ARNOLD ZATCHER and BOB BAFFERT
Will Oaks continue roll?
Owner ARNOLD ZATCHER and trainer Bob Baffert won the Acorn Stakes (Grade 1) yesterday at Belmont with the 3yo front running gal GABBY’S GOLDEN GAL. Could the pair double up in the biggest race in canada for fillies?
Zatcher owns Canadian-bred WYNNING RIDE, a 5 to 2 morning line favourite for the Oaks today, the 1 1/8 mile classic for 3yo fillies.
The race is the 9th of 11 today and can be seen on THE SCORE. Wynning Ride is by Candy Ride and is out of Jim and Alice Sapara’s mare WYNYARD.
Longshot prospects today include HIGH MIST, POLITEPRECOCIOUS (blinkers on, a la Summer Bid in the Belmont yesterday!) but TASTY TEMPTATION, by the unbelievably hot sire MEDAGLIA D’ORO (sired of Gabby’s Golden Gal) is theone to beat from post 13 for Woodford Racing, now in its 3rd year of partnerships.
Today at Woodbine, there is an Oaks seminar at 11 a.m. on the SECOND FLOOR, and a Q107 TRACKSIDE PARTY, outside on the apron.
SUMMER BIRD (far left) mows down MINE THAT BIRD, middle and DUNKIRK. Cindy Pierson Dulay photo.
BIRD OF ANOTHER COLOUR
Summer Bird flies in Belmont
Chestnut colt SUMMER BIRD, by the same sire as Mine that Bird the Kentucky Derby winner (Birdstone) was the last move in the 1 1/2 mile Belmont Stakes and thus the first to the wire to make for 3 different winners of the American Triple Crown.
It was the first Belmont win for jockey Kent Desormeaux.
The Beyer Figure of 11 was the best for Summer Bird but marked a decline for Mine That Bird.
Summer Bird, owned and bred by the Jayaraman family and trained by Tim Ice is regally bred with a litany of Kentucky derby winners in his immediate pedigree. His grandsires Grindstone and Unbridled won the derby as did Northern Dancer, who appears on several strains of hte colt’s breeding. Alysheba is also right up close inthe colt’s breeding.
Summer Bird was picked by a number of Woodbine horsefolks, some of whom pointed out that the colt’s ‘sheet’ numbers were boss. He paid $25.00 to win and illustrated the power of the ‘blinkers on’ factor. Summer Bird grabbed the lead from Mine That Bird in deep stretch as that one had made an early move to the lead but then stalled late. DUNKIRK was trying to lead all the way and he put up a brave fight to battle on and beat Mine that Bird for 2nd place.
Race report from The Blood-Horse:
Summer Bird, Desormeaux Soar to Belmont Upset
By Dan Liebman
A year ago jockey Kent Desormeaux lost a bid for a Triple Crown when he had to pull up heavy favorite Big Brown. On June 6 in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I) (VIDEO), he got his elusive Belmont victory when he guided Summer Bird to an upset in the third leg of the Triple Crown.
All eyes in the $1 million event were on the other bird in the field, Mine That Bird, but the 6-5 favorite came up short, finishing third as Dunkirk got second. Both Summer Bird and Mine That Bird are sons of Birdstone, who won the Belmont in 2004.
Some might criticize jockey Calvin Borel, on Mine That Bird, for moving too soon in the 12-furlong race, but Borel said following the race that though he might have done so, “we just got outrun today.”
Borel would have become the first jockey to win the three Triple Crown races on different horses. He won the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) on Mine That Bird and the BlackBerry Preakness Stakes (gr. I) on Rachel Alexandra.
On a day when speed was holding on the Belmont main track, read more at
www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/51144/summer-bird-desormeaux-soar-to-belmont-upset
BEAR IS HOT
Strawbridge’s Ice Bear now a monster on Polytrack, 94 Beyer
ICE BEAR surprised most with an inside rally to win the Grade 3 Eclipse Stakes at Woodbine yesterday over champion MARCHFIELD, who rallied very wide around the turn and was slowly gaining closer to the front before the wire came up.
Chantal Sutherland said on the in-house TV: (Trainer Mac Benson) said to me before the race, ‘well hon, do whatever you want to do on him’. I can always go with the flow with this horse. I like the Poly with him but he’s good on both, he has great acceleration on the Polytrack.
Benson said: He seems to love the Poly, I can’t get over the way he’s taken to it the last 2 years maybe that’s the route we should take with him
Multiple champion Judith’s Wild Rush, curiously in the barn of yet another new trainer, was sent hard to the lead, led through 24, 47 2/5 before he was joined at the 1/4 mile mark by Approval Rating. Marchfield wound up 4 wide and had a slow gain through the stretch at the end of 1 1/16 miles.
STAR IS BORN
SEA THE STARS first horse in 20 years to win win Guineas – Derby double
Watch his Epsom Derby win here. He is a son of Cape cross out of the super mare Urban Sea.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJnpWHlBJpU
HASTINGS REPORT
Bank Emblem win George Royal
The California bred gelding BANK EMBLEM cannot be stopped it seems. Once a $10,000 claimed runner, the 6yo, now owned by Norma and Leo Shaw, won for the 3rd straight time at Hastings yesterday in his first stakes race and beat the top older runners on the circuit. True Metropolitan was scratched.
The gelding has had 5 different owners and been claimed that many times. He was claimed for $50,000 by his current owners and he is trained by Robert Gilker. Spaghetti Mouse was 2nd in the 1 1/16 mile race (the Groge Royal) that was run in 1:43.62
m Horse Jockey Win Place Show
1 Bank Emblem Francisco Perez Fuentes 13.00 4.60 2.40
5 Spaghetti Mouse Pedro V. Alvarado 4.50 2.40
4 Krazy Koffee David Wilson 2.20
Also ran: 3 – Texas Wildcatter , 6 – Seminole Brave
Scratched horses: True Metropolitan
AJAX OPENING DAY
Track record in feature
Dianetobeawticha wins the feature at Ajax. Norm Files photo.
Quarter Horse racing in Ontario got underway for 2009 yesterday with a full pack of 11 races at the brand new Ajax Downs track -a 5 furlong surface and oval adjacent to the slots facility.
The day started off with a lot of action, the winner of the first race DALS ROYAL DASH, was disqualified from the score and EYESA KICKIN WILLIE from the Joe Tavars stable was placed first. Eddie Walton was dumped from his mount soon out of the gate.
MISS BEDLAN was a fast winner of a maiden allowance for Sandra Laszlo and partners in race 3. John McInerney rode the Arizona bred filly to win the 250 yard dash in 13.53 for a 92 speed index.
Ajax’s new grandstand. Norm Files photo.
The featured event, an $11,000 allowance went to DIANETOBEAWITCHA, a gelding bred in Ontario by Bill Price. The son of Southern Cartel, ridden by Berkley Packer, won by a length for 350 yards in 13.11, besting the record of 13.29 by Touched by the Moon (the track is different so certainly there is an asterisk). The winner is owned by Ivy Lane Racing and trained by Tim Dunlap.
Woodbine jockey MIKE MEHAK won an allowance race worth $8,000 on Chantelle Bourgeois’ 3yo filly WINNING SITUATION, a Colorado bred by Tres Seis. The attendance for the card was listed at 500 with a handle of $11,988.
