Down the Stretch for September 25, 2023

We start with the Bull Page and Victorian Queen Stakes from Woodbine, go to Mohawk Park for the Mohawk Million, the Elegant Image, the She’s a Great Lady, the Canadian Trotting Classic, the Metro Pace and another stunning win by Tattoo Artist. Two ends of the jockey spectrum -55-year-old Gary Boulanger tells us why he’s retiring 36 years after his first ride and 21-year-old Sofia Vives, in her first full year of riding, gets the news from us that she will win the Sovereign as Canada’s outstanding apprentice. Scott Zeron won both the Little Brown Jug and the Jugette last week in the same year that he won the NA Cup and the Hambletonian so we ask, ‘Is he the driver of the year?’ A special treat for you as Tom Durkin interrupted his retirement to call a $3,000 trot at the Delaware Fair Grounds. He nailed it. We look at the contentious jockeys’ race at Ajax Downs, and some schadenfreude in this podcast - pleasure at the pain of others - someone bet $40,000 to show on a sure thing in a 4-horse race at Assiniboia Downs. Wait until you hear what happened.