Let’s start this Saturday morning off with perhaps the greatest racehorse in the world right now, the remarkable, WINX:
“THE VALLEY IS ROCKING AND THE WORLD IS KNOCKING”
At the end of this post is the 60 Minutes feature on Winx.
BREEDERS’ CUP – WOODBINE TROOPS GETTING ORGANIZED (and excited!)
A trip around the backstretch of Woodbine racetrack on Friday morning revealed a lot of buzz and excitement about the upcoming BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, to be held at Dell Mar racetrack on Friday and Saturday next week.
The 34th Breeders’ Cup (has it been that many?) has never been held at Del Mar, a one-mile dirt track with a 7 furlong turf track where the ‘Turf meets the Surf”, the song sung by Bing Crosby (crica 1941) for the seaside track in San Diego.
107 Canadian-bred horses have tried the Breeders’ Cup races over the years, 6 have won.
Can you name those 6?
(Answer is on this post somewhere!)
Sean and Dorthy Fitzhenry’s DIXIE MOON, who went unsold at a Kentucky yearling sale because, in part, to a messy scar on the right side of her neck, is a big, beautiful filly with plenty of sass and power.
She is leaving Sunday for Kentucky and then on a plane to San Diego with groom Nicki Brolly for trainer Catherine Day Phillips for the Juvenile Filly Turf on Friday.
The race has oversubscribed but 14 will start and Dixie Moon comes off a win over the colts in the Cup & Saucer Stakes at Woodbine.
DIXIE MOON ON FRIDAY OCT. 27
There are a litany of European entrants for the 1 mile turf race including Natalma (Grade 1) winner Capla Temptress, who beat Dixie Moon that day. American filly RUSHING FALL, who is 2 for 2, is another contender and she was co-bred by Woodbine’s board member John Fielding.
Dixie Moon, with her speed, should be a serious player in the Juvenile Filly Turf, as long as she gets a good post position.
From Barn 12 to the far west end of the track and trainer JOSIE CARROLL, who like Day Phillips has had 2 prior starters in Cup races, is reading AMI’S MESA for a trip to the west cast. This elegant, smaller bay filly was feeling good Friday morning after her final workout and she is headed to the Filly and Mare Sprint (Saturday).
Luis Contreras will ride Ami’s Mesa.
WONDER GADOT, bred by Anderson Farms, heads west for the Casse stable after a win in the Mazarine Stakes (Grade 3). She will try the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on dirt.
A host of other Canadian-bred or connected horses dot the races on Friday and Saturday.
To get your fill of watching these horses work or gallop, go to XBTV..you can watch LIVE each morning and
some of the stuff you can watch includes this – yesterday’s new shows (featuring Eddie Olczyk!
Canadian Press news report on Breeders’ Cup:
Oh, the Canadian-bred winners of Breeders’ Cup races?
Dance Smartly, Awesome Again, Maryfield, Chief Bearhart, Wavell Avenue and Judy the Beauty!
EURICO DA SILVA FEASTING ON STAKES
Eurico da Silva, Woodbine’s leading rider, is sitting out a suspension this weekend but he is allowed to ride PINK LLOYD in the Overskate Stakes on Sunday as he chases the amazing record of most stakes wins in a year at Woodbine by a jockey.
Da Silva has 30 stakes wins, the record is 36, set by TODD KABEL and AVELINO GOMEZ.
Da Silva wants this record so badly that he passed up a chance to ride BULLARDS ALLEY in the Breeders’ Cup Turf next Saturday to ride at Woodbine. He will ride Dixie Moon on Friday in the Cup and then return home.
PINK LLOYD, seeking his 7th straight stakes victory, is coming off a hard fought win in the Kenora Stakes in August when he won on 3 shoes and had grabbed his right front foot.
Trailed by Bob Tiller for the Entourage Stable, the 5yo gelding is gunning for Horse of the Year honours in Canada.
NORMAN CASSE TO GO OUT ON HIS OWN
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/224329/norman-casse-prepares-to-walk-his-own-path
WINX ON 60 MINUTES
