Now that we have all of our horses back at the track, excitement about a return to racing has really stepped up a notch. The horses being able to head back out to the oval has had a real “first day of school” feel to it and as Fast Bid shows in the video above, no one is more excited to get back to work than our equine athletes. She stretched her legs over 2 furlongs this morning (Wednesday) and continues to look in good shape.
Square Dancer went for a workout on Sunday under the expert care of jockey Scott Williams. As usual, Dancer would have preferred to continue running until sundown, but still came back to his stall happy after the chance to get the blood pumping. We would be amiss not to give Scott a big Racing Club welcome back. The pair have hit the track together on race day many times and after he missed the second half of last season it was great to see his trademark smile back atop the Racing Club’s stalwart.
On the other end of the experience spectrum, two-year-old Richard’s Command got to tackle the track for the first time. Our newest addition to the Club will be trained by Keith Pedersen, who will be a familiar face to Club members after he trained Shooting Jacket to a clean sweep of the 2018 Marathon Series. Keith reports that the filly has taken to the backstretch as if she has been here all her life. Given the steep learning curve involved in training the younger horses, this is a positive start and we’ll keep checking in as she continues the process of becoming a racehorse.
To sign off, we have a bit of a treat to share with you. Although there has been ample excitement about getting back to the track, we got an interesting look back at what the last month away from Hastings has meant for some of our horses. We received the video below (courtesy of trainer Mark Cloutier who we owe a great deal of thanks to) which shows how some of our horses were keeping in shape in the picturesque Fraser Valley. Most excitingly, this gives us our first chance to see Richard’s Command under saddle and also check in with Marshall Swindle, who is working towards a Hastings Racing Club debut.
Thanks for all the messages from members who are sharing our excitement that the horses are back! We’ll be in touch soon with more updates and in the meantime we may have some “extras” posted to our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages between emails, so if you do use those websites, please give us a follow!
Hastings Racing Club 