CARROTS

**Coming up – a special for tomorrow – AJAX DOWNS SELECTIONS/ENTRIES FOR MONDAY, the final card of the 2016 season. Plenty of Thoroughbred fans are planning on descending on the lovely track to take in the 12 races, 96 horses on the last day of the season!

***You can Crush the Cup – check out CRUSHING THE CUP, 25th anniversary book and packages at Progressive Handicapping (see the recent post called “Gathering”. Co-author Peter Mallet talks to us below…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
SLAM DUNK
Tiz a Slam powers to Cup & Saucer victory

Chiefswood Stable’s well regarded 2yo colt TIZ A SLAM, by Tiznow from the winning mare Flaming Rose (by Grand Slam), a daughter of stakes winner mare Essential Edge by Storm Cat, ran to his 3 to 5 odds on Saturday at Woodbine and won the prestigious Cup & Saucer Stakes at 1 1/16 miles on the grass with a Beyer Figure of 80.

Eurico Da Silva won both stakes races, on turf, on Saturday.

Tiz a Slam’s thirs dam, Rose of Tara, by Generous, was carrying Essential Edge when purchased in utero for $1,950,000 by Chiefswood’s Mark and Robert Krembil in 2002 at Keeneland November. Essential Edge went on to earn over $493,000. Rose of Tara’s subsequent foals included a couple of winners, one of which is Flaming Rose, the dam of Tiz a Slam.

Trained by Roger Attfield, the Tiznow bay was picking up his third win from four career starts in the 1 1/16-mile turf event for Canadian-bred juveniles. Tiz a Slam was a winner on his August 1 debut on the Woodbine Tapeta and came right back to win a turf allowance. Last time out, the talented colt finished fourth in the Grade 2 Summer Stakes.

Yorkton stepped away from the gate in a hurry to lead the field through splits of :23.23 and :47.12 with the filly, Financial Recovery, and Fleetway tracking his early foot. Fleetway moved up outside of Financial Recovery to take a shot at the leader going into the turn with the rest of the field, including a buoyant Tiz a Slam, preparing to launch an all-out assault.

Tiz a Slam, full of run, surged to the lead at the top of the lane as a cavalry charge enveloped the fading Yorkton. Avie’s Mesa and Romeo O Romeo both tried to reel in the leader but faltered as Tiz a Slam carried on through the wire a 1 3/4-length winner. Tidal Dancer, with Alan Garcia up, rallied up the rail to earn second money, a neck in front of Romeo O Romeo. Tiz a Slam covered 1 1/16-miles over a ‘Good’ turf course in 1:43.95.

Da Silva, aboard for all four career starts, admitted he was a little worried about making the lead too soon in the stretch run of the lengthy E.P. Taylor Turf Course.

“I was afraid I had moved a little bit too early, but he was just on the gallop,” said da Silva. “He was making the lead just galloping and he’s a very nice horse.”

The leading rider, who took the turf Bunty Lawless Stakes earlier on the card with Where’s the Widget, noted the turf course was in good condition despite recent rainfall.

“It was not bad at all. It’s soft but some horses handle it better than others,” said da Silva. “I’m lucky that my two horses handled it very well. It was soft, but my horse was happy.”

Tiz a Slam suffered his first loss when fourth in the Grade 3 Summer Stakes, a Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In event taken by Good Samaritan. The defeat didn’t alter Attfield’s high opinion of Tiz a Slam.

“I wasn’t disappointed in the horse. His progress has been great and I could read a little bit into that race and it wasn’t a major concern to me,” said Attfield. “He’s just a really classy horse and he’s coming along great for me.”

Attfield noted that the $250,000 Coronation Futurity, a 1 1/8-mile main track event for Canadian-bred juveniles set for November 13, might be next in line for Tiz a Slam.

“Originally, I didn’t want to race this horse too much this year as he’s such a big colt, but he’s proven me incorrect in some of those aspects,” said Attfield. “He’s so well balanced and so easy on himself there’s a possibility if the weather is right and the track is right that he could be there, but I’ll need to talk to the owners about that.”

Roger Attfield won 3 races on the card and he is one of several trainers that Chiefswood has hired over the years to train its horses. The stable has had Ian Black, Paul Attard, Rachel Halden, Silvio Abela, Eric Coatrieux and now has Mike DePaulo training some of its horses in addition to Attfield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MORE FROM SATURDAY

Super training job by Ralph Biamonte to have WHERE’S THE WIDGET ready to lead all the way over soft grass to win the Bunty Lawless Stakes. The Steady Growth Stakes winner, by Giant Gizmo, was off from July 2 when he won a starter allowance and he had been 0 for 4 on turf before this race. The 4yo gelding posted a 93 Beyer Figure for this win over Chiefswood Stables’ Nipigon.

 

Trainer NORM MCKNIGHT won his 44th race of the season in race 1 when GEOCENTRIC rallied to win for $11,500 claiming for her 4th win of the season. This 4yo filly added to a record year for McKnight, who, since 1995, had not won more than 34 races in one season. McKnight has a 31% win rate this year.

CAROTENE HONOURED TODAY

It is important to know your historical figures, human or equine. Today, Woodbine honours the famous runner and mare FANFRELUCHE with a stakes event and also hails CAROTENE, ‘Carrots’ as oe of the greats as this champion has a stakes race named after her today too. I could not resist digging into the vault…

(Below – CAROTENE in 1987 in the Woodbine walking ring, can you see Mike Keogh, Ian Black, Bud and Mike Willmot?; yours truly enjoyed walking and grazing Carotene for her groom Bob)

 

 

 

LONGRUN DAY AT WOODBINE – NOVEMBER 12

 

 

 

LONGRUN THOROUGHBRED RETIREMENT SOCIETY will soon be officially opening its brand new doors at its own farm in Hillsburgh ON.

Thanks to a generous donation by the late Lana Sniderman, LongRun’s board of directors has been able to buy its first proeprty, one section of the former Woodlands Farm owned by Gail Wood.

The task to have all of its horses up for adoption, and those who need permanent homes, is a monumental one for the group that started in 2000 but now interested adopters can go to one farm and look at horses available. IN its previous 15 years, LongRun had a network of foster farms.

FIFTY PROOF, a multiple stakes winner and one of Woodbine’s popular and pretty geldings, has recently arrived at LongRun to make that his home and he hangs out with VILLAGE DRIVE, a 10-time winning 9-year-old who was recently retired by Tish and Nick Gonzalez, who claimed him for $5,000 2 starts ago.

PARABOLA has also arrived at LongRun. The 10-year-old won the Kingarivie Stakes for bredder Janet Jeanpierre 10 years ago and went on to win 24 races from 104 starts for various interests. His current owner/trainer, Cody beattie, retired him recently and arranged to haveh im send back to his home province. Parabola is by Trajectory.

Tour will be available soon at LongRun and on Nov. 12, it will host its annual LongRun day with a jockey signing and calendar giveaway.

Please help our racehorses find a loving, post-racing home. If you can’t find a home for your horse, contact LongRun.
if you have bet and made a coulple of bucks betting on horses this year, come out to LongRun day and buy some cool swag!

 

 

 

 

CRUSHING THE CUP – 25TH ANNIVERSARY BOOK

co- author Peter Mallett gives us a preview of what he will supply to Thoroughblog beginning Oct 31

BY PETER MALLETT – I look forward to the Breeders’ Cup every year but I am especially eager when Santa Anita is the host site. I have been there for seven of the eight years it was the host track. Part of it is greed: I have always done well there and much of it comes by being extra respectful of the local horseman and their horses and being skeptical of horses with reputations made at Belmont.
But more important a Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita is a great place to celebrate the sport. The weather will be terrific and now that the distractions about the surface of the main course are history it a can only get better. The new wrinkle to be solved is how the suddenly ‘quick’ new surface of the turf course will impact the races I love best: the Mile, the Filly and Mare Turf and the Turf.
No, I am not new to researching for Breeders’ Cup. I have been co-authored twenty-five (count ‘em twenty five) editions of Crushing the Cup, as well co-authoring actual race by race analysis in the Crushing Zone. Woodbine regulars will be familiar with both of those publications and may have met me in Breeders’ Cup seminars hosted by Jim Bannon.
I’ll be at Santa Anita all of Breeders’ Cup week and will be out early watching horses that I may have read about or seen on video but never seen in the flesh. I’ll be asking questions, listening to rumors, studying the surfaces and how they are being maintained and above all focusing on the races and the horses where there is a chance to crush this cup. My thoughts will be shared here every day starting on October 31 after the actual post positions have been drawn. I’ll be trying to TRICK the other ‘experts’ and TREAT myself to a payoff by thinking outside the box!

 

HOLIDAY!

from Thoroughbred Daily News

AMI’S HOLIDAY, who is expected to enter stud in 2017 in Ontario, won a nice race at Keeneland on Saturday…

8th-KEE, $58,505, Alw (NW3$X)/Opt. Clm ($80,000), 10-22,
3yo/up, 1 1/16m, 1:43.78, ft.

AMI’S HOLIDAY (h, 5, Harlan’s Holiday–Victorious Ami {SW, $302,644}, by Victory Gallop), third at 17-1 in the GIII Ben Ali S.
here last spring, was still awaiting his first win since conquering the Breeders S. in August 2014 going into this spot. Off as a 77-
10 proposition, the bay stalked loose favorite Financial Modeling (Street Sense) through a modest pace of :24.54 and :48.80. The
frontrunner appeared to have plenty left to hold off his pursuer entering the stretch, but Ami’s Holiday kept to his task and
started to eat up ground at the sixteenth pole, eventually overhauling the chalk for a one-length success. The winner is a
half to Ami’s Mesa (Sky Mesa), SW, $101,310. His dam is responsible for a 2-year-old Exchange Rate colt named Ami’s
Exchange and produced an Into Mischief colt this term before being bred to Flatter. Sales History: $35,000 RNA Ylg ’12 KEESEP.
Lifetime Record: GSW, 21-4-1-6, $807,773. O-Ivan Dalos; B-Tall Oaks Farm (ON); T-Josie Carroll.