by Bob Gates With this year's Preakness in the books, Justify and jockey Mike Smith are busy preparing their bid for racing's Triple Crown. For reasons unknown to me the recent Preakness stirred-up a 36 year-old memory of the second leg of the Triple Crown. In 1982 a...
by Bob Gates On the evening of Friday August 30, 1946, old Polo Park looked more like Satan's Hell than it did a racetrack. The scene was chaotic. Flames leveled "B" barn in less then 30 minutes at the westend oval. Bob "Boo Boo" Watt had only been training for a year...
From World War ll Concentration Camp to 1958 Leading Jockey Title at the Downs by Bob Gates As a young boy Hugo Dittfach spent three years in a Russian prison camp. His journey through life would see him find his way to Calgary, Alberta where he would find work at a...
by Bob Gates Everyone's talking about the Kentucky Derby and Mothers' Day is just around the corner. You know what that means! Live racing is set to return to Assiniboia Downs! After a seven-month hiatus the Downs launches its 2018 season of thoroughbred horse racing...