City Boy's upset no shock to trainer
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – At 24-1, City Boy was a surprise winner in Saturday’s Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes to most, but not trainer Mike Keogh, who said the 5-year-old gelding was coming off a deceptively good third in a second-level optional claimer heading into the six-furlong turf sprint.
“In his last start, he was five wide on the turn and then he got bumped in the lane, too,” Keogh recalled. “I thought it was a big race. That’s why I put him in there.”
Keogh said he doesn’t have the next race picked out yet for City Boy, who is owned the Estate of Gustav Schickedanz and Donald Howard.
Schickedanz, Keogh’s longtime client, died in June at age 90. Keogh said he will take whatever he has left for the estate to his regular winter retreat in South Carolina, but the bulk of the yearlings from the estate will be sold at the local mixed sale on Nov. 23.
Campbell quits riding at Woodbine
Jesse Campbell, who rode City Boy in the Nearctic, has quit riding at Woodbine to launch a heating and cooling franchise in Chicago. The 42-year-old said he will ride a few horses for family members at Hawthorne prior to Nov. 3, when he will return here for the Grade 2 Autumn.
“I’m making a choice to leave Woodbine and go home, but I’m not retiring,” Campbell said. “This has been in the works since February. When you get into a franchise, it doesn’t happen overnight. Once they gave us the go-ahead, it’s on. I’m going to be so busy that it’s going to be hard to even think about not riding anymore.”
Kimura set to lose bug
Kazushi Kimura is scheduled to lose his apprentice allowance at midnight on Oct. 26.
Kimura ranks third in the Woodbine jockey standings, with 103 wins from 663 mounts, which puts him 19 behind perennial leader Eurico Da Silva. Rafael Hernandez ranks second with 117 tallies.
Kimura is a shoo-in to win his second straight Sovereign Award for Canada’s outstanding apprentice, and he should also get some consideration in this year’s Eclipse Award voting.
Kimura has become quite proficient on the inner turf, winning with 15 of 76 mounts on the new seven-furlong course. In fact, he is the overall leading turf rider at the meet with 46 wins, one ahead of Hernandez and six more than Da Silva.
In other jockey news, Isabelle Wenc broke her ankle on Oct. 6 after a 2-year-old she was riding propped and unseated her after leaving the gate in a workout. Wenc has doubled as an exercise rider for trainer Robert Tiller.
The 10-pound apprentice Ailsa Morrison won her first race on Oct. 8 at Fort Erie. She is represented by agent Ron Burke.