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KEENELAND BEGINS THIS WEEK
don’t forget to check out Clocker’s Comments
There are not too many racetracks where you can actually get some good information from track staff regarding workouts in the morning.
Woodbine gets some hints from Jim Bannon in the Journal notes when the program is printed for each racing day and on the Keeneland website, selected horses are written about: how they did the work, who they worked with etc.
here is an example from yesterday’s tab:
Willow Hills
Distance: (4f)
Time: :49/4
Track Conditions: 3.0
Notes: good strong finish, last quarter in 23 second
http://www.keeneland.com/racing/clockers-comments?field_clocker_date_value[value]=&title=&page=3
CANADIAN-BRED, QUEEN’S PLATE CONTENDER IN BLUE GRASS
DANZIG MOON, a white-faced 3-year-old colt owned by John Oxley and bred in Ontario by Bill Graham, takes a stab at the Kentucky Derby trail as he starts in the Blue Grass on Saturday. The colt won his maiden at Gulfstream 2 starts ago before finishing a flat 4th in the Tampa Bay Derby.
Mark Casse trains the son of Mailbu Moon who is 8 to 1 in the morning line.
TOYOTA BLUE GRASS S.-GI, $1,000,000, 3yo, 1 1/8m
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER ML
1 Ocho Ocho Ocho K Street Sense Gonzalez Cassidy 6-1
2 Gorgeous Bird Unbridled’s Song Hernandez Wilkes 8-1
3 Pepper Roani K Broken Vow Mena Maker 12-1
4 Unrivaled K Super Saver Albarado Montoya 12-1
5 Carpe Diem K Giant’s Causeway Velazquez Pletcher 1-1
6 Frammento K Midshipman Stevens Zito 8-1
7 Classy Class K Discreetly Mine Alvarado McLaughlin6-1
8 Danzig Moon K Malibu Moon Leparoux Casse 8-1
also on Saturday, Woodbine trainers Reade Baker, Gail Cox and Brian Lynch are in the always fun-to-watch SHAKERTOWN:
Saturday, Keeneland, post time: 4:42 p.m. EDT
SHAKERTOWN S.-GIII, $125,000, 4yo/up, 5.5fT
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Mellow Fellow The Cliff’s Edge Vargas Richardsn118
2 Go Blue Or Go Home K Bluegrass Cat Mena Baker 118
3 Zee Bros Brother Derek Lopez Lukas 118
4 Something Extra K Indian Charlie Bridgmhn Cox 118
5 Choctaw Chuck Bwana Charlie Rice Rice 118
6 Berlino Di Tiger (Brz) Tiger Heart Geroux Caramori 118
7 Mosler K War Front Lezcano Mott 118
8 Heaven’s Runway Rn Awy and Hde Alvarado Ice 118
9 Channel Marker K Purim Torres Bauer 118
10 Power Alert (Aus) Alert (Arg) Leparoux Lynch 118
11 Amelia’s Wild Ride D’wildcat Alvarado Preciado 118
12 Tightend Touchdown Pure Precision Bravo Servis 118
13 Undrafted K Purim Velazquez Ward 118
WinStar Farm and Stonestreet Stables’ Carpe Diem, runaway winner of last fall’s Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity (G1) here and a leading candidate for the 141st Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1), has been installed as the even-money favorite in a field of eight entered Tuesday for Saturday’s 91st running of the $1 million Toyota Blue Grass (G1).
The 1 1/8-mile Toyota Blue Grass serves as a major steppingstone for the $2 million Kentucky Derby and will be run on Keeneland’s new dirt track, the first time over such a surface since 2006.
The race offers 170 points toward qualification to this year’s Derby with 100 points going to the winner, a total that would ensure a spot in the Churchill Downs starting gate in a field limited to the top 20 point earners.
A total of 19 horses that ran in the Toyota Blue Grass at Keeneland went on to win the Kentucky Derby, with the most recent being Street Sense in 2007.
The Toyota Blue Grass is scheduled to go off at 6 p.m. ET as the 10th race on Saturday’s 11-race card. First post time is 12:35 p.m. for the program that features four other graded stakes, two more of which are Grade 1s: the Central Bank Ashland and the Madison.
Temperatures are expected to be in the upper 50s on Saturday.
CARPE DIEM – Blue Grass favourite – image by Amber Chalfin
JMBETS – handicapping notes, tips and Woodbine picks..up and running for 2015
My handicapping site JMBETS.ca is underway again for 2015. I have sifted through workouts this spring and picked out some horses to watch. Come on over to JMBETS after reading Thoroughblog!
CANADIAN TRACKS and its workers have more government woes
From Woodbine to Assininboia and parts between and further, the new Temporary Workers rules set out by the Federal government has left some horsepeople in a a bit of trouble.
ASSINIBOIA DOWNS FEATURE
BY PAUL WIECEK
A crackdown on temporary foreign workers by the federal government has created a critical shortage of grooms and exercise riders at Assiniboia Downs that is threatening to become a labour crisis with the track’s live thoroughbred racing meet just over one month away.
Officials at the Portage Avenue racetrack said this week their application for work permits for 31 grooms and exercise riders for this year’s upcoming live race meet has been put on hold indefinitely pending the result of a random federal audit of the foreign workers who worked at the track last year.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/feds-trample-on-downs-racing-298262631.html
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