Woodbine folks at at the Gulf on opening day

Jody Hammett, one of Woodbine’s most promising trainers, has a slew of entrants for the opening card of the 88-day Gulfstream meeting.
Hammett, who has worked his way up from a trainer with a couple of horses at Fort Erie racetrack to a large stable at Woodbine, has Johnny Hollywood, Cup Fever and Draw Fire – all speed types – entered on Wednesday.
Hammett won with 22 of 127 Woodbine starters in 2006 and finished ahead of notables such as Malcolm Pierce and Danny Vella on the trainer’s list.
Other Woodbine-based runners on the card include Winning Appeal (1st race), Frank Passero trainees Luke in my Pocket and Believer’s War and Break Even, trained by last year’s Sovereign award winning conditioner, Mark Casse.
Handicappers playing Gulfstream races should note that Woodbine’s Polytrack surface was much kinder to speed types during the last three weeks of its meeting, which ended Dec. 10. That was predominantly because of the tremendous amount of kickback of the surface that made it tough for closers.

Edenwold, the 2006 Queen’s Plate winner and finalist for champion 3-year-old colt in Canada, had a near-bullet 5 furlong workout at Gulfstream on New Year’s eve morning. The Josie Carroll-trainee played hard last year and was one of the country’s brightest stars.

There was a match race in Canada on Sunday to crown the Iron Horse of harness racing. At Rideau Carlton Raceway in Ottawa, 14-year-old Conrad Seelster defeated 12-year-old Kendall Python in a one-mile harness pace by just a head. The former, now retired, had 445 starts to his credit while the latter had 395 races under his tack.