RINGS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IT’S TIME TO BUY A YEARLING BABY!!

In less than a calendar year, Shake Down Baby went from selling for $5,000 at the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society’s Canadian Premier Yearling Sale to winning the $200,000 Muskoka Stakes at Woodbine and then being sold to American interests.
That was quite a ride from 2014 to 2015 for co-owner and trainer Bill Tharrenos and just one of many success stories to come out of the biggest Thoroughbred horse sale in Canada.

Shake Down Baby had to miss the Canadian classics this year but is back on the worktab and nearing a start on top of the annual yearling sale put on by the CTHS.
The 2016 edition of the Canadian Premier Yearling Sale is Thursday, September 1 beginning at 12 noon and there are 280 opportunities for you to experience a similar dream.
Through the first five months of the Woodbine racing season this year, check out some of the names of horses who have come out of recent editions of the sale to do some big things on the track:

 

Lexie Lou – $5,500 purchase, $1. 7 million
Neshama – 2016 Woodbine Oaks winner cost $60,000 at auction
Brooklynsway – $10,000 purchase has won over $719,000
River Maid – $57,000 purchase, stakes winner in 2016, over $250,000
Melmich – $5,000 purchase, graded stakes winner of over $430,000

 

Graduates of last year’s sale have been doing well already this year as TWO-YEAR-OLDS too:

Lokingforpursemonee – $32,000 purchase, stakes winner of over $140,000
Hopping Not Hoping – $25,000 purchase, stakes winner of over $140,000
Conquest Vivi – $150,000 purchase, unbeaten stakes winner of $97,000
Raglan Road – $32,000 purchase, stakes placed winner

 

Kicking off yearling sale week is this year’s Canadian Millions Stakes night on Aug. 31, offering $1 million in purses to sales graduates. Six races for various ages and at various distances and surfaces are offered the night before the sale begins.

There is an exciting and unique addition to this year’s sale.

Members of the Ontario Thoroughbred racing industry and beyond have come together for a program of incentives and rewards for purchasers of yearlings at this year’s sale.
Over $100,000 in cash and prizes to yearling buyers is available, an idea hatched by horse owner and journalist Robert Dabdoub.
Dabdoub’s recommendation was two-fold: add races for horses bought at the 2016 Canadian Premier Yearling sale and raise funds and prizes for yearling buyers as incentives.
Once Woodbine was on board to provide the four new races in 2017 for this year’s sales graduates, dozens of members of the industry have joined together to provide more than 15 individual prizes which will be drawn by lot upon the completion of the sale on Sept. 1.
The prize list is impressive and is topped by a $20,000 cash prize sponsored by Private Ontario Horsemen.

This Saturday morning, don’t forget to check out TALKIN HORSES on CTV at 9:30 a.m. and then again at 11:30 a.m. on CTV – there is a yearling section in the show with a lot more information on what to look for when buying a yearling.

 

CONQUEST STABLES TO DISPERSE

 

Sad news came out Thursday afternoon, confirming whispers heard throughout the year. Ernie Semersky and Dory Newell’s Conquest Stables will sell all of its racing and breeding stock at Keeneland November. Lane’s End will act as agent.

When Conquest did not appear on the sales results sheets this spring at the various 2-year-old sales and Conquest horses started to pop up in Horses of Racing Age sales, it seemed to be the foreshadowing to this news.

Woodbine, where Conquest has had most of it’s best racing days with champions such as Conquest Harlanate and Conquest Typhoon, will miss the orange and light blue silks which have made for exciting racing.

Semersky’s own style of promoting his horses – keeping his horses out there on social media done up in cute photos and captions and freely handing out Conquest hats – enagded the public. The stable had a lot of fans.

Conquest Daddyo goes in Sunday’s Breeders’ Stakes as a colt with a chance.

Press release:
Conquest Stables, a multiple graded stakes winning owner, has announced that it will have a complete dispersal of racing and breeding stock at the Keeneland November Sale this fall. Lane’s End will act as consignor for Conquest Stables, LLC.

“When we launched Conquest Stables just four years ago, our goal was to build an operation that could compete in the biggest races in North America,” said Conquest co-owner Ernie Semersky. “We were on our way to achieving that goal, with seven Breeders’ Cup starters, two Sovereign Award winners, and the winners of races like the G1 Darley Alcibiades.”

We were the 32nd leading owner in North America by earnings in 2014, the 18th leading owner in 2015, and are currently the 13th leading owner this season. Since we began, our horses have won at a 22 percent clip, and have finished in the money 57 percent of the time. And with mares like My Conquestadory in the breeding shed, and with 44 exciting 2-year-olds in our barn, we feel like the best is yet to come. Unfortunately, because of personal reasons, we have decided to step back from racing at this time. But we feel these up-and-coming horses would be at home in any international racing stable.”

Added Lane’s End’s Bill Farish, “It’s a privilege to be asked to represent Conquest Stables, and we are sure the buying public will be impressed by the number of proven horses and potential stars in the dispersal. It’s a dynamic group of athletes.”

The dispersal will include 115 horses and feature:

7 pregnant broodmares, in foal to Tapit, Candy Ride (Arg), Liam’s Map, Union Rags, and Tiznow
5 weanlings
41 racing/broodmare prospects
61 racing/stallion prospects
42 of which are 3-year-olds
44 of which are 2-year-olds
On offer will be:

Grade 1 winner My Conquestadory, in foal to Tapit, and her 2016 weanling colt by Tapit
Sovereign champion Conquest Typhoon, a MGSW
Conquest Vivi, undefeated 2-year-old who won the Nandi S. by 2 1/2 lengths June 25
Grade 2 winner and Sovereign Award finalist Conquest Daddyo, a 3-year-old colt by Scat Daddy who won the Toronto S. July 24
Conquest Eclipse, a 4-year-old filly by Malibu Moon who is MG1SP in California
Conquest Enforcer, a 3-year-old colt by Into Mischief who has won three straight stakes and is 3-for-4 lifetime
Conquest Wildcat, an impressive debut winner at Churchill Downs engulfing rivals and drawing away to earn one of the top two year old Beyers of 78 in 2016
Conquest Sure Shot, a 2YO winner on the turf at Saratoga going a mile and a sixteenth

 

 

 

 

126th  BREEDERS’ STAKES  – SUNDAY

 

Queen’s Plate winner SID DUDLEY DIGGES and Prince of Wales winner AMIS DIZMO square off with 9 others at 1 1/2 miles on the grass in the Breeders’, the tough 3rd leg of the Triple Crown.

The former has raced on turf and own his maiden on it, the latter has never set foot on turf.

There are supplemental entries to the race – Rocket Plan and Camp Creek – a pair from Sam-Son Farm and two biggies from the Mark Casse stable including the turf ace Conquest Daddyo and the Conrad and Gary Barber colt Leavem in Malibu.
$500,000 Breeders’ Stakes
Sunday, August 21, Race 9, Post time 5:13 p.m.
One mile and one-half, E.P. Taylor Turf Course

PP/Horse/Jockey/Trainer
1 / Rocket Plan / Simon Husbands / John Leblanc Jr.
2 / Leavem in Malibu / Gary Boulanger / Mark Casse
3 / Camp Creek / Rafael Hernandez / Rachel Halden
4 / Sir Dudley Digges / Robby Albarado / Mike Maker
5 / Conquest Daddyo / Patrick Husbands / Mark Casse
6 / Scholar Athlete / Edgar Prado / Graham Motion
7 / Amis Gizmo / Luis Contreras / Josie Carroll
8 / Gotta Get Away / Eurico Rosa da Silva / Malcolm Pierce
9 / Narrow Escape / David Moran / Justin Nixon
10/ Niigon’s Edge / Alan Garcia / Stuart Simon
11/ Last Class to Go / Jesse Campbell / Malcolm Pierce

 

MORE WOODBINE STUFF…

TOP WINNING BEYER FIGURES FRIDAY – WED.

91 TOUCH OF DISNEY

89 SPEIGHTSLAND

87 NIPIGON

87 OBEAH WOMAN

82 DIVINE SONET

81 GROM

81 SYNTHESIZE

81 GEOCENTRIC

 

Congratulations to Kelly Callaghan who sent out her first winner of the season when CROWN PRINCE upset race 2 on Wednesday evening, a $40,000 claiming turf race. The grey gelding had been winless since he was a 2yo but relished the 9 furlongs on grass to win for the 2nd time in his career. Barry Holmes is the winning owner and David Moran rode.

DIVINE SONET won for the 5th time in his career in a $40,00 claiming race, the 6th event of the night. A half sibling to this $145,000 earner is entered in the Sept. 1 yearling sale.

 

 

CATCH A GLIMPSE, CANADA’S HORSE OF THE YEAR, READY TO GO AGAIN

How do you beat Catch a Glimpse? That’s not easily answered, considering she is 8-for-9 in her career, and hasn’t lost a race since July 30, 2015.

Nonetheless, the connections of seven 3-year-old fillies are hoping Catch a Glimpse, who is undefeated on the grass, doesn’t bring her typical “A” game when she runs in Sunday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Lake Placid at Saratoga Race Course.

The only time Catch a Glimpse competed at Saratoga was the only time she did not visit the winner’s circle. She finished fifth in an off-the-turf maiden race in her very first start.

Catch a Glimpse, who races for the partnership of Michael James Ambler, Gary Barber and Windways Farm, will be favored to win for the ninth consecutive time in the 1 1/8-mile Lake Placid. Her amazing streak began in August 2015 with a win at Woodbine.

The front-runner will once again be partnered with jockey Florent Geroux, who has been aboard the City Zip filly ever since they won the Grade 2 Natalma at Woodbine last September. As a team, Catch a Glimpse and Geroux have captured seven graded stakes, including the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational, their most recent victory together.

Norm Casse, chief assistant to his father, Mark Casse, Catch a Glimpse’s trainer, said Geroux has the right touch with the filly, who can be a handful.

“She is a very nervous and flighty filly, and I think that Florent is really good at just letting horses do what they want and be comfortable within the body of a race,” the younger Casse said. “He doesn’t mess with her too much. I think some guys would get in her way and that would be very detrimental. Florent seems to get along with horses like that.

“But she definitely has matured recently too,” he added. “We figured out how to make her happy in the paddock and how to make her happy in the morning. But really, knock on wood, the crowd doesn’t really rile her up as much anymore, either.”

Catch a Glimpse, once again, finds herself in a situation where she is the controlling speed. She led from start to finish in both the Belmont Oaks and the Grade 3 Penn Mile, a race she won by 2 1/4 lengths over males in June.

“She likes to go,” Norm Casse said. “She likes to get out there and be comfortable. Her greatest asset is that she sits the perfect trip every time she runs. She typically doesn’t ever have a bad trip, and I think that makes it a little easier to keep this winning streak going.

“I don’t know if we know what her preferred distance is, but cutting back shouldn’t be any disadvantage for her,” he continued. “If anything, it’s more of an advantage for her. We’re just excited to get the chance to run her again. She’s really done well since the Belmont Oaks, and it seems she is sitting on another big race.”

In winning the 10-furlong Belmont Oaks, Catch a Glimpse set comfortable fractions before sprinting home, posting a final quarter-mile in a sharp :23 1/5. She defeated the runner-up, Time and Motion, by a half-length, which is the smallest margin of victory recorded by Catch a Glimpse.

The Jimmy Toner-trained Time and Motion takes another shot at Catch a Glimpse, who has now beaten her twice. Toner, who won the Lake Placid twice before with Memories of Silver in 1996 and Wonder Again in 2002, said he will leave it to his rider, Hall of Famer John Velazquez, to devise his own race strategy.

“I guess you just have to put pressure on [Catch a Glimpse] early, but meanwhile do you take yourself out of your own game to do that,” Toner said rhetorically Thursday morning. “That filly is going to be tough to beat. She’s a top-quality filly, and there is a reason she has put up all those 1s before her name. It is what it is. We’re going to give it another try and see what happens.

“I’ll just let Johnny figure it out; that’s what we are paying him for,” he added.

 

CANADIAN DERBY THIS WEEKEND –
Northlands cancels racing Wed.night due to lack of entries
CURTIS STOCK FOR EDMONTON JOURNAL – Hold all tickets until the race is official.

Post positions for Saturday’s Canadian Derby were drawn Tuesday morning for a race that was widely believed to be the final Derby at Northlands.

But, then again, maybe not.

Northlands president Tim Reid, who had earlier stated that Northlands is getting out of the horse racing business after this year, now said that isn’t definite.

“Anything is possible. It will all be based on our meetings this fall with the City when our report goes to Council and we begin our next round of conversations.

http://edmontonjournal.com/sports/door-not-shut-on-horse-racing-at-northlands-next-year

 

RUCK, from Ontario to western Canada:  http://www.edmontonsun.com/2016/08/16/kentucky-horse-ruck-has-ties-to-edmonton-as-candian-derby-field-set
MISTY MISSION (1997 – 2016)
(MISWAKI-HANGIN ON A STAR, by VICE REGENT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam-Son Farm has recently lost a treasured member of its broodmare band – MISTY MISSION.

She was retired from racing after a brief two month racing career, with a record of 3-2-1 and earnings of $194,320. Denied a win in her first start, when beaten by Diadella (by Diesis) in a maiden race on the Woodbine turf, she made short work of a nine horse field in her second start, winning by 7 ½ lengths under Rob Landry, while going gate to wire on a sloppy main track (off the turf). Wheeled back just two weeks later in the Wonder Where Stakes, she beat a quality field under Slade Callaghan and denied her stable mate Catch the Ring (by Seeking the Gold) a Triple Tiara.
Voted Canada’s Outstanding Broodmare in 2012, MISTY MISSION was retired from breeding in 2015, after producing a filly by Medaglia d’Oro at the age of 18.

She enjoyed her final year with fellow retirees at the Milton Farm, where she is buried.

Her progeny to date has earned $2,554,705 and includes the G3 stakes winner French Beret (by Broad Brush) and the multiple Canadian Champion, Irish Mission (by Giant’s Causeway). Winner of the Canadian Oaks in 2012, Irish Mission was second in the Queen’s Plate and would later become a multiple G3 stakes winner in the U.S., retiring with earnings of $1,357,073. MISTY MISSION’s ninth foal is Smart Mission (by Smart Strike), who is unbeaten in two starts to date with Malcolm Pierce; who also has her two year old filly named Mythical Mission (by Giant’s Causeway).
Sam-Son Farm first bought into MISTY MISSION’s family in 1985 when purchasing her dam Hangin on a Star (by Vice Regent) as a yearling; and returned to the sales in 1987 to purchase her half-sister and multiple champion Rainbow Connection (by Halo), while she was carrying another multiple champion, Rainbow’s for Life (by Lyphard). Hangin on a Star herself, enjoyed a stellar career as a racehorse, finishing third in the Canadian Oaks and won the Breeders’ Stakes against the boys. As a broodmare, she produced Comet Shine (Champion 2YO in Canada) and was sold in foal to Unbridled in 2001. MISTY MISSION currently has two daughters in the Sam-Son broodmare band, Ain’t No Tellin’ (by Dynaformer) and the unraced Siren’s Song (by Unbridled’s Song). Ain’t No Tellin’s first foal, Malibu Secret (by Malibu Moon) was recently second in the Vandal Stakes, in his first start as a two year old; and Siren’s Song is in foal for the first time on a cover to Awesome Again this year. With another three fillies poised to prove themselves on the racetrack, MISTY MISSION’s legacy will not likely be forgotten anytime soon.