Dominion Day Stakes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dominion Day Stakes is run at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada every year in July. A Grade III event, it's open to three-year-olds and up, and raced at a distance of one and a quarter mile on the dirt. (2006 was the last year it took place on dirt. Woodbine installed polytrack just after this race was run.)

Formerly known as Dominion Day, Canada's version of America's Fourth of July or Independence Day, is Canada Day, celebrated on the 1st of July. Each year Woodbine commemorates the Canadian Confederation with the Dominion Day Stakes which offers a purse of $200,000.

Ace Marine, one of Canada's greatest runners, and its 1955 Horse of the Year, won this race in 1956. In 1972, Canada's 1973 Horse of the Year, Kennedy Road, took the Dominion. The Canadian Champion Three-Year-Old colt of 1972, Nice Dancer, won it in 1973. The 1980 Canadian Horse of the Year as well as the 1980 Champion Older Female in Canada & the USA, plus the 1981 Champion Older Female in Canada, Glorious Song, won it twice—in 1980 & 1981. In 1984, the 1984 Canadian Champion Three-Year-Old colt, Key to the Moon, won the Dominion, and in 1990, Charlie Barley (by the Triple Crown winner Affirmed) who was the 1989 Champion Grass horse in Canada, came home the winner. 1996 Canadian Horse of the Year, Mt. Sassafras has also won the Dominion Day Stakes twice: 1996 & 1997. (exact dates ?)

[edit] Winners

Winners of the Dominion are:

2006 - Funny Cide (US), (Richard Migliore)
2005 - A Bit O'Gold (Canada's Horse of the Year for 2005), (Jono C. Jones)
2004 - Mobil (Todd Kabel)
2003 - Phantom Light (Champion Canadian Older Male for 2003) (Todd Kabel)
2002 - Bonus Pack (Jesus Castanon)
2001 - A Fleet's Dancer (Champion Canadian Older Male for 2001) (Richard Dos Ramos)
2000 -
1999 -
1998 - Stephanotis