Tarasenco leads pack of ‘other guy’ jockeys making a mark at Assiniboia Downs
“The Other Guys” are in 12th, 13th and 14th places in the Assiniboia Downs jockey standings, but between the three of them they own the longest and second longest-priced winners of the meeting and one of them rides the best two-year-old on the grounds.
Comeback Kid Tim Tarasenco is the most accomplished of the three, having won 280 races from 1985 to 2023 at Assiniboia Downs and numerous other racetracks you’ve probably never heard of south of the border. Those are just his official wins.
The Westwood Collegiate graduate started out galloping horses in the snow banks of Manitoba for trainer John Cizik and went on to ride at Marquis Downs, Assiniboia Downs, Exhibition Park, Stampede Park, Northlands Park, Great Falls, Wyoming Downs, Arapahoe Park, Churchill Downs, Playfair, Trinity Meadows, Canterbury Downs and more tracks tucked into the nooks and crannies of small town USA.
MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Veteran jockey Tim Tarasenco takes Dunn Rite for a training ride at Assiniboia downs.
Tarasenco retired from riding in 1998 and made his comeback in 2022 at Marquis Downs and Assiniboia Downs. The 58-year-old veteran rider didn’t win a race from his 13 mounts at the recognized tracks last year, but he went south to Fort Pierre after the local meeting and won races in bunches. He actually wasn’t even planning to ride last year, but the galloping felt good for the soul and his bones were loving it — after the initial week.
Currently 12th in the standings, Tarasenco is healthier than he’s ever been, and thanks mainly to trainer Carl Anderson, he’s rising and winning at a 17 per cent clip, with a record of 12-8-8 from 70 mounts on horses that include fan favourites such as Not Afraid, who is four-for-five this year and performing like a very happy horse for Anderson and Tarasenco.
Anderson called Tarasenco this spring and asked him if he wanted to gallop his horses. He knew Tarasenco could handle the tough ones, and the crazy ones. Tarasenco was also an accomplished quarter horse rider early in his career. Other trainers including Shaun Morin and Dale Zawislak are also putting Tarasenco on their horses in the morning.
Among the best horses Tarasenco rode were multiple stakes winners Homebred, Midnite Mackee, and Winnipeg Futurity winner Black No Sugar, who beat the best from the east and the west in the 1987 Winnipeg Futurity, paying a $61.80 to win — a record payoff for the race that still stands today. Fast forward 36 years and Tarasenco owns the second longest-priced winner of the 2023 meeting. Sparkling Silver paid $58.60 when she won for Anderson on Aug. 23rd.
We wondered how someone could come back off a 24-year-layoff, make very few mistakes on the limited mounts he got, and win. Now we know.
Following Tarasenco in the standings is 29-year-old Shavon Belle from Barbados. Belle first arrived here in 2015 and we can still remember him riding his bike from barn to barn in the backstretch looking for mounts, which were very difficult to come by. Belle had a breakout year in 2019 with 19 wins and followed up with 24 wins in 2022 after a pandemic enforced absence. He got off to a slow start this year, but thanks to trainers such as Jerry Gourneau, Devon Gittens and Deb Hanson, he’s back on the winning track.
Belle has won nine races this year, including four this week, two for Hanson, one for Gourneau and one for Gittens. The latter was aboard the best two-year-old on the grounds, Canyouhearmerunnin, in the $50,000 Osiris Plate. Belle did all the work on the talented two-year-old for Gittens this spring and was rewarded with a mount that is now a perfect three-for-three including the Graduation Osiris Stakes. It doesn’t always work that way.
Lesser known but entirely capable jockeys exercise hundreds of horses in the spring, with the hopes of securing winning mounts, but some trainers replace them with “name” riders when it comes to the actual races.
Arthur Budhu, a 36-year-old jockey from Jamaica who also works doing maintenance and grass cutting in the backstretch, would fall into that category, but he’s finally starting to get some winners. He’s won nine races so far, thanks to trainers such as Gourneau. Budhu owns the longest-priced winner of the 2023 meeting with Hey Hey Run Away ($164.40), the mare that helped a single bettor win $69,860 in the Jackpot Pick 5.
“These guys (Belle and Budhu) are the first riders at my barn in the morning,” said Gourneau, who is closing in on a record fourth consecutive training title at the Downs. “They work their asses off. They’re just two ideal young men that try really hard, but almost nobody gives them a shot.
“Then all of a sudden, we start running good over there. They start riding really good and then others jump on the bandwagon. Which is fine with me because these guys can shine then. That’s what it’s all about, making somebody else shine.
“The glory always goes to the big riders, but the smaller riders need opportunities too, and they’ve got skills. People just have to bring those skills out in them.
“That’s what we do.”
Credit: Tarasenco leads pack of ‘other guy’ jockeys making a mark at Assiniboia Downs
