Mansetti Takes Clarendon, Lapochka Retires

MANSETTI’s strong victory in the $150,000 Clarendon Stakes was important for his owners, Al and Bill Ulwelling, trainer Kevin Attard and jockey Leo Salles.

The two-year-old colt by Collected – Gidget Girl by Sky Mesa bounced back from a dull second career start after such a big debut win and provided the Ulwellings with their third stakes win this year. The son and father team from Minnesota are heavily invested in Ontario racing and Mansetti, named for one of their favourite pizza shops, is a nice prospect for 2025.

For Attard, it was his 13th stakes win in North America this year, 11th at Woodbine, and he has now had a career year by purses earnings, some of that provided by the great Moira’s Breeders’ Cup win.

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It is a good possibility that Attard will finally get his first-ever Sovereign Award for Outstanding Trainer when voting opens in the first week of January.

And for Salles, the win came at just the right time, as earlier in the day he found out that he received a 17-day suspension from the AGCO stewards for causing interference while on Whiskey N Ice last week. Whiskey N Ice was deemed guilty of causing No Layups to fall and cause a chain reaction with several other horses and riders.

Whiskey N Ice, incidentally, had been disqualified for lugging in on two other occasions this year with different riders.

AGCO Ruling:
Take notice that Jockey Leonardo Salles (JKY145300) in the vicinity of the three-eighths pole, did come in with his mount Whiskey N Ice, when not clear to do so, and interfered with inside horses that resulted in multiple riders to being unseated and multiple horses falling. The violation occurred during race one at Woodbine Racetrack on November 22, 2024. Mr. Salles is subject to a seventeen-day riding suspension that shall be served November 29, 2024, through December 15, 2024, inclusive. AGCO rules 11.07, 11.09.01, 11.09.03, 11.09.05, 11.12, 11.14, 9.14.03 and 16.13 (c).

Mansetti, with blinkers on, dueled between favoured filly Patriotic War and two-time winner Dark Screen before he pulled clear to win by 1 1/4 lengths in 1:10.81. Katie O’Connor’s Call Me Sue closed ground for second while Stronach Stables’ Awesome Beat rallied for third.

Bred by American sports broadcaster Jim Rome and foaled at Anderson Farms in St. Thomas, Mansetti is from the unraced Gidget Girl, who produced two-time stakes winner Straight Up G for Rome. Gidget Girl produced a Maxfield foal this year and was sold this fall to Tami Bobo’s First Finds for $15,000. Mansetti is one of 10 stakes winners for Collected, by City Zip, this season.

It was a topsy-turvey day for Woodbine’s newest trainer, DEVON GITTENS, a leading trainer in Winnipeg who did double duty this year with runners at Assiniboia Downs and his first stable of horses at Woodbine. Gittens has been busy winning and claiming and Bruno Schickedanz, who took a chance on the young man this year, was in the winner’s circle with his new trainer on Sunday. Duval Street won a $25,000 claiming race, race 2, in her second outing for Gittens.

Sadly, Gittens’ own horse, the three-year-old colt TUNECHI (Outwork – Stasha Minasha by City Zip) broke down early in race 3 and was later euthanized. Claimed when he was dropped sharply from $40,000 to $15,000 on November 8, Tunechi was promising early in his career. He was fourth in the Grey Stakes (G3) and Summer Stakes (G1) for Hoolie Racing, Legion Racing, Conover, and Ribble Farms and trainer Barb Minshall.

On a happier note, the 11-year-old gelding LAPOCHKA (English Channel) was honoured in the winner’s circle as he has been retired from racing after 84 races and 20 wins. Woodbine invited the gelding and his fans into the infield winner’s circle and while Lapochka danced and pranced most of the time, he did stand briefly for photos.

Lapochka will be going to LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement this week to let down before he is trained for another career.

To donate to LongRun or to Lapochka or any of the horses at the Hillsburgh farm, it is easy to go to the website, www.longrunretirement.com and give a few bucks to help with their care.