Jockey Robby Albarado guides Court Vision, left, to victory in the $1-million Grade 1 Woodbine Mile thoroughbred race in Toronto Sunday Sept. 19, 2010. Court Vision earned owners IEAH Stables and Resoulte Group Stables, trainer Rick Dutrow and jockey Albarado their first Mile victory. The five-year old posted an unofficial time of 1:34.62 on a firm turf at Woodbine Racetrack. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Michael BurnsMichael Burns/The Canadian Press
Both Court Vision and jockey Robby Albarado waited a long time for their Woodbine Mile moment Sunday.
They won the race for trainer Rick Dutrow and the IEAH Stable by threading their way deftly through a wall of horses. With it came a winning purse of $600,000 and an automatic berth in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, in November.
Can we assume they will take the trip to the world championship race? "You assume, right, Babe," Dutrow said.
Both Court Vision and Albarado found their best strides in cool weather and a turf course rated firm part-way through the day, but both were a question. Court Vision hadn't raced since the Manhattan Handicap in New York on June 5. And the Woodbine Mile was Albarado's first ride since an accident at Saratoga Aug. 11 after falling to the track at a full gallop. He suffered a broken clavicle, and fractured a finger and thumb on his left hand.
But Albarado, known as the jockey for Curlin, didn't want Dutrow to forget about him and peppered him with calls to say: "I'll be ready, don't worry." He also started breezing the horse.
Dutrow, known as the trainer for 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown, hadn't won a Woodbine Mile in three previous attempts: Rebel Rebel finished second by a nose in 2006, his Breeders' Cup champ Kip Deville was second in 2007 and then when Dutrow arrived with Kip Deville in 2008, he thought: "No way was he going to get beat, and he didn't even hit the board." He was fifth.
"We've had some bad luck here," said Michael Iavarone, president and director of the IEAH Stable. "I think this year we felt like we were coming a little bit as the underdog. We knew we had a classy horse, but he hadn't won a race. It's almost been a year since he won, and then, he was put up by disqualification. We were a little bit concerned."
Court Vision won Sunday by 1 1/4 lengths as a 7-to-1 shot over The Usual Q.T., the California gelding that ended up as the second choice in the field. Favoured Famous Name, a British horse, finished seventh.
The surprise of the race was the third-place finish by local six-year-old gelding, Woodbourne, at odds of 52 to 1. He was claimed by The Very Dry Stable three starts ago in June for $50,000. On Sunday, he earned $110,000. "I'm so proud of him," rider Chantal Sutherland said. "He ran amazing. He never gave up. That was a really tough crowd. [Trainer Bob Tiller] said: 'Let's try to get a piece of this.' And we did. How great is that?"
In the $750,000 Northern Dancer Turf Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile race that is also a Breeders' Cup qualifier, local horse Fifty Proof astonished his trainer, Ian Black, and group of owners that included former Woodbine president David Willmot by finishing second, beaten by half a length.
Windward Islands, owned by Sam-Son Farms, finished third.
British horse Redwood won the race as the 9-to-5 favourite. Fifty Proof was 29 to 1.
But Dutrow in the main event felt vindicated after three losses. "When we left here [previous years] we didn't leave crying," he said. "Our horses showed up. Last time Kip ran here, he just didn't get along with that grass course. It rained real hard the night before. We never complained about getting beat here. … This horse showed up today. We got ours back.
"I couldn't be more happy. I'm thrilled and blown away by his performance."
The key to Court Vision is that he does not run well in hot, humid weather, and always runs his best in September, October and November, which bodes well for the Breeders' Cup in Kentucky.
'It's not easy to get a horse ready off three months [layoff] to run against these kind of horses over a mile," Iavarone said.
"This is probably the best I've seen the horse run yet."