Over the course of the winter months, many conditioners seize the opportunity and get their top charges in training into Woodbine Racetrack's lucrative
Open events. Travis Umphrey is one of those conditioners, and APs Moneymaker is one of those charges. Although, after a scary stall incident, the 40-year-old horseman is thankful his mare is not seriously injured.
From late November 2009 and into the month of December, Umphrey had the talented five-year-old mare racing at Edmonton's Northlands Park, where she won three of her four starts and over $40,000 in purses. After moving back to Ontario, APs Moneymaker went on to win her second start back at Woodbine January 15. She followed that effort up with a solid, one-length score at Woodbine's Open level on January 22. She tripped the final timer that night in 1:51.1 off a final quarter of :26.2 for driver Rick Zeron.
Just as it looked like the mare might be able to put a streak together at Woodbine's top weekly class, Umphrey was given quite a shock the morning of her next scheduled race day.
"After her last win, we came in the next Friday -- she was in to go that night," Umphrey told WEG's Greg Blanchard last night during the Race Night on The Score telecast. "I came in to feed her in the morning and her stall was just red with blood. She had kicked through a window in her stall in the night. Luckily there was no tendon damage and we just had to stitch it up."
In hindsight, Umphrey explained that APs Moneymaker and his stable dodged a big bullet.
"She's back on the track and we're aiming to qualify her a week [after] this Thursday," he said. "It could've been a lot worse."