FILLIES WILL BRIGHTEN PLATE PICTURE
– On THE SCORE racing show last night, the Woodbine crew showed a Mark Casse interview and reported on trainer Scott Fairlie’s ideas regarding their fillies possibly entering the Plate.
Casse’s TASTY TEMPTATION, owned by Woodford Racing, was 2nd in the Oaks and is a Plate definite if she is well while Fairlie and his wining Oaks miss MILWAUKEE APPEAL is not so sure. “We think she has a good shot in the Queen’s Plate, as long as she trains well in the next week, we’ll go for it,” said Casse,
SCOTT FAIRLIE mentioned the Bison City Stakes nest for his filly, owned by C.E. C. Farms but might be re-thinking things: MILWAUKEE APPEAL earned a lofty 99 Beyer Figure for her win which came in the very fast time of 1:49.84for 1 1/8 miles.
Rocco D’Alimonte and Frank Annecchini’s MR. FORICOS TWO U, quickly becoming the popular pick for the Queen’s Plate a week from this Sunday, has a new rider in Mike Smith.
Justin Stein rode the horse to a win last time.
TYLER PIZARRO will ride SHUT IT DOWN for Lorne Richards and JIM MCALENEY will ride RESERVOIR.
HMMMMM – A chestnut 3yo, trained by Roger Attfield and ridden by Jono Jones… sound familiar. RAPID RELEASE will be a Plate favourite on June 21 looking to duplicate what NOT BOURBON did last year. Oh yes, Attfield is shooting for 9 Plate wins.
Read all about Attfield Plate winning memories in the QUEEN’S PLATE SOUVENIR MAGAZINE! Photo by terence Dulay.
150th QUEEN’S PLATE OUTLOOK – June 21
POSSIBILTIES AND LAST BEYER FIGURE:
*MILWAUKEE APPEAL filly – Woodbine Oaks 99
*TASTY TEMPTATION filly – 2ND woodbine oaks, 93
EYE OF THE LEOPARD – Plate Trial winner 85
SHUT IT DOWN 3rd allowance 86
MR FORICOS TWO U allowance winner 84
*RESERVOIR – allowance on turf – 82
RAPID RELEASE – 3rd Plate Trial 81
STARDUST ZIGGY 2nd maiden race 78
ACTIVE DUTY – 4th Trial 77
KEINO WEST – 5th Trial 75
COSTALIVIN – Unplaced Trial 74
FLIP FOR THE COIN – 3rd allowance 74 Beyer
CARCILLO – maiden 74
EL BRUJO – Unplaced Trial 72
(*would have to be supplemented)
ME, THE SEA AND LONGSHOT NIGHT!
WOODBINE WEDNESDAY NIGHT
– Trainer STEVE OWENS picked a groovy time to get into the groove – the conditioner won his first race of the meeting last night with ME THE SEA AND G.T. in the Bold Ruckus Stakes, worth $125,000.
Making his grass debut, the 3yo chestnut, already 2 for 10 in his career and earner of $102,000, mowed down the field from far off the pace to beat The Boys Ring in the 6 furlong turf event for ONtario sired sophomores. The winner is owned and was bred by George Tharrenos.
Me The Sea and G T (most of the owner’s horses have the GT in the name) became the first stakes winner for the Ontario stallion DANCE TO DESTINY, a son of Dance Smartly. His dam has produced the ace grass winner HERE COMES CHRISSY.
The gelding’s time of 1:08.65 was a stakes record, 0.14 seconds faster than Legal Move’s time in 2007.
A chestnut gelding, Me the Sea and G T is now 3-for-10 with $185,914 in earnings.
Me the Sea and G T returned $48.40, $16.10 and $6.40, combining with The Boy’s Ring ($6.10 and $3.60) for an exactor worth $245. Daniel Be Good ($4.90) completed a triactor worth $913.10.
Tyler Pizarro rode the gelding.
Other winners last night:
CAMPFIRE GIRL won the first race with a rally to get Smart Blonde who was going to on fast on the pace – she had to hold off another rallier, RAFFLESIA, to win by a nose. Trained by John Charalambous for Equilease Racing Stable, Allan Schaffer Racing, Campfire Girl is a Kentucky bred by Forest Camp and she was winning for $40,000 claiming at 6 furlongs.
Owner/trainer STEVE ASMUSSEN won the 2nd race with recent claim ROVINA, a Hennessy filly who rallied inside all the way and pipped Gold Leaf Rose on the money to win the $16,000 claiming at 7 furlongs.
Another one making his grass debut – FRIDAY ON MY MIND, a $72,000 yearling and a three-quarter brother to multiple turf stakes placed gal KABUL, had a dream ,stalking trip under Chad Beckon and won the 3rd race, a maiden allowance at 30 to 1. ROBERT GERL trains for Kool Kreek. The gelding is by Compadre and he was blanked in 4 previous Polytrack races.
Race 5, a maiden allowance for Ontario sired guys, had a very slow pace to start and jockey Emile Ramsammy sensed this on SK THE BESTMAN, a Where’s the Ring colt making his 2nd career start. It looked like he was going to win it in the stretch but MONTROSE AVENUE , long overdue for his maiden win, wore him down in 1:16 3/5. The winner is a gelding by Endeavor out of an Alydeed mare owned by Tucci Stables and trained by Nock Gonzalez.
SUNFLOWER DRIVE romped in an allowance for Ontario sired gals in race 6. The Eugene Melnyk homebred by Paynes Bay is Ontario sired by Flordia-bred out of Palmetto Bay by Broad Brush. She tracked front runing Desire and Fire, was very wide off the last turn when the leader went extremely wide, but she coasted home for her 2nd consecutive win. Mark Casse trains and Patrick Husbands collected more praise from commentators with yet another flawless ride.
The finish of race 7 was wild,there were four gals at the wire when HILTON TERRACE was up to win it for Mike Wright, owner/trainer.
The Graeme Hall mare was angled out wide to win the $25,000 claiming event Krista Carignan was the winning rider.
The finale went to front runinng longshot SPARKLING MICAYLA, who was 13 t 1 Under Gerry Olguin. The Florida bred by City Place was 2nd time with Lasix and had a booming bullet workout since her season debut. John Mackenzie was taking over the trainer duties for the $16,000 claiming race.
WATERLOO RECORD FEATURE ON EUGENE GEORGE
By Mark Bryson
Eugene George didn’t exactly paint the town red after winning a major Canadian horse race on Sunday.
Actually, it wasn’t much of a party at all.
Instead of celebrating Milwaukee Appeal’s 3 3/4-length victory in the $500,000 Woodbine Oaks, the 79-year-old business person headed back to the Breslau office of G.A. Masonry to catch up on paper work.
http://news.therecord.com/Sports/article/551054
WOODBINE’S POLYTRACK BIASES ACCORDING TO DAILY RACING FORM
ANALYZING TODAY’S FIRST PICK 3
By Ron Gierkink
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Handicappers who are conscious of track bias had to be on their toes last Thursday at Woodbine, when the majority of the winners came from the inside part of the track. It was a stark contrast from the previous night, when a strong outside bias existed on the quirky Polytrack.
The first three races on this Thursday’s card are all maiden events on Polytrack, and handicappers should cover several bases in the early pick three, in case a bias exits.
In the opener, a six-furlong event for 3-year-olds and up, Monashee Dancer and Child O’Mine look best of those who have run.
www.drf.com/news/article/104504.html
EINSTEIN FEATURE
LOUISVILLE COURIER-JOURNAL REPORTS:
Stable relationship: Einstein, Pitts-Blasi
Together theyhave blossomed
The gorgeous EINSTEIN loves to win. Photo by Sarah K. Andrew.
By Jennie Rees • jrees@courier-journal.com • June 10, 2009
To trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi, the 7-year-old horse Einstein is more than a potential pioneer. If he wins Saturday’s $600,000 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, he’ll become the first horse to capture GradeI races on dirt, turf and synthetic surfaces in consecutive starts.
Pitts-Blasi called Einstein “like my best friend in the barn.” And no wonder. Their careers have been intertwined since she started training four years ago and he began racing several months later.
Einstein vaulted to the top of the handicap ranks and to No.1 in the NTRA’s weekly national poll by winning the March7 Santa Anita Handicap on the Pro-Ride surface — his first start on a synthetic — then becoming the first two-time winner of the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic on the Kentucky Derby undercard. www.courier-journal.com/article/20090610/SPORTS08/906100500/1002
MORE FROM AJAX OPENING DAY
Jockey ED WALTON falls in the first race of the AJAX MEETING last Saturday. Terence Dulay photo.
VARIETY MAGAZINE REPORTS:
– Diane Lane takes reins of ‘Secretariat’
Randall Wallace set to direct Disney film
By MICHAEL FLEMING
Diane Lane is set to star in “Secretariat,” the Disney film about the relationship between the 1973 Triple Crown-winning racehorse and his owner, Penny Chenery.
Randall Wallace is directing the film this fall from a script by Mike Rich.
Mayhem partners Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray are producing.
While Secretariat showed potential before the horse became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years, Chenery’s rise to become “first lady of racing” was the real underdog story.
Lane will play Chenery, a mother and housewife who knew little about horse racing when she took over her ailing father’s farm in Virginia.
Around the time that Secretariat established himself as a horse with serious potential, she was pressured to sell him and everything else after her father died and she was hit with a large inheritance tax.
