This was the case involving Tapitsfly, winner of the Grade 2 Honey Fox today at Gulfstream. When Dale Romans said: “It’s hard to believe that this is her first graded stakes win,” I’m thinking “no way.”
 Photo by: Toni Pricci "She's learned to relax and is a better horse this year," is Dale Romans' take |
The Juvenile Fillies Turf was run for the first time in 2008 and went ungraded for two years.* While some Breeders’ Cup events are afforded graded status right from the jump, the graded stakes committee didn’t know what they would get from this event and took a pass.
The event was a Grade 2 when Stephanie’s Kitten won the race last year.
“She really deserves this,” Romans said. “She’s had some tough luck in some of her races but now she’s learned to relax and is a better horse for it.
And her rider, Julien Leparoux, must be pretty relaxed, too, because after breaking sharply, Leparoux was able to settle her into stride nicely and waited for the last instant to make his run, a trademark of his on the turf.
As for what’s next, Romans said “I have no idea. She usually [does her best racing] at this time of year but it’s a long year. We need to map out a whole plan for her.”
Now that’s she learned how to relax, Romans would be best served by allowing Leparoux to keep timing her late run. The filly had not won a race since last April 2 at Gulfstream, which was the last time Leparoux got on her until Sunday.
 Photo by: Toni Pricci Tapitsfly breaks sharply beneath Leparoux, then settles down nicely |
Tough Weekend for Riders
Both Antonio Gallardo and Paco Lopez were fortunate to escape serious injury in Saturday’s turf finale. Both were released from the hospital but unfortunately Lopez did not get off lightly. Far from it.
Last season’s leading rider at Gulfstream suffered a broken collarbone and six fractured ribs and will convalesce from six to eight weeks. This is the second time at this meet that Lopez has been injured and forced to miss time, but not like this.
Three horses were involved in the nasty looking spill and escaped uninjured.
 Photo by: Toni Pricci Leparoux times it nicely as Bay to Bay (2) noses out an obscured La Reine Lionne |
On Sunday, leading rider Ramon Dominguez and apprentice Samuel Camacho were thrown from their mounts in the eighth race when Mob Wife stumbled and fell, unseating Dominguez, then Camacho’s mount, Suave N Sassy, collided with Mob Wife, unseating the apprentice.
Neither horse was seriously injured, according to an NYRA press release. Camacho is expected back on Wednesday when racing returns to the Aqueduct main track while Dominguez will be out for an undetermined period. Dominguez led all jockeys with 104 winners at the inner track meet that concluded Sunday.
Havre De Grace the Day After: All's Well
 Photo by: Toni Pricci The lovely mare and happy rider return victorious |
Jones also reported that his two Louisiana Derby starters, Mark Valeski and Mr. Bowling, both owned by former Kentucky Governor Brereton Jones, will work for that race on Tuesday.
Mark Valeski was beaten a nose by El Padrino in the Risen Star Stakes and is likely to go favored in the La. Derby…Dale Romans confirmed Sunday that Finnegans Wake is very likely at Louisiana Derby starter. That colt finished third to Hansen in the Gotham Stakes, March 3…Leading rider and defending champion Rosie Napravnik rode her 100th winner of the meet in Saturday’s eighth race.
Baffert's World
Bob Baffert, who won his third consecutive Rebel Stakes on Saturday with Secret Circle, stated that he will return for the $1 million Arkansas Derby April 14.
“[The Rebel] was a good schooling for him and I think he should get a lot out of it, although my guys tell me he was hardly blowing when he got back. If all goes well, we will definitely come back.”
Next time, the waters will get deeper, of course. In addition to the 9 furlong trip, there is the possibility that the impressive, undefeated Gemologist will be in the same starting gate.
Gemologist needs graded earnings and even a second-place finish should insure that the WinStar colt will have bankrolled enough graded cash to make the Derby cut. If that meeting happens; it could be the first confrontation of Baffert and Pletcher-trained 3-year-olds. *Correction made 8:41 a.m., 031912
19 Mar 2012 at 04:34 am | #
JP, the first Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf was run in 2008. Maram won for trainer Chad Brown. It went ungraded for 2 years. Tap won in 2009. It went G2 in 2010.
19 Mar 2012 at 04:51 am | #
The funny thing about the 2010 JFT, it was won by More than Real, who was purchaced private by Bobby Flay off Chad Brown at Saratoga after her Debut win.
19 Mar 2012 at 07:12 am | #
Good catch, DH. Right, Maram, 2008. Now I remember thinking at the time, who’s Chad Brown? (Sure needed his filly in the Honey Fox).
Anyway, the correction has been made, thanks!
19 Mar 2012 at 07:52 am | #
Yup, bettors who love stake races made a lot of money: Havre de Grace $2.10 to win; Secret Circle $4.00 to win. The only people to make money were the usual suspects: the owner, trainer, and jockey.
Got a little tale to tell (it was music to my ears): Yesterday I decided I needed a change of scenery, so I went to an OTB joint to the south, about six miles further than the other two OTBs I usually attend, as I was enduring a losing streak that now had reached four days.
A young man, about 35 years of age, sat in the carrel next to me. Engrossed in the past performances of the second race at Philly I heard him mumble a bit loud “this is a tough race.” I looked at his monitor and Tampa Bay was on his screen. A bit later he came alive, urging a horse that was second deep in the stretch to “hold on, hold on”. Moments later he was elated, as he had the exacta and the #2 nag that finished second to place, making a very nice score.
We got to talking and he said he always bet on Tampa as they had large fields and the payoffs were better. I asked about stake races. His comment was, “They suck, the payoffs are lousy, and the fields are always small.” Like I said, music to my ears. One young man who gets it!
I can certainly give you daily horses that are not fit, with certainty: the plodders I bet on yesterday.
Philly today. Pick threes here I come.
19 Mar 2012 at 11:26 am | #
Nice article (and picture) about Tapitsfly, who ran in a stakes race. It is sad that someone would try to make a point about how you can’t make money on stakes races, by selectively eliminating the race the article is written about, where the winner was 5-1, with a $75.00 exacta. The homespun hearsay comments with respect to a 35-year old OTB analyst, although reminiscent of Will Rogers, does not make it true. What “sucks” is the logic (or lack thereof).
TTT
19 Mar 2012 at 11:45 am | #
Mr. Corrow,
As one who agrees with you about the essential appeal of racing being gambling, I have to say your take on “higher quailty” racing is not that well thought out. The realtive racing aesthetics of verying levels is a debatable point. However, what you don’t consider are the aesthetics of the past performances, themselves. That’s where the appeal of classier racing is for me. And as far as fields and payouts...one has to pick and choose as with all races. I don’t think you can claim the Breeders Cup and Triple Crown races are chalk-fests. And as for The Rebel...that was a 13 horse field and despite the favorite winning the exotics came back pretty healthy. And of course, Teddy pointed out the Honey Fox returns, which you did ignore.
19 Mar 2012 at 01:08 pm | #
Kyle: Racing is tanking. Agree? And, you agree that racing is about gambling. I’m not against stake races; these races are needed, I guess, to encourage the wealthy to invest in horseflesh. Fine. That these stake races are financial disasters, meaning takeout and signal fees do not even come close to covering the purse is a subject for another day.
What ticks me off is turf writers’ concentration on stake races, while totally ignoring claiming races in abundance at numerous racetracks, when all races are virtually identical in potential payoff, excitement, and most importantly cashing.
Sure, there are stake races with full fields, and favorites do not win at times. But, I don’t care if you are trying to pick the winner of a claimer at Philly or the winner of a stake race at Saratoga, the past performances are identical and your chances of selecting the winner of either race are determined by your handicapping skills.
Why don’t you give claiming races a look? Wager on the race card at Buelah, Philly, or some other racetrack below the rader of turf writers. You will, hopefully, know where I am coming from.
Remember, in stake races as in any race you must put up your own money to get involved. When a stake race is over, you may cash, but what you get is peanuts to what the owner, trainer, and jock got. And the stake race, no doubt, had five or fewer entrants offering no value whatsoever. Thus, for me, the huge question is why is one race worth $500,000 plus, when on the same race card another race, with no doubt a larger field, has a purse of $30,000? Is there really a difference for bettors - will you pick more winners from stake races?
Enjoy Pletcher and Baffert’s accomplishments. I’m sure they will fatten your wallet. Oh, and please keep an open mind and inform me just what a stake race offered in payoff, excitement, and thrills that a claiming race going off at the same time didn’t.
19 Mar 2012 at 01:51 pm | #
WC,
I won’t argue with you about there being a misallocation of purse money. Despite stakes races being more popular with the betting public, a six horse field rarely handles enough to cover a quarter million dollar plus purse. Although those six horse fields will far out-handle 12 horse claiming fields. If I had my way more money would be funneled toward high priced claiming, allowance and grass races and I would make purses and takeout at least partially a function of field size. As to the role of turf writers in all this, their role is to serve their readership not to lead them. Racing as sport may be all but dead, but once upon a time it was one of the American triumverate along with baseball and boxing, and some of that interest still survives. You can’t blame turf writers for clinging to that. I think you can level a criticism that, like reporters in a lot of areas, they fell victim to “capture” and the need to maintain access, and through the years did a less than stellar job of holding the industry to account.
19 Mar 2012 at 04:19 pm | #
Kyle: You write, ‘turf writers....their role is to serve their readership not lead them’. I see it as exactly the opposite. IM0 turf writers have led the public into believing that stake races are the only races that matter. You write that stake races are more popular with the public; it is because such races are only what turf writers write about.
Turf writers have an organization, NTRA or NATW, which could have been an influence on the direction of racing; but, they never banded together to achieve a goal, to put pressure on racetrack management, to create change. Each turf writer did his own thing, just like each racetrack is doing its own thing today.
Purses are out of whack, but purses have nothing to do with getting people interested in gambling on the ponies. Takeout is ridiculous, but it also has nothing to do with interesting people in gambling on the ponies. What is sending people to slot machines is stake races that they are drawn to by turf writer hype, yet when they bet the stake race they find that, though a winner, they are asking, “where’s the money, honey”.
It’s all about gambling, but for turf writers to have a topic, they must write about stake races, Pletcher, Baffert, etc. Again, fine. Unfortunately, their commentary has a huge influence on readers which put claiming races on the outs.
It is simply to late to change anything. The smart gambler knows that all races are the same.
Damn shame that the newbies don’t know it. How will they be informed?
19 Mar 2012 at 04:26 pm | #
Happy 50th anniversary to Bob Dylan’s first album release!
How many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesn’t see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
1- No matter how hard you try, you can’t change some folks opinions. The beat will always go on.
2- Horseracing is a SPORT that you can gamble on legally but also watch for entertainment as a fan or owner. The Kentucky Derby is a top 5 SPORTING EVENT attended by celebrities, politicians, gamblers and fans. Attendance last year was over 168,000, a record, the SPORT is not dead.
3- Horseracing entries, results, selections and articles are found in the SPORT section of the newspaper. Turf writers will cover Stakes races as oppose to cheap claiming races because their editors KNOW that’s what the majority of people are interested in.
4- Horseracing owners are mostly wealthy people who invest in top breeds, sometimes 6 or 7 figure dollars, to win the highest GRADE of races possible. THE TITLE OF THIS ARTICLE WAS TAPITSFLY FINALLY MAKES THE GRADE BTW. Championships, trophies, eclipse awards and breeding dollars are the goals.
5- Top trainers like Baffert, Pletcher and Mott, are given the best horses by the biggest owners for a reason, THEY WIN, just like Lukas, Stephens, and Whittingham before them.
6- The majority of people that wager on horseracing are retired, poor, filling time, egomaniacs and just plain nuts.
Sorry for the vent, I’ll just go back to spinning records now. Yes the beat goes on…
How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
Yes, n how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
Yes, and how many times must the cannon balls fly
Before theyre forever banned?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, n how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, n how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea
Yes, n how many years can some people exist
Before theyre allowed to be free?
Yes, n how many times can a man turn his head,
Pretending he just doesnt see?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
19 Mar 2012 at 04:40 pm | #
We’ll have to agree to disagree on the chicken and the egg - turf writer thing.
I must say, that, while again, I’m four-square in agreement with you that racing’s salvation lies in its superior gambling model, I lose respect for you when you poo-poo the effect of too high takeout. You must reward the mice with a sufficient stream of pellets or they stop pressing the lever. Casinos do that well. Racing starves too many mice to death.
19 Mar 2012 at 05:01 pm | #
Kyle: There is the old saw ‘play the cards you are dealt’. My favorite racetrack is Philly, which has a disgusting takeout of 26% on my favorite wager, the pick three. Absolutely, I would like the takeout to be 10%. But it isn’t.
I still wager on the pick three. Why? Because I still manage to win, at a lesser amount obviously.
But, what to hell does takeout have to do with getting newbies interested in racing? Nothing! What should interest newbies (slot players) is the fact that for a buck they have several wagering options, plus they can see how they are doing as the race progresses, and feel the excitement and thrill when their nag is in contention. Do slot machines offer that?
For Thoroughbred racing to be getting their ass kicked by slot machines is simply beyond belief.
Maybe a few more stake races with million dollar purses, with horses trained by Pletcher and Baffert, with plenty of ink from turf writers, will turn it around, harrumph.
19 Mar 2012 at 06:30 pm | #
7- I don’t care if your name is Pricci, Fotias, Crist, Kling, WMC, Kyle or Top Turf Teddy. It is impossible to show a profit in the long run wagering on pools with 26% takeout. When will the governing bodies learn that a fair 10% takeout on all wagers will increase pool handles and keep more playas in the game?
The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind,
The answer is blowin in the wind.
20 Mar 2012 at 04:50 am | #
Ah, takeout. Everytime that word is mentioned I hear that it is excessive, which it is, and that takeout should be around 10% to ‘keep people in the game longer’. Yea, it would for some, but others would bet more and be tapped out just as fast, and other would be tapped out even if the takeout rate were 2%.
The only chance a horse player has at not losing his house, family, et cetera is to be very selective in his/her wagering.
I should not wager at Philly because the takeout is 26%? Say a pick three pays $148 after takeout of 26%. With a takeout of 10% the payoff would have been $180; more yes, but I’ll settle for the $148.
I’d like to have in hand three queens all evening long, but I’ll settle for three eights all evening, and I will do all right but I will lose a few pots I could have won with queens.
Lower takeout does not automatically give you winners. Ya gotta use ya brain. “Who’s turn to buy?”
20 Mar 2012 at 06:48 am | #
8- Would you sit down at a poker table if the house took $26 out of every $100 pot? Would you wager on a sporting event if you had to lay $126 as oppose to $110? You don’t have to be Einstein to know the answer. The game is just not that easy to overcome odds like that.
How many years can a mountain exist
Before it is washed to the sea?
20 Mar 2012 at 07:10 am | #
The question is: would you sit down at a poker table if the house took $26 out of every $100 pot?
And would you wager on a sport event $126/100.
The answer is yes.
As to the poker table, I would fold until I found the right race, er hand; as to the sporting event, if I liked my chances to win I’m all in. Same goes for a 4-5 plodder, if the ole horse appears to be a lock I heading for the window.
Low takeout and low lay to not make selecting the winner easier.
Einstein? Isn’t he retired from racing?
20 Mar 2012 at 07:33 am | #
9- In poker there are still antes or blinds remember?
In horseracing even Secretariat and Zenyatta lost. There is no such thing as a lock. Except for Personal Ensign of course.
Yes, n how many years can some people exist
Before theyre allowed to be free?
20 Mar 2012 at 09:39 am | #
Some folks like hamburger, others filet mignon, some like beer, others champagne, some drive a caddy, others a pinto, some like stakes horses, others claimers so slow, some are commies, others like privacy and free speech, that is why I vist John Pricci.
To each his own.
TTT
20 Mar 2012 at 01:09 pm | #
Referring to comment #18, I didn’t know dat. Gee, ya learn some’pin every day, even at my age.
20 Mar 2012 at 01:39 pm | #
10- Referring to comment #18, I will gladly pay you next Tuesday for a hamburger today. Please leave your real name and address on this site so I can mail you the funds. While your at it leave your phone# in case I need to call you. Also leave your SS# for tax deduction purposes.
Just give me the winner of the $2,500 claimer at Liberty Bell tonight. Thankyou sincerely, Tabasco Cat, son of Storm Cat, out of a Sauce Boat mare.
Yes, n how many seas must a white dove sail
Before she sleeps in the sand?
20 Mar 2012 at 03:26 pm | #
Somebody changed my post #18. Should read “mignagne,” not “mignon.” Thanks.
TTT