MILLIONAIRE FINANCINGAVAILABLE and her newborn, an Awesome Again colt. ”FINANCE’ is now owned by Glenn Sikura.
Thanks to ERIKA RUSNAK for the image!
QUEEN’S PLATE NEWS
ELITE ALEX beaten 7 lengths in allowance
One of the favourites for the Queen’s Plate, ELITE ALEX (Afleet Alex) posted a disappointing 78 Beyer Figure yesterday in his allowance race run at Delaware Park when beaten 7 lengths. The 3yo colt was coming off an unplaced run in the Arkansas Derby last month and was presumably regrouping for the Plate but at 2 to 5 he stalked the pace, which was now very fast, but could not gain on the front runner while racing on the wrong lead through the stretch run.
The colt has never raced on the Polytrack so there is still that – however, it was thought that maybe the colt would have been sent up to Woodbine for the June 5 Plate Trial instead of running in a dirt allowance. Anyway, he didn’t look great so the Plate picture continues to be wide open.
INGLORIOUS will be in action this weekend for the Donver Stable. She is the filly who was made the Plate winterbook favourite but she is 0 for 2 this year. She is in the La Lorgnette Stakes on Sunday against Portside and others.
BOWMAN’S CAUSEWAY, who tailed off badly in Florida when appearing in the Florida Derby, re-surfaced with a 4 furlong workout at Saratoga yesterday for trainer Patrick Biancone…
QUEEN’SPLATEKITTEN has been nominated to the Marine Stakes on May 21 for trainer Todd Pletcher…
AIR BUNNY!! here’s Bunny, a filly by Where’s the Ring – She Aint Much celebrating life – her older half brother Quick Code won his debut and sister Kardashian was 4th in her debut
Erika Rusnak photo
WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT WOODBINE – a work of art
The evening kicked off with the wide, rallying score by first-time starter NORTHERN COAST in race 1, a maiden allowance for older fillies and mares. The 4yo is by Ontario sire North Light (Ire) and she is a Florida bred trained by Mark Casse. Tough sailing in that race for the grey gal SEA GLITTER, who may have been best but was trapped along the rail aruond the turn and into the stretch before she closed fast for Stronach Stables.
MAJOR MARVEL is 2 for 3 at the meeting with another romp last night and he was claimed by Mike Pino from Richard Schultz. The 5yo gelding woke up last time when dropped to $12,500 claiming, ran an 87 Beyer Figure and then dueled with 4 others last night before drawing off. In that race, BEARS PITCH rallied 7 wide around the turn into the stretch but bore in and caused interference and he was disqualified.
The featured event, an allowance/optional claiming race had only 5 entrants and then was down to 4 when Clear Lake scratched. the race turned into a snooze-fest when big favourite OIL PAINTING (Distored Humor – Daiijin) led all the way for Hill N Dale Equine Holdings and Glenn Sikura and posted a 68 beyer Figure. The 4yo filly is 3 for 13 in her career. Jesse Campbell rode.
Chalk continued to sprinkle in race 4, the first leg of the PICK 4 when DOMINATING FORCE rallied to win her maiden for $25,000 claiming for Dura Racing and Mike Doyle. The Trajectory filly was dropping from maiden allowance, Ontario sired and was 1 to 1. She was bred by Jay Cocklin.
The ANALISA DELMAS barn got a win last night with its 26th starter when SKY OF GREY was an easy pick in an Ontario sired allowance race. the grey son of Parisianprospector was making his 3rd start off the layoff and moving out from 2 sprints to a route race and he circled wide to battle on for the score. He was a longshot in the morning line but paid 5 to 2.
Also off the schneid is trainer BRIAN LYNCH who won the 6th race with ACTION NINE, owned by D. Gale, Winston Penny and Ballylynch Racing. The War Front filly was just over 2 to 1 and was ridden by Eurico Rosa Da Silva in the $20K claiming race. Interestingly, trainer Martin Drexler claimed the filly and he had claimed Wildcat Marie from these same interests last season (she came back to win a stake this year).
GOLDMART FARMS won the the 7th race with its flashy filly PRINCESS CHELSEA, a Bold Executive – Chelsea Anna gal who cost a whopping $130,000 at auction 3 years ago. The filly, trained by Sid Attard, is 3 for 4 in her career and went over that price last night with her win. She was bred by Mark Hadwen.
And the night wrapped up with a longshot finally as MONA MOON, a 4yo by Perigee Moon – Chickaboom, by Crafty Prospector, won the maiden allowance in her career debut. She was 14 to 1 but had a rapid workout on May 1 in 47 3/5 from the gate/ Earl Barnett had the filly very ready for owner/breeders Amanda Brunning and Heather Stringer.
FORT ERIE STARTING TO ROLL
While the folks down at Fort Erie are busy trying to get their product marketed all over the place (check out its Facebook page, new website), fans of the track and Canadian horse racing wait for the SUNDAY SCORE SHOW to add the track to it’s schedule along with Woodbine.
Woodbine certainly wants the big buck-tracks like Belmont on that cable channel (perhaps) since people bet more on it, but if they had a chance to see Fort Erie more often, wouldn’t that help Fort Erie’s cause? Certainly horses who leave Woodbine may want to be followed once they head down to the border oval.
Fort Erie gets set or 3 racing days this weekend – Sunda-Tuesday)
