DAILY RACING FORM REPORTS SOUTHDALE OUT OF PLATE! By Bill Tallon ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Southdale, a leading contender for the June 21 Queen’s Plate, came out of last weekend’s Plate Trial with an injury and is expected to be be sidelined for at least the balance of the summer. A thorough examination on Monday found […]

Post #997 of THOROUGHBLOG. Get ready for a wild week of racing action. At Woodbine, it is WOODBINE OAKS week with the draw for posts on Thursday and the race on Sunday. The BELMONT STAKES is on Saturday as is the EPSOM DERBY in England and the Quarter Horses are back at Ajax Downs with […]

  The Plate trophy will be won in 3 weeks – but by whom? Photo by www.horse-races. net. PLATE TRIAL STAKES 67th running 4:35 p.m. today It all comes down to this. Today’s 9 furlong Plate Trial Stakes, where the colts carry the Plate weight of 126 lbs. will determine the favourite for the 150th […]

   SQUARE EDDIE OUT UNTIL SEPTEMBER, PLATE TRIP OFF Not Ready Eddie May 29, 2009 04:30 AM www.thestar.com/sports/horseracing/article/642291   PLATE TRIAL – HERE’S YOUR PLATE! (with the exception of a couple such as Mr. Foricos Two U) – EDDIE IS OUT and the QUEEN’S PLATE, the 150th edition, is now wide open. We will get […]

SPILL AT WOODBINE Apprentice Sihota, Go Boldly involved – A scary incident occured in race 6 last night at Woodbine when Maria Gardiner and partners’ GO BOLDLY appeared to clip heels when in tight in deep stretch and fell. The filly appeared to be okay as he got up and was bucking from the saddle […]

  TRIAL, NO ROOM FOR ERROR -The way the Canadian-bred 3yo crop of 2009 has formed this season, we may see this year’s 150th Queen’s Plate this Sunday when the most likely contenders all compete in the Trial. With the 126 pounds and the 1 1/8 mile distance, most have been lured to this race […]

  Yesterday’s feature at Woodbine was the CONNAUGHT CUP won by graded stakes winner STERWINS. Here, Bill Bristow (second from right) leads in Eugene Melynk’s homebred. Terence Dulay photo.   TONY MATTINE – TORONTO, May 22 – Trainer Tony Mattine died Friday at the age of 74. A native of Avellino, Italy, Mattine began conditioning […]

SANS SOUSI BREAKS THROUGH Eaton Hall homebred wins stake – The liver chestnut filly SANS SOUSI (Bold Executive – Ada Dancer by Dance Brightly) won her first stakes of her career yesterday in the Ontario sired Lady Angela Stakes at 7 furlongs. The 3yo had been been 2nd or 3rd in 6 stakes races in […]

  Today’s post is dedicated to the memory of ANGEL, hope you had a good life our friend.   ZENYATTA, champion American mare, and her cool black spots. Sarah K. Andrew photo.               QUEEN’S PLATE NEWS Shut It Down tries for berth today – K.K. Sengara’s SHUT IT DOWN, […]

COSTALIVIN ENTERS PLATE PICTURE Woodbine Wednesday Night – Thanks to a workmanlike score in the first race on a lovely Wednesday evening at Woodbine, COSTALIVIN has entered the Queen’s Plate picture with just one month to the race. (!). The bay 3yo colt from the first crop of Tomahawk out of Wonder Where Stakes winner […]

  Thoroughblog, in its continuing effort to provide some news and views of local racing, is also undergoing transformation to this new site. Sometimes, the wrong key pressed results in disaster. For example.. the entire weekend wrap up erased and lost in one swoop. Brief notes:  The Polytrack was suddenly “cultivated” according to the TV […]

RACHEL IS TOO GREAT Gut wrenching win in Preakness, Bird a tough 2nd (Preakness photo by Terence Dulay) -To most onlookers yesterday, the battle down the Pimlico backstretch between BIG DRAMA and RACHEL ALEXANDRA seemed to be impossibly fast for the superstar filly who was coming back on 2 weeks rest from her 20 length […]

OH WHAT’S A GUY GOTTA DO? Mine That Bird is not picked by one of the DAILY RACING FORM’S 22 handicappers today for the Preakness. All he did was win the 135th Kentucky Derby – somehow, still trying to figure that one out.  Jockey Calvin Borel dumped the Bird for the brazen filly RACHEL ALEXANDRA […]

If you thought the Kentucky Derby was a well watched event (highest rating on TV in years – tomorrow’s Preakness will be huge it appears. Everyone wants to see if the Mine That Bird score in the Derby was a fluke. Or they want to see if the filly is as good and dominant as […]

LUCKY NUMBER 13? Rachel is widest! (Photo is MINE THAT BIRD and his flock heading out to the track at Pimlico. Cindy Pierson Dulay photo) POST POSITION DRAW QUOTES  – MINE THAT BIRD (PP #2; 6-1) – Chip Woolley, trainer: “We’ve got speed on both sides of us, speed on the inside and outside of […]