BREEDERS’ STAKES this Sunday, CANADIAN DERBY Saturday…Sunday at Woodbine was Baker day! who is the top apprentice jock in Canada??..and more!!!
DAVE LANDRY’S PORTRAIT OF GO GREELEY as a yearling. The $50,000 purchase is a 2 time stakes winner in 4 races this year for owner/trainer John Ross.
123RD BREEDERS’ STAKES – 3rd jewel of Canadian Triple Crown prime picking for Birds
With just 11 nominees to one of the oldest races in Canada, the BREEDERS’ STAKES could be a romp in the park for Sam-Son Farms’ brilliant colt UP WITH THE BIRDS. An unlucky 2nd in the Plate, this Stormy Atlantic guy is even better on the grass and his jock, Eurico da Silva seemingly wins every grass race there is.
The field may be 9 horses including a couple of maidens (remember MIAMI DECO at $123 3 years ago?) and a nice prospect from Roger Attfield, GLOBAL EXPRESS, and the tough PYRITE MOUNTAIN, but it could be all BIRDS, all the time.
PROBABLE FIELD
BOOKIES NIGHTMARE Discreet Cat gelding.. 6th in turf sprint to begin year, a maiden 70 Beyer
DRAGON PUFF = Peaks and Valleys gelding, 1st time grass 62 Beyer from latest allowance race
FAITHFUL ROSE Best of the Bests gelding, 4th behind Global Express, maiden 57 Beyer
HIGHLAND BAY Sligo Bay gelding, 3rd in turf marathon last time for JIM MAZUR/SHALE WAGMAN 72 Beyer from allowance
PYRITE MOUNTAIN – Silent Name (Jpn) coltr.. better on grass, freshend since Queen’s Plate,
RIVER SEVEN – Johannesburg gelding, turf debut, 94 Beyer in Prince of Wales
SCIPIO – Orientate colt, turf debut, 79 beyer from maiden win last time
UP WITH THE BIRDS – Stormy Atlantic colt, 97, 90 Beyers in Marine and Plate, loves grass, can you say 2 to 5?
GO TIME!
Go Greeley wins again
John Ross’s muscular 2yo colt GO GREELEY was never going to let the much smaller HEART TO HEART go past in the Vandal Stakes on Sunday and it was another win for the son of Horse Greeley.
Purchased by Ross for Bud Reynolds’ Jam Jar last year at the local sale, GO GREELEY now races for Ross the sudden passing of Reynolds this winter.
Reynolds and Ross have been friends and raced horses for decades and have had stars like SHAWS CREEK, CATAHOULA PARISH and more. Could this colt be the best one they would have owned?
Go Greeley is from the family of Shannon Farms’ graded stakes winner mare DEVIL’S ORCHID, who produced an early Queen’s Plate favourite in UNIFICATION.
Shannon Farms’ is owned by Laura Yates of Vancouver. Go Greeley was sold at auction by Bernard and karen McCormack’s Cara Bloodstock.
MORE SUNDAY
It was almost a clean sweep for trainer READE BAKER who won 3 races from 4 starters and capped a big week with 6 winners.
Topping the Baker winners was BEAR TOUGH TIGER, who bounced back to big form with an 89 Beyer win on the grass in an allowance/optional claiming event. Bear Stables’ flashy chestnut had been having trouble getting close in stakes events this year but he sure rolled on nicely on Sunday under his new rider, MATT MOORE.
Bear Tough Tiger, a turf lover but very versatile, is 9 for 16 in his career and he’s won 8 of those on Polytrack.
COACHELLA VALLEY won her maiden for $16,000 in the last race for owner/breeder Roger Fortier . The Even the Score filly was making her 3rd career start and she has a half sibling in the upcoming yearling sale.
JOSE SEA VIEW, owned and bred by Brereton Jones, ran to the hype in race 5 as he led all the way under a red-hot Emma-Jayne Wilson, and he posted a 67 Beyer in his career debut win. The gelding is by Badge of Silver and he has 3 other siblings who all won their 2yo debuts.
The best Baker prospect may be MAN O BEAR, who was a closing 3rd in the Vandal behind Go Greeley and is headed to the Simcoe Stakes.
Other winners on Sunday include trainer KEVIN ATTARD, who won 2 more to continue a wild roll (Call to Faith off the claim for $16K) and FIGHTING CHRIS for Terra Farms in an allowance race.
BRIAN LYNCH won 2 races with David Fernandes’ GOOD VIBRATION in a $40K turf race and ROYAL FURY, who upset a field for $40K in race 6.
Da Silva won 4 races including a MSW on the 2yo gelding FLASHY MARGARITTA (out of Ritta) for Mary Biamonte and Danny Lococo.
CANADIAN COUNTRY SINGER DANI NASH
is Messin’ and Running around Phil Gracey’s stable!
Good luck to the singer as she releases her first album at the Horseshoe Tavern SEPTEMBER 5.
WISE DAN KEEPS WINNING but OUCH…there are critics..
from RACING POST…By Sam Walker
US Horse of the Year Wise Dan won at the weekend and frustration over his low-key campaign continued. It appears the more he wins the more he raises heckles.
The crux of the problem is that racing fans want the American champion to stop running beneath his station in weak turf races, while owner Morton Fink wants to stick with what works (a mile on turf).
The bad news for Fink is that a mile on turf only ‘works’ because it is the soft option. The bad news for the fans is that Fink isn’t listening.
Talking to the Daily Racing Form recently the owner said he was “amused” by critics of the campaign and leading US writers have also come out in favour of the all-turf route for Wise Dan, with some laughably comparing the gelding to “specialists” like Frankel and Black Caviar.
Let’s clear up that comparison straight away: US turf racing is second tier. ..
MANITOBA DERBY GOES TO ASSEMBLY HALL
78 Beyer for son of Sharp Humor
ASSEMBLY HALL, making his 5th career start and first in Canada, won the Manitoba Derby last week. The Sharp Humor 3yo was a $3,500 Keeneland Sept. yearling and he is out of the unplaced Dynaformer mare DYNAFFAIR.
from WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, ALLAN BESSON
Assembly Hall’s co-owner Dennis Goettsch and his partner Bryan Porter have apparently found a formula for getting their horse to win on the road.
Simply put, Porter should stay at home in Minnesota.
At least it worked for them Monday, as Canterbury Downs jockey Alex Canchari rode the Kentucky-bred bay gelding to victory by a length-and-a-half in the 65th running of the $75,000 Manitoba Lotteries Derby.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/horseracing/assembly-hall-swiftest-of-all-218470581.html
ASSEMBLY HALL in the winner’s circle in front of packed Assiniboia Downs grandstand. Inset is 19-year-old jock Alex Canchari
THIS SATURDAY, THE CANADIAN DERBY!
from Northlands Park media…
Just two weeks before Toccetive won last year’s $200,000 G
rade 3 Canadian Derby, owners Lyle and Phylis Farkash (Southview Ag. Ltd.) sent out a first time starter named For Cash. The then two year old broke a bit slow and never really got going, finishing fourth beaten nine and a half lengths that day. Just 13 days later, his olde
r half-brother Toccetive would make history as he roared from off the pace to win the 83rd running of the Canadian Derby.
Trainer Dale Greenwood was down at Turf Paradise this past January when For Cash, and Toccetive, arrived at his barns off the van.
“He was pretty fresh when I started out with him,” said Greenwood. “He didn’t seem very mature. He’s come a long ways and he’s filled out quite a bit.”
Greenwood brought his horses back up to Northlands
Park for the racing season, and For Cash paid immediate dividends as he broke his maiden at six furlongs, doing it well and finishing strong. He followed that up with a big allowance win that saw him win by eight and a half lengths. Greenwood thought the 3 year old warranted a shot in the Western Canada Handicap.
“When we started breezing him he really started to light up the board,” said Greenwood. “His gallops weren’t particularly eye-catching, but his works have just gotten better and better.”
For Cash finished third in the Western Canada behind Najraan Breeze and third once again in the Ky Alta behind Broadway Empire. His last start may have been his best though in the Count Lath
um Handicap, as he battled early, but kept on fighting to finish second beaten just two lengths by the undefeated Smart Promotion. The Count Lathum was at a mile and a sixteenth, so he’ll be asked to go 5/16thof a mile further in the Canadian Derby.
http://www.northlandspark.ca/news/latest-news/item/176-for-cash-looks-to-follow-in-big-brother-toccetive-s-footsteps-in-the-canadian-derby
CANADA’S WINNINGEST APPRENTICE RIDER…
AMIE POOLI, apprentice “just wants to beat everybody”
*thanks to SUGAR DOYLE for this story!
At 24 years of age Kamloops, B.C., native Amie Pooli is quickly making a name for herself among the elite riders in Alberta. The stunning apprentice would capture the $50,000 Sales Stakes for 2YO Fillies, with Honey Candy, on Saturday afternoon and add two more victories on the day to add to her season totals.
Pooli finds herself sitting all alone in second, with 42 wins, in the Northlands Park rider standings behind leading jockey Rico Walcott. When asked about her main competition, while racing in Edmonton, Pooli wasted no time in answering…
“Everyone is… I just want to beat everybody!”
After being involved with rodeo, growing up, Pooli settled into the Exercise Rider and Jockey Training Program at Olds College, in Olds, Alberta. She’d be a member of the graduating class, of 2007, which included Eclipse and Sovereign Award winning rider Omar Moreno. Now it’s Pooli’s turn to take aim at this year’s Sovereign Award for Leading Apprentice Rider.
“It’s been a great year so far,” says Pooli. “My hard work appears to be paying off.”
http://www.thehorses.com/news/thoroughbred/item/236-amie-pooli-i-just-want-to-beat-everybody
