It is Friday the 13th, in June, with a full ‘Honey Moon’ – will not see this again until 2098.
Welcome to the provincial Liberal majority, Premier Kathleen Wynne romped in the election and Ontario horse racing will hope that she continues to support this important industry. Now that she has the majority, a four-year sitting, Premier Wynne can work with the horse racing community and help it rebound from the mistakes her previous government made.
To this point, Premier Wynne and the rural sector has gone hand-in-hand and her dedication to the racing industry has been present. Going forward, let’s hope racing and the province can work together to keep the hard workers and dedicated people from all aspects of the industry in the business and helping Ontario grow too.
First and foremost, horse racing and its members has to help itself to grow and prosper.
$500,000 WOODBINE OAKS – Sunday June 15 on TSN2
Big day for the Bay
PALADIN BAY and her rider GERRY OLGUIN. Her big moment comes on Sunday. WOODBINE ENTERTAINMENT/MICHAEL BURNS PHOTO
She has made her young owners a pile of money on the way and she has thrust them into the Ontario racing spotlight. She has most certainly brought jockey Gerry Olguin’s name to the forefront a bit more too as the often underrated rider has been doing good business. She has filled the pockets of her young breeder, Ericka Rusnak, a horse-lover turned shrewd business woman, and she has even helped the Racetrack Chaplaincy at Woodbine.
PALADIN BAY just keeps on giving. Sunday is the gritty bay’s big test, and it is a biggee. HOT AND SPICY, the hotshot from New York, LEXIE LOU, her arch rival, three from trainer Roger Attfield including the scary good UNPSURNED plus the unbeaten WILD CATOMINE are in the field of 9 to try and knock Ms. bay off her perch. Jessie Ladouceur’s prized possession shows up with her best every time so the rest of them best have their best game faces at the ready.
Sunday will be a day of celebration for William Clifton Jr. and his trainer Jim Bond, perhaps for two very big reasons.
Clifton and Bond (and Bond’s wife Tina) will be in Texas on Sunday to attend the wedding of one of Clifton’s sons while Ryan Bond Jim and Tina’s son, will accompany the promising grey 3-year-old filly HOT AND SPICY to Toronto on Saturday for the $500,000 WOODBINE OAKS on Sunday.
The Ontario bred by Tale of the Cat – Dynamite Cocktail by Dynaformer has raced just twice in her career but “she’s moving forward” and has trained a lot more steadily and regularly since her start in the Fury Stakes at Woodbine on May 10.
Clifton and Bond are regular visitors to Woodbine – “there is nothing more than the Cliftons and my wife and I enjoy than a trip to Toronto and Woodbine” – and have often raced Canadian-breds, One of them, SOLITAIRE, was prominent in the Canadian Triple Crown in 2008.
As for Hot and Spicy, the filly was broken by Bond and at that time, the trainer says the light grey was “hot and spicy”. He adds that she has mellowed out since her stay at Palm Meadows during the winter. The filly won her debut on Mar 15 at Gulfstream with Luis Contreras aboard. That was her only race before the Fury, where she was 2nd to Wild Catomine after a bit of a sticky trip.
“I was proud of the way she raced gamely. she showed the grit that I know she has,” said Bond. A recent workout by Hot and Spicy at the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga was very pleasing to Bond: she went 5 furlongs in 1:01 1/5 and beat One Night, a highly regarded filly in the Bond stable.
Hot and Spicy was bred by Bob Harvey and Alan Wortzman and was a $250,000 yearling purchase.
By the way, filly races became ‘oaks’ hundreds of years ago thanks to the Epsom Oaks: which was named after Lord Derby’s The Oaks, an estate located to the east of Epsom which was leased to the 12th Earl of Derby in the 18th century. He and his guests devised the race during a party at the estate in 1778.
1 Paladin Bay (ON) 3/F L G Olguin 121 H Ladouceur
2 Llanarmon (ON) 3/F L J Castellano 121 R L Attfield
3 Gdansk (ON) 3/F L J M Campbell 121 N Gonzalez
4 Call Her Karma (ON) 3/F L D Moran 121 A Brnjas
5 Storm Now (ON) 3/F L C Sutherland Kruse 121 R L Attfield
6 Wild Catomine (ON) 3/F L G Boulanger 121 M E Casse
7 Hot and Spicy (ON) 3/F L L Contreras 121 H J Bond
8 Lexie Lou (ON) 3/F L P Husbands 121 M E Casse
9 Unspurned (ON) 3/F J Stein 121 R L Attfield
ALY-WOW! Stakes race has 7 Mark Casse entrants:
How important is trainer Mark Casse and his clients to racing at Woodbine? It is prettyu well summed up by a look at the Alywow Stakes on Woodbine Oaks day, 7 entrants in the 12-horse field.
Oh, he has 16 horses entered of the some 90 on the Sunday card.
1 Lacarolina (FR) 3/F L A Garcia 116 M E Casse
2 Cristina’s Halo (ON) 3/F L C Sutherland Kruse 114 V Armata
3 True Darling (ON) 3/F E Wilson 114 J A Ross
4 Skylander Girl (ON) 3/F S R Bahen 120 A P Patykewich
5 Madly Truly (KY) 3/F L L Contreras 118 M E Casse
6 Lapsang (ON) 3/F L D Moran 118 S M Drake
7 Conquest Whiplash (FL) 3/F L E R Da Silva 118 M E Casse
8 Appreciating (KY) 3/F L L Contreras 116 M E Casse
9 Symphony On Ice (ON) 3/F L G Boulanger 114 M E Casse
10 Zensational Bunny (KY) 3/F L P Husbands 120 M E Casse
11 Sky America (KY) 3/F L J Stein 116 M E Casse
12 Henny Jenney (PA) 3/F L D Davis 118 W R Connelly
ARTIE IS HERE FOR THE PARTY
We Miss Artie will be odds-on in the Plate Trial
Grade 1 stakes winner and synthetic dirt-track lover WE MISS ARTIE returns to his home province since he was a yearling when he competes in the Plate Trial on Sunday. The dark bay colt, who lost one of his best buddies yesterday, INTENSE HOLIDAY (was put down because of laminitis) is in town to solidify his role as early Queen’s Plate favourite. The son of Artie Schiller, owned by Ken and Sarah Ramsay and bred by Richard Lister, is sure to be a big favourite, around 3 to 5, in the 9 furlong race. Should the colt, who will be ridden by Javier Castellano somehow not handle the Woodbine Polytrack, the race is very much up for grabs.
There are 2 maidens in the field (Ascot Martin and Majestic Sunset) plus promising stakes placed runner TOWER OF TEXAS and returning MAN O’ BEAR, who has yet to race in 2014. MAN CAVE is an intriguing Ontario sired rival and RHYTHM BLUES complete the field.
1 Rhythm Blues (ON) 3/C L P Husbands 126 N Gonzalez
2 We Miss Artie (ON) 3/C L J Castellano 126 T A Pletcher
3 Man Cave (ON) 3/G L J M Campbell 126 A Brnjas
4 Ascot Martin (ON) 3/C L L Contreras 126 M Keogh
5 Tower of Texas (ON) 3/C L G Boulanger 126 R L Attfield
6 Majestic Sunset (ON) 3/C L A Garcia 126 M E Casse
7 Man o’ Bear (ON) 3/C L E Wilson 126 R Baker
A LIFETIME OF MEMORIES
The popular silks of thoroughbred owner and breeder EUGENE MELNYK may be hung up for good.
Melnyk, who dispersed most of his mares a year ago, is now selling every horse as he has announced his retirement from horse racing. While his Ottawa Senators, with its 100 games a year, takes up most of his time, Melnyk has not been involved in racing as much in recent years. Sure, the numbers have still been there with lots of wins and earnings at one of the leaders at Woodbine, but the big name horses have not been there. The ‘rush’ has not been there for man who loves the thrill of sports.
Melnyk assures us, however, that horse racing is in his blood and no doubt he will continue to enjoy the game as a spectator.
His Woodbine trainers are Mark Casse and Josie Carroll and there will be some runners for the next weeks before the horses are sold off in July at Fasig Tipton.
Eugene Melnyk and FLOWER ALLEY. Cindy Pierson Dulay photo
“As a young boy who grew up watching and admiring the horses at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, it still remains very overwhelming to know how privileged and fortunate I have been to be part of such a wonderful and close knit community of people who share my passion for horses and the sport of horse racing,” Melnyk said in a release.
“None of my horse racing achievements would have been possible without my staff at Winding Oaks Farm and Melnyk Racing Stables who all know how deeply grateful I am for their dedication and commitment to our horses.
“While I will always remain a part of horse racing, I feel I have accomplished all that I set out to and now is a good time to step back from the sport. I came into this sport 20 years ago with plenty of dreams and I leave with a lifetime of memories.”
Melnyk purchased Winding Oaks in 2001.
One of the first major milestones for Melnyk Racing Stables was a 1998 victory by Archers Bay to capture the Queen’s Plate. Melnyk’s stable of horses would go on to capture an impressive total of 62 graded stakes win. His success on Canadian racetracks includes two‐time Canadian Champion Older Horse Marchfield; Roxy Gap who won Champion Female Sprinter and Champion Older Female in Canada in 2012; Leigh Court, the Champion Canadian Three‐Year‐Old Filly of 2013; and Sealy Hill who was most recently inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in August 2013. Melnyk holds the distinction of being the first owner to win the Triple Tiara, the Canadian Triple Crown for fillies. Melnyk has also won all three legs of the male Canadian Triple Crown with Archers Bay and Lodge Hill.
In the United States, Melnyk’s celebrated wins include the Breeders’ Cup Sprint with Speightstown who also earned a legendary Eclipse Award as Champion Sprinter in 2004; Stakes victor Flower Alley; Tweedside, heroine of the CCA Oaks; and other grade one winners Sealy Hill, Bishop Court Hill, Harmony Lodge, Host, Marley Vale and Pool Land. Other North American wins by Melnyk include the Prince of Wales Stakes, the Travers Stakes, the Jim Dandy Stakes and the Dwyer Stakes. Internationally, his horses have won two Barbados Gold Cups and participated in the prestigious Dubai World Cup.
Melnyk’s success on the racetrack paved the way for him to become one of the top breeders in North America. Most recently, Speightstown finished a close second on the Leading Sires list in 2013 and Flower Alley sired Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, I’ll Have Another, the Champion Three‐Year‐Old Colt of 2012.
Melnyk was honored with a Sovereign Award as Canada’s outstanding breeder in 2009, as well as earning two Sovereign Awards as Outstanding Owner. In all, he and Melnyk Racing Stables garnered no less than 13 Sovereign Awards, Canada’s highest honors in thoroughbred racing. Melnyk was also voted National Owner of the Year by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association in 2005.
Among his many philanthropic contributions to the sport, Melnyk is most proud of his role as the founding donor of Anna House at Belmont Park. Named after Melnyk’s first daughter, Anna House opened in January 2003 as the first child care facility of its kind at a North American racetrack. Anna House is open 365 days of the year and provides backstretch families with access to a high quality, state‐of‐the‐art child care center focused on enhancing the emotional, social and educational development of their children.
MARES AND WEANLINGS..
http://www.fasigtipton.com/ci/catalogues/view/2014/Melnyk-Racing-Mares-And-Weanlings
