PRINCE OF WALES
Sunday, Fort Erie, post time: 5:22 p.m.
500,000, 3yo, (S), 1 3/16m
PP HORSE SIRE TRAINER ML
1 Flip for the Coin Compadre Armata 8-1
2 Milwaukee Appeal (f) Milwaukee Brew Fairlie 5-2
3 Gallant Aptitude Casse 12-1
4 Mr. Foricos Two U Porto Foricos Day-Phillips 2-1
5 Eye of the Leopard A.P. Indy Frostad 9-5
6 Keino West Kissin Kris Attard 12-1
All carry 126 pounds, bar Milwaukee Appeal at 121
JENNIFER’S PICKS
1 – EYE OF THE LEOPARD 2- MLWAUKEE APPEAL 3- MR. FORICOS TWO U
Not much separates the top 3 in the Wales today and if EYE OF THE LEOPARD wins, he will shoot for a Triple crown sweep in 3 weeks time. The filly, MILWAUKEE APPEAL, has that 99 Beyer Figure from the Oaks and could bounce back to that and crush these boys – it’s just that her schedule has been a bit busier. The Sam-Son colt gets the nod again.
FORT ERIE AND THE PRINCE OF WALES IN THE NEWS
St. Catharine’s Standard
Rested longshot’s trainer hoping for upset
Posted By RAY SPITERI, SUN MEDIA
When your horse is a 12-1 long shot, you know a lot of things have to go your way to pull off the upset.
You also know the strategy to adopt in the days or weeks prior to the big race could prove vital in the outcome.
Leading up to the 74th running of the Prince of Wales Stakes — set for Sunday at Fort Erie Race Track — trainer Mark Casse decided to keep Gallant out of the June 21 Queen’s Plate.
“I might not have the best horse going into Sunday, but I’ve got the freshest,” he said. “The horse is bred more to like dirt than polytrack and the distance is intriguing.”
Gallant will be one of six horses in the one mile and three-sixteenths event, scheduled for 5:22 p. m.
The purse stands at $500,000 and Casse knows with stiff competition, his horse won’t be most people’s favourite to cross the finish line first.
“There are two or three horses in this race that are very good. This horse has a lot of talent. Is he good enough to win it? I’m not sure. I think he will have to run the race of his life to win and the others will have to regress from their Queen’s Plate performance,” he said.
“But I’m a pattern type of guy. I study a lot of things and most patterns would suggest they will regress a bit. The question then is can we take advantage of that?”
While some trainers like to bring their horses to the race venue early, Casse prefers to take a different approach.
“I took Gallant down on Monday to Fort Erie and schooled the horse in the paddock,” he said. “We looked at the surroundings and then came back to Toronto. We didn’t want to stay there and have the horse stop eating, which sometimes happens to a horse when they’re new to a place. Casse said Gallant, who is stabled at Woodbine, will arrive
www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1652305
WOODBINE SATURDAY
NO PRESSURE FOR GRACE
In a surprising upset, Live Oak Plantation’s POINTS OF GRACE led all the way through fast pace fractions to win the Grade 2 DANCE SMARTLY HANDICAP at Woodbine yesterday with a career best Beyer Figure of 100.
The Point Given filly, a $170,000 yearling purchase, was coming off her first stakes test – the Grade 2 Nassua, and she was an even 4th behind Rutherienne.
Swapping jockeys – from Patrick Husbands to newcomer Luis Contreras, the 4yo chestnut just skipped away to the lead and won by 2 1/2 lengths over champion Ginger Brew and the Bill Mott invader Mushka.
Trainer Malcolm Pierce said after the race:
“Today, I thought there wasn’t much speed in here. I told Luis to
nurse along the best you can and save what you can for the end.”
For Contreras, the Dance Smartly represented his initial added-money
triumph in Canada.
“It’s my first stakes win in Canada,” he noted. “I’d like to
thank Malcolm Pierce for giving me the opportunity. It feels great.”
Points of Grace is now a five-time winner, along with two seconds, from
eight starts. She won her career bow last November at Woodbine, a
five-length romp in a six-furlong Polytrack race.
Making her Point – POINTS OF GRACE sped to a front running score in the rich DANCE SMARTLY STAKES for Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation. NORM FILES PHOTO.
CROWNING MOMENT
The result was easily predicted but the manner which it happened was a bit unusual
CROWN ISLE was almost everyone’s pick to win the TORONTO CUP STAKES at 1 1/8 miles on turf yesterday at Woodbine based on his turf breeding and promising form but the dawdling pace put the son of Arch,owned by Uphill Stable, on the pace in a duel with 35 to 1 shot and maiden Hisaki.
Suddenly heading to the quarter pole, Coffee Bar, who broke slowly, rushed to the lead 3 wide, pushing the runners out 5 wide, and apparently was trying to steal the race.
But jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson didn’t fall for that move by Patrick Husbands, and kept Crown isle cozy until the stretch when she asked the sleek dark bay to go and he was gone.
Trained by John Charalambous, Crown Isle was winning for the 2nd time in his short career and appears to have a bright future.
His Beyer Figure ws 86.
The race, which drew just 5 runners, also featured Awesome Rhythm, a 3-time stakes winner this year who was making his grass debut with very little turf breeding.
Sent off at a very low 3 to 5, the gelding was last.
John Charalambous said:
“We were waiting for the turf, last year he got a late start, this year have been trying, today was his day.
I am going to enjoy this for now (and decide what to race him in next).
Emma Jayne Wilson studied the race before and said:
“Nothing really jumped off the page, i thought Patrick’s horse would be on the pace and he was pretty keyed up in post parade but he didn’t break all that well. “I was happy where I was.”
CROWN ISLE zooms away to take the TORONTO CUP. NORM FILES PHOTO.
OTHER WINNERS:
RACE 4 – Trainer RACHEL HALDEN got her first win of the meeting when ATALANTA VELOX, by the red-hot Medaglia D’oro, won the $32,000 claiming race for maiden fillies. Recently shipped over to Woodbine for Edward Freeman and Denis Caslon, the filly had been 2nd in her local debut.
RACE 5- babies, fillies,some feisty ones too. NO COOKIESFORPAPA, racing for the first time, had plenty of antics,dropping the rider, Tyler Pizarro twice at the gate.
Pizarro hobbled from the ground to the rail with what appeared to be a sore leg.
That filly was scratched and the race spring from the gates in mere seconds, and that may have led to the very bad starts by Tomahawk Rose and Executive Pick.
Leading all the way in her 3rd career race is EXECUTIVELY, who led a trio of 2yo Ontario sired gals by Bold Executive under the wire.
The grey filly,owned by CEC Farms and trained by Scott fairlie (Milwaukee Appeal fame) was bred by Ted Kennedy and is out of Lit d’Or by Lit de Justice.
She was bought for $31,033 as a local yearling.
The time of :59.66 led to just a 30 Beyer Figure for the winner.
EXECUTIVE PICK ran an eyepopping race to be 2nd after a dreadful beginning and she may be fun for Knob Hill Stable and trainer Kevin Attard.
She is a Gardiner Farms bred by Bold Executive.
Race 7 – BOGUE CHITTO just missed the track record over a very fast Polytrack in the allowance race (first level) for 6 furlongs. The Florida homebred for Luis de Hechevarria sizzled 6 furlongs in 1:08.69, the record is 1:08.31.
Trained by Ian Howard, this son of Crafty Prospector has 2 wins, 3 seconds and 3rd in his 6 races and posted a career best Beyer Figure of 96 last time.
This is a very good runner who has been ridden in every race by Gerry Olguin.
Congrats to the 50/50 RACING TEAM of the Woodbine TV department that won its first race with their fun grey friend WHITE BALANCE yesterday.
The son of Delaware Township stretched out to 1 1/16 miles and won his maiden for $15,000 claiming with blinkers off. Trained by Julia Carey and co-owned by Weila Ya, the gelding was a $20,000 purchase as a 2yo and he has won about $34,000 now.
BOGUE CHITTO winning yesterday with a 96 Beyer Figure. NORM FILES PHOTO.
MORE FORT ERIE FEATURES:
BUFFALO NEWS
Owner holds out hope for long shot’s late run
By Robert J. Summers
FORT ERIE, Ont. — After his slow-starting, fast-closing Keino West finished sixth by 6z len 3/4 th 1/3 in the June 21 Queen’s Plate, trainer Steve Attard didn’t seem too anxious to run the gelding against the same bunch of Canadian-bred 3-year-olds in today’s Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie Race Track.
Entering the $500,000 second jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown “was not my idea, really. But I’ve got my owner here,” Attard said last week at Toronto’s Woodbine.
Owner Dave Clancy calls the shots for the horse with just one win in eight starts, that by a nose.
Clancy, a former middle distance runner who owns an accounting firm in Toronto and a pub in Burlington, Ont., has been a fan of racing — both horse and human — a long time. Keino West, the first horse he’s owned, is named for Olympic champion Kip Keino and he thinks his $33,000 purchase, a 12-1 long shot, belongs with the best.
http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/731152.html
GLOBE & MAIL
james christie
4 LEGS … 1,100 POUNDS … 35 MPH … … AND YOU’RE THE JOCKEY WHADDYA DO NOW, SMART GUY?
Prince of Wales Stakes: Fort Erie Race Track is a throwback – dirt, sand and loam, nothing synthetic. It changes a horse’s gait, and the track itself can be altered by the weather. So guiding a thoroughbred around its turns and straights is a test of human and animal..
(Editor’s note , re: whip use by jockeys discussed in story – the top jockeys from the Plate were fined by the ORC for excessive use of the whip)
read the rest here:
POSING FOR FANS. A Woodbine.HBPA/HPI Backstretch Tour for handicappers yesterday morning at Woodbine was on the agenda of HORSE OF THE YEAR FATAL BULLET, who cooly greeted friends and posed for photos. REBECCA MOTTIN got this one of the champ in Reade Baker’s barn.
Okay, not all of Reade Baker’s horses were excited about the backstretch tour. MONTY’S BEST, headed to the WEST VIRGINIA DERBY, poo poo-ed the entire thing as the tour host speaks.
REBECCA MOTTIN PHOTO
TWISTED WIT ON THE MOVE AGAIN
–Stakes winner, $900,000 earner and 15-time winner TWISTED WIT, now racing for $10,000 claiming, finsihed 2ndin such a race at Monmouth Park on Thursday and was claimed.
Bred by Ron Clarkson and raced for most of his life by Rolph Davis and trainer Robert Tiller, the gelding was claimed away and has been racing in the United States for numerous different barns for low claiming.
The son of Distorted Humor is now trained by Bruce brown.
Speaking of old guys with lots of money and class to their name, JUDITHS WILD RUSH, a multiple Canadian champion, has lost two races in succession at Fort Erie; VERNE’S BABY, a stakes winner and track record setter, lost for $5,000 claiming last week after winning for $4,000 claiming the week before.
