Hoss Talk

   Linda and Red Smith's running equine machine, Fancy As may have cost his owners only $3,200, but judging by his impressive victory in Saturday's $200,000 B.C. Derby, he could turn out to be one of the best buys in Canadian racing.
   
   His background story someday will become folklore. Fancy As was purchased as an afterthought by the Smiths when they were outbid on the sale topper at the 1999 Winnipeg Yearling Sales.

   Rather then go home with an empty van, the Smiths decided to stay a little longer and see if they could purchase a horse to take back to Edmonton.
   
   "By this time, we weren't looking for a stake horse, all we were looking for was a horse," said Red Smith.
   
   What they got was perhaps one of the nicest horses seen in both in Edmonton and B.C. in years.
   
   In Edmonton he was unbeaten in nine starts. Fancy As's record shows an amazing 11 wins from 13 starts going onto Saturday's B.C. Derby.
   
   On Thursday he arrived by van at Hastings Park.
   
   "All I did was galloped him over the Hastings Park racing surface on Friday, that's it." said Smith. "I've trained horses for over 40 years, and have to say it would be hard to find a horse with an attitude as professional as Fancy As. I was never as confident of a horse running so well as I was today."
   
   In the paddock, prior to the B.C. Derby, several horseman including Ontario-based trainer Dave Cotey, were impressed by the looks of Smith's bargain buy.
   
   "Three horses struck my eye, but without a doubt, Smith's horse looked the part of runner," said Cotey.
   
   And that's just what Fancy As showed in the race. Settling back into the middle of the pack, his jockey Richard Hamel saved ground until the backstretch where he angled Fancy As out four wide.
   
   Approaching the final turn, Hamel asked the horse for one last kick. When they reached the finish line they were 31/2 in front of local favourite I'm Free.
   
   Fancy As's B.C. Derby $120,000 victory brought the horse's winnings $488,720.
   
   Once again horseracing proves that you need not be a millionaire to someday see your dreams come true.
   
   FANTASY WINNER
   
   In the co-feature, R. and D. Jacobson's Shelby Madison was a convincing winner of the $40,000 Fantasy Stakes, opening up an early lead with jockey Frank Fuentes up, drew away to win by 31/4 lengths, worth $26,064.
   
   STANDARD BEARER
   
   Derby day was for the thoroughbreds, but former standardbred race horse Yankaway, who now goes by Sabre, was among three Vancouver Police Department horses leading the parade to the post. "Sabre has been with us for eleven years," said constable Mike Kuncewicz. "He works great at crowd control, especially on police patrol and   special events such as the Festival of Lights. He is what we call an all around honest blue-collar police horse."

Source: Vancouver Province
E-mail Tommy Wolski at twolski@home.com