Fair Grounds photo
O JOY! IT’S A VICTORY!
JOYFUL VICTORY runs CAREER BEST Beyer Figure
Ontario bred JOYFUL VICTORY got back on the winning track with a win in the Tiffany Lass Stakes yesterday at Fair Grounds. The grey 4yo by Tapit – Wild Lucky Blac, Wild Again won by half a length in 1:45.09 for 1 1/16 miles on the dirt, good for a 95 Beyer Speed Figure.
She was bred by Bill Graham’s Windhaven and is owned by Fox Hill Farms Inc.
HOLLINGER, SOLID 2ND IN GP TURF ‘CAP – GRADE 1
Ontario bred HOLLINGER gave a good chance to the very tough front runner GET STORMY yesterday in the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap, but he could only get within a length of the white-faced ‘Stormy at the end of the 1 1/8 mile race run over a soft grass course.
Hollinger, a homebred for Robert Harvey is trained by Roger Attfield.
The champion 2yo of 2009, missed time from June 2010 to April 2011 and he has been doing well in grass events since then. He has won once since he was 2, a turf sprint at Woodbine last summer, and he has now been 2nd three times and third once in stakes races in his last 4 starts.
Yesterday, the grey son of Black Minnaloushe – Dynamite Cocktail, Dynaformer, ran a 96 Beyer Figure.
Jockey Jose Lezcano (Hollinger) – “The pace was too slow. My horse run a good race he just had to make up too much ground. The winner is a really good horse and had the pace all to himself.”
DONN HANDICAP – Thorougblog’s 2 picks were 2nd and way back, MISSION IMPAZIBLE, who is notorious for the stalling move late in his races, had it happen again yesterday as he busted through an opening on the rail too soon and was caught by wet-track lover HYMN BOOK.
The Beyer Figure was 106.
Tossing the Preakness and Belmont winners from last year proved to be a good move when betting the race (if you came up with Hymn Book). Those 3yo events last year were so drab, it was not a surprise to see Shackleford and Ruler on Ice disappear yesterday.
OTHER STUFF
PATRICK HUSBANDS rode a winner at his home track in Barbados, the Garrison Savannah, yesterday but he was likely expecting more from Woodbine shipper DANCIN DAVID in the Rotherley Construction Inc. Challenge Trophy at 1 1/8 miles. Dancin David, a nominee for stakes events next month including the Barbados Gold Cup, was 5th of 7 at 3 to 5 odds behind Island Memories.
DANCIN DAVID, formerly trained by Roger Attfield, won his maiden in August at Woodbine for $40,000 claiming with a 69 Beyer Figure. The distance and company likely were beyond the son of Omega Code.
SCOTT FAIRLIE, as owner and/or trainer, has had a productive winter in the U.S. and yesterday, KALAMBAKA QUEEN won a starter allowance for Fairlie. The Florida bred by Pico Central (Brz) was 7 to 2 and she is now 2 for 3 since being claimed by Fairlie for $10,000 at Woodbine. She posted a 73 Beyer Figure yesterday in the win at 6 furlongs.
Tiny fields are cheap, cheap racing is the norm at BEULAH PARK (still not sire why this track is still going) and yesterday 5 of the 8 races had winners that paid:
$3.00
$2.60
$5.80
$2.20
$3,20 – this one is a filly by Medaglia d’oro that won for $5,00 claiming!
Hey sleepy! Willow Ridge Farm recently welcomed this little one -a filly by Trajectory out of Ms Rudy Pants foaled on Feb. 8
Bonnie Greener Rowntree photo
TRENT FRAYNE, 93
Well known sportswriter also wrote for Canadian Thoroughbred magazine
I had the pleasure of meeting TRENT FRAYNE one afternoon when I drove to downtown Toronto to his house to pick up a story he had written on the Queen’s Plate.
I was fresh our of university, working on the backstretch at Woodbine and working as a co-editor at CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED magazine. And we had some stunning writers back then.
It was the late 80’s, or early 90s, and stories from Mr. Frayne and Jim Proudfoot, who also wrote for Canadian Thoroughbred, came to us typed out, double spaced, on paper. So most of the time, I had to go pick the stories up from the writers.
To think that I would take these stories back to the office in Aurora, Ontario and read then, edit them (LOL, who edits those guys?) and then put them in our little magazine – well, it was little, it still the no. 1 Canadian TB magazine out there.
Mr. Frayne really liked horse racing.
I have a very old copy of his 1959 book “THE QUEEN’S PLATE, the First 100 hundred Years“, it’s a treasure of mine.
Toronto Star report, Michael Lewis Staff Reporter
Trent Frayne, one of Canada’s greatest sportswriters whose career spanned more than 60 years and who became a mentor to a generation of young journalists, has died at 93 of complications related to pneumonia.
Known for his elegance and style in prose and in life, Frayne worked as a reporter, columnist and feature writer for a host of publications — covering everything from Wimbledon to the World Series, including his first in 1941 when he interviewed legendary Yankees slugger Joe DiMaggio
http://www.thestar.com/news/obituary/article/1129904–trent-frayne-dead-at-93-among-greats-of-sportswriting-game
