Anderson heads to Arizona after successful Hastings meet

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Going into the final two days of the 2014 meet, Mike Anderson is sitting in second place in the trainers’ standings behind Craig MacPherson. Anderson, with 26 wins, won’t catch MacPherson, who, with 39 wins, will take his second straight title. Nonetheless, Anderson is pleased with how the meet went.

“It has been a good year,” said Anderson. “Horses ran well, and of course you have to have lots of luck in this business, and we seemed to.”

Anderson’s stable is made up of mostly mid-priced to low-level claiming horses, and it helped that a lot of them had conditions.

“It makes a big difference having horses that can run a bit and have conditions,” said Anderson. “Once they have to run in open company, it gets pretty tough around here.”

A good example is the 3-year-old filly Rachael Run, whom Anderson trains for Doug Clyde.

She is on a three-race winning streak that began Sept. 1 with a four-length romp going 1 1/16 miles in a $4,000 claiming race for non-winners of two. She doubled her margin of victory in a non-winners-of-three race for the same price and then won a $4,000 claiming sprint for non-winners of three or British Columbia-bred non-winners of four last Sunday. Including a win when she debuted in a $12,500 maiden-claiming race, Rachael Run has earned $27,617 for Clyde, who also bred her.

The star of his stable is Arabella’s Muse, who won the $50,000 Supernaturel in July and finished second in the British Columbia Cup Dogwood.

“Winning the Supernaturel with her was certainly the highlight of the year,” said Anderson. “She has a lot of ability, but we were always fighting minor physical issues with her.”

His best training feat was getting Bluegrass Miss to win a 1 1/8-mile allowance race against males. A 3-year-old filly, she came from last to edge Goliath by a nose. Anyone watching her train would get the impression that she was pure speed and that she would be hard pressed to carry it more than five furlongs.

“It’s funny,” said Anderson. “When she works, she just goes all out early, but in her races, she’s a completely different horse.”

Anderson has spent the past few winters racing in Arizona and is planning to head to Phoenix again this year.

“I am taking about eight horses to Turf Paradise, which is down from the past couple of years,” said Anderson. “Some horses have been running all year and need the time off. Also, some owners don’t want to go this year. I should have about 25 to 30 horses back in training here next year.”