HAPPY WEDNESDAY and congrats to the Eclipse Award winners – thanks to TBCHAMPIONS forum for managing to help us watch the show when no one else will show it to us (unless you have TVG, which most of us in Canada do not)
anyway, the QUEEN has been crowned and it appears mostly everyone is satisfied.
Janis Maine sent us a photo of OMAR MORENO accepting his Eclipse Award in Miami on Monday night
LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS….
Richard Kent associated with champs
From Hope Stock Farm…
Richard Kent as ‘Kaizen Sales” who has managed Plumley Farms since its inception is conducting the on-going dispersal of Harold Plumley’s stock at OBS today and tomorrow.
Plumley Farms bred DUBAI MAJESTY ( f&m sprint Eclipse Award winner last night), as well as recent GSW’s d’Funnybone, Jealous Again and many, many others.
Prior to working at Plumley Farms, Richard managed Bridlewood in Ocala, and brought that farm to
prominence producing notable sires and dams.. just thought you’d like to know !
with best wishes… ps your blog is great
Editor’s note – Harold Plumley’s farm was also the early home of ZENYATTA, where she was broken! Congrats Richard Kent!
COUPLE OF CANADIAN STRIKES IN NEW ORLEANS
Sam-Son Farms’ Canadian-bred gelding RED STRIKE is a contender in the Grade # Colonel Bradley on Saturday at Fair Grounds. Canadian trainer Malcolm Pierce has American – bred Strike Again in the race too.
Saturday, Fair Grounds, post time: 5:14 p.m. EST
COLONEL E. R. BRADLEY H.-GIII, $100,000, 4yo/up,
1 1/16mT
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Insider Tip El Prado (Ire) Hernandez Jr Howard 114
2 Gran Estreno (Arg) Lucky Roberto Napravnik Stidham 120
3 Red Strike Smart Strike Graham Frostad 114
4 Joinem Johar Bridgmohan Carroll 115
5 Southern Anthem K Royal Anthem Sellers Thornbury 116
6 Dubious Miss E Dubai Lanerie McGee 117
7 Strike Again Dixie Union Mena Pierce 121
8 Midnight Mischief Medaglia d’Oro Theriot Mott 119
9 Amazing Results K Grand Slam Eramia Scherer 117
CANADIAN STUFF
Casse reports on some stable stars in DRF
DELIGHTFUL MARY, who has a big chance to be named champion 2yo filly in Canada when the Sovereigns are awarded on April 1, is scheduled to race in Ocala, returning in the $100,000 OBS Championship Stakes on March 14 before moving on to race in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland, and, if all goes well, the Kentucky Oaks.
Another John Oxley-owned filly with Casse, Silent Moon, comes off two consecutive wins at Woodbine. She is targeting the Grade 3 Tampa Oaks on March 12.
Likely to run at Gulfstream is the Forest Wildcat 3-year-old colt Strike Oil, a Canadian-bred whom Casse considers a top Queen’s Plate contender, and perhaps even a Derby prospect. Strike Oil won the Coronation Futurity at Woodbine in his final start of 2010.
Canadian-bred Roxy Gap will likely return in the Grade 2 Davona Dale Stakes going a mile at Gulfstream on Feb. 26, if she trains well.
Some stats for 2011
rank at their meeting sts 1 2 3 earnings win% top 3 itm%
6 Eurico Rosa Da Silva 26 4 2 2 $85,596 15% 8 31%
20 Malcolm Pierce 20 5 2 0 $157,650 25% 7 35%
34 Josie Carroll 16 3 1 0 $110,980 19% 4 25%
34 Mark R. Frostad 15 3 1 1 $80,925 20% 5 33%
12 Scott H. Fairlie 17 2 1 4 $70,770 12% 7 41%
8 Emma-Jayne Wilson 34 4 6 9 $146,310 12% 19 56%
10 Mark E. Casse 11 2 0 2 $42,710 18% 4 36%
43 John Simms 16 1 0 3 $9,701 6% 4 25%
43 Ian Black 1 1 0 0 $5,400 100% 1 100%
AT THE OCALA WINTER MIXED SALE..
30 WILDCAT HONOR 07/M IAN HOWARD 5,000
BETH BAYER, AGENT VII
120 10 F. GRAEME HALL /DANCE DELIGHT IAN HOWARD 9,000
SHARON BIAMONTE, AGENT II
140 LOVE LAUREN 06/M BRUNO SCHICKEDANZ 4,500
KINSMAN FARM
144 10 C. WILDCAT HEIR /GOLD BAG LADY BRIAN LYNCH 7,500
PERRONE SALES LTD, AGENT II
WHEW, THE SMART VOTERS GET THE EDGE, ZENYATTA WINS
“HOTY voting bloc breakdown: DRF only bloc to give Blame the edge” – Equidaily.com
AND THE WINNERS ARE…
Horse of the Year Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire})
2-Year-Old Male Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie)
2-Year-Old Female Awesome Feather (Awesome of Course)
3-Year-Old Male Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike)
3-Year-Old Female Blind Luck (Pollard’s Vision)
Older Male Blame (Arch)
Older Female Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire})
Male Sprinter Big Drama (Montbrook)
Female Sprinter Dubai Majesty (Essence of Dubai)
Male Turf Horse Gio Ponti (Tale of the Cat)
Female Turf Horse Goldikova (Ire) (Anabaa)
Steeplechase Slip Away (Skip Away)
Owner WinStar Farm
Breeder Adena Springs
Trainer Todd Pletcher
Jockey Ramon Dominguez
App. Jockey Omar Moreno
Joe Drape from the New York Times
The great racemare Zenyatta, whose dominance on the track and charisma off it brought the magnificence of thoroughbred racing back into the national conversation, was named Horse of the Year on Monday, an honor that had eluded her twice previously despite being undefeated.
Related
She beat the talented colt Blame, the only rival ever to finish in front of her, and Goldikova, another sublime mare based in Europe who won her third straight Breeders’ Cup Mile in November.“We always hoped,” said Ann Moss, who owns Zenyatta with her husband, Jerry. “We hoped last year and the year before that. She’s such a gift.”
Over the past three years, Zenyatta proved that she was a horse for the ages, winning 19 of 20 starts, with her lone defeat coming in her final race and against males in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. It was a heart-stopper — she spotted the field 20 lengths before unleashing a furious stretch run that came up a half-head short of catching Blame.
Zenyatta was just as amazingly noble in defeat as she had been in her victories.
Still, the debate over whether Zenyatta deserved to win Horse of the Year had been fierce for the past two months and had been waged across every social network and media platform.
Whichever side did not hear its horse’s name when the results were announced at the 40th Annual Eclipse Awards ceremony at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach was certain to be bitterly disappointed, despite the fact that both Team Zenyatta, led by the Mosses, and Claiborne Farm, which owned Blame and was celebrating its 100th anniversary under the Hancock family, received special Eclipse Awards earlier in the evening.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/sports/18racing.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
OMAR MORENO, awards keep coming
OMAR MORENO has parlayed a rough childhood and experiences in other sports into a fine apprenticeship as a jockey in canada. He took the Olds College course in Alberta, rode at Northlands Park and then easily mopped up the other rookie riders at Woodbine during the past 1 1/2 years. He lost his bug this fall so the waters get a whole heck of a lot deeper from here on in.
But the youngsters can celebrate now, with agent Jack Lauzon and his wife-to-be Beth Wyard..
SOME NOTES FROM BLOODHORSE.COM
In addition to his 144 victories, he also earned more than $5.3-million in purse money as an apprentice. To put that into perspective, his closest challenger, Angel Serpa, won 68 races and earned about $2.4-million.
Moreno, who graduated from the jockey program at Olds College in Calgary, Alberta, is based in Canada and earned all of his victories in 2009 and 2010 at Woodbine and Fort Erie.
Last season, he finished fifth in the rider standings at Woodbine with 22 wins in the final two months of the season and for the year had 54 victories and more than $1.1-million in purse money en route to the Sovereign Award.
Moreno found his toughness at an early age, growing up in the civil war-ravaged country of El Salvador. His mother was killed when he was seven, and his family moved first to Honduras and then to Edmonton in 1991, where his father left the children to fend for themselves in foster homes.
“I saw a lot of war—a lot of killing,” Moreno told the Toronto Star in a feature article last spring. “We didn’t have much. We were trying to survive day by day. My father—he was pretty smart, I’ll give him that. He would try to make a home out of every situation, but the war broke him up … that was our normal life. We didn’t get to have our childhood. But when we came to Canada, we finally had that chance.”
OMAR MORENO and his WIFE-TO-BE BETH WYARD at the Eclipse Awards – Janis Maine photo
Horse of the Year: Zenyatta, 128; Blame,102; Goldikova (IRE), 5; Voter Abstention, 1; No Vote, 2.
Two-Year-Old Male: Uncle Mo, 236; Boys at Tosconova, 1; Pluck, 1.
Two-Year-Old Filly : Awesome Feather, 235; Turbulent Descent, 2, More Than Real, 1.
Three-Year-Old Male: Lookin At Lucky, 224; Eskendereya 5; Drosselmeyer, 3; Afleet Express, 1; Discreetly Mine, 1; Paddy O’Prado, 1; Super Saver, 1; Smiling Tiger, 1; Twirling Candy, 1.
Three-Year-Old Filly: Blind Luck, 237; No Such Word, 1.
Older Male: Blame, 238.
Older Female: Zenyatta, 237; Goldivoka (IRE), 1.
READ MORE AT http://www.drf.com/blogs/eclipse-awards-voting-numbers
CHARLES TAYLOR PRIZE FOR LITERARY NON-FICTION
THE FINALISTS FOR the 2011 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction were announcedat a morning news conference in downtown Toronto. Author David Macfarlane spoke on behalf of the jury and read the names of the finalists, along with their jury citations.
The 2011 prize finalists are Stevie Cameron for her book On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing Women, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada; Charles Foran for his book Mordecai: The Life & Times, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada; Ross King for his book Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, published by Douglas & McIntyre/McMichael Canadian Art Collection; George Sipos for his book The Geography of Arrival: A Memoir, published by Gaspereau Press; and Merrily Weisbord for her book The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das, published by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
The jury selected their five-book shortlist from 153 submissions, published between November 1, 2009 and October 31, 2010, and submitted by 44 publishers from across North America.
2011 marks the tenth awarding of the prestigious prize, which recognizes excellence in literary non-fiction. This national book award was established in 1998 to commemorate the life and work of one of Canada’s foremost literary non-fiction writers, the late Charles Taylor. First presented as a biennial award in 2000, and made annual in 2004, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is presented to a Canadian author whose book best demonstrates a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style and a subtlety of thought and perception.
The winner of the 2011 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction will be announced at a gala awards ceremony and luncheon, to be held at Le Meridien King Edward Hotel in downtown Toronto on Monday, February 14, 2011.
MORE ABOUT BOOKS
At Chapters-Indigo, you can visit the Community section and log in your favourite books and reviews. I have more than 30 books on my shelf – go check it out!
http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/community/gizmo-section-community_cms-giz.html
