HELLO THERE! Terra Farms welcomed this little one recently, a flashy GIANT GIZMO out of Classy Katherine who is a half sister to Big Red Mike. Thanks to Mike himself for the great images!
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** On the grass at Gulfstream Park today despite steady rain all week…some races off the grass at Tampa Bay Downs for its big stakes day!
ASSERTING BEAR AT TAMPA
by Don Jensen, Tomes Correspondent
OLDSMAR — Welcome to U.S. soil, Asserting Bear. It is time for a new challenge, a new surface and to be assertive.
The stakes-winning Canadian-bred colt can take his connections to new places, beginning with today’s Grade III $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
The Sam F. Davis (Race 9, 4:25 p.m.), a 1 1/16-mile race for 3-year-olds, is the showcase on a Festival Preview Day card that includes the $100,000 Suncoast Stakes (8, 3:55) and Grade III $150,000 Tampa Bay Stakes (10, 4:55).
The Downs is offering a $1 million bonus to the Davis-winning owner if the horse can capture the Tampa Bay Derby on March 8 and the Kentucky Derby on May 3. One fan who selects the Davis winner also will be eligible from a random drawing for a $100,000 prize if the horse wins all three races. The Davis Stakes was dropped this year by Churchill Downs as a Kentucky Derby points qualifier.
Those were nonfactors to Canadian-based trainer Reade Baker, 66, who hopes his Asserting Bear (post 6) will be golden in his first start of the year with jockey Joe Rocco Jr. “I want (Asserting Bear) to have a run over the track for the Tampa Bay Derby,” Baker said. “We might as well find out whether the (Kentucky) Derby is a realistic thing at this point.”
http://www.tampabay.com/sports/horseracing/asserting-bear-headlines-sam-f-davis-stakes/2163551
SAM F. DAVIS STAKES A STARTING POINT FOR DERBY DREAMS
When trainer Wesley Ward says “We have big dreams” for Noble Cornerstone, no elaboration is needed.
The New York-homebred is one of eight 3-year-old colts and geldings entered in Saturday’s Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes, scheduled for a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the main dirt track. And like his Davis rivals, Noble Cornerstone has a chance to start proving himself worthy of being mentioned as a contender for this year’s spring classics, starting with the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands on May 3 at Churchill Downs.
The Davis, one of three stakes worth a combined $500,000 on the 12-race Festival Preview Day card, is the ninth race, with an approximate 4:25 p.m. post time. The mile-and-40-yard Suncoast Stakes for 3-year-old fillies is the eighth race, with the Grade III, $150,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Stakes for older horses at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf course slated as the 10th race.
The Davis is the first leg of the Tampa Bay Downs Million Dollar Derby Bonus, with the owner(s) of the winner earning an additional $1-million if the horse goes on to win the Grade II, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby on March 8 and the Kentucky Derby. The winning jockey will draw the name of a fan who has picked the Davis winner to become eligible for the $100,000 Lambholm South Fan Bonus payday on May 3.
At odds of 7-2, the My Meadowview Farm-bred and owned Noble Cornerstone is the second morning-line choice in a race that appears wide-open. After breaking his maiden by more than five lengths in a six-furlong sprint at Aqueduct in November, Noble Cornerstone finished a fast-closing second to Louies Flower in the 1-mile Remington Springboard Mile Stakes in Oklahoma.
Ward, the son of Tampa Bay Downs trainer Dennis Ward, has named Hall of Fame jockey Kent Desormeaux to ride Noble Cornerstone.
“He’s a big, rangy horse I took my time with, and I’m fortunate enough to have an owner (My Meadowview Farm’s Leonard Riggio) who let me do so,” Ward said. “We’re hoping those (Derby) dreams come to fruition, but we’re taking one step at a time with him. He has done everything we’ve asked and is training super, and I think he’s a horse who will want all of the (Davis) distance and even more.”
Ward said he plans to remove the blinkers from Noble Cornerstone for the Davis. “We’re looking to get him to settle and come with a big run the last part of the race,” Ward said.
Among Noble Cornerstone’s challengers are two colts trained by Todd Pletcher, Let’s Go Stable’s Harpoon and WinStar Farm LLC and Twin Creeks Racing Stables, LLC’s Vinceremos. Harpoon is the more accomplished of the two, breaking his maiden by five-and-a-half lengths at Gulfstream on Dec. 26 at a mile after three consecutive runner-up efforts, including one last October at Belmont to recent Grade II Holy Bull Stakes winner Cairo Prince.
“These are horses that are improving and have the right kind of makeup to compete in a race like this,” said Pletcher, honored earlier this month with a record sixth Eclipse Award as North America’s Outstanding Trainer. “Like all 3-year-olds, they have to keep improving to move forward.
“I’m very pleased with both of them, especially Harpoon, when you consider he was second to a horse that is probably the early (Kentucky) Derby favorite and to win the way he did last time.”
Luis Saez will be back aboard Harpoon after winning on him last time, while Edgar Prado has the return assignment on Vinceremos.
Pletcher has sent out four Sam F. Davis Stakes winners since 2006, all of which went on to even further success. His 2006 Davis winner, Bluegrass Cat, finished second in the (then)-Grade III Tampa Bay Derby, the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont and the Travers, and won the Grade I Haskell at Monmouth. The following year, his Any Given Saturday followed his Davis score with a second to eventual Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense in the Tampa Bay Derby and victories in the Grade II Dwyer, the Haskell and the Grade II Brooklyn.
Rule and Brethren won the Davis for Pletcher in 2010 and 2011, after it achieved Grade III status. Rule won two more stakes, including the Grade II Monmouth Cup as a 5-year-old. Brethren managed to add the Evangeline Mile Handicap as a 5-year-old last summer.
The 3-1 morning-line favorite for the Davis is Klaravich Stables, Inc., and W.H. Lawrence’s colt Cousin Stephen, who is trained by Chad Brown and will be ridden by Daniel Centeno. After breaking his maiden going a mile-and-an-eighth at Aqueduct in November by seven-and-a-half lengths, Cousin Stephen faded to fifth in a talent-laden first-level allowance at Gulfstream Jan. 3. A post-race examination showed significant mucus in his airway, but Brown is confident that won’t be a factor in the Davis.
“It’s been cleaned up and hopefully he will move forward off that effort,” Brown said. “I do think this race is a good fit for him. He has already won impressively going nine furlongs, so I don’t think he’ll have a problem as the distance gets longer. It does seem like most of these horses are trying to get to the next level, and I’m hoping (Cousin Stephen) will take to the track and get a good trip.”
The other Davis entrants are stakes winner Asserting Bear, trained by Reade Baker and to be ridden by Joseph Rocco, Jr.; Matador, trained by Mark Casse, Julien Leparoux aboard; supplemental entry School On a Hill, trained by Wayne Catalano, leading Tampa Bay Downs jockey Ronnie Allen, Jr., in the irons; and Imaginethatmom, trained by Michael Yates, with Abdiel Jaen riding.
THE YEAR OF THE HORSE!
GENE KERSCHNER: HORSE RACING ON EVERYONE’S RADAR
On the first Saturday of February, 91 days away from the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby, thoroughbred racing’s marquee event, lights are shining brighter on the sport. Camera lights, that is. Horse racing is starting to gain some momentum and much-needed exposure starting with a new racing series on FOX Sports, a new reality television series and the anticipated release of the Mine That Bird movie.
With declining handle, track closings and negative articles regarding drugs in the sport over the past few years, a needed boost of enthusiasm and increased televised racing is just what the doctor ordered. Operating as a sport that has declined in popularity, industry leadership has been injecting marketing dollars in an attempt to return the sport into the nation’s visibility
NEXT SATURDAY!
RIVER SEVEN Looking to Take ‘Charge’ in $500,000 Donn Handicap
When River Seven surged past Csaba in the Gulfstream Park stretch to post a going-away four length victory in the $100,000 Harlan’s Holiday, it was an eye-opening, perhaps career-changing, performance.
Already acknowledged as a graded-stakes quality turf runner, a reputation punctuated by a triumph in the Commonwealth Turf (G3) at Churchill Downs in his previous outing, River Seven ran the race of his career, at least by speed-figure standards, on Gulfstream’s main track while dominating the defending Harlan’s Holiday champion.
The 4-year-old son of Johannesburg, who finished second in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie in his only previous start on dirt, impressed his trainer Nick Gonzalez so much that his primary target for his Ontario-bred gelding became the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream on Feb. 9.
River Seven, who was also nominated for the $300,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (G1) on Feb. 9, is being pointed for a clash with Will Take Charge, the 2013 Eclipse Award-winning Will Take Charge, in the 1 1/8-mile Donn.
“If you think you’re a good horse and you want to be one of the best horses around, those are the kind of horses you have to run against, if you think you’re good enough. I think he is. We’ll have to wait until Feb. 9 to find out,” Gonzalez said. “Whoever shows up isn’t going to change our plans. This has been in our plans since he won the Harlan’s Holiday. A lot of people make a big deal about who’s coming, but you have to pay attention to your horse and get him right. That’s what you have to worry about, not someone else’s horse.”
Plans to breeze River Seven Thursday morning were scrapped due to the sloppy track condition.
“We were going to breeze him this morning, but obviously we cancelled it. We probably won’t get to it tomorrow the way it looks, so we’ll get to it probably Saturday,” said Gonzalez, whose 4-year-old gelding is likely to breeze five furlongs. “I probably would have like to do it a few days out from a week to eight days before the race, but it’s not really a problem. It’s not like he has to go out there and do something special. He’s a fit horse. He just needs a little tuner-upper.”
River Seven, who’ll be ridden again by Joe Rocco Jr., has pleased his trainer with his training since the Harlan’s Holiday.
“I’m not saying he’s better, but he definitely is doing just as good,” Gonzalez said. “He’s a hearty, robust horse, a good feeling horse, very, very easy horse to train.”
