Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Wilson Making The Most Of ‘Bizarre’ Year

One of the unique challenges presented by this year's pandemic has been the restricted travel of jockeys between different racetracks. At Woodbine in Canada, jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson found a way to turn that restriction into an opportunity.

“We always like to root for the horses who ship from here to run out of town,” Wilson said. “This year it's been far more rare, so we've been watching them a lot more closely. It's always fun to root for your home team.”

Wilson was glued to a television screen when trainer Gail Cox sent Sam-Son Farm's Say the Word to Saratoga in August, running the 5-year-old son of More Than Ready in a 1 3/16-mile allowance race on the grass.

“Junior Alvarado rode him and he came last to first with a wicked run,” Wilson recalled. “I was extremely impressed, and I mentioned to Gail that I liked the way he'd run and that I'd like to ride him.

“Woodbine only had five Grade 1's this year, and quite often we get a lot of ship-in horses, so the locals have to step up their game. I'm always on the lookout for serious horses, and I thought he'd be a tough horse.”

Wilson first rode Say the Word in the G3 Singspiel Stakes over 1 1/4 miles on the grass, beaten just 1 1/2 lengths overall to finish third.

“I got to know him a little bit; he's a little bit unique so I had to find that happy balance and get on the same page with him,” said Wilson. “It's like in hockey, if you take a left wing and place him on the right, it's going to take him a little bit of time to get used to that side.”

Cox and Wilson's end goal was to stretch the horse out to the 1 1/2 miles of the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Turf, held last Saturday, Oct. 17, and Say the Word responded brilliantly. Making his signature last-to-first move, Say the Word made a big run in the stretch to win by a length.

“Say the Word was definitely coming into his own this year,” Wilson said. “I'm grateful to have gotten the mount when I did.”

Say the Word and Emma-Jayne Wilson winning the Northern Dancer Turf Stakes

Of course, big race days don't feel quite the same this year without the presence of spectators at the Ontario oval.

“When I walk up on big race days at Woodbine, I enjoy that moment looking up at the grandstand and its totally full,” Wilson explained. “Normally on Queen's Plate day, you come on the gap at the seven-eighths pole and the grandstand is packed, just thousands and thousands of people, and you can feel each and every one of them, their energy.

“This year was bizarre. You can feel the energy of the horses, the jocks, the anxiety, but it wasn't the same. It didn't have the anticipation, that buzz of the crowd, and I definitely miss that. It's a big part of our game; the fans are massive and we wouldn't be there without them.”

Though Wilson has earned both an Eclipse Award and multiple Sovereign Awards for her riding career, last weekend's Northern Dancer Turf is just the third Grade 1 win added to her resume. The first came in 2015, also in the Northern Dancer Turf aboard Canadian champion Interpol. It took five years until she rode her second Grade 1 winner, Lady Speightspeare, victorious in last month's G1 Natalma Stakes.

“Lady Speightspeare is a pretty significant horse,” said Wilson. “I think you're going to be hearing her name quite a lot down the road.”

A Charles Fipke homebred out of his multiple graded stakes-winning mare Lady Shakespeare, the 2-year-old daughter of Speightstown won both her starts this year for trainer Roger Attfield. Lady Speightspeare earned an expenses-paid berth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf via her Natalma victory, but an ill-timed knee injury will keep her from making the trip to Keeneland.

“She's an athlete and a competitor, and she wasn't taking any prisoners (in the Natalma),” Wilson said. “It's disappointing that she's not able to go to the Breeders' Cup, because she was definitely one that I was willing to sit out races for, just to ride that one race; she is that good.”

Were Wilson to have made the Breeders' Cup trip with the filly, it would likely have cost her a total of 24 days away from Woodbine because of COVID-19 quarantine protocols. The jockey is currently tied for third in the standings with 72 victories this year, so her willingness to give up those days of riding indicate just how special she believes Lady Speightspeare could be.

What has made her two Grade 1 victories and strong 2020 season even more special, Wilson said, is the fact that she missed significant portions of the last two seasons with injuries.

“I'd been pretty lucky,” Wilson said. “I had a liver laceration in 2010 that kept me out of the saddle for three months, and it was serious, but physically I was okay. I didn't have any broken bones or anything, so I just had to maintain my physical fitness while being careful.”

In 2018, Wilson took a spill the morning before the meet started at Woodbine that resulted in the worst injuries of her career. She broke her humerus (upper arm) all the way through and required surgery with a 5 1/2-inch metal plate and nearly a dozen screws to put it back together.

“I wasn't expecting the challenges that came along with it,” Wilson admitted. “I was thinking it would take about six to eight weeks for the bone to heal, which was accurate, but then I remember trying to take my arm out of the sling and straighten it and I just couldn't.

“It was immobilized from the moment I hit the ground until a few weeks after surgery. After a trauma like that and then it gets seized up, it was disconcerting that my arm wasn't working the way I wanted it to. I wasn't prepared for the rehab; the muscle atrophy and loss of range of motion were just shocking.”

Four months after the injury Wilson was able to get back in the saddle, and she wound up winning 48 races at Woodbine in 2018.

Last year, her injury occurred on Sept. 8 in an afternoon spill. She fractured her left clavicle and three bones in her right hand, also requiring a surgical repair.

“The severity of those wasn't nearly as bad, but they're still injuries,” Wilson said. “I've learned over the years that I'm a professional athlete, and part of my job is knowing how to rehab. Most importantly, the rest days are just as important as the working ones.

“When I was a kid I was just, 'Go go go!', but you come to appreciate the days of healing. I made healing my job, and it was essentially eight weeks to the day that I was back in the saddle, so that was reassuring.

“I really have a great team behind me. My wife (equine chiropractor Laura Trotter) is just phenomenally supportive, and my personal trainer Matt Munro is a physiotherapist as well. When you have such a passion and a love for the sport like I do, it makes it easy to work harder and be ready to go as soon as you return.”

Wilson showed she was definitely ready to return, capping her 2019 season with 59 wins to finish sixth in the standings last year.

The jockey used to travel south in the winters to work the Fair Grounds meet, but that changed when she and Trotter started a family. Now, Wilson prefers to stay home with her 3-year-old twin daughters, Avery and Grace. She'll still fly to Florida a couple times a month as the weather starts to warm up, staying for the weekend to breeze a few horses for regular clients, then returning home to her family.

Until this spring, of course. The coronavirus pandemic put the entire Woodbine meet in jeopardy, so like the rest of her fellow jockeys based at the Ontario track, Wilson was grateful to be riding when the season started in June, about six weeks later than usual.

The hard-working 39-year-old has since turned the abbreviated meet into a successful one, making it one of her best years in the saddle yet. Wilson says she's far from finished, though.

“This game's been good to me, and I enjoy it every single day, every single leg up,” Wilson said. “I think I'll keep riding for as long as I'm healthy and happy. When you're winning races for great connections it's easy to have a love for the sport, and being in the winner's circle always helps you pull out of tough times, so there's no better reason to keep going.”

The post Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: Wilson Making The Most Of ‘Bizarre’ Year appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

More Than Ready Gelding Has Last ‘Word’ in Northern Dancer

Say the Word uncorked a last-to-first rally in Sunday’s GI Northern Dancer S. at Woodbine to post a mild upset. The dark bay dropped out the back under Emma-Jayne Wilson as favorite Admiralty Pier did as he pleased up front. He was ridden for more to inch slightly closer heading for the home as stablemate and fellow Sam-Son representative Count Again (Awesome Again) took the first run at the pacesetter. Admiralty Pier and Count Again continued to trade jabs to midstretch, but neither had any response for Say the Word as he blew to the front over the top with Sir Sahib (Fort Larned) mirroring that move to complete the exacta.

“It was perfect actually,” Wilson said of her trip. “The first time I rode him, [trainer Gail Cox] let me know that Junior Alvarado from Saratoga had said that he was funny with his mouth, he could be a little sensitive and to trip him [out] in a certain sort of way. Last time, we got the on -hole going a mile and a quarter, and I just got shuffled back. It took me a bit to just kind of get on the same page with him last time, being as sensitive as he was. I mean, he ran well, he ran third, but he was coming on end.

“So today, I was more confident with him, more ground and I knew where the line was with him for my hands and give and take. He settled for me beautifully; I literally just held the mane for pretty much the first mile and a quarter. Then as I gathered him up, I knew…I just knew. He was gaining on them last time and I just knew when he straightened, he was already in flight and it was going to be tough to beat him.”

Say the Word upended a 1 3/16-mile Saratoga optional claimer Aug. 14 at 51-1 while being offered up for the $62,500 tag. He was most recently third behind Count Again and Sir Sahib in the 10-panel GIII Singspiel S. here Sept. 19. His lone 1 1/2-mile outing came when second in the 2018 Breeders’ S. here while under the tutelage of Graham Motion. Say the Word made two starts for Gail Cox last fall, including a fourth in the GIII Durham Cup on this main track. He was then off the board in a trio of tries for Neil Howard at Fair Grounds, and returned to the Cox barn to be sixth in a local optional claimer June 20.

“I think this horse kind of likes to know the people that he’s with, so he’s not one that’s easy to shift around all the time,” Cox said. “He also loves this turf course and he loved the distance. Last year, he was sent to me and we ran him on the Tapeta, and it was not to his liking.”

The Samuel family’s Sam-Son Farm upped its record win tally in the Northern Dancer to eight Sunday.

Sunday, Woodbine
NORTHERN DANCER TURF S. PRESENTED BY PATTISON-GI, C$340,200, Woodbine, 10-18, 3yo/up, 1 1/2mT, 2:29.87, gd.
1–SAY THE WORD, 121, g, 5, by More Than Ready
                1st Dam: Danceforthecause, by Giant’s Causeway
                2nd Dam: Dancethruthestorm, by Thunder Gulch
                3rd Dam: Dance Smartly, by Danzig
1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN, 1ST GRADE I
WIN. O/B-Sam-Son Farm (ON); T-Gail Cox; J-Emma-Jayne
Wilson. C$216,000. Lifetime Record: 25-5-2-4, $445,292. *1/2
to Rideforthecause (Candy Ride {Arg}), GSW, $291,226. Werk
Nick Rating: B+. Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Sir Sahib, 121, g, 5, Fort Larned–Xs Belle, by Dynaformer.
O-Stronach Stables; B-Adena Springs (KY); T-Kevin Attard.
C$60,000.
3–Admiralty Pier, 123, g, 5, English Channel–Full Steam Ahead,
by Kitten’s Joy. ($100,000 Ylg ’16 FTSAUG). O-Hoolie Racing
Stable, LLC & Bruce Lunsford; B-Calumet Farm (KY); T-Barbara
Minshall. C$30,000.
Margins: 1, 1 1/4, HD. Odds: 5.80, 5.70, 2.15.
Also Ran: Count Again, Woodbridge, Nakamura, Jungle Fighter, Peace of Ekati. Click for the Equibase.com chart, the TJCIS.com PPs or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.

Pedigree Notes:

Say the Word is the 25th highest-level winner (92nd graded/group winner) for international sensation More Than Ready) and is out of a Giant’s Causeway mare like MGISW Verrazano. He is one of 26 Grade I/Group 1 winners out of Giant’s Causeway dams. Say the Word’s third dam is none other than legendary Hall of Famer Dance Smartly. This is the extremely productive female family of Smart Strike, Dancethrudawn, et al. Danceforthecause, whose 4-year-old son Rideforthecause was fourth in the GI E.P. Taylor S. two races later on the card, produced a Distorted Humor fily in 2019 and a Street Sense filly this term. She was bred back to Twirling Candy.

The post More Than Ready Gelding Has Last ‘Word’ in Northern Dancer appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights