The busy two-time World Driving Champion and O’Brien Award winner returns to the Big M on Saturday night, principally to compete in the TVG Free For All Championship and eliminations for the Arthur J. Cutler Memorial.
Once again,
Jamieson, one of the leading drivers on the Woodbine-Mohawk circuit, will
venture south of the border to team up with trainer Jeff Gillis, who sends out
defending Cutler champion Mister Herbie. The five-year-old Ontario bred
by Here Comes Herbie was voted Canada’s top older trotter in 2012, winning six
of 12 starts and $956,343. He posted a gutsy 1:51.3 score in last year’s
Cutler Final, and his 1:50.4 triumph in the Maple Leaf Trot at Mohawk was the
fastest mile ever trotted in Canada.
Mister
Herbie begins his season with $1,282,238 earned for Gillis of Hillsburgh,
Ontario, Mac Nichol of Burlington, Ontario and Gerald Stay of Buffalo,
NY. Gillis, Canada’s Trainer of the Year in 2011, decided to turn down a
recent invitation to the Elitlopp because similar to last year the gelding
developed a foot problem [rear quarter crack]. Mister Herbie has post
three in the second $40,000 division [race eight].
“I don’t see
any reason why we can’t win this thing again this year,” said Jamieson.
“He’s had a foot issue again, but it’s as close to being perfect as we’re going
to it right now. I believe he’s tight enough. His latest qualifier
at Woodbine the other day [in 1:54.4] was strong. He’s the type of horse
who has the will to win. He has a great chance to repeat.
“Last year,
if you put everything together, you’ve got Tim Tetrick with Winning Mister, I
got bumped around the first turn, was three wide, then we were first
over. Winning Mister had everything his own way, and Mister Herbie just
beat him with a relentless rally.”
Jamieson and
Gillis also have Knows Nothing in the first elimination [post three, race
two]. The four-year-old son of Kadabra finished fifth in the 2012
Hambletonian after winning his elimination in 1:53.1. He banked $616,755
in his first season of racing for Ontario owners Gillis, Al Libfeld, Marvin
Katz, Mac Nichol and Gerald Stay of Buffalo, NY.
“I haven’t
drove Knows Nothing this year, and I think the idea was to use a different
driver because he could be in a lot of races with Mister Herbie,” noted
Jamieson. “I talked to Scott Zeron who drove him in his first start
back. He didn’t get much of a chance. He trotted in 1:54.4 and
didn’t pop the earplugs. He’s got a shot to make the final and be a
player. He’s got some back class. He had a great year in
2012. He’s kind of like a three-year-old coming into his four-year-old
season because he didn’t race at two. The top four-year-olds won’t get
too far away from him.”
Aquarius
Final runner-up Warrawee Needy returns to the Big M for the first leg of the
TVG Free For All Championship. Trained and leased by Jody’s father, Carl
Jamieson, the son of E Dee’s Cam has post six in the first of two $50,000
divisions [race six]. The winner of $924,568 ships back to New Jersey
fresh off three straight wins on Lasix in the Preferred class at
Woodbine. His latest tally on May 4 was a career best of 1:48.3.
“Warrawee
Needy never had an issue with sitting and coming from off the pace,” said
Jamieson. “When he set that fast pace in the Aquarius [on March 9] it was
just his second start of the year and he got a little wound up. He was so
good last week and he obviously loves Woodbine. I know he’s a
four-year-old, but I think he’s going to have a huge year. If you can
fire out in :25.2, then come home in :25.4 that spells success anywhere you
go.”
This past
week Jamieson accepted an overseas assignment to drive Canadian invitee Take My
Picture in Sweden’s Elitlopp on May 26.
“I drove at
Solvalla when I won the World Driving Championship back in 2001,” Jamieson
recalled. “I had no luck at all there, but had a little experience with
the track. The Elitlopp is one of the greatest races in the world, and
the allure to me is their great crowd. I raced Take My Picture at
Flamboro Downs and everybody I talk to thinks he has a serious shot because of
his style. He can grind it out.”
Jody’s
father, Carl Jamieson, is a 2013 Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame
inductee. The pair scored an emotional victory in the 2011 North America
Cup with Up The Credit.
“It’s an
absolutely amazing accomplishment,” exclaimed Jamieson. “I kind of forgot
he was on the ballot. He was on it the year before and didn’t get
in. It’s a testament to all his hard work. He moved us [the family]
to Flamboro Downs on Boxing Day, I think it was 1986. He just never
stopped working. He built a farm in Hagersville and turned over so many
good horses. He’s a self made man.”
