While the emphasis was on the thoroughbreds today during the draw for Sunday's $1 million Woodbine Mile at Woodbine Racetrack, Toronto Raptors head coach
and Mile drawmaster Jay Triano revealed that his racing background is on the harness side.
Triano recounted to the media and participants for Sunday's win-and-you're in Breeders Cup qualifier on the E.P. Taylor turf course that when he was a kid his father used to take him to the local track in St. Catherines, former harness racing hotbed Garden City Raceway.
"When my dad used to take me to the track when I was a kid, I'd wait for the inquiry sign to go up and scoop up as many tickets as I could," said Triano, who is going into his first full year as the Raptors' bench boss.
"One other time we went to the track after I was just fired from a job picking cherries. I ate too many," continued Triano, the first Canadian-born head coach in NBA history. "When we went to the track next, there was a horse in named Cherry Picker. We played her as a hunch bet and she won."
Cherry Picker retired with 14 wins and a lifetime best of 2:04.1, taken at Garden City.
Sunday's Woodbine Mile is part of a huge weekend of racing for Woodbine Entertainment, with the $1 million Canadian Trotting Classic at Mohawk on Saturday night, followed by the $515,000 William Wellwood Memorial for two-year-old open trotters and the $475,000 Peaceful Way Stakes for two-year-old trotting fillies on Sunday evening.