by Greg Gangle, WEG media

Toronto, ON — The Woodbine meet came to an end on Monday (May 16) with driver Jody Jamieson and trainer Jeff Gillis finishing atop the leaderboard.

Jamieson put up very impressive records over the winter, with top numbers in every category. The Moffat, Ontario, resident captured 136 wins out of 588 starts, which is 53 wins more than closest competitor, Randy Waples. Jamieson’s purse earnings were in excess of C$2.2 million with a UDR of .370.

Last year, it was Waples who took the leading driver honors for the winter meet, however, the roles have now been reversed.

“I think this year is a bounce back season from last year,” Jamieson commented. “Last season I took a lot of time off and was able to get back to second place overall in the standings.”

This year was a different story, as a focused Jamieson was on top of his game right from the beginning of the meet.

“This year, I wanted to make my mark right away. Everyone wants to be the leading driver and right now I am, so I’m going to do my best to keep it that way,” he said.

The combination between Jamieson and Gillis has proven to be very successful and Jamieson gives credit to the accomplished trainer.

“His horses always seem ready to go. He’s a very smart trainer and a top horseman,” Jamieson said. “He has shown consistency with yearlings, successful 2- and 3-year-olds, older horses and claimers, so he’s a great all around horseman. We have a great partnership.”

The statistics show that the Jamieson/Gillis partnership works very well, as Gillis took the top trainer title. Gillis sent out 43 winners this winter collecting C$1,103,735 in purses, which surpassed his nearest competitor, Richard Moreau by over C$500,000.

“We have had a lot of quality horses come through this barn and have performed very well,” said Gillis. “There have been some horses that have shipped here from the U.S. for stakes events, which have raced well for the most part.”

Gillis concludes that adding some new horses to his barn has been partly responsible for some of his success this winter.

“We have had some fresh faces, which always helps,” explained the conditioner. “I’ve claimed a few horses which have done well, and a few horses got claimed off me, so sometimes it’s nice to have a nice turn-around of horses.”

Next up is the 98-day meet at Mohawk Racetrack, which begins this Thursday (May 19) and will conclude October 1.