year-old jockey Rocco Bowen is an overnight sensation at the Downs — with an advertising campaign to prove it.
I would never be so presumptuous as to tell the real horse people what to do, but there are some interesting -- and potentially very profitable -- lessons for bettors to be drawn from the first 49 days of live racing this year. Here goes:
1. Rocco the Jocko is the real deal.
Have you seen those Assiniboia Downs ads that turned up in the newspaper this week heralding "new riding sensation Rocco Bowen?" That's a bold move for Downs management, because singling out one jockey for publicity like that is sure to engender some bad feelings among all the other riders at the track.
But here's the thing: the ads are true -- Bowen really is a sensation. The Barbados-born rider is still a teenager, he's just 19, but he's become the darling of bettors in just the few short weeks he's been riding at the Downs.
A former rider at Vancouver's Hastings Park, Bowen has shown an uncanny ability to bring home long shots since arriving here. He's ridden the race-time favourite just three times in his 41 starts, yet he is winning at a 15 per cent clip and is rewarding the bettors who back him -- his winners have paid off at an average of $13.10.
Try this betting angle: A rider switch from any Downs jockey -- with the exception of Alan Cuthbertson and Janine Stianson -- to Bowen is automatically worth at least a small shot.
2. Speed, speed, speed.
The Downs has long had a reputation as a track that has a 'golden rail.' And that's never been more true than this year, when it sometimes seems like every horse that gets an early lead -- and gets to run along the rail, hence the term 'golden rail' -- seems to hang on for the victory. Wire-to-wire wins have become the norm, rather than exception, at the Downs.
So go with it. Find the horses in the program that promise to be on the lead -- especially ones that are the lone speed -- and bet the heck out of them. Betting the late-coming closers might be more exciting, but raw speed is a lot more profitable at the Downs this year.
3. Ivan Bigg really does win big.
The Downs betting guru -- and author of the track's invaluable weekly newsletter, The Insider -- is Ivan Bigg, a.k.a. Brian Gory.
Gory's done a bit of everything over the years -- he wrote for this newspaper and others and is widely known among local gardeners as the former 'Mr. Tomato.'
But these days, the track has Gory on the payroll teaching people how to win money betting on horse racing, both online at www.assiniboiadowns.com and at the in-person seminars Gory holds before each racing card at the track.
Want a piece of advice? Do whatever Gory says. Just consider his tip of the week last week, when he urged bettors to wheel 30-1 longshot Sugar Dolly (in last Friday's fourth race) with pre-race favourite Vinshasa in triactors and superfectas. Sure enough, Vinshasa won and Sugar Dolly ran third, setting up a big $331 triactor and a huge $3,844 superfecta, even with the favourite winning.
Now that's a betting tip.
paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca
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