Longshots Trigger Lucrative Pick 4, Bynoe and Keplin Maintain Big Leads in Standings

Calming Force holds off a hard-charging Princeoftheprairie to win the 5th race on Wednesday for trainer Mike Taphorn. Owner Florent Rivard was a partner on the 1-2 longshots. (Jason Halstead / Assiniboia Photo)

By G.S. Thompson

Two longshots in the middle of the $50,000 Guaranteed $1 Pick 4 on Wednesday resulted in an excellent payoff of $4,502, Damario Bynoe maintained his big lead in the jockey standings, and trainer Steve Keplin, Jr. did the same in the trainer standings with only four live race days left to go.

The big Pick 4 on Wednesday was the result of favourites getting beat in every race of the sequence. Trainer Mike Pierce and jockey Lenny Seecharan took the first leg in the fourth race with third choice Tenforthebigguy ($6.80); Mike Taphorn and Ronald Ali teamed up to win the fifth race with Calming Force ($25.60); Ryan Desjarlais and Sven Balroop pulled off another big upset in the sixth race with Little Eddie ($33.60); and Mike Pierce was back in the winner’s circle again in the seventh race with Paco’s Pico ($10.30), ridden by Antonio Whitehall.

Both of Pierce’s winners were somewhat logical, but you would have had to look beyond the numbers to have Calming Force and Little Eddie on your tickets. Both however, did have angles going for them. Calming Force had never really run a bad race in four lifetime starts, and in his previous start he’d shown marks of pending improvement with a long determined rally to win.

Little Eddie had won at the 7 ½-furlong distance three starts back and looked good doing it. He was also dropping in class for Wednesday’s race after facing better in the J.W. Sifton Stakes. It showed, as he took the lead in the stretch and dug in determinedly to make sure favoured Ataboycookie never really got close to him despite a good rail rally after being bothered at the break.

The point being that solid handicapping resulted in the lucrative payoff, not just craziness.

Antonio Whitehall’s win in the final leg of the Pick 4 on Wednesday gave him two victories on the week, but that wasn’t enough to make a dent in the big lead Damario Bynoe opened up last week. Bynoe maintains a 50-43 lead over Whitehall, with Sven Balroop (36), Ronald Ali (23), and Rachaad Knights (23) rounding out the top five.

Both Knights and Ali scored hat tricks on the week, while Seecharan scored a double. Trainers Mike Taphorn, Tom Gardipy, Jr. and Mike Pierce led all trainers with two wins apiece, while Mike Nault and Jerry Gourneau took home singles that weren’t enough to really gain on leading trainer Steve Keplin, Jr. On a quest for his first training title ever, Keplin has 35 wins, seven more than Nault (28) and eight more than Gourneau (27), followed by Wendy Anderson (22), Jared Brown (19) and Tom Gardipy, Jr. (19).

Two things of note for handicappers as we head into the homestretch of the live season. Trainer Tom Gardipy, Jr.’s horses are running some big races, and the same goes for trainer Mike Pierce. Probably best not to leave their horses off your tickets.

Horse breaker extraordinaire and owner Florent Rivard wins the Longshot Award of the Week for the performances of his horses in the fifth race on Wednesday. Rivard owned the winner, Calming Force (11-1), in partnership with owner-breeder Garry Naherniak, and the runner-up Princeoftheprairie (15-1) in partnership with Greenlaw Farms. The winner was trained by Mike Taphorn and the runner-up was conditioned by Carl Anderson.

Both horses ran huge races, resulting in some excellent exotic payoffs including a $1 exactor that paid $89.55, a $1 triactor of $404.70 with heavy favourite Crusher Royale third, and a $1 superfecta that paid $3,012.85.

The Pick 4 was the icing on the cake.