IT’S SOVEREIGN AWARDS NIGHT at Woodbine, a lavish, fun-filled ceremony to celebrate last year’s champions and to usher in the 2012 season! Put all the worries aside for tonight, enjoy the evening…
CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED MAGAZINE wants to thank and wish good luck to DAVE LANDRY, ERICKA RUSNAK and JANIS MAINE, all 3 nominees for outstanding photo and all 3 appeared in our magazine!
Nominations for all awards:
CONTRERAS LEADS OPENING DAY STORIES
Woodbine’ top jock hopes Prospective is a Derby mount
It would be quite cool to see if Woodbine trainer and rider Mark Casse and Luis Contreras get a chance to compete in the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May. PROSPECTIVE, whom Contreras rode to victory in the Tampa Bay Derby, is an upwardly improving fellow owned by John Oxley. He gets his final Derby test in the Blue Grass Stakes on a synthetic surface next weekend.
Certainly any kind of performance means he will be in the Derby, since the big race is on the dirt and this colt won the Tampa Bay Derby on the dirt.
Contreras also rode ISN’T HE CLEVER, a Derby hopeful, in the Sunland Derby last weekend but he has been replaced by Robby Albarado for the Arkansas Derby.
Meanwhile, back on the home front, Contreras rides the majority of the opening day races at Woodbine but interestingly, Patrick Husbands rides most of the Casse trainees.
Tomorrow’s opening day card is packed with good-sized fields and lots of betting opportunities. The Debut Stakes will feature a field of 6 with the likely scratching of highweight PASO DOBLE, who will go in the JACQUES CARTIER STAKES on Saturday.
The Jacques Cartier is at 6 furlongs and has lured Soveeign award nominee ESSENCE HIT MAN, who won the race last year and is working like the wind this spring. The race has also attracted champion MADMAN DIAIRIES from the Wesley Ward barn.
Lots of cool promotions going on at Woodbine (SEND A PIC FROM OPENING DAY ON TWITTER AND WIN!) for opening day and it looks like a sparkling, sunny day at 11 degrees Celcius.
Features on Contreras today from CP and Toronto Sun:
http://www.570news.com/sports/article/348332–luis-contreras-returns-to-woodbine-with-walls-riding-record-in-his-sights
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/04/04/contreras-woodbines-rising-star
Another Woodbine feature, this one on jockey Justin Stein (National Post):
STRIKE AND LIKE
Woodbine’s opening day aside, it is a huge day on Saturday for Queen’s Plate contenders, Canadian breds and Kentucky Derby contenders.
At Keeneland, the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes, a prestigious event in itself, has lured top Canadian fillies DIXIE STRIKE and HARD NOT TO LIKE. The former is the early Plate favourite but will have to really step up for this tough event. HARD NOT TO LIKE could be even better that Dixie Strike but it is her first race of the season for Garland Williamson’s Hillsbrook Farm.
CENTRAL BANK ASHLAND S.-GI, $500,000, 3yo, f, 1 1/16m (AWT)
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Dixie Strike Dixie Union Lezcano Casse 121
2 Hard Not to Like Hard Spun Albarado Cox 121
3 Heart of Destiny Lion Heart Prado Baker 121
4 Karlovy Vary Dynaformer Graham Arnold II 121
5 Goldrush Girl Political Force Cruz McPeek 121
6 Lotta Lovin Repent Garcia Maker 121
7 Stephanie’s Kitten K Kitten’s Joy Leparoux Catalano 121
KENTUCKY DERBY PREPS GET INTERESTING
Canadian colt jock, owner in action
Canadian bred FASTESTWHOGETSPAID is in the Illinois Derby at Hawthorne on Saturday:
Saturday, Hawthorne, post time: 6:46 p.m. EDT
ILLINOIS DERBY-GIII, $500,000, 3yo, 1 1/8m
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Romancing The Gold Medallist Ortiz Jr Englehart 122
2 Hakama K First Samurai Pimentel Trombetta 122
3 Ring It Up Toccet Wade Richard 122
4 Currency Swap High Cotton Bridgmohan Pompay 122
5 Pretension Bluegrass Cat Santiago Grove 122
6 Skyring English Channel Vazquez Lukas 122
7 Saturday Launch K Any Given Saturday Emigh McPeek 122
8 Z Rockstar Rockport Harbor Hamilton Von Hemel 122
9 Fastestwhogetspaid K Henny Hughes Ocampo Williamson 122
10 Frankie Is Rock K Rock Hard Ten Perez Aguilar 122
11 Our Entourage K Street Cry (Ire) Castro Pletcher 122
12 Morgan’s Guerrilla K Ghostzapper Napravnik Maker 122
13 Done Talking Broken Vow Russell Smith 122
14 Slamit Grand Slam Hill Ice 122
AE Explain Broken Vow Torres Cox 122
AE Arm Force K Tiznow Castro Harty 122
AE Defiant Flyer Early Flyer Martinez Davis 122
All carry 122 pounds
Fastestwhogetspaid, bred by Kinghaven Farms, a son of Henny Hughes – Talk Back – Oaklawn Park photo
CANADIAN OWNED/RIDDEN COLT IN CAL.
J. Paul Reddam owns the Flower Alley colt I’ll Have Another, who will be ridden by top Hastings Park jockey Mario Gutierrez:
Saturday, Santa Anita Park, post time: 5:30 p.m. EDT
SANTA ANITA DERBY-GI, $750,000, 3yo, 1 1/8m
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Creative Cause K Giant’s Causeway Rosario Harrington 122
2 Liaison K Indian Charlie Bejarano Baffert 122
3 Holy Candy Candy Ride (Arg) Quinonez Sadler 122
4 I’ll Have Another K Flower Alley Gutierrez O’Neill 122
5 Longview Drive K Pulpit Baze Hollendorfer 122
6 Paynter K Awesome Again Garcia Baffert 122
7 Senor Rain El Nino Flores Miller 122
8 Midnight Transfer K Hard Spun Smith Gaines 122
9 Blueskiesnrainbows K English Channel Talamo Baffert 122
10 Brother Francis Lion Heart Gomez Cassidy 122
I’ll Have Another, by Alex Evers/EquiSport Photos
NEW YORK: IS GEMOLOGIST THE REAL DEAL?
RESORTS WORLD CASINO NEW YORK CITY WOOD MEMORIAL
S.-GI, $1,000,000, 3yo, 1 1/8m
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Alpha Bernardini Dominguez McLaughlin 123
2 Casual Trick K Bernardini Nakatani Zito 123
3 My Adonis Pleasantly Perfect Trujillo Breen 123
4 Teeth of the Dog K Bluegrass Cat Bravo Matz 123
5 Street Life K Street Sense Alvarado Brown 123
6 Gemologist K Tiznow Castellano Pletcher 123
7 Tiger Walk Tale Of The Cat Velazquez Correas IV 123
8 The Lumber Guy Grand Slam Velasquez Hushion 12
KENTUCKY DERBY – GRADED EARNINGS FOR CONTENDERS
Hansen … $1,400,000
Daddy Long Legs … $1,284.030
Union Rags … $1,170,000
Wrote (IRE) … $756,630
Take Charge Indy … $698,400
Creative Cause … $686,000
Sabercat … $601,429
Daddy Nose Best … $545,558
Secret Circle … $470,000
Dullahan … $405,000
Liaison … $393,000
Prospective … $365,452
Drill … $300,000
On Fire Baby (f) … $286,729
Went the Day Well … $282,000
Rousing Sermon … $270,000
Mark Valeski … $260,000
El Padrino … $250,000
Reveron … $220,000
Isn’t He Clever (g) … $188,000
Optimizer … $181,375
Alpha … $180,000
Trinniberg … $174,500
Castaway … $162,000
I’ll Have Another … $151,000
Currency Swap … $150,000
My Adonis … $130,000
Battle Hardened … $127,000
Brother Francis … $120,000
Gemologist … $103,855
🙂 FUNNY STUFF – BAD PICKS FROM THE EXPERTS = NOT GOOD FOR GAME
By Jay Cronley | Special to ESPN.com
In the full-time quest to attract new fans to horse racing, with new fans seemingly defined as young fans, a key element of the task would be eliminating what’s off-putting about the sport.
What’s the worst thing about horse racing when it comes to filling a lovely spring afternoon?
Losing.
Bad pickers can scare off business.
Anybody looking at what the TV handicappers did to the Derby prep races in Florida and Louisiana over the weekend would run for a keno clerk.
READ MORE:
http://espn.go.com/horse-racing/story/_/id/7766927/step-right-up
