Da Silva, McKnight set single-season win records

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Jockey Eurico Da Silva and trainer Norm McKnight both set Woodbine meet records for wins over the weekend with eight race dates left in the season.

On Saturday, Da Silva broke Mickey Walls’s 1991 record of 221 wins in a single Woodbine meet when he captured the 10th race at Woodbine with Souciologist for his 222nd win of the meeting. Da Silva added another winner on Sunday to finish the weekend with 223 wins on the meet.

“I’m very, very excited, but in the meantime I want to say thank you to all the horses I rode, trainers, grooms, exercise riders, and owners,” Da Silva said. “I’m very grateful to be at Woodbine. I love Woodbine and I feel like this is my home; I come here and I don’t feel like I’m working. All the time I feel happy to be here, and I feel like everybody here is my family.”

Despite missing the first six days of the season due to suspension, Da Silva has not missed a beat since returning to action on May 6, recording an average of 1.9 wins per card during the year. In addition to wins, Da Silva also leads the Woodbine jockey colony in purse earnings, stakes wins, and graded stakes wins.

On Sunday, McKnight saddled Gold Lace to win his 120th race of the meet, breaking Mark Casse’s record of 119 wins set in 2011. It was one of three winners on the Sunday card for McKnight, who also won a pair of races on Saturday.

“It’s been a fantastic season,” McKnight said. “Every year we want to build on the success of the previous year. Hopefully, it doesn’t stop this year and we can have another good season next year.”

McKnight has won seven Woodbine stakes this season, and also captured his first graded stakes win since 1999 when Decorated Soldier took the Grade 3 Seagram Cup Stakes in August.

McKnight will look to continue his winning ways this winter at Oaklawn Park, where he has 34 stalls. McKnight raced at Oaklawn for the first time last winter, recording 16 wins from 80 starts.

Ikerrin Road earns a break

Ikerrin Road capped off his 2018 campaign by recording his second career graded stakes win in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road Stakes on Nov. 24. The win ended Ikerrin Road’s season on a high note after a couple of health scares throughout the year.

Ikerrin Road finished second to eventual Canadian Horse of the Year Pink Lloyd in last year’s edition of the Kennedy Road, leading trainer Vito Armata and owner Alpine Stable to believe he would be among the top sprinters at Woodbine this season. Ikerrin Road did have a productive campaign, winning 3 of 7 starts, but suffered from a couple of illnesses along the way, including a bout with colic.

“The horse got sick twice this year,” Armata said following the Kennedy Road. “He almost died. He had a bit of a rough winter. The horse is lucky to be here, but he’s coming through. We gave him lots of time and there he is.”

Ikerrin Road had to be scratched from the Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes, an event he won in 2017, but Armata said he thought Ikerrin Road was back to his old self following a troubled eighth-place finish in the Grade 2 Nearctic Stakes on turf on Oct. 13. Following the Nearctic, Ikerrin Road came back to win the Nov. 7 allowance prep for the Kennedy Road on Tapeta before capturing the main event on Nov. 24.

“He’s better now,” Armata said. “It was a really tough year for the horse.”

Armata said the 5-year-old gelding came out of the Kennedy Road in good order and would get the winter off before a 2019 campaign.

Queen’s Plate set for June 29

The Queen’s Plate will once again take place over the Canada Day weekend in 2019.

Woodbine announced last week that the 169th Queen’s Plate will be run on Saturday, June 29. This year’s running of the Queen’s Plate was won by filly Wonder Gadot, and it was the first Queen’s Plate run on a Saturday since 1981. Woodbine saw record handle of $14,625,756 on the Queen’s Plate Day card this year, an increase of 8 percent over the 2017 edition.

Tickets for the Queen’s Plate Racing Festival, which runs June 28-29, go on sale Dec. 6, with reserved grandstand seating starting at $40 for a limited time. Tickets can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.ca.