LOVELY ROSE
maiden winner battles on the rail to win Wed. stake
It’s one of those many bizarre phenomena of horse racing.
A horse takes a zillion races to win the maiden race, and then decides, hey, I like this!
ATHENA ROSE, a homebred for Robert and Patricia Weber, battled 3 to 5 shot WEEKEND ROMANCE early in the 7 furlong JAMMED LOVELY Stakes last night and then powered on to win the $150,000 event. The field of six was made up of three supplements.
ATHENA ROSE needed 16 races to win her maiden and she finally did it in her last start, on soft grass. She had placed many times on Polytrack.
On Wed. night, the daughter of Mutakkdim provided Robert and Patricia Weber and trainer Glenn Magnusson with a big moment. The Webers also raced the filly’s dam, Whistling Maid.
The time of 1:23 4/5 for 7 furlongs was good a Beyer Figure of 78.
Wednesday night also marked an unusual event that did not sit well with bettors/handicappers again, although most are resigned to the fact that these events still happen and note much gets done.
FLIP FOR THE COIN had raced on Oct. 28 for $10,000 claiming and acted up badly behind the gate, not wanting to go in. Once underway, the gelding was sluggish and awkward in his stride coming out of the gate, dropped far back and was then pulled up on the backstretch by jockey Tylzer Pizarro.
Flip ahead to Wed. night, in a $9,500 claimer, Matt Moore his 7th different rider in his last 8 races on board and the performance was ming boggling.
No, he didn’t rebounded and win by a length, he took the lead down the backstretch well out into the track, went way wide on the turn while opening up and he won by 10 1/2 lengths, running like a wild horse.
The ORC stewards said they were looking into the situation.
The Molinaro Stable homebred, trained by Vita Armata, did have an interim workout and that should be noted. Hey, gambling is taking your chances but the blatant events like this one and several others this season, are not good for perception and documentation needs to be available once a horse is pulled up.
But a 10 length win at 17 to 1 at the same class level a few weeks after being pulled up just does not look good.
Hopefully some light will be shed on this. Again, there must be a move to make these pulled up etc. incidents recorded on a website after the race so that fans can know what they are dealing with.
No track wants bad-looking situations on their hands (Life at Ten was a similar situation).
Horsepeople on a roll this week include trainer JAMES HATCHETT, jockeys STEVE BAHEN and JESSE CAMPBELL (Woodbine’s newest speed rider).
FLIP FOR THE COIN OCTOBER 28 (announcer calls 14 names down backstretch but there were only 13 – Flip for the Coin had been pulled up by then)
FLIP FOR THE COIN WEDNESDAY NIGHT:
SOVEREIGN AWARDS UP FOR GRABS THIS WEEKEND
PASO DOBLE – could he be the champion Sprinter in Canada with a win today? He’s an American bred by Ontario sire BOLD N’ FLASHY.
M. Burns photo
Voting does not start for about 6 weeks but with 12 days left in the Woodbine season (anyone hiring?) the final few stakes races are going to mean a lot in a year when a lot of the horse divisions have been sctattered.
SPRINTER OF THE YEAR is up for grabs – perhaps the winner of todays KENNEDY ROAD Stakes winner be named the champ.
Two of the last 3 sprint champions are in the field too – that’s cool.
HOLLYWOOD HIT and FATAL BULLET are a notch below what they used to be, but one will be on the lead and the other will try to rally in the 6 furlong event today.
Both have to meet the young buck PASO DOBLE, coming off a career best 95 Beyer Speed Figure when wining the prep for this race.
ESSENCE HIT MAN will try and lead all the way too and SIGNATURE RED is always a threat.
Tomorrow – the BESSARABIAN STAKES (G2) can decide champion female sprinter although EMBUR’S SONG seems to have the FEMALE SPRINTER and CHAMPION OLDER MARE Sovereigns already wrapped up with graded stakes wins here and in Kentucky at various distances.
EMBUR’S SONG needs only to run well tomorrow (she is one of 3 horses entered in the 7 furlong race by trainer Todd Pletcher) to be a champion.
CANADIAN OWNED BUDDY IN DELTA JACKPOT
Northlands Park-based DOUG’S BUDDY, unbeaten in 4 races, is 20 to 1 for the Delta Jackpot Stakes tonight at Delta Downs. The Badge of Silver gelding is owned by Doug Blair and trained by Northlands’ leading trainer Joan Petrowski.
The pp’s are on this link:
http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbNTRAGetFreeFF.cfm?TRK=DED&RD=11/19/11&CTY=USA&DE=D&RN=7
RAPID REDUX GOES FOR RECORD 20TH STRAIGHT ON MONDAY!!
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/66261/rapid-redux-in-at-mountaineer-seeks-no-20
