With any luck, a world famous jockey will be riding a horse partly owned by a couple of New Westminster residents.
Wilo Kat will be running at Hastings Park on B.C. Day. Trained by John Snow and owned by a group of investors that includes Wayne Oliver, Blair Law, Rob Fiorvento and the Cowboys 'n Indians stable, the horse is normally ridden by Enrique Alonzo Gonzalez.
But on Monday, Kentucky Derby and Preakness winning jockey Mario Gutierrez may be riding the 2009 chestnut gelding.
Cowboys 'n Indians is a syndicate consisting of Jeevin Basran, his nephew Ryan, and their friend Gord Christoff.
"Gord's the cowboy and we're the Indians," said Jeevin, whose family has been involved in horse racing for three decades.
The syndicate started three years ago and they had good initial success when Zimba, a horse they bought in Langley, won on Canada Day 2011 at Hastings Park.
From that success, the syndicate purchased Wilo Kat for $10,000 and started racing him this spring. Wilo Kat won on May 12, May 26 and June 17 and placed fourth on July 2.
At that July 2 race, Gutierrez was back at Hastings Park to thank the track for helping him on his way to worldwide horse racing fame and according to Jeevin, Gutierrez's agent was impressed enough with Wilo Kat to contact its owners.
"His agent called us," said Jeevin, "I guess he was paying attention. ... It's 95 per cent that Mario will be riding (Wilo Kat) on Monday, but I'll find out on Friday."
If all goes well for Cowboys 'n Indians, then Monday will be a day to remember.
"It's pretty incredible how far this horse has come already," said Jeevin. "We've been very lucky."
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