WOODBINE MILE POSTS AND NOTES
PHOTO – REPORTING STAR, Play the King winner, one of a few locals with a big chance.
(photo courtesy of Crista Joe)
DION PHANEUF, captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was guest drawmaster for the Woodbine Mile today, the second time the personable Alberta-born hockey star has drawn the posts for the Mile.
Phaneuf, who does a lot of charity work and is generous with his time, has plenty experience attending horse races, in particular standardbred races, as his grandfather and parents have owned and raced in Prince Edward island.
While Leaf fans will be hoping for a better showing this year (we can dream can’t we?), Phaneuf assembled the Woodbine Mile field, sans Wise Dan.
The key to the race this year is that the one-mile, one turn race will be a much different turf mile than horses like OBVIOUSLY and LEA are accustomed to. Obviously may be lone speed on paper, but the likelihood of a less-than-firm grass on Sunday and the long stretch run mean this would be an underlay at 2-1 or less.
LEA looked like the second coming of Cigar last year but he has been off form and moving to turf seems to be something to try in the hopes of turning him around.
GRAND ARCH, the possible favourite, has never really loved the local grass course – he is much happier in a 2-turn event as he can make the slingshot move.
The pair of Europeans coming in deserve a look as there are so many questions with the North Americans. And the locals are okay – TOWER OF TEXAS and REPORTING STAR are decent; KAIGUN ran so well in this race last year but he has been short of his best form in 2015.
Should be an interesting race.
POSTS/FIELD FOR THE GRADE 1 $1-MILLION RICOH WOODBINE MILE
HORSE / OWNER / TRAINER / JOCKEY
1 Obviously / Anthony Fanticola & Joseph Scardino / Phil D’Amato / Joe Talamo
2 Grand Arch / Jim and Susan Hill / Brian Lynch / Luis Saez
3 Platinum Glory / John Di Scola / Mike DePaulo / Jesse Campbell
4 Za Approval Live Oak Plantation Mark Casse
5 Turncoat / Irish Wisky Racing LLC / Laurie Silvera / Omar Moreno
6 Tower of Texas / T. F. Van Meter II & S. Dilworth / Roger Attfield / E. da Silva
7 Mondialiste / Geoff and Sandra Turnbull / David O’Meara / Fergal Lynch
8 Mr. Owen / Qatar Racing Limited / Francois Rohaut / Umberto Rispoli
9 Kaigun / G. Barber, Quintessential, Horse’n Around / M. Casse / P. Husbands
10 Lea / Adele B. Dilschneider & Claiborne Farm / Bill Mott / Joel Rosario
11 Reporting Star / Copper Water Thoroughbred Comp./ Pat Parente / Luis Contreras
MR. OWEN HOPING TO FOLLOW IN MOM’S FOOTSTEPS
Qatar Racing Limited, who captured last year’s Mile with Trade Storm, will look to defend their crown on Sunday with the improving three-year-old colt Mr. Owen.
Trained by Francois Rohaut, the bay son of Invincible Spirit is out of Mrs. Lindsay who captured the Grade 1 E.P. Taylor Stakes for Rohaut and owner Bettina Jenney, in 2007 at Woodbine. While very talented, Rohaut does not find there to be any similarity between the young colt and his famous dam.
“Definitely not,” said Rohaut. “He looks like his sire Invincible Spirit. He doesn’t stay like most of his father’s progeny and is much easier to train than his dam.”
With three wins to his name, Mr. Owen arrives at the Mile from a half-length score in the Prix Les Experts on August 4 at Deauville over firm ground. The effort redeemed Mr. Owen’s sixth-place run in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat on July 12 at Chantilly.
“He had the worst draw (Post 12 in a field of 12) so we decided to wait and come from behind,” said Rohaut of the Deauville score. “It was the first time we tried that and he showed an amazing turn of foot to come from last to first.”
Mr. Owen, who arrived at Woodbine late Wednesday night, has trained forwardly into Sunday’s $1-million test.
“Mr. Owen stayed in Deauville to prepare for this race. He had regular work with other three-year-olds who all ran well in stakes during the last weeks. He seems to be in top condition,” said Rohaut.
Rohaut will be hoping for dry weather heading into Sunday’s race.
“He prefers firm or good to firm going, even if he won on good to soft,” said Rohaut.
The top conditioner is hopeful that Mr. Owen can follow in his mom’s footsteps and provide a second Grade 1 success at Woodbine.
“Mrs. Lindsay was my first Grade 1 winner abroad and Bettina Jenney was there with all her family to support Mrs. Lindsay,” recalled Rohaut of the 2007 E.P. Taylor triumph. “We spent a fantastic day…it is always a great pleasure to have a runner here.”
WOODBINE MILE – TORONTO STAR FEATURE – OBVIOUSLY
http://www.thestar.com/sports/2015/09/09/woodbine-mile-still-has-a-special-story-obviously.html
WIN AND YOUR’RE IN SATURDAY AT WOODBINE
Saturday, Woodbine, post time: 4:02 p.m. EDT
Ontario bred CAREN is undefeated and bred for grass but by no means will her task be easy in the Grade 2 Natalma on Saturday at Woodbine. The Society’s Chairman filly, who is actually NOT nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, will have tons of pressure from horses such as Most Inspiring, Gamble’s Ghost (if she takes to the grass), Catch a Glimpse and Know Clouds.
Caren is one of the first horses owned by Robert Marzilli who bought a yearling at the local sale last week.
The SUMMER STAKES, Grade 2, is also a kettle of fish, with prep winner SKY MARSHAL up against some fast ones like MANHATTAN DAN, HAMMERS VISION and THE ZIP ZIP MAN. This race is even more competitive that the Natalma.
The weather has been fluctuating for this weekend but now appears to be simply quite cool and cloudy with most of the rain coming Friday.
The course figures to be on the good -side for the weekend,
NATALMA S.-GII, C$200,000, 2yo, f, 1mT
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Caren – Society’s Chairman Campbell De Paulo 119
2 Know Clouds – Henrythenavigator Pino Motion 119
3 Most Inspiring – Gio Ponti Garcia Vella 119
4 Gamble’s Ghost – Ghostzapper Contreras Carroll 119
5 Chinchilla Dust – Freud Husbands Wilson 119
6 Silky Girl – Scat Daddy Saez Violette Jr 119
7 Pulled the Goalie – Parading Moran Vella 119
8 Paddy Point – Paddy O’Prado Bridgmohan Brnjas 119
9 Catch a Glimpse – City Zip Geroux Casse 119
10 Miss Metropolitan – Leroidsanimux (Brz) Da Silva Biamonte 119
11 She’ll Do It – Badge of Silver McAleney Baker 119
Saturday, Woodbine, post time: 5:08 p.m. EDT
SUMMER S.-GII, C$200,000, 2yo, 1mT
PP HORSE SIRE JOCKEY TRAINER WT
1 Sky Marshal K Sky Mesa Garcia Minshall 122
2 Hollywood Hideaway Zensational Contreras Minshall 122
3 Manhattan Dan Big Brown Wilson Contessa 122
4 Conquest Enforcer Into Mischief Husbands Casse 122
5 Hammers Vision Court Vision Da Silva Lynch 122
6 The Zip Zip Man K City Zip Geroux Stidham 122
7 Conquest Daddyo K Scat Daddy Husbands Casse 122
8 Bear’sway K Tizway McAleney Baker 122
9 Dragon Bay Parading Olguin Simon 122
10 Gigantic Breeze K Giant’s Causeway Campbell De Paulo 122
BRITISH COLUMBIA DERBY – HASTINGS PARK
SUNDAY SEPT. 13
1 1/8m
Dirt
$250,000
3 yo
4:42 PM (local)
PP Horse Jockey Weight Trainer
1 Crius (BC) Pedro V. Alvarado 126 Mike Anderson
2 Academic (ON) Justin Stein 121 Tim Rycroft
3 Blue Dancer (KY) Rico W. Walcott 126 Greg Tracy
4 Purple Heaven (KY) Keishan Balgobin 126 Twylla Bensmiller
5 Bluegrass Angus (KY) Richard Harvey Hamel 126 Craig MacPherson
6 Merlot (BC) Amadeo Perez 126 Dino K. Condilenios
7 Mighty Fraser (BC) Sahin Civaci 126 Troy Taylor
8 Sedin (BC) Antonio Ambrosio Reyes 126 Mark Cloutier
9 Percy Fawcett (KY) David G. Lopez 126 Frank Lucarelli
