Global Access improving with every race
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – With blinkers off, a more relaxed Global Access got the job done over Queen’s Plate contender Skywire in last Saturday’s Grade 3 Marine Stakes.
Global Access stalked a slow pace from a three-wide position and then got the jump on Skywire to prevail under a confident Patrick Husbands.
Global Access had ended up second to Skywire in the April 28 Wando Stakes. Normally based in Maryland, Global Access remained at Woodbine after the Wando.
The next open stakes for 3-year-olds here is an overnight event on June 29, the one-mile Charlie Barley on turf, and trainer Mike Trombetta said that is one of the options for Global Access, a son of the late Giant’s Causeway.
“We’re going to see how he trains this week and make some decisions,” Trombetta said. “He’s evolving. With each race, he’s made some improvements.”
The Trombetta-trained 4-year-old Wet Your Whistle had a breakout allowance win on the Tapeta here Dec. 16. After a winter layoff, he won a pair of 5 1/2-furlong turf sprints, most notably the Get Serious Stakes at Monmouth.
For Wet Your Whistle’s next start, Trombetta said he is eyeing the $100,000 Karl Boyes Memorial on Presque Isle’s Tapeta on June 17, or the Grade 1, $300,000 Highlander on the grass here June 29.
Barroby to receive Gomez Award
British Columbia trainer and former jockey Frank Barroby has been named as this year’s recipient of the prestigious Avelino Gomez Memorial Award.
Barroby, 75, a native of Saskatchewan, was a successful jockey throughout Western Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. He was the leading rider in his first year at Hastings Park with 91 wins in 1968, and ranked high in the standings there for the next eight years before retiring in 1976.
Barroby was leading trainer at Hastings in 1986, 1990, and 1993, and has 976 training victories. He currently has a stable of 13 horses.
In 2010, Barroby was the first British Columbia-based trainer to be inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
The Avelino Gomez Memorial Award is annually bestowed to a Canadian jockey, past or present, at Woodbine on Woodbine Oaks Day (this year June 8) to honor their contributions to the sport. Past winners include Sandy Hawley, Jeff Fell, Ron Turcotte, and Mickey Walls.
A winning family
When Vaughan finally graduated in his 24th start last Monday, it did little to enhance the impressive produce record of his dam, 2010 Canadian Broodmare of the Year Destroy, but it did give her a ninth winner from 11 foals of racing age.
Destroy was originally owned by the late Mel Lawson, the father of Woodbine CEO Jim Lawson, who owned Destroy’s daughter Gravelly Bay, the dam of Queen’s Plate contender Federal Law. After Gravelly Bay died in 2018, Lawson was able to buy Destroy privately early this year after she was scratched from the Keeneland January sale.
As a replacement for Gravelly Bay, Lawson was hoping Destroy would drop a filly this winter, and Lawson got his wish when Destroy produced one by Bodemeister.