TOP BEYER FIGURES FROM WINNERS AT WOODBINE FRIDAY – SUNDAY
MR. HAVERCAMP – 100 (turf)
EMINENT FORCE – 90 (turf)
INFLEXIBILITY – 89 (turf)
MALIBU BONNIE – 84 (turf)
ETHANOL – 83
CONQUEST CAVALRY 83 (turf)
BOLD HOPE 82
FITZHENRYS, ANDERSON CONTINUE ROLL
100 BEYER SPEED FIGURE FOR MR HAVERCAMP IN BUNTY LAWLESS
MR HAVERCAMP – courtesy Catherine Day Phillips
Three-year-old Mr Havercamp schooled his older rivals in the $125,000 Bunty Lawless Stakes, kicking away to a seven and a half length victory on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine Racetrack.
Under the guidance of Woodbine’s meet-leading jockey Eurico Rosa da Silva, Mr Havercamp escaped from behind a wall of horses and rallied down the stretch on the far outside to score the head-turning victory in the one-mile Ontario Sires Stakes event for three-year-olds and up. His winning time over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course was 1:34.52.
San Nicola Thunder, the 2014 Bunty Lawless champion who raced widest of all among the front pack for most of the mile, finished back in second-place with Luis Contreras aboard. Call Me Wally and Jesse Campbell finished third after racing just outside of the inside leader Where’s the Widget through fractions of :24.33, :47.09 and 1:10.52. Nipigon finished fourth ahead of defending champion Where’s the Widget.
“This horse is a very, very nice horse,” said Da Silva after the race. “I went there full of confidence. He did train very, very well. Catherine [Day Phillips] brought him very sharp today. He was behind horses and it was a little bit hard to relax him because he wanted to go a little bit earlier, but there was a wall of horses and we just sat behind and when I turned him loose he just broke from there. He’s going to be special and he’s in the right hands.”
Mr Havercamp completed a training double on the program for Catherine Day Phillips, pushing her win count for the year past her previous best mark of 22 from the 2016 season.
“Since he’s started running, his personality has gotten bigger and better and he’s just so much fun to be around,” said Day Phillips of Mr Havercamp.
Owned by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry, the homebred Court Vision-Tennessee Lamb gelding has earned all four of his wins at Woodbine and now boasts back-to-back stakes victories. Unraced as a two-year-old, Mr Havercamp has now banked over $210,000 in just five career starts.
“It’s just exciting to watch him run,” said Sean Fitzhenry. “It’s awesome to see when he kicks down the lane. It’s a thing of beauty.”
“I was a little worried today,” admitted Dorothy, “but he came up nicely and took over and I was so happy. He’s such an awesome horse.”
Sent postward as the even-money favourite following his Vice Regent Stakes win last month, Mr Havercamp paid $4.30, $2.80 and $2.20. He combined with San Nicola Thunder ($3.90, $2.90) for a 6-7 exacta worth $12.70. A $1 trifecta of 6-7-2 (Call Me Wally, $3.10) paid $18.30 and a $1 superfecta of 6-7-2-4 (Nipigon) returned $46.35. Where’s the Widget, Born in a Breeze, supplemental entry Internal Bourbon and Wittle Wed Wabbit completed the order of finis
The Day Phillips barn has won 11 of its last 17 races including an allowance race on Wednesday night with GRACE AND DIGNITY, bred by David Anderson. This 2yo filly by Animal Kingdom was recently purchased, in part, by Michael Iavarone and his wife Jules. Ed Hart also owns the fleet filly. Grace and Dignity ran an 83 Beyer Figure in her win on Wednesday.
The FITZHENRYS have had a huge year with horses such as GUY CABALLERO (Plate Trial, 3rd Grade 3 Ontario Derby) and another Day Phillips client, David Anderson, is having a similarly big year.
Anderson, who has raced stakes winner Financial recovery this year, is the breeder of Breeders’ Cup starter and Grade 3 winner WONDER GADOT as well as INFLEXIBILITY, winner of the Carotene Stakes on Sunday.
from Woodbine –
Inflexibility, ridden by Luis Contreras, overcame a troubled start and traffic-filled trip to eke out a neck win in Sunday’s featured $125,000 Carotene Stakes, at Woodbine.
Bumped leaving the gate in the mile and one-eighth turf event, 4-5 top choice Inflexibility was quickly settled by Contreras, as the trio of Silent Sonet, Ghostly Presence and Mythical Mission led the field through early fractions of :25.34 and :49.29.
Silent Sonet, on top by a head at the stretch call, still had to contend with the game duo of Mythical Mission and Ghostly Presence, while Contreras desperately looked for a seam to unleash an outside run with Inflexibility.
When the opportunity finally arose for the favourite, the Chad Brown trainee saved her best for last, tracking down a scary good Ghostly Presence, to notch a neck win in 1.49.00 over ‘firm’ going in the race for Ontario-bred three-year-old fillies.
Ghostly Presence was 2 ¼-lengths ahead of Mythical Mission for runner-up honours, while Silent Sonet was fourth.
It was the second career stakes score for the daughter of Scat Daddy, who won the Wonder Where Stakes at Woodbine in July, just under a month after finishing third to fellow filly Holy Helena in the Queen’s Plate.
FRANKEL SIRES FIRST GROUP 1 WINNER – – A CRACK’ GOOD RACE IN THE CHAMPION STAKES
CRACKSMAN crushed the Champion Stakes – Group 1 at Ascot on Saturday
TELEGRAPH – Marcus Armytage, racing correspondent, at ascot
21 OCTOBER 2017 • 6:11PM
Aidan O’Brien may have equalled the world record for 25 Group Ones in a season, but it was Frankie Dettori – who else at Ascot? – who stole his thunder when he won the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes with Persuasive and then promptly trumped it and, pretty much most other races this year, riding Cracksman to a seven-length victory in the Qipco Champion Stakes.
Just at the point of the afternoon when a blustery seventh British Champions Day, run on heavy ground which knocked the edge off one or two of the speedier summer horses, was beginning to need a dominant, championship display to justify the weeks of hype, Cracksman produced the outstanding performance by a colt this season.
Reminiscent of his sire Frankel, who dominated the first two runnings of this end-of-season finale, he powered clear of his rivals to turn a competitive Champion Stakes into a procession coming home a long way clear of Poet’s Word and the multiple Group One winner Highland Reel.
BREEDERS’ CUP CANADIAN TEAM TAKING SHAPE
The Ontario breeding powerhouses of Anderson Farms and Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry will be on display at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar which goes on Nov. 3 and 4.
WONDER GADOT (Medaglia d’Oro), winner of the Mazarine Stakes on Tapeta at Wodbine, will try the dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies for owner Gary Barber. The filly was an $80,000 yearling and then purchased by Barber as a 2yo for $325,000. Mark Casse trains. The filly is out of Anderseron’s mare Loving Vindication.
DIXIE MOON, bought back by the Fitzhenry’s for $150,000 as a yearling, won the Cup & Saucer over the boys and will go in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.
Eurico da Silva will ride for trainer Catherine Day Phillips.
ADMIRALTY PIER, a debut winner on the grass for trainer Barb Minshall and then 3rd in the Grade 2 Summer Stakes, is headed to the Juvenile Turf. The English Channel Kentucky bred, owned by Hoolie Racing and Bruce Lunsford, was recently 4th in an off the turf stakes race at Keeneland. Ontario bred FLAMEAWAY, trained by Mark Casse, won that race, the Bourbon, and is headed to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf also.
ONTARIO BRED WINNER AT KEENELAND
5th-KEE, $55,705, Msw, 10-21, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:45.70, fm.
QUEEN’S FATE (f, 2, Artie Schiller–Shukriya {SP, $154,873}, by Grand Reward) rallied from far back to complete the trifecta
going six furlongsin her unveiling over the yielding going at Kentucky Downs Sept. 14. The 5-1 chance sat a stalking trip from
her inside draw, found room to the outside in the stretch and came charging over the top to earn a neck tally over the fastfinishing
Lemon Princess (Lemon Drop Kid). The winner=s dam produced a colt by Trappe Shot in 2016 and a colt by Street Boss
in 2017. She was bred back to Maclean=s Music. Sales history: $15,000 Ylg ’16 KEESEP; $32,000 2yo ’17 EASMAY. Lifetime
Record: 2-1-0-1, $36,220.
O-Maxis Stable & Michael J. Maker; B-Josham Farms Limited & Yvonne Schwabe Thoroughbreds(ON); T-Michael J. Maker.
FORT ERIE WRAPS UP 2017
Kirk Johnson held on to the title of Meet Leading Jockey for the fifth year in a row, completing the meet with 36 wins, followed closely by Helen Vanek with 35 wins. The top five jockeys were rounded out by Sunny Singh, Christopher Griffith and Melanie Pinto.
Horse of the Year went to Tiger Hall, owned by Kelly Ann Jones and trained by Kevin Buttigieg.
With 19 firsts this season, Julie Robillard finished the meet as Leading Trainer. Bruno Schickedanz took the title of Leading Owner.
2017 saw some new additions, including the inaugural Retired Racehorse Showcase, and the introduction of Saturday racing. “On-track, our Saturdays in the fall seemed to be successful, however they proved to be difficult operationally, in particular with staff who only work on race days,” said Tom Valiquette, chief operating and financial officer of the Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium. “After analyzing the results from Saturday racing, and listening to the input of our staff, horsepeople and fans, we decided to return to Sundays for the 2018 meet.”
Despite having an unfortunately wet and rainy summer, on-track attendance has been consistent with levels from previous years. Food and beverage sales and program sales remained consistent with previous years, and on-track wagering in the fall increased.
“From an attendance perspective we consider 2017 to have been a successful year, however we did face challenges this season, which were largely the result of a restrictive shipping policy that was introduced by Woodbine Racetrack at the start of our season,” continued Valiquette. “This policy had a significant impact on our field sizes, and therefor also on our wagering. The negative impact was most evident on our three biggest days of the year, opening day, Father’s Day and Prince of Wales day.
“Despite these challenges, our horsepeople, staff and fans helped to make 2017 another successful year, and we look towards our 2018 season with great anticipation.”
Racing is scheduled to return on Tuesday, May 29, 2018 with twilight racing beginning at 4:20 p.m. The Fort Erie Live Racing Consortium has once again applied for 40 race dates next year, which will run on Tuesdays and Sundays through to October 16.
