SHELDON WOLFE TRAINEE HOPENSCOPE at VINTAGE GREENWOOD – FAIRBANKS STAKES
-Read more on Sheldon Wolfe below, he passed away on May 29 in Brampton.
SUNDAY MORNING UPDATE – JUNE
HAIL MARY! – Champion snatches Hendrie in last strides on Saturday at Woodbine
There were a lot of interesting events during Saturday’s races at Woodbine from dead-heats to bad starts and a lot of close finshes. Here is the wild win by DELIGHTFUL MARY in the Hendrie:
DELIGHTFUL MARY posted an 87 Beyer Figure in her win off the 1 year+ layoff in the Hendrie The race featured 4 gals from the Whimsical but the winner of that stake, ACTING NAUGHTY, had a horrible start and was essentially eliminated.
MAN STUFF went wild on the pace and set things up for the closers. HEAVENLY PRIDE,a Tucci Stables mare, was the first to move and she was leading very late (and making some of us who had her in the PICK 4 VERY EXCITED at long odds) but Mary was too much to hold off.
The winner is a 5yo Limehouse gal out of Deputy’s Delight by French Deputy. She is 6 for 11 in her career. Luis Contreras rode the John Oxley gal.
More Saturday:
RACKMAN and DRAGON PUFF dead heated for the win in race , a maiden allowance for Ontario sired rivals at 1 1/16 miles. The race was weird since the 3 to 5 fave FUTURE KING was flat and back in 3rd while the two others battled to the wire. Dragon Puff is by Peaks and Valleys out of Dancingonthewater by Dance Brightly and was bred by Racehoss Inc. The owners are Stroud, Rootham and Clarke.
RACKMAN is by Niigon – Executive Affair by Bold Executive and is a Nick and Mike Nosowenko bred gelding.
GRAPES won his season debut for Norseman Racing Stable in race 2 for $15,00 claiming. The Cuvee 6yo raced just 5 times last year with 2 shares. Sid Attard trains.
She’s a real peach -co PECHE MOBILEE scooted away in the stretch after a big challenge from Maximum Ride to win the Ontario sired allowance race, the 3rd event of the day. The winner was odds-on for Short Atop Stable and trainer Judy Pottins. The winner is a homebred by Mobil out of Ma Peche by Umriger.
The Pick 4 kicked off with an allowance sprint on turf and it was surprising how many people picked the win shy HOLLINGER and/or keyed him in Pick 4 tickets. The grey has not won in years and gets himself into trouble most times. That was the case yesterday as he closed too late and the winner was SO LONG GEORGE, the first winner for trainer John Charalambous this season. The winner is an Arch gelding and he was making his season debut.
Race 5 – nice win for REMEMBER TO DREAM: this 4yo by Philanthropist had not raced since August wen 2nd in 2 maiden allowances. He was in for $25K claiming for Ontario sired maidens but his 4 workouts were fairly dreadful on times (1:04 4/5, 50 4/5, 39 3/5 and 40 4/5).
Still, the Krista Cole owned and trained 4yo battled through the stretch with another longshot, Rhythm of Rock and won at 7 to 1 under Gerry Olguin (Sunny Singh was originally listed to ride).
Race 6 was won by BITS AND BYTES, a Bernstein filly owned by Rob Smithen and trained by Paul Attard. The filly was 2nd in her last race in December for $32K and was in for $20K.
The late PICK 4 was a beauty. HOBNOBSNOB led all the way to win the allowance race on turf for Ontario sired gals. She was a 9 to 1overlay off fast workout times and good grass form. She is a Susan Rasmussen homebred trained by Earl Barnett.
Race 9 caused a bit of a buzz in the Twitter world. SILENT YET DEADLY turned out to be a popular pick in the maiden allowance for Camilla Farms and Pat Parente. The Silent Name 3yo was a vet scratch in May but in his only race last fall, had tons of trouble but showed ability in a key race. He won yesterday at 5 to 2, heavily bet down from his 20 to 1 morning line quote.
The finale went to D’S PERFECT SOUL, a new gelding this year who won the $50K claiming race for maidens. York Tech owns the son of Perfect Soul and Ian Black trains. The winner was 2nd in his season opener. He competed a lovely PICK 4 PAYOFF of almost $6,000.00!
SHELDON WOLFE
Thoroughblog reader Allen Abbott has informed us that trainer SHELDON WOLFE has passed away.
Wolfe was a fixture at Woodbine from the early 1970’s until the late 90’s. His first horse was HOPENSCOPE, who beat Royal Chocolate and others in the Fairbanks Stakes in 1972 at Greenwood. Wolfe, who was a family man and was aided in his horse business by his wife Charlotte, sons John and Don, was an old school trainer who had his share of top horses.
One of those included 2yo champion TRUTH OF IT ALL, the 1992 Grey Stakes winner over Wild Gale. Wolfe trained MT. TABOR ROAD, a horse he claimed from Gord Huntley for $16,000, DANCE FOR LUCYwas another good one, NORTHERN FLEET and REAL IRISH HOPE also ran in stakes.
The DRF stats say Wolfe won 219 races from 1,584 starters.
The Wolfe sons have a blog of memories working for his father at
http://keepturningleft.blogspot.ca/
WOODBINE OAKS – JUNE 9
Champion SPRING IN THE AIR meets up with a reachable field as she tries to prove herself after a narrow win in the Fury Stakes over Smartyfly. SAM-SON Farms is poised to send out major players in both the Oaks and Plate – could this be like the late 80s and early 90s again?
The top OAKS CONTESTANTS ARE:
Horse – Jockey
Spring in the Air; Joel Rosario
Dance Again Shaun Bridgmohan,
Nipissing Steve Bahen
Smartyfly – Eurico da Silva
Pink Trillium Luis Contreras
Rutherford Rd.
Tiz Ro
Original Script Jesse Campbell
ALL WORLD!
RULER OF THE WORLD UPSETS THE EPSOM DERBY
While even-money favourite and previously unbeaten DAWN APPROACH faded badly through the long stretch at Epson, it was RULER OF THE WORLD, who was white with sweaty lather before the 1 1/2 mile classic, who stormed fome to take the famous Derby.
The winner is owned by Mrs John Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith and trained by Aidan O’Brien. Ryan Moore rode the 3yo colt who is by Galileo out of Love Me True by Kingmambo. He is from the family of blue hen mare LASSIE DEAR, by Buckpasser.
The colt is unbeaten in 3 races now.
DAWN APPROACH lost his marbles in the race, fighting his rider hard all the way and he was simply not happy at any point. He beat one rival.
BOAT RACE – FRIDAY at WOODBINE
YELLOW BOAT lived up to her 2 to 5 odds by winning her Woodbine debut although it was certainly a heartstopping journey for her for a while.
The Lemon Drop Kid filly, owned and bred by Shel Evans and trained by Mark Frostad, hesitated a bit at the start of the 7 furlong race, was covered up behind a very slow pace, lacked room around the turn and in early stretch before diving inside and exploding. Her Beyer of 76 would have surely been bigger had she had a clear run, she looks like a good one,. The filly had won her maiden at Belmont in 2011, missed all of 2012 and then was 2nd in a Keeneland allowance with an 86 Beyer in April.
Other races..
SOTIQUE was well prepared to win her 2013 opener for owner/trainer Mike Wright to win the 1st race for $10,000 claiming fillies and mares. The 5yo Ontario bred by Hennessy – Brandy Lake was bred by Kinghaven Farms. It was her 1st win in 2 years and her first race for Wright who claimed her from her last race of 2012.
SUZANNE AND TIME DRAKE got their first win of the year when EAST POINT led all the way to win race 2 for $8,000 claiming. The son of Flower Alley, bred by Eugene Melnyk, was dropping from $15,000 to $8K for his 2nd race of the season. The Drakes run Silver Duck Racing Stable in King, ON> Na Somsanith set a slow pace on the gelding and held off ARTIE HOT, who was re-claimed by Tucci Stables and trainer Nick Gonzalez.
Race 4 came off the grass and it was a $40K claiming race, the first of the new condition races for non-winners of 2 or 3 but also open to multiple Ontario sired winners. It was one of the latter than won – CITIUS came back from a tough loss under an an apprentice rider to win under Luis Contreras for Danny Lococo and Ralph Biamonte. It was the gelding’s 5th career win.
MAVIS ROAD won her 3rd race off the layoff when she took the 5th for $9,500 claiming. The Old Forester filly is owned by C S Downs Stables and trained by Robert Williams.
A group of maiden $10,000 claiming fillies competed in race 6 and it was not a great group but the even money fave KEERA got up to win in the last stride for Paul O’Brien, who bought back the filly from auction for $7,000. Steve Attard trains the Silver Train filly and the time was 1:48 for 1 1/16 miles.
STEADY STUART is indeed steady. This 6yo gelding, owned and bred by Terra Farms (Dom Romeo) was making his first start of the year in the $10K claiming race and even though he was rubbed out in the stretch when along the rail, he took back and came on again to beat D’Oro Diablo for his 5th career win in his 30th start. He’s by Where’s the Ring and was well prepared by trainer Kevin Attard. That was the 3rd win for Luis Contreras on the day and he was earning every bit of his pay!
More Contreras in race 8, an Ontario sired allowance and the winner, SPIRIT WARNINGS, is a very exciting Weather Warning 4yo for Spirit Winds Stable Inc. He was making his 2nd start of the year and first race on turf and this black-gelding scorched them – winning by more than 6 with an 85 Beyer Figure. He is 3 for 6 and is a homebred out of Dance for Olga, by Ascot Knight. His trainer this year is Katerina Vassilieva.
Trainer Phil England won his first race of the season when SHE’S ANIMATED led from start to finish to win her maiden for $12,500. She is by D’Wildcat and Jeff Alderson was the winning rider.
COMING UP
LARRY CAPPUCCITTI will saddle his first horses this weekend, one of which will be ESSENCE HIT MAN in the Vigil Stakes – Grade 3 on Sunday. The Hit Man only has to beat 3 rivals to win the race for the 2nd straight year. Since it is a 4 horse field, it is the 3rd race tomorrow on an otherwise solid card of racing with big fields and good handicapping events.
LONGRUN SPA DAY
Join LONGRUN on Saturday June 8th at noon for a lovely Ladies Lunch featuring mini spa stations and refreshments during the days’ race card.
Contact Woodbine to purchase tickets via (416)-675-7223 ex. 1-2333 or WoodbineClub@WoodbineEntertainment.com
Tickets are only $65.00 and a portion of the ticket cost and all funds raised from the small silent auction table will be in support of LongRun.
