Prominent standardbred horseman Rod Hughes made his first start in thoroughbred racing a winning one on Friday at Woodbine Racetrack.
Hughes' Strike Oil and jockey Todd Kabel pulled off a 10-1 upset in Woodbine's 10th race, holding off favourite Typical Daydream and Emma-Jayne Wilson in a photo finish. The $24,000 race for $9,500 claimers was contested over a distance of 1-1/16 miles.
The Dunsford, Ont. horseman, well known for campaigning the multiple O'Brien Award winning trotter San Pail, purchased his first thoroughbred racehorse a couple of weeks ago and began working with trainer Emily Walker.
"We purchased him off some friends we have; they just weren't having a lot of luck with him," Hughes told Trot Insider. "So we purchased him and changed the trainer and just combined a few ideas I had and a few ideas she had.
"The changes we made seemed to have worked out. We raced him at a different distance and just got a little more conditioning in him."
Hughes admittedly has no background in thoroughbred racing, but took an interest after seeing potential in the equine athlete.
"Other than the big races, I don't follow thoroughbreds," said Hughes. "I just took a little interest here in the last couple of weeks and thought we'd try our hand at it and found a trainer that would work with us. She did such a great job in the short time that she had with him."
Hughes noted that he will always race standardbreds, but could see himself training a few thoroughbreds as well.
"We'd like to pursue it," he said. "I'm leaning towards getting my trainers license and maybe dabble a little bit in it and see where it leads. We bought this horse and we're just getting a feel for it and learning a little more about the business because it's quite a bit different than what we do."