CANADIANS HAVE BIG DAY AT THE RACES…116 BEYER FIGURE FOR GAME ON DUDE and a giant takes the Gold Cup
Clearly, the Birds are Gold…Canadians have big day
“A simple plot
But I know one day
Good things are coming our way” – Coldplay, “Up With the Birds”
UP WITH THE BIRDS needed all of the Fair Grounds turf course stretch run (and how bad does that grass course look?) but he won his 3yo debut for Sam-Son Farms and trainer Malcolm Pierce and is on schedule for the July 7 Queen’s Plate.
Pierce, who has never won the Plate as a trainer, is loaded with a ton of nice Sam-Son runners this year (read the latest on Sam-Son from Rick Balaz in the latest CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED MAGAZINE)
Sam-Son Farms’ Up With the Birds, unhurried early, commenced a rally outside rivals when set down for the drive and was up to best Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s Animal Style by a head in the late stages of Saturday’s $75,000 Black Gold Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots.
Making his first start since winning Canada’s $250,000 Coronation Futurity last Nov. 10 at Woodbine, the favored Up With the Birds returned mutuels of $5.20 $2.80 and $2.20 while increasing his career earnings to $243,116 with his third victory in four career starts. He toured the about 7 1/2- furlongs over a Stall-Wilson Turf Course rated soft in 1:35.84.
“He’s a pretty nice colt,” said winning rider Shaun Bridgmohan. “He has a big profile after winning that race in Canada last fall and I’ve been getting on him in the mornings here so I know a little bit about him. I was pretty confident he’d get the job done today.”
Trainer Malcolm Pierce said he would be taking his sophomore son of Stormy Atlantic back to Canada this year with the main goal being the Queen’s Plate but might stop off and give him a race at Keeneland on the way north.
“It would be too quick to try and run him back here with that turf course being as tiring as it was today,” said Pierce.
UP WITH THE BIRDS is the first foal of the winning mare SON GOF THE LARK, a daughter of Grade 1 winner WILDERNESS SONG.
I CAN SEE…CLEARLY NOW!
Gulfstream Park photo by Coglianese/Kenny Martin
Touted in this corner as the likely winner of the Swale Stakes (G3) at Gulfstream Park yesterday, CLEARLY NOW did not let us down with a forceful win at a whopping 7 to 1 in the 7 furlong dash. Owned by Canadian Leonard Zenith and his Uphill Stable (John Charalambous trains some of his horses as well), Clearly Now was turning back in distance and exiting the tough Holy BBull Stakes, won by Itsmyluckyday (Shanghai Bobby was 2nd).
The son of Horse Greeley was a $30,000 Keeneland Sept. yearling purchase.
He is the latest stakes winner bred by the legendary Claiborne Farms.
Brian Lynch trains the 3yo colt who posted a 96 Beyer Figure.
The colt is 3 for 3 in sprints but Lunch suggested they would try the Florida Derby at 9 furlongs with the colt.
certainly yesterday, Clearly Now had a better strategy that he did under jockey Saez in the Holy Bull when he battled on the hot pace.
The mare, Bend, is from a more modest Claiborne family.
From Gulfstream:
Clearly Now was making his first start since finishing third behind Itsmyluckyday and Shanghai Bobby in the $400,000 Holy Bull Stakes (G3) going 1 1/16 miles on Jan. 26 in his 3-year-old debut. The Kentucky-bred son of Horse Greeley won his first two starts sprinting at Woodbine in Canada last year for trainer Brian Lynch before a third-place try in the Display Stakes racing over a distance for the first time on Dec. 1.
Singanothersong dueled for the lead from the start in the Swale through moderate fractions of 23 and 46 1/5 with Curtis Green’s 45-to-1 longshot Tulira Castle in the field of 11 3-year-olds until Clearly Now caught them nearing the eighth pole. Wes Welker’s Undrafted finished third, beaten a nose for second while Perretti Racing’s even-money favorite Forty Tales checked in fifth.
“The turn back in distance worked out very well,” said Lynch of Clearly Now. “He bobbled a little at the start which may have been a blessing in disguise. Luis (Saez) gave him a great ride and didn’t rush him. Then he finished up strong.
“With a 3-year-old you’re always tempted to think of the big races. We’ll see how he comes out of it and talk about what’s next. If we decide to try him long again, the Florida Derby is here and would be a possibility. Who knows? He might turn out to be a top turf miler. We’ll see.”
“We had a little trouble at the half-mile pole” said Saez. “When I took him out he was flying. I like this horse a lot. I knew I had a good chance from his last race. He finished third last time running against Itsmyluckyday and he needed that race, so I knew he’d do well today.
Clearly Now paid $16 for $2 to win and was timed the seven furlongs in 1:23:19 over the ‘fast’ track.
MORE CANADA
Stronach Stables and MARK FROSTAD combined to win with HONDURAN, a romping maiden winner at Gulfstream. The Kentucky bred posted a 76 Beyer in his win. He is by Macho Uno.
Mark Casse trained GUNDERMAN won a 9 furlong allowance race with an 86 Beyer at GUlfstream yesterday. He was coming out of a race won by VERRAZANO, who is headed to the Tampa Bay Derby next weekend.
The Casse stable had PROSPECTIVE at Tampa yesterday but the graded SW, making his 4yo debut, was eager early and then faded in the Challenger Stakes, finishing 4th.
SKY CAPTAIN was not a threat in the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct.
Popping onto the fringes of the QUEEN’S PLATE picture is FREUD’S VALE, who won an allowance race at Penn National yesterday for owner/breeder Ivan Dalos. The Freud colt is trained by Scott Lake and he won a 1 mile race in 1:40.
KEITH JOHNS and LORNE RICHARDS celebrated a nice Gulfstream win yesterday when PERFECT TAY (Perfect Soul -Ire), a Canadian-bred, won an allowance/optional claiming race on the grass. The 4yo won off the claim for the team last year at Gulfstream but struggled in 2012 at Woodbine.
Ontario bred CURLING ROCKS won a $5,000 claiming race at Charles Town yesterday for Stephanie Beatie et al. The Mobil _oolala gelding was bred by Mark Zamzow.
DUDE! WHAT A RACE…
LOS ANGELES TIME REPORT
By Bill Dwyre
A Ferrari made the rest of the field look like go-karts Saturday in the Santa Anita Handicap.
As the 6-5 favorite, Game On Dude was expected to be impressive, but he went well beyond that. He was dazzling, awe-inspiring. For the crowd of 26,901 at the Great Race Place, the 2 minutes and 14-hundredths of a second they got of Game On Dude was easily worth the price of admission.
The 6-year-old gelding broke to the front and never looked back, winning the $750,000 Grade I race by a record 7 3/4 lengths over Clubhouse Ride. That’s 1 3/4 lengths better than the previous best margin of victory, by Brocato in 1956.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-dwyre-santa-anita-20130303,0,292047.column
GIANT’S CAUSEWAY COLT WINS BARBADOS GOLD CUP
$60,000 2yo purchase ARISTODEMUS
from Barbados Advocate
It’s all Aristodemus!
Sir David Seale chalks up sixth Gold Cup win
By Petra Gooding
Aristodemus proved the naysayers wrong when he galloped away to win the 32nd running of the Sandy Lane Barbados Gold Cup yesterday at the Garrison Savannah.
The talk around the Garrison Savannah heading into the Gold Cup was that Aristodemus only had a chance of winning if the ground was soft. Well it happened to be nice and firm and the big chestnut colt was first past the finishing post to give owner Sir David Seale a sixth Gold Cup.
A beaming Sir David Seale told the press after the race that he was confident Aristodemus and fourth-placed Dancin David would have done well in the Gold Cup.
“When I come to races on Saturday I say the first horse I race, if it runs well, I feel good. Today [yesterday] of course the first horse we raced won, so I was feeling very confident we would win the Cup. The last three starts he [Aristodemus] won twice, and was beaten into second by a neck, but that was a slowly run race and that’s why. But today this was a quick one; this one was about four seconds faster, so that suited him fine,” said Sir David.
ARISTODEMUS – Kenmore Bynoe photo – nationnews.com, from dec. 2012
Holy stretch run Batman! VYJACK blows by to win Gotham
Pick Six Racing Stable owner David Wilkenfield:
“It’s amazing. Words can’t describe it. You buy a horse, you hope for this, but it’s not something you really think about. I was nervous [when he was so far back] because I’ve been watching the races all day and everything is first to second and pretty tight. Watching it on the replay it was great, unbelievable. I saw him way back – I saw he broke a step slow – but [jockey Joel Rosario] got him to relax and he ran like we thought he could run.
“That’s always been our game plan to stay at Aqueduct [and run in the Wood]. We wanted to get a two-turn race and we thought the Jerome was a little quick [off his previous race], but the Withers was too close to the Gotham and the Wood, so we took a chance and ran back quickly. Then we wanted to take the time and work with him and give him the proper rest and let him mature.”
