ROBERT CHARLES LANDRY – embarking on a new career (well, he actually started last year) and he has hung up his tack…
photo by Dave Landry (his brother!)
ROBERT LANDRY OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
It was not a surprise announcement but the timing was.
Rob Landry, one of Canada’s top jockeys for decades, is retired from riding.
Landry, who halted riding last year and took over as racing manager for Chiefswood Stable just before the Keeneland September yearling sale. Last Sept. 8 he told Daily Racing Form he wanted to return to riding this year but the 48-year-old has decided it was time.
He’s popular, generous, a true horseman and he loves the equines. Many will be cheering for him as he steers the Chiefswood ship.
Can you name the last horse that Landry rode? Sent your answers to THOROUGHBLOG using the Comment button below!
Landry, at a function in November, said he was not sure he would return to riding and was enjoying trying to help the CHiefswood Stable, owned by Robert and Mark Krembil, regroup and rise to the top of the owner and breeder standings.
Woodbine issued a press release:
TORONTO, January 4 – Jockey Robert Landry, who won the 2004 Queen’s
Plate with Niigon and recorded 2,045 wins over his 29-year career, has
announced his retirement.
Landry, who scored his first career win aboard Hammy Hubert, June 21,
1981 at Fort Erie and won his initial added-money race in 1982 aboard La
Salle Park in the Fair Play Stakes, earned a reputation as one of
Canadian thoroughbred racing’s most respected riders, not only for his
commitment to his craft, but also in the various charitable causes he
supported.
Now, the 48-year-old Toronto native will take over the reins as Racing
Manager for Chiefswood Stable, the owner who he teamed with to win the
“Gallop for the Guineas.”
“The time is right for me to embark on this new association with
horse racing,” said Landry, who was Canada’s outstanding jockey in
1993 and 1994 and led all Woodbine riders in stakes wins in 1993 (13),
1994 (18) and 1996 (18). “I have to admit it was a hard decision
because I love the sport and I love riding. But to have this opportunity
to work for the people I won a Queen’s Plate with is truly special.”
Born September 18, 1962, in Toronto, Landry enjoyed a stellar career.
He rode five consecutive champion two-year-old fillies (Larkwhistle,
1996; Primaly, ‘97; Fantasy Lake, ‘98; Hello Seattle, ‘99;
Poetically, ‘00) during their Sovereign-winning years. In 1999, he won
the Woodbine Mile aboard Sam-Son Farm’s Quiet Resolve ($91.10 to win),
one of the biggest upsets in Woodbine stakes history.
A personal highlight came in 2003. On the same day he was presented
with the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award for significant contributions to
the sport, he captured the Woodbine Oaks aboard Too Late Now. His other
Oaks wins came in 1997 with Capdiva and in 2000 with Catch the Ring.
“Rob is a true horseman,” said trainer and thoroughbred racing
industry leader Sue Leslie. “He gets into a horse’s head and earns
their trust and respect. His passion for horses is worn on his sleeve. A
lot of what I have learned about horses has come from Rob.”
Curtis Joseph, one of the National Hockey League’s all-time winning
goaltenders, also has high praise for Landry, who rode a vast majority
of the thoroughbreds he has owned.
“There are so many things you could say about Rob,” said Joseph,
who watched Landry pull off a major upset in the 2005 Ontario Jockey
Club Stakes when his Awesome Action bested Soaring Free, Canada’s
Horse of the Year in 2004. “I have a great respect for him as a rider
and as a person. He’s a very giving human being.”
Landry had 17,656 career mounts, along with purse earnings of
$69,786,382.
“Obviously, there are so many great memories that I have,” said
Landry, who notched 167 lifetime stakes wins, 29 graded. “I owe a lot
to Woodbine for how they treated me and I owe a lot to the many people,
including the fans, who supported me throughout my career.”
He collected career win 2,000 aboard Firetheexecutive on July 1, 2009.
Landry helped Chiefswood win its first Plate with NIIGON and now he is back with the Krembil family as manager.
Terence Dulay photo
LET THE FUN FLOW AT THE STREAM
Gulfstream opens, Canada’s Roxy Gap
Canadian-bred ROXY GAP, unbeaten and an exciting propsect for local fans (plus owner Eugene Melnyk and trainer Mark Casse) is the favourite for the Old Hat Stakes today, the opening day feature at Gulfstream.
Canadians also in action include Barb Pirie, who trains Lambeau, Brian Lynch trains Strategic Hope
The Old Hat Stakes for 3-year-old fillies and some new betting twists mark the first day of Gulfstream Park’s meet.
BY JIM FREER
Gulfstream Park will open its racing season Wednesday with a $100,000 stakes for 3-year-old fillies and some new bets that track president and general manager Steve Calabro hopes will add excitement throughout the 16-week meet.
The Hallandale Beach track will have racing on Wednesdays through Sundays until April 24. The first post time will be 12:55 p.m. each day.
The opening-day feature, the Grade 3 Old Hat Stakes, is the eighth of nine races. That makes it part of a new Pick 6, with a 10-cent-only bet, on the day’s last six races, and a new Pick 5, with a 50-cent minimum on the day’s last five races.
The Old Hat has six entrants, with four that have won at least one stakes at tracks outside Florida. They are Roxy Gap, Final Mesa, It’s Me Mom and Quantum Miss.
Wesley Ward owns and trains Final Mesa, a winner of three of her four 2010 starts. Ward said he is not really surprised that the $100,000 stakes has a small field.
“These fillies have just turned 3, and some trainers with a horse that has just a maiden win might not think they are ready for this yet,” he said. “Gulfstream has allowance races where they can go, starting early in the meet.”
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/05/2000981/track-primed-for-opener-of-16.html#ixzz1AA8PoVBs
AND FOR THOSE WANTING A BIT MORE
Former Woodbine trainer writes blog…
http://www.gulfstreampark.com/racing/race-info/news/walder-blog
CANADIAN STUFF
Technical woes at Thoroughblog meant some of my results and notes were lost but I do remember that COPPERELLE won on New Year’s day for trainer IAN BLACK and the late Bob Anderson plus Rod Ferguson. The Elusive Quality filly won for $12,500 claiming at Tampa Bay Downs to start the year off on a big note for the Black team.
SAPPHIRE AVENUE, a 5yo mare by Strong Hope bred in Ontario, and WINDY VALE, a Graeme Hall Florida bred, were two homebred winners for EUGENE MELNYK and trainer MIKE PAPPADA yesterday at Penn National.
The Melnyk gals won for $5,000 and $62,50 claiming respectively.
PART OF RACING’S PROBLEM?
Leading sire list has major discrepencies through major publications
Daily Racing Form filed this report and let’s face it, if we can’t get the publications to be close to having the same aims and facts, how can the entire racing industry do it?
Leading sire of 2010? It depends who you ask
By Glenye Cain Oakford
LEXINGTON, Ky. – With the 2010 racing year now in the books, the sport’s major publications are showing different sires – Giant’s Causeway, Fusaichi Pegasus, and Malibu Moon – as the year’s leading North American general sire, depending on how they count progeny earnings.
The discrepancies are due largely to how each of the three publications – Daily Racing Form , Thoroughbred Times, and The Blood-Horse – tally foreign progeny earnings. Neither Daily Racing Form nor The Blood-Horse counted earnings from Hong Kong, Japan, or the Southern Hemisphere in their sire lists. But Thoroughbred Times included earnings from 18 countries, with Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, and Argentina among them.
According to Daily Racing Form ’s internal database and The Blood-Horse, Giant’s Causeway was North America’s leading general sire, though their earnings tallies differed slightly. Blood-Horse’s total was $8,806,163, compared to $8,806,413 at the Form . Thoroughbred Times crowned Fusaichi Pegasus ($11,480,932). Both Giant’s Causeway and Fusaichi Pegasus stand at Coolmore Stud’s American division, Ashford Stud.
The Form ’s Leaderboard section uses a different set of criteria, ranking sires by their progeny’s U.S., Canadian, and Dubai World Cup Day earnings. By that standard, the Leaderboard has Spendthrift Farm’s flagship stallion Malibu Moon, sire of Life At Ten, as North America’s leading general sire with $8,452,232. The Blood-Horse, incidentally, also produces a sire list for North American earnings only, and Malibu Moon also topped that list with $8,462,649.
read more at www.drf.com
