Canada Day, which falls annually on July 1, is a special day up north. But for ardent Hastings Racecourse observers, this Canada Day will feel a lot like June 7.
As will be the case on July 1, Hastings played host to two stakes, the Emerald Downs and the George Royal, on June 7. While the July 1 handicaps, the Monashee and Lieutenant Governor’s will be contested at 1 1/16 miles, the June 7 contests were run at 6 1/2 furlongs.
Race 4 on Tuesday, the $50,000 Monashee, features five fillies and mares, all but one of whom competed in the Emerald Downs. Race 5 on Tuesday, the Lieutenant Governor’s, features five older geldings who finished first through fifth in the June 7 George Royal.
That’s 10 horses, two races, and a serious lack of new faces.
The lone newcomer is the Mark Cloutier trainee Annika’s Song, an improving 4-year-old filly who will offer serious value if she goes off near her morning-line odds of 8-1. While she’s stepping up in class and has never gone longer than 6 1/2 furlongs, she’s won two of three local starts this year and has gone faster each time, posting a career-best 73 Beyer Speed Figure last out on June 15.
That’s within spitting distance of the best figures by the top three finishers – Air Force, Avana, and Bunny – in the Emerald Downs. In fact, it is better than any of the trio posted in that race, which featured middling fractions – the half went in 47.36 seconds – that can be held partially responsible for the short-priced favorite, Avana, missing the winner’s circle by a neck after furiously reeling in every rival but Air Force in the stretch.
“It was unbelievably slow fractions,” said Avana’s trainer, Barbara Heads. “Going into the first turn, she knew the pace was slow and was a little more aggressive than usual. It cost her and she kind of got shuffled back. She was only one jump from winning it.”
“I just think that one and one-sixteenth [miles], with her running style, it gives her a chance to settle and get her feet under her. The longer race will give her a little bit of a cushion to regroup on her running style.”
Avana, the 6-5 morning-line favorite over 2-1 Air Force, will be ridden by leading jockey Amadeo Perez, as will August Rain, Heads’s entrant in the $50,000 Lieutenant Governor’s. With odds of 9-5, the 4-year-old gelding is the second favorite on the morning line behind 8-year-old Bold Arch, who won the George Royal in front-running fashion by 2 3/4 lengths over Soaringforthesun, who’s priced at 5-1 on Tuesday.
After defeating Bold Arch in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance over a sloppy strip in his 2025 debut on May 17, August Rain failed to fire in the George Royal, finishing a disappointing fifth.
“This last race, he got hit in his behind, so it took the starch out of him,” explained Heads. “He’s quite a small horse, and it really affected him.”
August Rain won four stakes as a 3-year-old, including the Grade 3 British Columbia and Canadian derbies. Three of those scores came at a mile and sixteenth or longer, and Heads thinks her little horse is far better suited to the routing life.
“Definitely, he will be happier with the distance,” said Heads, who then offered her take on how Tuesday’s race might play out. “So much can happen once the gate opens. I don’t interfere with Amadeo’s decisions. He’s ridden this horse so much, so he knows what he’s doing out there.”
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