UPDATE -BREEDERS’ CUP ENTRIES AND POSTS FROM BLOODHORSE.COM
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/73983/breeders-cup-entries-2012
Returning to a one-turn distance, Canadian bred UNCAPTURED is now the leader for champion 2yo colt in canada off big win yesterday
Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer
UNCAPTURED takes down Grade 3
big shot for champion 2yo title in Canada
CANADIAN-BRED UNCAPTURED, foaled at Bill Graham’s Windhaven in Caledon, Ont. got back to his winning ways when he blew away his riavls in the Iroquois Stakes at Churchill Downs.
He posted a 90 Beyer Figure.
The Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes may be next:
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Sunday, Oct. 28, 2012) – John Oxley’s Uncaptured took the lead from runner-up Positively in mid-stretch and increased his advantage from there to take the 31st running of the Grade III, $114,800 Iroquois by a widening 5 ½ lengths on opening day at Churchill Downs.
Ridden by Miguel Mena for trainer Mark Casse, Uncaptured broke well with the rest of the field and rated in mid-pack through fractions of :22.88 and :46.24 set by longshot Road Agent. Mena began to move with Uncaptured nearing the top of the stretch, gained a slight advantage at the three-sixteenths pole and then exploded with run down the lane to kick clear of his nine rivals.
Uncaptured, a Canadian-bred son of Lion Heart out of the Arch mare Captivating, completed the mile over a fast main track in 1:37.63, a full second faster than Sign ran when she won the Pocahontas (GII) for 2-year-old fillies earlier on the card.
Uncaptured, a supplementary nomination to the Iroquois, returned $11.40, $4.60 and $3.60. Positively was second and paid $4 and $3. Overanalzye, the 9-5 favorite, was another 2 ½ lengths back in third and returned $3.
Strike the Note, Pataky Kid, Five Iron, Heaven’s Runway, Triple Cross, Agave Cat and Road Agent completed the order of finish.
“I had a good trip and he’s a very nice horse,” Mena said. “I had just a ton of horse and he just galloped. He’s very good.”
The victory was worth $67,617 and increased Uncaptured’s earnings to $406,845 with a record of 5-0-0 from six career starts.
Casse said there is a good possibility Uncaptured will make his next start in the $150,000-added Kentucky Jockey Club (GII) at Churchill Downs on Nov. 24. The Kentucky Jockey Club is part of the “Kentucky Derby Prep Season” and the Top 4 finishers will earn 10-4-2-1 points, respectively, on the “Road to the Kentucky Derby.”
“He had been very powerful before this and that’s why I wanted to bring him here and run him on the dirt,” Casse said. “If it didn’t work well then I was going to send him home for a break, but I think we got the answer today.”
Racing resumes Wednesday with a 10-race program that includes a Pick-6 carryover of $4,165. The Pick 6 will begin with Race 5 at 2:36 p.m. (all times Eastern) and post time for the first race is 12:40 p.m.
IROQUOIS QUOTES
Mark Casse, trainer of Uncaptured, winner: “He’s a pretty good horse. He had a rough trip last time, but I don’t have a real good explanation (as to why he ran fifth in the Grey). He had been very powerful before this and that’s why I wanted to bring him here and run him on the dirt. If it didn’t work well then I was going to send him home for a break, but I think we got the answer today.
“We worked him last week with (Grade III Ontario Derby winner) Stealcase, who we think highly of, and he kind of played with Stealcase, so we were pretty confident.”
Q: Do you think you’ll run him back in the Kentucky Jockey Club at Churchill Downs on Nov. 24? “It’s a good possibility.”
Miguel Mena, jockey on Uncaptured, winner: “I had a good trip and he’s a very nice horse. I had just a ton of horse and he just galloped. He’s very good. I didn’t even hit him.”
MORE FROM COURIER-JOURNAL
TRAINER RACHEL HALDEN WINS FIRST STAKES
with Nipissing in $250 P.E.
NIPISSING and Steve Bahen get past STRUT THE COURSE – Norm Files photo
It was a joyous afternoon for trainer Rachel Halden as she won her first stakes race in just her 2nd year of training (after a 1 year hiatus and a 2 year training stint).
The best news was that the win came in the $250,000 Princess Elizabeth Stakes and it was for Chiefswood Stagble with a daughter of the farm’s late sire Niigon.
NIPISSING took dead aim on a flying STRUT THE COURSE and stretched out to a clear win to remain unbeaten. The pretty filly is a daughter of Queen’s Plate winner Niigon, who died 2 weekends ago.
The Chiefswood team, which is owners Robert and Mark Krembil, celebrated the big win but at the same time remembered their hero, their first good horse and a stallion who looked to have a world of potential.
“It’s a bittersweet win,” said one of the members of the winning team.
Halden, who was Roger Attfield’s assistant for many years, went out on her own for 2 years and had modest success. She then worked as an assistant to BIll Mott when he had horses at Woodbine but tried again to train her own last year.
She got a job with Chiefswood as one of its 4 trainers and has done well.
Nipssing earned a 77 Beyer Figure for her win. She is from the Dixieland Band mare Kiche.
STRUT THE COURSE ran a winning race but made a sweeping, wide move on the turn and probably should have waited a bit longer. She is a nice prospect for owner and breeder John Unger.
More bits – TYLER PIZARRO was off his mounts after that scary accident on Saturday. Pizarro fell off BIG TIME when hie horse was wiped out on the rail by another horse and then clipped heels. Horse and rider are geenrally okay from all reports.
Luis Contreras won 4 races yesterday.
There are hearings scheduled this week for positive tests from last year including a ketoprofen infraction for Hall of Fame trainer ROGER ATTFIELD.
There has been a rash of horses that have been barred recently due to ‘Ace’ (acepromazine) positives (Hollywood Hit, Dracup) following other horses who were barred like LUCKY MELISSA, who is back racing.
BREEDERS’ CUP MEMORIES
The 2nd Breeders Cup was at AQUEDUCT – hard to believe. Standing on the apron with friends, I was frozen! It was cold (although the breederscup.com site says it was 54 degrees (?)). The event was in its early years but was already the big trip for any horse racing fan or anyone in the industry.
And Canada’s own IMPERIAL CHOICE was going to take part in the Classic (the Sam-Son guy made a big move in the race before he was injured).
My favourite was watching the mighty PEBBLES, who was in a jackpot for much of the race in her North American debut. She is considered one of the greatest turf mares in modern history:
From WIKIPEDIA…Pebbles, in addition to her success as a racer, made for an interesting media story because of her assorted unqiue quirks. She was frequently accompanied by a gelding named Come On The Blues (the winner of the Royal Hunt Cup) who exerted a calming influence on the highly-strung filly[10] and who escorted her to America for the first running of the Breeders’ Cup.[11] Brittain described her as an extremely difficult horse to manage and one who could not be trained in the conventional way, noting that she spent more time swimming than galloping. She also was known for consuming a pint of Guinness a day.[8]
Pebbles was not a success as a broodmare. Despite producing foals by such prominent stallions as Nureyev, Caerleon, Green Desert and Reference Point, none of her progeny distinguished themselves as racehorses.[17] In 1996 Pebbles was sent to the Darley Stud’s Fukumitsu Farm in Japan. She was retired from breeding in 2002 and died in September 2005.[5]
