GP OAKS AND GP DERBY WINNERS IN A BREEZE

With all the fancy hats and amazing brunch the actual horse racing can sometimes get lost in the excitement of Derby Day at The Horses At Evergreen Park.

On Sunday the Grande Prairie Oaks and Grande Prairie Derby were the two featured races.

Both were won in relatively easy fashion.

First up was the Oaks, where five horses started racing over a mile.

The appropriately-named Northern Missile (in yellow in photo) really was.

 She won by almost eight lengths winning ahead of runner-up She’s A Cool Cat and third place finisher Flashing Joker.

 Ridden by Juan Apango took most of the purse money. A total of $14,575 of the $27,500 available. The horse is owned by Charlie Weaselhead, Warner Many Bears and Max Gibb. Travis Robson is the trainer.

In the Derby six horses left the starting gate chasing a purse of $28,000 over a 1 1/16 of a mile.

Crossing the finish line first was Altitude finishing handily ahead of Flashin Aces and Yes No Maybe So.

Both the Oaks and Derby were for three-year olds. The Oaks was for fillies.

Keishan Balgobin was in the saddle helping owner Robert Cameron and trainer Dean Camrose add $14,840 to their winnings.

A Sprint Series race was also held on Sunday with Bourbon Bandit (ridden by Orlando Foster, trained by Travis Robson and owned by the group of Charlie and Darcy Weaselhead and Terri-Lynne, Tony and Derrick Fox) finishing ahead of El Dorado and Bernalinho.

Sunday’s races marked the half-way point of the season at Evergreen Park. It continues weekend until August 27 with the finale being the Mr. Mike’s Paint The Park Purple – Race For The Cure and the Dino Derby. Post time each Saturday and Sunday is 1:15 p.m.