OVERSEAS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**The British Champions events are being held at ASCOT this morning – very useful to watch and tab as frames of reference for the Euros who have come to Woodbine for this weekend

(Note – read CLOSER LOOKS at Daily Racing Form tomorrow for in-depth comparisons of European horses to get an idea on who they are and how they may perform – CLOSER LOOKS, exclusive to DRF can be found when you download the card for tomorrow or if you buy the paper)

 

This morning, COVERT LOVE finished 4th in the Group 1 Fillies and Mares Champion Stakes, trying to stretch out to 1 1/2 miles. Covert Love  appears in the form of EP TAYLOR FAVOURITE , CURVY

 

TOP WOODBINE BEYER FIGURES OF THE WEEK (Wed./Friday)

FLASHY MARGARITTA – 93 (Wednesday)
MIDNIGHT MILEY 89  (Wednesday)

BOBCAYGEON 84 (Friday)

 

WOODBINE FRIDAY NOTES

Cold and rainy for the day, even some wet snow was spotted. PAUL ATTARD won 2 races on the card with Pipers Journey and Broadway Sensational.

Two-year-olds were the focus of the first PICK 3:

LAURIE SILVERA sent out beginner PRIDDY FAIR to win the first race, from the rail. This is a Saffir filly bred by Hedgestone Management. A $12,000 purchase by Silvera at the CTHS yearling sale, she won for $25,000 claiming with a bold rail charge around the turn and then outside in the stretch under Omar Moreno. She is a half sister to 7 winners.

race 2 – Tom O’Keefe owns and trainer WEEKEND ROSE, an Any Given Saturday filly who won the 2nd race for maiden 2yo fillies, $32,000 at 1 mile and 70 yards. She was up just at the wire under Erika Smilovksy to win her 3rd career race.

race 3- maiden allowance at 1 1/16 miles and it was DAMASCUS ROAD, once a $2,000 yearling purchase, who went gate to wire to win with a 67 Beyer Figure for Bill and Vicki Pston. Mark Casse trains this son of Bellamy Road, bred by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider in Kentucly. Alan Garcia rode. The Todd Pletcher beginner BATTERY broke slowly and was off the slow pace and raced evenly to be 4th.

Damascus Road was bought by the Postons for $42,000 at Keeneland September.

Wonderful and brave geldings DESTINY’S SONG and GENTLEMAN JACKSON won lower level claiming races and worked hard to do so. The former won for the 9th time in his career and his trainer is Carlos Grant, subbing for Norm McKnight. Destiny’s Song was claimed by Mitch Sutherland.

Gentleman Jackson had a hard race but won for the 12th time for $12,500 for trainer Martin Drexler. The gelding drifted in through the stretch and caused trouble for Cat Zapper but he kept the win.

 
STRUT THE COURSE – truly Canadian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can’t get any more Canadian than STRUT THE COURSE, one of the favourites for the E P Taylor Stakes – Grade 1, the wonderful co-feature on International day.

This top mare is from a long line of Canadian horses. Her sire STRUT THE STAGE was a homebred for Sam-Son farms, a graded stakes winner and a feisty little guy. He has been standing at Sam-Son farms until he was recently sold to IRON HORSE EQUINE in Hillsburgh Ontario – http://www.ironhorseequine.com/index.htm

BOLD COURSE is by former Ontario stallion TRAJECTORY and from a Bold ‘n Flashy mare named Bold Courant. Bold Courant is by Bold Ruckus and from Helen Kaspar’s mare Political Dancer.
Just wonderful, Ontario bloodlines.
The E.P. Taylor, for fillies and mares at one mile and one-quarter, has long been a fixture on International day and has been won by some tremendous females, almost all from Europe in the past 20 years, with a few exceptions – like Woodbine-based Fly For Avie in 2000, Arravale in 2006, who also earned Canadian Horse of the Year honours that year and the Roger Attfield-trained Miss Keller in 2011.

But those fillies weren’t Canadian-breds. This year, John Unger’s’ homebred five-year-old Strut the Course, trained by Barb Minshall, will carry the maple leaf in the E.P. Taylor. And she’s the 4-1 second choice in a field of 12. The daughter of Strut the Stage-Bold Course is not only a local campaigner, she’s the sole Canadian-bred in this year’s renewal.

You have to go back to 1976 to find a Canadian-bred winner of the race – Momigi – but that was when it was known as the Nettie. The race officially became the E.P. Taylor in 1981, and along with the name change, came a significant purse increase and grading to attract many top fillies from Europe.

Thus, should she succeed, Strut the Course, the 2014 Sovereign Award winner as Canada’s top older female, would officially become the first Canadian-bred to win the E.P. Taylor. She enters off a fast-closing victory in the Grade 2 Canadian on September 13 at Woodbine, a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re race (for the Filly and Mare Turf at Keeneland on October 31).

“She’s coming up to the race in great shape. I’m very, very happy with her. She’s trained really, really well since her last race,” said Minshall. “We’re looking for some racing luck. She’s in good order. I’m very pleased with the way she’s doing. She drew well (post 6). You don’t want to be hung too wide on that first turn (going a mile and a quarter). (Jockey) Luis (Contreras) really rides her well, he knows her well. (In the Canadian) she was behind horses and looking for a seam all the way down the lane, when she found it, she came flying.

“There’s a lot of European horses (in the E.P. Taylor). That’s their style too. There’s going to be quite a cavalry charge to the wire.

“Absolutely (we thought about the Breeders’ Cup after taking the Canadian). The problem was she isn’t a Breeders’ Cup-nominated horse. I believe it would going to cost $100,000 to supplement her, even though she won the ‘Win and You’re In’. That’s a lot of money. So that basically made the decision a lot easier. She also really likes this turf course. She’s been very successful on it. With all those factors, it was a logical decision (to stay home and run in the E.P.)”

Last year’s Canadian winner, the lightly-raced Deceptive Vision, also decided to pass on the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, then finished a close third in the E.P. Taylor.
Strut the Course has been doing a lot of ‘strutting’ this year in only four starts, winning not only the Canadian but also the Grade 2 Dance Smartly on July 5, when she defeated the well-regarded Watsdachances.

“She’s gotten better and better as she’s gotten older,” continued Minshall. “Ironically, I planned a schedule at the end of last year (for this year) and it’s almost like a dream that’s come true. I can honestly say, every race she’s been in was mapped out. After (her success in) the Ontario-sired races, she was in good order. I felt it was time for her to step up and I thought she could step up to the next level (open company). We had to give it a try.

“I had a good filly years ago named Bold Ruritana (a $1.1 million career money winner who finished fifth in the 1996 E.P. Taylor) and she’s (Strut the Course) every bit as good as her. She’s good on Poly, too, and the distance of a mile and a quarter is not an issue. It’s well within her realm.”

Strut the Course is also far and away the field’s leading money winner with just over $1 million, although she’s the second choice to British-bred Group 2-winning three year-old filly Curvy, the 3-1 favourite, who finished a disappointing fifth in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl at Belmont Park in her North America debut on October 3. The 5-1 third choice is the Graham Motion-trained Eastern Belle, a half-sister to Europe’s current Horse of the Year Golden Horn, winner of the recent Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The E.P. Taylor will go postward at 4:57 p.m. and will be seen live on TSN5 as part of its 4:30 – 6:00 p.m. Pattison Canadian International telecast.

$500,000 Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes
Sunday, October 18
One mile and one-quarter, E.P. Taylor Turf Course

PP/Horse/Jockey/Trainer/Morning Line
1/Yaazy/Antoine Hamelin/10-1
2/Rosalind/Alan Garcia/Chad Brown/20-1
3/Button Down/Joel Rosario/Josie Carroll/20-1
4/Devonshire/Patrick Husbands/Willie McCreery/6-1
5/Lacy/Martin Lane/Waldemar Hickst/20-1
6/Strut the Course/Luis Contreras/Barb Minshall/4-1
7/Nakuti/Andrea Atzeni/Sylvester Kirk/8-1
8/White Rose/Shaun Bridgmohan/Bill Mott/12-1
9/Curvy/Ryan Moore/David Wachman/3-1
10/Eastern Belle/John Velazquez/Graham Motion/5-1
11/Uchenna/Rafael Hernandez/Roger Attfield/20-1
12/Talmada/William Buick/Roger Varian/15-1

 

RACINGUK LOOKS AT INTERNATIONAL

Sir Michael Stoute and Ryan Moore team up with Cannock Chase in the Canadian International at Woodbine on Sunday, 12 months on from claiming the spoils with Hillstar.

Moore will jump on a plane after riding at Ascot’s Champions Day in time to get to Canada for the showpiece race, in which Europeans have a good recent record courtesy of Joshua Tree’s three wins, all coming for different trainers.
Collier Hill, Sulamani, Phoenix Reach and Royal Anthem are all on the roll of honour and there is a strong European raiding party this year, too.
Cannock Chase is joined by Luca Cumani’s Second Step and David Simcock’s Sheikhzayedroad, winner of the Northern Dancer at this track last September..

read more – http://www.racinguk.com/news/article/38442/sir-michael-stoute-and-ryan-moore-chase-woodbine-gold-with-cannock

 

TORONTO STAR FEATURE

Sheikhzayedroad loves to fly, and it shows.
Upon disembarking from his seven-hour flight to Toronto from Amsterdam, the gelding circled his stall at Woodbine Racetrack — his room for the next couple of days — and threw himself down for a roll in the wood shavings, a sign he’s relaxed and glad to be there.
Woodbine is a happy place for him. The six-year-old is making a return to the scene of his last triumph when he won the Grade 1 Northern Dancer Stakes over the E.P. Taylor turf course in September 2014.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/2015/10/16/air-travel-safe-for-horses-plane-and-simple.html

 

OLG UPDATE ON INTERGRATION

Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) president and CEO Stephen Rigby has issued the following letter, dated October 15, 2015, to Ontario Horse Racing Industry Association (OHRIA) president Sue Leslie to provide the horse community an update on the integration of horse racing into the OLG’s modernization plans.

Dear Ms. Leslie,
As you know, over the past eight months, the government, OLG and OHRIA have been working closely on key elements of horse racing integration.
All parties are engaged in a dialogue with the industry on areas of mutual interest. Through these discussions, we have accomplished a great deal. We are defining how horse racing fits into the modernization framework and laying a foundation for the industry’s success.
Today, OLG has a new horse racing division, led by a new senior vice president. We are developing a co-branding marketing strategy and preparing to launch horse-themed products through our Lottery and Internet business channels. We have also signed leases with almost all racetracks in Ontario.
In addition, the regulatory merger of the Ontario Racing Commission and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario is moving forward and the government’s five-year Horse Racing Partnership Plan continues to support the industry.
The next area of focus is developing a financial model to provide a long-term funding framework. This includes exploring options that help create economic confidence in a transparent and accountable way, beyond 2019.
The government has asked OLG to provide recommendations on this topic by the end of the year.
We would like your ongoing input. I have asked Cal Bricker, OLG’s senior vice president of Horse Racing to lead a collaborative discussion on this subject with your help, and members of the industry.
As president of OHRIA, I would ask that you circulate this letter to your Board of Directors and membership.
Horse racing is vital to Ontario’s rural communities and is an important part of our province’s rich heritage. Our ongoing collaboration will help create a sustainable industry in Ontario for generations to come.
We look forward to working with you and the broader industry on this matter.

Stephen Rigby
President and Chief Executive Officer
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation