
Biggest upset brings huge payoff at Assiniboia Downs
And he knew she was going to win.
The 75-year-old trainer from Montana teamed up with jockey Dario Dalrymple and fellow trainer Curtis Maxwell to pull off the biggest upset of the meeting in the fifth race on Wednesday evening with the 6-year-old mare Ropers N Wranglers. Everyone in the barn bet on her — except Maxwell, who got distracted at the grandstand and forgot to.
GEORGE WILLIAMS
The 50-1 Crew (from left): trainer Bill Mooney, jockey Dario Dalrymple and trainer Curtis Maxwell.
'I was talking to someone, I looked up and they were already in the gate,' said Maxwell, who was paddocking the horse for Mooney partly because Mooney had injured his leg in a stall when a horse ran into him. 'The race started and it was too late.'
'I had $10 across on her,' said Mooney. 'I got back around $700.'
Ropers N Wranglers paid $104.10 to win, $33.50 to place, and $8.80 to show, and knocked just about every live ticket holder out of the Pick 4. The first race in the Pick 4 sequence was also won by a longshot, Ethan's Animal ($27.10), trained by Ryan Desjarlais. In the sixth race and third leg of the Pick 4, last year's Winnipeg Futurity winner Welcometohollywood ($8.20) recaptured her stakes-winning form and won the $50,000 Jack Hardy Stakes for trainer Jared Brown, setting up a monster Pick 4 payoff in the seventh race.
There were only five live Pick 4 tickets heading into the seventh race, and three of them required favourite Lab Rat to win for the $27,000 payoff. The other two live tickets — on second choice Burn Jakey Burn and third favourite Cajun Eddie — were both paying over $70,000. If one of the other three horses in the race had won, nobody would have held a winning Pick 4 ticket, and the pool of $121,206 would have carried over to the next day.
Lab Rat ($4.10) won the seventh race, and three lucky ticket holders filled their pillowcases with over $27,000 each. But oh, the havoc the '50 to 1' crew caused! The payoffs in Ropers N Wranglers race were also huge, including a $1 Exacta of $598.35, a 20-cent Trifecta that paid $392.20, a 20-cent Superfecta of $1,505.37, and a 20-cent Pick 3 that paid $679.52.
'We knew she was going to win,' said Mooney, who had claimed the horse in her previous start for $5,000 after a discussion with her former owner/trainer Eugene Burns. Burns pointed out that the horse was sprinting at ASD when her actual forte was distance races.
Ropers N Wranglers had broken her maiden at Santa Anita for a $50,000 claiming price going 1 1/8-miles on the turf and had also finished fourth in the $50,000 Emerald Downs Distaff Stakes going 1 1/16 miles on the dirt just a year ago on August 11, 2024. Class everywhere, yet she started out winning here this year in a $5,000 claiming sprint on June 2.
'When I first got her, she wasn't really eating that well,' said Mooney. 'But then she started eating and started to get happy.'
'She ran off on me twice in the morning,' added Dalrymple, signalling her willingness to run. 'She was ready.'
Every Second Friday
The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney.
Ropers N Wranglers stretched out to a distance for the first time at the Downs on Wednesday and surprised everyone except her connections, forcing the pace from the inside, opening up into the stretch and easily holding off the favourite late to win by 1¼-lengths. Dalrymple knew he had them the whole race.
Mooney is a log home builder who trains horses when he's not building, simply because he loves the lifestyle and the horses. He has three horses in training right now. Ropers N Wranglers gave him his first win of the meeting, but she was claimed away from him after the win. For Dalrymple, it was win number four on the season. Maxwell hasn't won yet this year, but he's hoping his one-horse stable can come through for him.
Mooney says he loves training mares. 'I just love making them happy,' he said. 'If you can get them happy, they'll give you everything they've got. They'll run for you.'
Which was kind of what Maxwell wanted to do after the race, but in a different context—more like running away.
Even his sister bet on the horse.
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Winnipeg Free Press
6 days ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Biggest upset brings huge payoff at Assiniboia Downs
Trainer Bill Mooney did his impression of the movie '50 to 1' on Wednesday night at Assiniboia Downs, bum leg included, blowing up the tote board with a $104.10 winner that also led to a massive $1 Pick 4 payoff of $27,239.05. And he knew she was going to win. The 75-year-old trainer from Montana teamed up with jockey Dario Dalrymple and fellow trainer Curtis Maxwell to pull off the biggest upset of the meeting in the fifth race on Wednesday evening with the 6-year-old mare Ropers N Wranglers. Everyone in the barn bet on her — except Maxwell, who got distracted at the grandstand and forgot to. GEORGE WILLIAMS The 50-1 Crew (from left): trainer Bill Mooney, jockey Dario Dalrymple and trainer Curtis Maxwell. 'I was talking to someone, I looked up and they were already in the gate,' said Maxwell, who was paddocking the horse for Mooney partly because Mooney had injured his leg in a stall when a horse ran into him. 'The race started and it was too late.' 'I had $10 across on her,' said Mooney. 'I got back around $700.' Ropers N Wranglers paid $104.10 to win, $33.50 to place, and $8.80 to show, and knocked just about every live ticket holder out of the Pick 4. The first race in the Pick 4 sequence was also won by a longshot, Ethan's Animal ($27.10), trained by Ryan Desjarlais. In the sixth race and third leg of the Pick 4, last year's Winnipeg Futurity winner Welcometohollywood ($8.20) recaptured her stakes-winning form and won the $50,000 Jack Hardy Stakes for trainer Jared Brown, setting up a monster Pick 4 payoff in the seventh race. There were only five live Pick 4 tickets heading into the seventh race, and three of them required favourite Lab Rat to win for the $27,000 payoff. The other two live tickets — on second choice Burn Jakey Burn and third favourite Cajun Eddie — were both paying over $70,000. If one of the other three horses in the race had won, nobody would have held a winning Pick 4 ticket, and the pool of $121,206 would have carried over to the next day. Lab Rat ($4.10) won the seventh race, and three lucky ticket holders filled their pillowcases with over $27,000 each. But oh, the havoc the '50 to 1' crew caused! The payoffs in Ropers N Wranglers race were also huge, including a $1 Exacta of $598.35, a 20-cent Trifecta that paid $392.20, a 20-cent Superfecta of $1,505.37, and a 20-cent Pick 3 that paid $679.52. 'We knew she was going to win,' said Mooney, who had claimed the horse in her previous start for $5,000 after a discussion with her former owner/trainer Eugene Burns. Burns pointed out that the horse was sprinting at ASD when her actual forte was distance races. Ropers N Wranglers had broken her maiden at Santa Anita for a $50,000 claiming price going 1 1/8-miles on the turf and had also finished fourth in the $50,000 Emerald Downs Distaff Stakes going 1 1/16 miles on the dirt just a year ago on August 11, 2024. Class everywhere, yet she started out winning here this year in a $5,000 claiming sprint on June 2. 'When I first got her, she wasn't really eating that well,' said Mooney. 'But then she started eating and started to get happy.' 'She ran off on me twice in the morning,' added Dalrymple, signalling her willingness to run. 'She was ready.' Every Second Friday The latest on food and drink in Winnipeg and beyond from arts writers Ben Sigurdson and Eva Wasney. Ropers N Wranglers stretched out to a distance for the first time at the Downs on Wednesday and surprised everyone except her connections, forcing the pace from the inside, opening up into the stretch and easily holding off the favourite late to win by 1¼-lengths. Dalrymple knew he had them the whole race. Mooney is a log home builder who trains horses when he's not building, simply because he loves the lifestyle and the horses. He has three horses in training right now. Ropers N Wranglers gave him his first win of the meeting, but she was claimed away from him after the win. For Dalrymple, it was win number four on the season. Maxwell hasn't won yet this year, but he's hoping his one-horse stable can come through for him. Mooney says he loves training mares. 'I just love making them happy,' he said. 'If you can get them happy, they'll give you everything they've got. They'll run for you.' Which was kind of what Maxwell wanted to do after the race, but in a different context—more like running away. Even his sister bet on the horse.


Winnipeg Free Press
05-07-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
What a week for Whitehall
Lightning almost struck twice at Assiniboia Downs this week. It missed both times. A barrage of bolts struck the area surrounding the Downs on Canada Day evening, forcing the cancellation of the remaining races with one of the largest crowds ever in the stands, but most of those in attendance braved the rain for a fabulous fireworks display at 10:30 p.m. Jockey Antonio Whitehall prevented the second lightning strike of the week in the final race Wednesday when he won with favourite Big Ticket for trainer Will Tourangeau, wearing down 69-1 second-place finisher Really Slow and jockey Neville Stephenson in a long drive to prevail by three-quarters of a length. George Williams / Free Press Jockeys Antonio Whitehall (right) and Damrio Bynoe work a pair of two-year-olds for trainer Mike Nault at the Downs on Friday morning. The $1 Pick 4 paid $956.90 from a Pick 4 wagering pool of $163,626 and made a lot of bettors happy, except the one holding the lone live ticket on Really Slow, which would have exploded the tote board with a payoff of over $100,000. How'd you like to be holding that ticket for the length of the stretch? The Pick 4 sequence featured two favourites and two longshots. The fourth race was won by favourite Frankly ($5.20), the fifth went to longshot Burn Jakey Burn ($28.70), the sixth to Exotic's Bear ($19.30), and Big Ticket ($3.50) captured the seventh. Whitehall's win on Big Ticket gave the three-time leading ASD rider five wins on the week, including a victory in the $40,000 Frank Arnason Memorial Sire Stakes. Whitehall dead-heated for the win in the first and only race run Tuesday aboard Commandoslastdance ($2.20) for trainer Mike Nault, and added four more wins on Wednesday. He won the third race, the Frank Arnason Memorial Sire Stakes with Betterlucknexttime ($2.40) for Nault, added another for Nault in the fourth race with Frankly, then won the sixth race aboard Exotic's Bear and followed up in the seventh with the win on Big Ticket. When asked about his big week, Whitehall was taking it all in stride. 'Godspeed,' he said, pointing skyward while in Nault's barn Friday morning preparing to work a set of two-year-olds. 'You do your best to put your horse in the right spot,' said Whitehall. 'Sometimes you give your horse a perfect trip and he doesn't have anything for you. Other times, you have the horse but can't get the trip you want. When the horses and trips are there, everything works. You just have to be patient.' Betterlucknexttime, a three-year-old Manitoba-bred by Nonios-Nickel Candy by Silver Deputy, was the best horse in the Frank Arnason, and everything has gone according to plan for him. Bred by Larry Falloon and Denis Huberdeau, he was the sales topper at US$18,429 in the 2023 CTHS Manitoba Yearling Sale, and as a two-year-old he won the rich Buffalo Stakes. He has now earned $US62,434 from a record of 4-2-0 in eight starts and is well on his way to securing championship honours once again. Owned by the partnership of A2 Thoroughbreds (Nolan Allard, Arthur Roy and his father Jean-Marc Roy) and True North Thoroughbreds (Phil Allard, Pat Beavis, Grant Sissons and Ray Bouchard), Betterlucknexttime is yet another in a line of champions campaigned by Nault and his owners, who have won 11 races this year and over $US100,000 in purses. A2 Thoroughbreds also has some additional partners, some gathered from a seminar, and others who found them through their website at Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. Both ownership groups have spent above-average, but not outlandish amounts of money to purchase yearlings at Manitoba and Ontario yearling sales, and they are reaping the benefits with smart management and patient development of their horses. They are also getting excited about this year's crop of two-year-olds. Entries were taken for the first two-year-old races of the season at the Downs on Friday, and it won't be long before Nault and his owners are in the entry box. Nault, along with trainer Devon Gittens, is among the top two-year-old trainers at the Downs, but with Gittens racking up the wins at Woodbine, Nault could soon be alone at the top locally. 'With the ones that are ready, we'll go,' said Nolan Allard. 'With the ones that aren't, we'll back off a bit. It never works rushing. If you're patient, it pays off over the long term.' Nault shares his owners' patient philosophy, but he does love to run his two-year-olds. 'It's like opening up a present,' he smiled.


Winnipeg Free Press
31-05-2025
- Winnipeg Free Press
Pruitt quickly making her mark
Two unlikely suspects teamed up to trigger a huge Pick 4 payoff of $14,295.45 Tuesday evening at Assiniboia Downs, and that led to a massive Pick 4 Pool of over $150,000 on Wednesday, as Assiniboia Downs smoked full run into the summer. New apprentice Ciera Pruitt guided longshot filly Mineral Rights ($41.60) smoothly wide over five-eighths of a mile and back to the winner's circle in the seventh race on Tuesday for trainer Jason Homer, who recently arrived from Fonner Park with 25 horses, and together the dynamic duo blew up the tote board. It was the first lifetime win for Pruitt as a newly minted jockey, and to make it even more memorable, she had to beat a riderless horse named Dirty Flirt, who stumbled and ditched her rider at the gate. Pedigree came into play in Pruitt's big win too, but not on the horsey side. MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS Jockey Ciera Pruitt grew up around horses as her father was a jockey and her mother is one of the top trainers at Assinibboia Downs. Pruitt's mother is hot local trainer Lise Pruitt, who is winning at a 40 per cent clip and is currently third in the trainer standings, and her father is former top Downs jockey Jerry Pruitt. Both were in the winner's circle with smiles you could hang on to. 'It was a feeling you can't describe, man,' said the 22-year-old Pruitt, who has been around horses her entire life. 'It was pretty special to have everybody there and have my mom and my dad. It was definitely an emotional night.' Born into a racing family, Pruitt has unknowingly been preparing for this moment since she was born. She probably figured it out early though, living on a farm and grooming horses before she started officially exercising them. 'I don't remember a time I wasn't around horses,' said Pruitt. 'We were running around causing havoc in the barn when my mom was training.' Despite the family connections, Pruitt is determined to make her own mark. 'I want to prove to my dad and show him that I can do what he did,' she said. Pruitt has a solid foundation to build on, having also spent time in Toronto working for Canadian Hall of Fame trainer Josie Carroll and galloping at Palm Meadows in Florida, before returning home to launch her riding career. Her goals for the year are ambitious but realistic.'I would like to ride at least a couple of stakes races and just get better and gain more experience. Then I'd like to be able to take off to Toronto and ride there before we go back down south.' It was the first win in five starts locally for Washington State-native Homer, who arrived at the Downs in the middle of a 40-race losing streak and immediately turned that number on its head, also winning the fifth race on Wednesday with another longshot, The Ronald ($33.20). Homer now has two wins, a second and a third from five starts locally, and it felt good to turn things around. At 62, Homer has been training horses for 44 years. The veteran horseman has seen it all, winning stakes that include the Portland Mile and also winning races at major tracks including Santa Anita. He's philosphical about his recent losing streak. 'When you're down, you're down,' said Homer. 'You just have to keep going, try to get back to where you know you should be. Things don't always go right, so you make changes.' Homer's connection with Pruitt began through coincidence. He hired her former boyfriend to gallop horses, and when Ciera stopped to help in Nebraska on her way home from Florida, she impressed the trainer enough that he remembered her skills when he arrived at Assiniboia Downs. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. 'She helped me out for a little bit in Nebraska on her way home, and then when I got here, she was really good help,' said Homer, whose horses provide more than just a livelihood, they're therapeutic companions. 'It's like having a big dog,' he said about his love for horses. 'Just the freedom' is what draws him to training, and the animals have taught him when things don't always go right, you work together to figure it out. Seems he's figured it out pretty well so far at the Downs, thanks to his four-legged friends. The timing of Homer's breakthrough victories was particularly meaningful too, coming just before the Owner/Trainer/Breeder Appreciation Dinner put on by Assiniboia Downs on Thursday evening, in which the Downs presented cheques for $13,000 to both the Winner's Foundation and Final Furlong. The Winner's Foundation provides addiction and counselling services, as well as athletic therapy and other assistance, to members of the backstretch and their families. Final Furlong helps find new homes and careers for retired racehorses. Many of their horses have gone on to successful careers as show horses. And they're also among the best therapists money can buy. Just ask Homer.