JAKE’S TAKE
SATURDAY APRIL 30 – almost May! wow! Okay, JAKE is back with JAKE’S TAKE – he’s made 2 picks this spring – a 1st and 2nd – if you bet $2 across on his 2 picks you would have $35.60, A PROFIT OF A COOL….$23.60!
Today at Woodbine, JAKE is going to bet his 2 across on FANTASTIC COUSIN in race 7 for birthday-boy READE BAKER. The filly is a good one, it’s her first start of the year but she may be good enough to take it…
Jake’s record again – 2 picks – $35.60 for $2 across
DID YOU KNOW THAT… GRACEFIELD won the first FURY STAKES in 1956?? Yep, HERB LINGBERG rode the Luxiana filly to win the 6 1/2 furlong race that was run, at that time, at FORT ERIE!
The last Woodbine Oaks winner to take the Fury was EYE OF THE SPHYNX in 2004…
OKAY ROXY, LET’S SEE IF YOU ROCK
Today’s Fury Stakes is an important race on the schedule for fillies who are heading to the June 5 Woodbine Oaks – that race is , like, 1 month away! Yikes!
So, the 6th race on a good card at Woodbine today will be viewed carefully by handicappers, scribes and horsepeople. It may not be a big field but the interest sits with ROXY GAP, who was unbeaten last year at Woodbine and had one race in Florida which she lost. That race, the Grade 3 Old Hat, was not to bad as she rallied mildly after a drab start from the gate and she has been freshened since then. The Indian Charlie gal, a homebred for Eugene Melnyk, figures to be odds on and it is her race to lose.
The speed should set up well for Roxy as SPOOKY KITTEN, a fast one in for Dale Romans and HOI AN (bred by Kinghaven Farms) should set a solid pace. The latter is a half sister to Grade 1 winner Square Eddie and she recently worked hard to win her maiden with a 74 Beyer Figure in her 2nd career race. MARKETING MIX is another interesting invader – she was bred by Sean Fitzhenry – was very strong in her rallying maiden win on April 10.
MEANWHILE, the best Canadian-bred filly so far this year is JOYFUL VICTORY, one of the favourites for the May 7 Kentucky Oaks.
The grey Tapit filly, was bred by Bill Graham in Caledon, Ontario.
Here is the Kentucky Oaks website’s top 10 Oaks contenders:
Top 10
1. Joyful Victory
2. R Heat Lightning
3. Zazu
4. Plum Pretty
5. Summer Soiree
6. Kathmanblu
7. Daisy Devine
8. St. John’s River
9. Holy Heavens
10. Lilacs and Lace
TODAY’S WOODBINE CARD also featured the return of QUEEN’S PLATE WINNER BIG RED MIKE in a juicy 4th race for allowance/optional claiming guys.
ROGER’S TRAIN KEEPS A ROLLIN
Musketier fights to Elkhorn win
MUSKETIER, spry at age 9 – beats POOL PLAY (left) and Windward Islands, grey at right) Matt Wooley-EquiSport photo
It was a Canadian triple in the Elkhorn, Grade 2 yesterday as Keeneland shut its doors for the spring meeting.
The old guy, Musketier, got past Rahy’s Attorney and held off POOL PLAY (bred in Ontario by Windfields Farm) and WINDWARD ISLANDS (Sam-Son Farm owns) to take his 8th win in his 38th start.
from Lexington Herald Leader:
by Alicia Wincze Hughes
Roger Attfield knows there are certain things he must do if he is to keep his graded-stakes winning charge Musketier happy on a day-to-day basis.
“He doesn’t like being in his stall a lot, so keep him outside quite a bit when we can, and he also has a teddy bear that he is very fond of,” Attfield said with a laugh.
When a horse is 9 years old and still has the kind of kick that can put rivals half his age to shame, you pretty much give in to any demand.
On the closing day of the Keeneland Spring Meet, Musketier added another graded-stakes win to his résumé when he collared pacesetter Rahy’s Attorney in deep stretch to claim the Grade II, $150,000 Elkhorn Stakes by a widening 11/4 lengths over Pool Play.
With precious few 11/2-mile turf races to be found, the Elkhorn’s 10-horse field was filled with veterans, such as Grade I winner Telling and the 7-year-old Rahy’s Attorney, the 2008 champion grass horse in Canada.
Musketier was the oldest, and he came into the race as the defending winner. He was beaten by just three-quarters of a length by Rahy’s Attorney in the Grade III Pan American Stakes at Gulfstream on March 26.
Read more: http://www.kentucky.com/2011/04/30/1724876/musketier-a-repeat-winner-in-elkhorn.html#ixzz1L0I4R8pd
A WEEK OF WOOD
Yesterday at Woodbine there were a couple of themes going on:
1- an apparent, strong outside, rally bias
2 – an early CONTRERAS bias.
LUIS CONTRERAS won the first 4 races on the card and then had a couple of 2nd place finishes. It was interesting to watch his winners – the way he got IMANUPTOWNGIRL to win for the suddenly hot Nick DeToro was quite something. The filly, by ONtario sire NORTH LIGHT (Ire) stalked the pace of longshot Musical Storm and then was carried out very wide when that rival blew the turn under Caroline Duquet. Then, Contreras and his mount were joined by Silver Pizazz and Corey Fraser in the stretch but kept on plugging and won a tough stretch battle.
The jock’s other winners were ESSENCE OF SILVER, the first starter for trainer John Mattine this season, DISTINCT BY DESIGN for TKO Racing and trainer Robert Tiller in a maiden $12,500 race and SUPER NEKIA for trainer Mike Pino, who seems to win a race a day.
Once the Contreras show was over, some of the barns that have started out well continued to do so. Owner Paul o’Brien and trainer Steve Attard, who combined to win with Kerry Covenet recently, won the 5th race with BINT, a Best of the Bests (Ire( filly bred by the famed WINDFIELDS FARM. Bint was making her first start of the year in the maiden $25,000 race.
TIGERHEAT, owned by Ace Racing, Bona and Stefaniak, dropped in for $8K claiming and led all the way to win race 6 with Omar Moreno riding, Scott Fairlie trains.
BARB MINSHALL won her 3rd race this season as CAROLINA MOON, whom she owns with Park Stud, won the 7th race, a maiden $25,000 race and split of race 5. The 3yo is from the first crop of Survivalist. Gail Cox and John Menary’s MISS LOLA won her 2010 season debut and won her 2011 debut yesterday. The Bernstein filly took the allowance race at 7 furlongs with David Clark riding.
And congrats go to the Lamb family who watched their firster AVERY AMOUR (I am thinking this gal is named for a family member who used to be a neighbour of mine!) win the finale. The 4yo by One Way Love rallied under Ryan Pacheco at 21 to 1. She is a half sister to $200K earner Brockport and was well prepared by trainer John MacKenzie.
WEDNESDAY night racing returned this week to Woodbine so we’re 4 days a week until later in May.
The track seemed to play fair on the first evening card and it was a good night for the smaller stables.
Trauber DENYSE MCCLACHRIE sent out Shale Wagman and Dan Pivnick’s new claim ZIP IT NANCE to win his maiden for $16,000 in race 2. The very fast gelding by City Zip ran away from the field early under Sunny Singh and just held on to edge Charlie Moon, trained by Hank Gensler.
Meanwhile, Gensler came back to win a photo with his trainee LUCKY WOMAN in race 6 for $8,000 claiming mares. The Hadif 8yo was up to beat Hosannah’s Song by a few inches at 6 to 1. Jesse Campbell rode Lucky Woman for owner Leanne Hester.
STUART SIMON continues with a good spring as his trainee HIGHLY FAVOURED was up to beat speedy Grittani in race 3 for $10,000 claiming runners, non winners of 3. The grey gelding had been a vet scratch earlier in the meet but was well prepared and he is owned by Cecil Peacock.
The Terra Racing Stable celebrated a win by STEADY STUART in an Ontario sired allowance race and the wining rider, Gerry Olguin, won 2 on the card and is also having a big spring. Trained by Kevin Attard, Steady Stuart (Where’s the Ring – Flashy n Sheikh, by Sheik Albadou) was a longshot winner over Cook’s Look.
And KARA’S ORIENTATION made his interest proud when he won a starter allowance with a 89 Beyer Figure in race 7. The stakes placed colt, a $20,000 claiming by Max Berketa, Pinnacle Racing and trainer Steven Chircop, led all the way through 7 furlongs to beat Pure Attitude.
HMMMM, JOCKEY COLONY AT WOODBINE LURES ANOTHER OUT-OF TOWNER
It is already tough sledding for the local riders, the Canadians as it were, at Woodbine, and it seems it may be a bit more so now that DAVY MORAN will set up shop here. DAILY RACING FORM’S BILL TALLON broke the story yesterday as top agent JOHN BELL will start booking mounts for the European rider who has been in town in the last couple of years for stakes races.
With JESSE CAMPBELL, LUIS CONTRERAS and so many ship in riders landing here for stakes races, it is going to be very tough to the Canadians to hold their own. So far, however, Emma-Jayne Wilson, Tyler Pizarro, Gerry Olguin and Rick Dos Ramos are doing just fine, hopefully we can keep it that way…
http://www.drf.com/news/woodbine-irishman-moran-joins-jockey-colony
JOCK’S STANDINGS through yesterday…
1 Luis Contreras 92 18 15 14 $708,769 20% 47 51%
2 Emma-Jayne Wilson 59 12 15 8 $607,435 20% 35 59%
3 Tyler Pizarro 56 11 7 4 $469,757 20% 22 39%
3 Omar Moreno 58 11 5 7 $386,492 19% 23 40%
5 Eurico Rosa Da Silva 57 8 15 6 $406,725 14% 29 51%
5 Justin Stein 47 8 6 2 $337,406 17% 16 34%
7 Emile Ramsammy 49 7 3 6 $293,241 14% 16 33%
8 David Clark 49 6 6 14 $288,015 12% 26 53%
9 Patrick Husbands 49 5 8 8 $367,357 10% 21 43%
9 Gerry Olguin 41 5 3 8 $181,216 12% 16 39%
9 Richard Dos Ramos 30 5 2 3 $169,990 17% 10 33%
9 Juan N. Delgado 10 5 2 1 $154,526 50% 8 80%
HORSE BY KY. DERBY HORSE RE-CAP for yesterday
What each horse did as reported by Daily Racing Form and the link gives more details and quotes from John Asher’s Derby notes:
Animal Kingdom – galloped early at CD, works Sat.
Anthony’s Cross – works Sun. at Hol; would ship Tues.
Archarcharch – worked 5 furlongs in 59.26 under J.Court.
Brilliant Speed – galloped at Kee, then shipped to CD.
Comma to the Top – works Sat. at Hol, ships Tues.
Decisive Moment – worked 5 furlongs in 1:01.46 under J.Castanon.
Dialed In – breezed 4 furlongs Thurs. in 48.53 at PmM; flies in Sat.
Master of Hounds – arrives Tues. from Ireland.
Midnight Interlude – galloped during 8:30 break at CD; works Mon. or Tues.
Mucho Macho Man – galloped 2 miles during 8:30 break at CD; works Sat. or Sun.
Nehro – galloped early at CD; works Monday.
Pants On Fire – galloped during 8:30 break at CD; works Sat or Sun.
Santiva – galloped during 8:30 break at CD; works Mon. or Tues.
Shackleford – galloped during 8:30 break at CD; works Sat.
Soldat – breezed 5 furlongs in 1:01.40 at PmM; flies in Sat.
Stay Thirsty – galloped 1 1/2 miles during 8:30 break at CD; works Sun.
Toby’s Corner – works Sun. at Fair Hill; ships Monday.
Twice the Appeal – galloped 1 1/2 miles early at CD.; works Sat.
Twinspired – galloped at Trackside, works there Sat.; to CD on Tues.
Uncle Mo – galloped 1 1/2 miles during 8:30 break at CD; works Mon.
Watch Me Go – galloped during 8:30 break at CD; works Sat or Sun.
NOTES AND QUOTES –
ARCHARCHARCH – at Churchill Downs, he had a big workout yesterday folks…Matt Wooley-EquiSport photos
GADZOOKS, ROYAL WEDDING WINS YESTERDAY!
from the Racing Post…By racingpost.com staff
RARELY are two successful royal weddings celebrated on the same day, but after Prince William and Catherine Middleton tied the knot at Westminster Abbey on Friday morning it was the turn of the equine Royal Wedding to canter to victory at Fontwell’s evening meeting.
Bookmakers had braced themselves for a flood of bets from coincidence punters although it appeared the British public had lost faith in the chances of Royal Wedding as he drifted out to 11-2 from 7-2.
