My First Woodbine Win with Darwin Banach

Darwin Banach is a multiple graded stakes-winning trainer who launched his career in 1998. Banach has recorded over 350 wins, including 18 stakes scores. In 2007, Banach won the Grade 1 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic Stakes at Churchill Downs with Sky Conqueror.  Other notable horses that Banach has trained include Executive Flight, Classic Stamp, winner of the 2005 Canadian Stakes, and O’Kratos, winner of the 2018 Marine Stakes.

Banach had his first start and win all wrapped into one on September 12, 1998, with Uncle Woger. Uncle Woger was owned and claimed by Darwin’s father, Walter M. Banach, and Steven Bahen was the jockey. Uncle Woger won the race by 7 ½ lengths.

What first comes to mind about your first win at Woodbine?

“Because it came so easily, it was my first start and first win, I thought it was going to always be that easy, and it certainly isn’t.”

What do you remember about the race itself and how you felt as it unfolded?

“We claimed the horse from Reade Baker, and we moved him up considerably for his next start. He won really easily; it was by quite an amount of distance. It seemed like all you had to do was do your work, and it was going to be easy, and it certainly didn’t turn out that way.  I remember doing everything that I learned from (multiple graded stakes-winning trainer) Phil England, and everything just fell into place with him.”

What do you remember about the horse you won with?

“He was just a really cool horse. He would jump in and out of the ice tub on his own and jump back in the ice tub and out. It was a knee-high tub; it wasn’t a little tub. I can remember him the first time he jumped out, I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I hope he didn’t hurt himself.’ And then he just went to the washroom, looked at the ice tub, and jumped back in. I couldn’t believe it happened.  He was just a really, really cool horse. He was quirky, for sure. He was so fast. He went on to win a stakes race (Kennedy Road) and had a track record after that (April 4, 1999, 5 ½ furlongs on the Woodbine dirt). He was a pretty amazing horse.”

What impact did that win have on your career?

“It was definitely the start of it all. If we didn’t have success with that horse, we would have had no money. We made maybe $40-$50,000 with the horse before we lost him. And that got my career started. All that money was reinvested back into other horses. I was very lucky that it was my first horse I claimed, my first start, and my first win. It was a lot of firsts all wrapped up into one. It all seemed pretty easy after that, but it never turned out that way.”

Sophie Charalambous, for Woodbine