HILL ‘N’ DALE FARMS in Aurora had its first 2 foals of 2016 and the they were born at virtually at the exact moment on February 8. This little girl is by first year sire STAY THIRSTY out of the Harlan’s Holiday mare Personally Yours. Photo courtesy of Ericka Rusnak.
SHAKE DOWN BABY wins allowance for Tharrenos
Reade Baker also a winner at Gulfstream
SHAKE DOWN BABY, winner of the Muskoka Stakes last year at Woodbine and a lovely filly for Bill Tharrenos and partners, won an allowance race on grass Sunday, her 2nd career win and first try on turf.
By Wando out of the Medaglia D’Oro mare Megavista, Shake Down Baby was a $5,000 yearling purchase. She rallied from far back and wide to win the 7 1/2 furlong turf event in 1:31.19, good for a 73 Beyer Figure. Gus Schickedanz bred the filly.
The Wando filly SHAKE DOWN BABY won her grass debut with a wide, rally from well back at Gulfstream on Sunday. Owned by Bill Tharrenos and partners, the Ontario bred was a stakes winner as a 2yo at Woodbine. GULFSTREAM PARK PHOTO
PHOTO BELOW – Also winning on Sunday was trainer READE BAKER, who sent out Zayat Stables’ VEGAS STRIP for a last-to-first run to win a starter allowance at 6 furlongs with a 79 Beyer Speed Figure. It was the 2nd win in 3 races for trainer Baker in 2016.
A sea of blue in the winner’s circle with VEGAS STRIP, owned by Zayat Stables. Winning trainer Reade Baker was joined by Woodbine president JIM LAWSON and son TIM LAWSON (4th and 5th from right) GULFSTREAM PHOTO
‘BIBI’ and others
Augustin Stables’ HABIBI (NZ), the wonderful mare for trainer Mark Frostad, was a flying 3rd in the Suwanee River Handicap on Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The tough mare, now 7-years-old, was handcuffed by the 9 furlong distance but was charging late and was just 1 1/2 lengths behind favoured Tammy the Torpedo. Habibi posted a 92 Beyer Figure.
Winner of the Flaming Page Stakes last year at Woodbine, Habibi (photo below by Sarah Ritchie) is co-trained by GATOR KITTEN, who is in charge of mints at the Frostad barn:
In addition to Habibi’s nice run, Queen’s Plate hopeful SCHOLAR ATHLETE rallied for 3rd after a crazy wide trip in his return to racing on the weekend. Thoroughbred Daily news interviewed trainer GRAHAM MOTION for the Wednesday issue and Motion commented on the son of Einstein’s run for West Point Thoroughbreds:
“I was really pleased with him. I thought it was a good effort.
We tried him on the dirt at Palm Meadows and I didn’t think he
worked well on the dirt compared to the synthetic at Fair Hill.
Most likely we will ship him to the [John] Battaglia [Memorial S.
Mar. 12] at Turfway for his next start.”
Incidentally, trainer MOTION also noted that Canadian HORSE OF THE YEAR UP WITH THE BIRDS is set to return to his barn shortly after wintering at Sam-Son Farms in Florida and new pupil, KASSIOPEIA, owned by Team Valor, will race this weekend in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields.
MIDNIGHT ARIA, 2013 QUEEN’S PLATE WINNER , off to Saudi Arabia
Midnight Aria – Queen’s Plate winner, 2013, good luck young man! Michael Burns photo
Tucci Stables’ 2013 Queen’s Plate winner MIDNIGHT ARIA was sold for $40,000 at the Fasig Tipton Winter Mixed sale on Tuesday to THAMER ABDULLAH ALKANHAL and is reportedly headed to Saudi Arabia to continue his racing career, according to Daily Racing Form. The 6-year-old horse had raced last fall in $60,000 claiming races and was to be retired to stud but owner Lou Tucci told Thoroughblog the family did not have enough mares to breed to him.
New owner Alkanhal bought 19 other horse at the sale, mostly broodmares, so perhaps Midnight Aria will be breeding mares soon rather than racing.
Other Ontario news from the sale include the following horses bought by Ontario horsepeople:
BILL GRAHAM BUYS 2 MARES from the first session of the sale:
WITTY GAL is a winner by Distorted Humor in foal to UNCLE MO and she is a half sister to multiple stakes winner AREYOUTALKINTOME.
NO WONDER is a Three Wonders mare, a multiple winner, in foal t INTO MISCHIEF.
M NO WONDER THREE WONDERS STARINTHEMEADOW SELECT SALES AGENT IV WILLIAM D GRAHAM $53,000
M WITTY GAL DISTORTED HUMOR ANDREA GAIL TAYLOR MADE SALES AGENCY AGENT XXIV WILLIAM D GRAHAM INC $70,000
JIM TERDIK appears on the buyer’s sheet also:
M COOLENOUGHTOSIZZLE SONGANDAPRAYER WISE ENDING SHAWHAN PLACE LLC AGENT JIM TERDIK $12,000
M DEBONAIR DANCER SUAVE DANCE OF SUNSHINE JAMES B. KEOGH (GROVENDALE) AGENT IV JIM TERDIK $7,500
M GRAZETTES ALYDEED DE LA CAT TAYLOR MADE SALES AGENCY AGENT XIII SHANNONDOE FARM $12,500
F GIRLFRIEND DISTORTED HUMOR COLLECT CALL TAYLOR MADE SALES AGENCY AGENT XXXVIII DENNY ANDREWS $57,000
FOLLOW-UP – DATA COMPARING OSS/OPEN, OTHERS AT WOODBINE 2015
A reader passed along the following statistics from various Saturday racing at Woodbine Thorughbred last year. The race no., distance, conditions, number of horses in the field, total pool for the race and percentage of that wagering compared to the day’s wagering are the headings.
The study includes some dates from every month of racing in 2015.
Some things that are interesting to note:
- obviously bigger fields lead to better wagering numbers
- maiden races are attractive, even $10,000 claiming maiden races
- grass racing is always popular
- a category that is scheduled to be deleted in the condition book this year, Ontario sired maidens, 3-year-olds and up, appears prominently as big betting events in 2015; August 15 and June 6 are two examples of how well these races did on those particular dates
- one interesting date is May 9 when a 5 horse field, optional claiming/OSS allowance ranked high on that day of racing as far as percentage of wagering.
- April racing brings fun maiden races!
Thank you to our Thoroughblog reader for this study, what do you think?
Date Race No. Dist Conditions Bet Interests TotalPools RaceAs%ofDay
Nov 14 4 5.0 Mdn 8k 3+ 12 1,025,708 19.77
Nov 14 5 8.5 Mdn 25k 2 12 712,225 13.73
Nov 14 3 6.5 MSW 2 F 9 576,148 11.11
Nov 14 7 6.5 Clm 6.25k 3+ 11 567,695 10.94
Nov 14 10 6.5 Mdn 25k F 3+ 9 491,207 9.47
Nov 14 8 8.5 Stakes OS 2 F 9 444,366 8.57
Nov 14 1 8.5 MSW OS 3 7 387,005 7.46
Nov 14 6 8.5 NW 1x F 3+ 9 390,170 7.52
Nov 14 2 7.0 Clm 25k 5+ 6 293,334 5.65
Nov 14 9 8.5 OC 62.5k NW 2x 3+ 6 299,922 5.78
Oct 10 4 6.5 Alw NW2 OS 3+ 10 707,397 17.97
Oct 10 10 6.0 Mdn 16k 3+ 11 492,090 12.50
Oct 10 5 6.5 Clm 8k NW2 F 3+ 9 460,964 11.71
Oct 10 6 8.5 MSW 3+ F 7 459,312 11.67
Oct 10 7 8.5 OC 40k/OS NW3 3+ 8 412,085 10.47
Oct 10 9 7.0 OC 62.5k/NW 2x 9 318,484 8.09
Oct 10 8 6.0 Stakes OS 2 F 6 296,454 7.53
Oct 10 2 7.0 MSW 2 7 277,142 7.04
Oct 10 1 6.5 Clm 40k NW2 3+ 8 267,361 6.79
Oct 10 3 8.5 Clm 40k 3+ 6 245,900 6.25
Sep 12 9 8.0T Stakes 2 9 762,271 19.49
Sep 12 7 8.0T Stakes 2 F 10 719,010 18.39
Sep 12 4 6.5 Alw NW1x 3+ F 7 441,575 11.29
Sep 12 5 7.0 MSW 2 F 7 397,202 10.16
Sep 12 10 8.5 Clm 20k NW 2 3+ 9 373,753 9.56
Sep 12 6 8.5 MSW OS 3+ F 7 304,337 7.78
Sep 12 8 8.5 Alw NC 3+ 5 290,901 7.44
Sep 12 3 7.0 Mdn 16k 3+ 7 247,273 6.32
Sep 12 2 8.5 OC 20k/OS NW 3 6 177,654 4.54
Sep 12 1 5.0 Mdn 25k 2 F 6 196,142 5.02
Aug 15 4 7.0 Mdn 10k 3+ 14 691,511 16.65
Aug 15 7 6.0 MSW OS 3+ 14 535,341 12.89
Aug 15 5 8.5T OC NW 2x 4+ 10 522,610 12.58
Aug 15 10 9.0T Alw OS NW2 3+ 14 513,244 12.35
Aug 15 6 5.0 MSW OS 2 F 11 413,237 9.95
Aug 15 8 12.0T Stakes 4+ F 9 356,976 8.59
Aug 15 9 7.0 Clm 20k 4+ 9 338,500 8.15
Aug 15 2 6.5 Clm 10k 4+ F 8 306,722 7.38
Aug 15 3 6.0 Stakes OS 2 5 274,642 6.61
Aug 15 1 6.0 Mdn 20k 3+ 8 201,435 4.85
Jul 11 4 8.5T MSW 3+ 11 818,101 20.44
Jul 11 10 7.0T Clm 40k NW2 12 473,605 11.83
Jul 11 7 7.0 Clm 10k F 3+ 9 450,555 11.25
Jul 11 9 8.5 Alw NW 1x 3+ 10 403,192 10.07
Jul 11 5 6.0 Clm 6.25K F 6+ 8 351,868 8.79
Jul 11 8 7.0T Stakes OS F 3 6 347,937 8.69
Jul 11 3 8.5 Clm 25k 4+ 7 338,455 8.45
Jul 11 2 6.0 Alw NW2 OS 3+ 6 301,184 7.52
Jul 11 1 6.5 Mdn 16k 3+ F 7 262,180 6.55
Jul 11 6 5.0 MSW OS 2 6 256,178 6.40
Jun 6 4 7 .0T Alw NW2 OS 3+ F 10 744,692 18.04
Jun 6 5 7.0 MSW 3+ OS 13 665,684 16.12
Jun 6 7 8 .0T OC 40k/OS NW3 8 514,966 12.47
Jun 6 3 8.5 MSW 3+ 7 429,648 10.41
Jun 6 10 8.5 Alw NW 1x 9 400,006 9.69
Jun 6 8 8.5 Stakes OS 4+ 10 365,249 8.85
Jun 6 1 4.5 MSW OS 2 F 7 298,877 7.24
Jun 6 6 8.5 Alw NW2 OS 3+ F 6 290,230 7.03
Jun 6 2 8.5 OC 62.5k NW 2x 4+ F 5 254,064 6.15
Jun 6 9 9 .0T OC 80k NW 3x 4+ F 5 165,609 4.01
May 9 4 5.5 MSW OS 3+ 12 720,695 22.10
May 9 2 5.5 OC 20k/OS NW3 3+ F 5 391,756 12.02
May 9 7 7.0 OC 62.5k/NW 2x 4+ 8 361,364 11.08
May 9 5 5.5 MSW OS 3 F 8 360,036 11.04
May 9 3 5.5 MSW OS 3 F 7 345,609 10.60
May 9 6 7.0 Mdn 10k 3+ F 11 334,138 10.25
May 9 10 5.5 MSW OS 3+ 12 294,872 9.04
May 9 1 8.5 Clm 20k NW2 3+ F 6 190,976 5.86
May 9 8 6.5 Stakes 4+ F 6 160,773 4.93
May 9 9 7.0 Alw NW 1x 3+ F 6 100,161 3.07
Apr 18 4 5.0 MSW OS 3 F 8 579,620 17.56
Apr 18 10 5.0 MSW OS 3 F 10 403,586 12.23
Apr 18 5 5.0 MSW OS 4 7 393,937 11.93
Apr 18 3 5.0 Clm 8k NW2 4+ 8 363,796 11.02
Apr 18 6 5.0 OC 20k/OS NW3 3+ 8 325,010 9.85
Apr 18 8 6.0 Stakes F 4+ 8 324,770 9.84
Apr 18 7 6.5 MSW 3 6 275,606 8.35
Apr 18 9 5.0 Alw OS NC 4+ 6 258,355 7.83
Apr 18 2 5.0 Clm 8k 4+ F 6 198,996 6.03
Apr 18 1 5.0 Mdn 10k 3+ F 6 177,084 5.36
