Northlands Park opens for its final meet

Northlands Park, which has been running Thoroughbreds since 1900, will begin its last meeting Saturday. The Edmonton, Alberta, track will close its doors to live Thoroughbred racing after the conclusion of the 2018 meet on Aug. 25.

Throughbred racing in Alberta will shift to Century Mile just south of Edmonton, which is scheduled to open for its inaugural season next spring.

“We said we were done four different times, but now we actually mean it,” said Scott Sinclair, director of racing and gaming at Northlands. “Century Mile will lead horse racing in Alberta into the future when they open next spring.

“We are excited to celebrate our last season here. We’re going out in a big way with 14 races on closing day, and the last race will be the Canadian Derby. Right now, the purse for the derby is $225,000, but we hope to have it up to $300,000 by post time.

The Grade 3 Canadian Derby is the only graded race at the 43-day meet. The 1 3/8-mile race will be supported by the $75,000 Edmonton Distaff for fillies and mares and the $50,000 Timely Ruckus Sprint for 3-year-olds and up.

Other highlights of the meet include the $75,000 Shirley Vargo for fillies and mares July 7 and the $60,000 Sonoma for 3-year-old fillies Aug. 4.

The usual week will have racing on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. The initial Friday at the meet is May 18. Wednesdays kick in June 6. Post times for Saturdays and holidays is 1 p.m. Mountain. Wednesday and Friday cards will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The opening-day feature is a good one, with Killin Me Smalls and Blue Dancer the main players in a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds and up. The open allowance race drew seven horses and goes as race 9 on a 10-race program.

Killin Me Smalls and Blue Dancer haven’t raced since they finished eighth and 10th in the $100,000 Harvest Plate at Century Downs on Oct. 22.

A two-time Grade 3 winner with $659,135 in earnings, Killin Me Smalls was the champion older horse at Northlands in 2015 and 2016. With four stakes wins at Northlands last year, he will likely receive the award again for 2017 at the annual Night of Champions dinner, to be held at the Chateau Lacome on May 19 in Edmonton.

Trained by Ernie Keller, he also was voted the champion sprinter in 2016 and has won half of his 10 starts going six furlongs.

An 8-year-old son of Marcavelly, Killin Me Smalls can fire fresh and will likely show speed breaking from the outside post with Keishan Balgobin riding.

Blue Dancer is undefeated in four starts at six furlongs, and prior to shipping to Northlands a couple of weeks ago, he had been training forwardly at Hastings for trainer Greg Tracy. He has an excellent 9-3-2 record from 17 starts at Northlands, and he showed his fondness for the local surface when he worked five furlongs in 1:00.40 on April 28.

Blue Dancer will break from post 2 with Rico Walcott aboard. Walcott has been the dominant jockey at Northlands since 2011.