GET READY FOR MORE RACING ACTION…Will Her Majesty The Queen’s DARTMOUTH be at Woodbine next month?
But first – coming up this weekend..4 stakes races at Woodbine, SONGBIRD at Parx, NOHOLDINGBACK BEAR also at Parx and NYQUIST, EXAGGERATOR et al, also at Parx!
HRH THE QUEEN’S DARTMOUTH has Woodbine on schedule
From Thoroughbred Daily News – One of Royal Ascot’s headline stories, The Queen’s Dartmouth (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), returned from his summer holiday in fighting form in last Saturday’s G3 Dubai Duty Free Legacy Cup at Newbury and finished 2nd to ALGOMETER as he ” preps for Woodbine. Having beaten Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G2 Hardwicke S. at the Royal meeting June 18, he was third behind that rival when held up in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. at that venue July 23 and emerged with plenty of credit. The Queen’s racing advisor John Warren said, “He’s a big, strong horse and he’s in very good form. The intention is for him to run. It’s been a while since the King George and hopefully this will be a nice blow-out for him and a good prep race. [GI] The Canadian International is a possible target for him, ”
ALGOMETER, trained by David Simcock, is another possible CI starter: https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/horseracing/1802481/algometer-bounces-back/
SHAWN MINSHALL HITS YEARLING HOME RUN AT KEENELAND
Shawn Minshall of Minshall Farms near Hillsburgh ON sold an Ontario-bred Uncle Mo colt early on Friday afternoon at Keeneland for $435,000, one of the highest prices for an Ontario/Canadian bred yearlings in 2016 (Anderson Farms sold a $450,000 yearling earlier in the sale, a son of Scat Daddy).
The colt is from the Minshall farms mare Scarlet’s Castle, a daughter of Minshall stallion Sea Wall. Scarlet’s Castle did not race but has produced multipel stakes winner Spadina Road and stakes placed Casa Loma.
The mare’s 3-year-old of this year, by Exhi, is Conquest Strategy, a recent winner.
Scarlet’s Castle is a daughter of Castlemania (Bold Ruckus) who also produced stakes winners for the Minshall family.
The buyers of the colt are Scott and Evan Dilworth who, on the very next day, earned $200,000 (Can) when their Ontario bred Tower of Texas finished 2nd in the Woodbine Mile to Tepin.
An Ontario bred Tiznow – La Suena by Storm Cat colt sold for $325,000 to Hartley/DeRenzo. The colt was consigned by Hidden Brook, agent and was originally purchased as a weanling from breeder Bill Graham for $275,000.
Anderson Farms, agent sold a Quality Road – Holy Eclair by Holy Bull bred in Ontario for $270,000 to Three Amigos.
Anderson Farms has sold 5 yearlings for $1.30 million.
Buyers at the auction from these parts include Henley Farms, Reade Baker, Gail Cox, Barb Minshall, Windways Farm, Nick Gonzalez, Mike DePaulo and trainer Mark Casse.
From western Canada, Jim and Susan Hill have been very active with 14 purchases for over $1.8 million.
Glen Todd’s North American Horse Company, which won its first BC Derby recently, purchased an Alternation filly for $27,000 on Saturday and a $50,000 colt by The Factor on Sunday. In total, Todd purchased 5 yearlings.
SONGBIRD SATURDAY
After taking Saratoga by storm with two virtuoso performances, Songbird returns East for an encore in Saturday’s $1 million Cotillion Stakes at Parx Racing.
A perfect 10 for 10 after decisive wins in the Coaching Club American Oaks and Alabama in upstate New York, the jet-setting Songbird takes on five rivals in the 50th running of the Grade 1 Cotillion, which has been won by five eventual champion 3-year-old fillies, as well as Close Hatches, who set the stakes record of 1:40.93 seconds in 2013 and was champion older mare the next year.
Songbird, the 2015 Eclipse Award winner as top juvenile filly, is the 1-2 morning-line choice, and expected to face a litmus test from Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks winner Cathyn Sophia. What’s more, Carina Mia, winner of the Grade 1 Acorn, is back for another try after forcing the champ to draw a deep breath for the first time in the CCA Oaks.
After cruising through her first eight wins unchallenged, that gut check in the Oaks was what really impressed trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
“She got challenged coming into the lane and drew away from (Carina Mia)…I thought that was a pretty important race, something she hadn’t shown,” said the Hall Of Fame conditioner, who ranks third all-time in career victories. “Saratoga is a very tough environment to win races. These kinds of horses are few and far between. I really do hesitate to compare horses from different era, so it’s not really fair to compare her to some of the other horses I’ve had. She’s making her own name by what she’s done so far.”
Songbird faced a prolonged pace challenge in the Alabama before pulling away by seven widening lengths. She continued to thrive after heading back to Southern California, and Hollendorfer doesn’t foresee cutting back from 1 ¼ miles as a major a factor. “I’m not a believer – especially with this particular horse – that it’s going to make a difference cutting back in distance,” he said. “She has natural speed and she’s drawn (post 5) as good as she could draw. She’s done nothing different (since the Alabama) except maybe get better. It was nice to have her down at Del Mar, she loves it down there, and then we came back to Santa Anita, so she had two works there and did really well.”
Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia summered at the fabled Spa too, but after a busy first half of the year that began with a pair of Grade 2 stakes victories in Florida, she was given a designed freshening by John Servis and merely breezed every week to 10 days. She returned to the races in early September with a dominating victory in the Princess of Sylmar Stakes at Parx, where she burst onto the scene with a 12 ¾-length debut win last fall.
“She likes the cooler weather, she’s not a big fan of the hot weather” said Servis, who developed the Parx-based Smarty Jones into the champion 3-year-old of 2004. “The comeback race was perfect, it didn’t take much out of her and it set her up good for this race.”
With the seasoned Carina Mia breaking from the rail and stretching out after dueling for the lead against older mares in the Grade 1 Ballerina, and Songbird in post 5 outside the speedy Disco Rose, a potentially fast pace could favor a stalker like Cathryn Sophia.
“We’ll see,” said Servis. “You don’t know how it’s going to set up. Everything changes once they leave that gate. Songbird has impressed me a lot. She has the talent to run horses off their feet and keep going,”
With the top three members of the division in the 1 1/16-mile Cotillion, as talented a filly as Kentucky Oaks runner-up Land Over Sea is 20-1 on the morning line, as are the locally-based runners Disco Rose and Queena Esther.
With a scheduled post time of 4:55 Eastern, the Cotillion is race 10 on Saturday’s star-studded 12-race program and the third leg of an all-stakes pick four that climaxes with the $1.25 million, Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby. Both races will be broadcast on Comcast Sportsnet from 4:30 to 6:00 along with the Grade 3, $300,000 Gallant Bob Stakes for 3-year-old sprinters.
$50 MILLION RACETRACK TO BE BUILT NEAR EDMONTON
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/edmonton-horse-racing-contract-awarded-to-century-casinos-1.3769645
A $50-million horse racing facility to be built near the Edmonton International Airport will feature the only mile-long track in Western Canada, a spokesman for the project said Monday.
It will be called Century Mile, Paul Ryneveld, a spokesman for operator Century Casinos, said in an interview.
The facility will be built on a 105-acre parcel of land in Leduc County west of the RedTail Landing golf course. Ryneveld said if construction can start next spring, the racetrack will be operating by the fall of 2018.
“In North America, [one mile] is considered to be the optimal distance,” said Ryneveld, who is general manager of the Century Downs racetrack near Calgary.
“Most of the premier racing facilities in North America are all mile racetracks. This will allow Albertans the ability to race horses on a mile racetrack, and [allow] the fans to wager on them.”