ANOTHER WORLD

It may be the final 2 weeks of Woodbine racing for 2014 but there is a lot going on still – PATRICK HUSBANDS is now back on top of the riders standings – 160 to 159 and Luis Contreras will be out of town in Japan this week.

LEXIE LOU vs. CALIFORNIA CHROME could be on – Saturday at Del Mar.

and Canadian Horse of the Year UP WITH THE BIRDS is seeking history in the Japan Cup for Sam-Son Farms, Malcolm Pierce and jockey Erico Rosa da Silva.

 
UP WITH THE BIRDS in JAPAN

NOV 25 – jogged 1/4 lap, cantered 1-1/4 laps (dirt course)
(exercised from 7:34 to 7:47, ridden by Mark Ramsammy)

“He worked very good this morning and he’s a very happy horse. He’s well behaved and he loves this atmosphere, as if he was born here.
So far, we’re planning to be on the turf tomorrow morning whether it’s raining or not, just for an easy canter.
He would run on soft going but he would prefer a firmer turf.”

More quotes from Mark Ramsammy and a preview of the Cup..
hand-walked within stable area from 7:13 to 7:49

“The gallop yesterday was very easy and quiet. He came out of it very well and he’s in very good condition. We just wanted to let him stretch his legs—not do too much and he won’t do any more fast work till the race. The stretch is very long here but it shouldn’t bother him.
Tomorrow we will just do an easy canter on the dirt. We will take him out on the turf somewhere between Wednesday and Friday, maybe on Wednesday. ”

Nov 23 – jogged 1/2 lap, cantered ~ galloped 800m (4F:54.8, 3F:40.3, 1F:13.6) (dirt course)
(exercised from 7:02 to 7:14, ridden by Mark Ramsammy)

“He’s adapting pretty good to the new environment. We just wanted him to work easy this morning—stretch his legs a little bit. We might canter him over the turf somewhere between Wednesday and Friday, just to get a look around the course and check the footing, but he’s not going to do anymore speed work.
The trainer and jockey will be here on Thursday morning and we’re hoping that the jockey will sit on the horse at least once since it’s his first time at the Tokyo course.
Tomorrow, the horse will only be hand-walked around the stables.”

2014 Japan Cup (G1) in association with Longines – Preview
Japan Cup (International Invitational) (G1)

Tokyo Racecourse

The 521 million yen Japan Cup in association with Longines is again looking like a tall order for the foreign raiders with an absolutely spectacular home team poised to give them a rude welcome in the Nov. 30 race at Tokyo Racecourse.

The 34th Japan Cup, the richest race of the Japan Racing Association with 250 million yen of the purse going to the winner, fetched 19 nominations, including three from abroad – Trading Leather, Ivanhowe and Up With the Birds – and 13 Grade 1 winners. While past results in the Japan Cup have been near even with the hosts winning 19 times and the visitors 14, Japanese horses have owned the 2,400-meter competition in recent years, having won the last eight races. Alkaased, under Lanfranco Dettori, was the last champion from overseas in 2005 when he set the race record of 2 minutes, 22.1 seconds which still holds today.

Last year, 2011 Melbourne Cup winner Dunaden came in fifth to lead a guest list of three, also featuring Simenon (13th) and Joshua Tree (last in a field of 17). With all due respect to this year’s trio of 4-year-old colts – even last season’s Irish Derby champion and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes runner-up Trading Leather – being able to match Dunaden’s result ought to be considered a huge effort.

Headlining the Japanese group of runners is none other than Gentildonna, the six-time Grade 1 champion who has won the last two Japan Cups and is angling to win an unprecedented third in a row. Should she three-peat, the 5-year-old mare trained by Sei Ishizaka can tie her legendary sire Deep Impact for the most number of career Grade 1 victories. Gentildonna is coming off a narrow second-place finish in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) this month to start the fall, and has won all three of her past starts in the 2,400 meters at Fuchu. She will also be reunited with jockey Ryan Moore, who guided her to success in the 2013 Japan Cup and the Dubai Sheema Classic in March this year.

“She’s been working at a steady rate since the Tenno Sho, and she’s been lively ever since,” Ishizaka said. “We’re going to push her a week before the race. The good thing for us is that we’ll be racing at Tokyo again. Our goal is to win a third consecutive Japan Cup and I hope we attain a good result here.”

The world’s highest rated racehorse is also throwing his hat into the ring, 5-year-old Just a Way returning on Japanese soil after finishing eighth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 5. He has won twice at the top level in Tokyo – last year’s fall Tenno Sho and the Yasuda Kinen in June – and is hoping to redemonstrate the power that won him the Dubai Duty Free by more than six lengths.

Will the distance of 2,400 meters be a factor for Just a Way in the Japan Cup? Trainer Naosuke Sugai doesn’t believe it will.

“He was in good condition for the Arc and came on really strong where there wasn’t much space at the end,” Sugai said. “It’s clear that to have a chance to win the Arc, you’ve got to be positioned in the front half of the field during the trip. We’re going up against some really tough horses this time, but we won at Tokyo last year in the Tenno Sho in strong fashion. That race was at 2,000 meters but considering how much he won by and the way he performed, we have every reason to believe he can succeed at 2,400 meters, too. We hope he doesn’t embarrass himself out there as the highest rated thoroughbred in the world.”

Harp Star did Japan proud by finishing sixth in the Arc as the nation’s first 3-year-old filly to take a stab at the elusive title at Longchamp. Despite coming on strong late in the race, the result was the worst of the Deep Impact daughter’s career – but it will be hard to imagine her doing worse in the Japan Cup, especially with a favorable weight assignment of 53 kg. Trainer Hiroyoshi Matsuda says Harp Star, out of the Falbrav mare Historic Star, has been in good condition since returning to Japan and could very well become the second 3-year-old filly after Gentildonna to lift the Japan Cup.

“The most important thing is she made it back without any problems,” Matsuda said. “We’ll pick it up from hereon. She’s starting to grow her winter coat but her grandmother, Vega, was the same and that didn’t affect her so she should be fine. She just needs to put in the work, eat well and everything will be OK. There’s no questioning her potential; I’ve got a lot of confidence in her.”

Five-year-old Spielberg finally got his break in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) in a promising career that was sidetracked by injury at one point. The Deep Impact son held off the likes of Gentildonna, this season’s Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) champion Isla Bonita and two-time defending spring Tenno Sho holder Fenomeno to capture his first Grade 1 title, which also was his first graded victory. All six of Spielberg’s wins have come at Tokyo, and trainer Kazuo Fujisawa says the racetrack brings out the best in his horse.

http://japanracing.jp/_news2014/141120.html

RATINGS OF JAPAN CUP NOMINEES (based on last race they were in)

2014 Rating     2014 Category     Horse Name     Sex & Age     Trained     Trainer     Race     Place     Date (Y/M/D)

130     M     Just a Way (JPN)     H5     Japan     Naosuke Sugai     DUBAI DUTY FREE (G1, UAE)     1     2014/ 3/29
119     L     Gentildonna (JPN)     *M5     Japan     Sei Ishizaka     DUBAI SHEEMA CLASSIC (G1, UAE)     1     2014/ 3/29
117     I-L     Harp Star (JPN)     *F3     Japan     Hiroyoshi Matsuda     SAPPORO KINEN (G2) QATAR PRIX DE L’ARC DE TRIOMPHE (G1)     1
6     2014/ 8/24 2014/10/ 5
120     L     Ivanhowe (GER)     H4     Germany     Jean-Pierre Carvalho
119     I     Spielberg (JPN)     H5     Japan     Kazuo Fujisawa     TENNO SHO (AUTUMN) (G1)     1     2014/11/ 2
119     L     One and Only (JPN)     C3     Japan     Kojiro Hashiguchi     TOKYO YUSHUN (JAPANESE DERBY) (G1)     1     2014/ 6/ 1
118     E     Fenomeno (JPN)     H5     Japan     Hirofumi Toda     TENNO SHO (SPRING) (G1)     1     2014/ 5/ 4
117     I-L     Isla Bonita (JPN)     C3     Japan     Hironori Kurita     SATSUKI SHO (JAPANESE 2000 GUINEAS) (G1)
TOKYO YUSHUN (JAPANESE DERBY) (G1)
ASAHIHAI ST.LITE KINEN (G2)
TENNO SHO (AUTUMN) (G1)     1

113     L     Lachesis (JPN)     *F4     Japan     Katsuhiko Sumii     QUEEN ELIZABETH II CUP (G1)     1     2014/11/16
117     I     Trading Leather (IRE)     H4     Ireland     James Bolger
116     I     Epiphaneia (JPN)     C4     Japan     Katsuhiko Sumii     TENNO SHO (AUTUMN) (G1)     6     2014/11/ 2
116     I     Hit the Target (JPN)     H6     Japan     Keiji Kato     TENNO SHO (AUTUMN) (G1)     5     2014/11/ 2
116     M     Up With the Birds (CAN)      H4     Canada     Malcolm Pierce
110     L     Denim and Ruby (JPN)     *F4     Japan     Katsuhiko Sumii     TAKARAZUKA KINEN (G1)     5     2014/ 6/29
111     M     Decipher (JPN)     H5     Japan     Futoshi Kojima     MAINICHI OKAN (G2)     4     2014/10/12
111     L     Tamamo Best Play (JPN)     C4     Japan     Katsumi Minai     KYOTO DAISHOTEN (G2)     2     2014/10/14
109     L     Uncoiled (FR)     H5     Japan     Yoshito Yahagi     KYOTO KINEN (G2)     3     2014/2/16
100     L     Satono Shuren (JPN)     H6     Japan     Akira Murayama     TANCHO STAKES     2     2014/ 9/ 7
Tosen Jordan (JPN)     H8     Japan     Yasutoshi Ikee

* Notes and Abbreviations
1. Weight: 1 pound = approximately 0.453 kg
2. Rating: Please add four pounds to the ratings because of weight allowances for fillies and mares, when comparing the ratings of fillies and mares to the ratings of colts, horses and geldings.
3. Abbreviations:
Gender and Sex:
C = Colt (2-4 Y/O), H = Horse (5 Y/O & UP), G = Gelding, F = Filly (2-4 Y/O), M = Mare (5 Y/O & UP)
Category (Distance):
S = Sprint (1,000m – 1,300m), S = Sprint (USA) (1,000m – 1,599m), M = Mile (1,301m – 1,899m), M = Mile (USA) (1,600m – 1,899m),
I = Intermediate (1,900m – 2,100m), L = Long (2,101m – 2,700m), E = Extended (2,701m – ), (D) = Dirt race, (T) = Turf race, (A) = Artificial Surface

THE CAT’S MEOW
Calgary Cat is purrfect in Kennedy Road – 96 Beyer

Benefiting from lots of pace to run at, CALGARY CAT, a $25,000 claim one year ago, powered to a big win in the Grade 2 Kennedy Road Stakes at Woodbine on Sunday, beating SHARP SENSATION, who had traffic trouble early in the race, and the bumping pair of BEAR NO JOKE and BLACK HORNET. Bear No Joke was later disqualified from a stewards claim of foul for pushing Black Hornet out of the way.

CALGARY CAT is owned by Stephen Chesney and Cory Hoffman, who took the chestnut 4yo gelding from John Oxley last Nov. 15. He has won 5 of 7 races this year and over $348,000. He had also won the Bold Venture Stakes (Grade 3) at Woodbine.
Kevin Attard trains the son of Cowtown Cat – Bing Sink Star, by A.P. Indy who was bred by WinStar Farm LLC in Ontario and that farm usually foals its mares at Anderson Farms.
Eurico da Silva rode the gelding for the 4th straight race.

CALGARY CAT became the first 5-time winner at the meeting.

The battle for champion sprinter at the Sovereign Awards will now be decided by voters in the first week of January and it should be a close race between Calgary Cat and Sharp Sensation:

Calgary Cat – 7-5-1-1 $340,000 1st Kennedy Road Grade 2, 1st Bold Venture (Grade 3, 3rd Nearctic, Grade 1

Sharp Sensation 9 -4 -1 – 1 $380,000

1st Turf Monster S. Grade 32, 1st Bet on Sunshine, 1st Karl Boyes Memorial, 2nd Kennedy Road- Grade 2, 3rd Woodford S. (Drade 3)

More from Sunday –

PARTYONTHEPATIO won off the claim for Sam DiPasquale and owner John Terdki. The DiPasquale barn iis hitting at almost 30% wins “first off the claim” and this is an Ontario bred by Harlington who was back for the $32,00 claimed price. Jim McAleney rode.

Race 2– THE GREAT GIZMO won at odds on in his 7th career race for Rolph Davis and trainer Robert Tiller. The chestnut 3yo gelding had been favoured a few times in his MSW races and finally for it done in this small field. Patrick Husbands rode. Marcy Quayle is the breeding of the gelding who was a $26,000 yearling purchase.

Race 3- DRAGO’S BEST, co-owned by trainer Josie Carroll and also owned by breeder Hill ‘n’ Dale Equine Holdings Inc. punched his ticket to a winter in Florida with his 2nd win in his 6th race of the year. He won this $23,500 claiming race under Luis Contreras.

Race 4 – a maiden allowance for Ontario sired 2yos and it was DRINKS AFTER WORK, a well meant son of Milwaukee Brew – Kaleidoscope Kerry by One Way Love, who won his debut for Martha Gonzalez, Lewis, Rizzo and Klicke. Jesse Campbell rode.

Race 5- An open maiden 2yo allowance was won by  U S MARSHAL, a homebred for Richard and Nancy Kaster. The son of Badge of Silver was the 2nd favourite in this route race and it was his 5th career race. Ian Black trains and David Moran rode.

Race 6- more maiden allowance runners and JACKS ESCARPMENT was the 2nd 2yo debut winner for trainer Nick Gonzalez. This is an Old Forester colt out of Escarpment by Grand Slam , owned by John Caulfield and bred by William Graham. Eurico da Silva won on him and he scored 3 wins on the day.

Race 7 – PRETTY TWO FACED won this allowance/optional claiming race for his 2nd win in her 12th race of the season. Owned and trained by Emily Walker, the Niigon filly was bred by Colebrook Farms and Emma-Jayne Wilson.

In the winner’s circle for this filly’s win was champion jockey Todd Kabel.

Race 9 – an Ontario sired allowance race went to the big favourite, HURRICANE MIMI, owned and bred by James Mann. Ross Armata Jr. trains this Sligo Bay (Ire) filly who is 2 for 11 in her career.

race 10 – The attractive gelding COMMAND FORCE led all the way to his 4th race of the season and 3rd straight for Debby Oxley and trainer Mark Casse. Patrick Husbands rode the gelding who was winning for $12,500.

MISSISSIPPI DELTA is Queen of Glorious Song

(from Woodbine media)

Mississippi Delta, expertly piloted by Patrick Husbands, notched her first stakes win in Saturday’s $128,750 Glorious Song Stakes, at Woodbine.

more Saturday

DIVINE SONET – 3YO colt by Divine Park has now won 3 of his last 4 for Ivan Dalos, winning at 9 furlongs on Saturday while up for the $20,000 claiming price. There were no takers.
Luis Contreras guided this Sid Attard trainee to the win by a head over Henke.

HOLY WHIRL WIND won race 2 after a long battle at the end of the 1 1/16 miles. In for the $40,000 claiming price, the Jim and Susan Hill gelding by Pulpit is an Ontario bred from Knob Hill Stables.
Jim McAleney got Holy Whirl Wind to slow the pace down to 26.03, 51.45, 1:15.34 and he had rivals on either side of him late but won the bob.

Reade Baker trains.

LUCK SEEKER, owned by Robert Bates, led most of the way to win the 3rd race for $12,500 claiming under Jesse Campbell. The winner is a Heatseeker (Ire) colt bred by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms.

Race 4 was the 2nd win of the day for trainer Reade Baker as BEARS REFLECTION won by 2 1/4 lengths in this maiden allowance. The First Samurai filly out of Live Music by Lemon Drop Kid left a heavily bet first time starter from the Mark Casse barn in her wake (Watch This Cat was 5th). Bear Stables bought this filly for $67,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale last fall from breeders Penny and Manfred Conrad.

Race 5 – MIDNIGHT IN OCALA was 4 to 5 in this maiden $12,500 claiming race but it was hard to watch as she barely eked out the win over 25 to 1 shot One Nice Girl. The winner is a Midnight Lute filly bred by George Robertston who still owns, John Cardella trains and David Moran rode.

Race 6 The Very Dry Stable owns RIVER MAID a Where’s the Ring 2yo filly out of Rivermaid Dancing and she won her 2nd career start in this maiden allowance. Bred by Jay Cochlin, River Maid darted up the rail to win under Justin Stein for trainer Robert Tiller.

Race 7 BREAKING BALL, 90 Beyer 7 FURLONGS 1:21.15. Yep, this is a good 6-year-old gelding by Smart Strike who is owned by Cabarnet Racing and Ed Seltzer and trained by Justin Nixon. He is 5 for 22 in his career and 4 for 10 on synthetic dirt. Gary Boulanger rode this son of Wonder Where Stakes winner One Emotion,

Race 9 – BIDE A WEE ISLAND, a half sister to SW Something Extra, dropped from MSW to $12,500 claimed and won easily for Kingview Farm and trainer Catherine Day Phillips. This Sligo Bay (Ire) filly was claimed by Denny Andrews and Sandra Lazaruk and Bob Giffin, the owners of Pender Harbour.

Race 10  TEVEZ, owned by Wilf Jones, bounced back from a messy race when his rider lost her irons to win this $16,000 claiming race a6 furlongs. He is an 8-year-old by Running Stag and Eurico da Silva rode.
LEXIE LOU VS. CALIFORNIA CHROME