Thursday, August 28 2008

Arlington Park Barn Notes: Aug. 27

SUMMER’S ENDING – BUT ARLINGTON PARK RUNS UNTIL SEPT. 21

Wednesday’s “live” racing programs at Arlington this season end with the month of August, but Thursday through Sunday programs will continue for an additional three weeks until the northwest suburban oval’s 2008 session ends Sept. 21.

Naturally, one of the highlights during the dwindling days of any Arlington season is an extended Labor Day holiday weekend that includes the second of two Monday racing programs slated this summer on Labor Day, Sept. 1.

Wednesday, August 27 2008

Smart Strike and Robert Tiller lead eight into Hall of Fame

TORONTO, August 26 - Four champion horses and four people will be inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Thursday night at the Mississauga Convention Centre in Mississauga.

The class of 2008 includes world champion thoroughbred sire Smart Strike and Sovereign Award champion older mare Wilderness Song, both owned by Sam-Son Farms of Milton, Ontario.

Robert Tiller, a multiple Sovereign Award-winning thoroughbred conditioner, was elected in the trainer's category. Louis E. Cauz, Managing Director of the Hall of Fame and Woodbine Entertainment's archivist and historian, Quebec-based breeder Pierre Levesque, founder and owner of Angus Farms, and the late Cliff Chapman, Jr., a legendary horseman and former publisher of The Canadian Sportsman, will join the Hall's Builders' category.

Tuesday, August 26 2008

LEZCANO, LEVINE, BROOME SHOW THE WAY WITH ONE MONTH TO GO

With 74 of the 100 days of racing at the 2008 Monmouth Park meet in the books Jose Lezcano, Bruce Levine and Eddie Broome continue to lead the jockey, trainer and owner standings.

Lezcano, a 23-year-old native of Panama, has 102 wins through Sunday’s card, 18 more than his nearest challenger, Eddie Castro. Thirteen-time Monmouth riding champion Joe Bravo is third with 72 wins, 21 more than Stewart Elliott. C. H. Marquez Jr. rounds out the top five with 49 trips to the winner’s circle.

CURLIN BREEZES EASY HALF-MILE FOR WOODWARD

In his final prep for Saturday’s 55th running of the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward at Saratoga Race Course, 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin breezed a half-mile in 49.14 Monday morning over the Oklahoma training track under regular exercise rider Carmen Rosas.

Clockers caught the four-year-old chestnut colt in splits of 13.01 and 24.98, galloping out in 1:04. The move was the fourth fastest of 25 at the distance.

“He went really well, it was a nice, smooth half,” said assistant trainer Scott Blasi. “We’re all excited about Saturday.”

CURLIN: THE COOLEST COLT IN CREATION?

He has been called everything from a “fire-breathing Pegasus” to the “next Big Red.” Long-bodied, with a powerfully muscled neck and a ground-gobbling stride, he is an imposing a presence on the racetrack as LeBron James is on the basketball court. Factor in a gleaming coppery-red coat, a chiseled head and a tail that nearly sweeps the ground, and you have a magnificent-looking thoroughbred that leaves pundits struggling for the right superlative and fans in awe.

He’s 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin, the No. 1 Thoroughbred in the world according to the British racing publication Timeform, and Saturday, the four-year-old chestnut is out to garner even more glory in the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward at Saratoga Race Course.

BIG WEEK FIVE BOOSTS SPA BUSINESS

Great weather and full fields during Week Five of the 140th Saratoga Race Course meeting produced increases in attendance and on-track handle over 2007, according to the New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA). Attendance was up 3.3 percent and on-track handle increased 2.6 percent compared to the fifth week of the 2007 meeting, with all-sources handle down only slightly at 3.2 percent, in contrast to far greater decreases at other concurrent Thoroughbred meets nationwide.

The Week Five gains, including the second-largest all-sources handle in Saratoga history on Travers Saturday, led to decisive improvement of the meet’s overall numbers, although still trailing 2007’s record-breaking business. Total attendance through Week Five is down 11.6 percent (compared to 14.4 percent through Week Four), on-track handle declined 8.5 percent (compared to 11.5 percent through Week Four), and all-sources handle is off 11.0 percent (compared to 13.2 percent through Week Four).

FOUT HOPES 1-2 PUNCH CONNECTS AGAIN IN TURF WRITERS CUP

Trainer Doug Fout went 1-2 in the Grade 2 A.P. Smithwick Memorial at Saratoga Race Course on August 7 and will try to duplicate the feat in Thursday’s Grade 1, $150,000-added New York Turf Writers Cup. The only Saratoga jump race run as the feature, the 2 3/8-mile stakes hosts its 67th renewal and attracted a field of nine including Fout’s dynamic duo of High Action and Dark Equation.

Though trained by the same man, the two horses couldn’t be more different.

“Country boy” High Action likes the farm, and ships in from Virginia to race, while “City slicker” Dark Equation likes the racetrack, and spends the summer at Saratoga with Fout’s small string of steeplechase and flat horses at the Oklahoma Annex.

WHAT’S HAPPENING THIS WEEK AT SARATOGA RACE COURSE

WHAT: Week # 6 at the Saratoga Race Course

WHEN: Wednesday, August 27 – Monday, September 1, 2008

WHERE: Saratoga Race Course

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27

Racing from Across the Pond, Saratoga Race Course, 9:15 a.m. Racing fans can watch and wager on the best of British racing from the comfortable confines of Bunbury’s Pub in the backyard of Saratoga Race Course every morning and afternoon from Wednesday through Saturday. With a full bar featuring authentic British brews and traditional English pub-style décor – right down to the Union Jack – fans will feel as if they’re really “across the pond” during special Thoroughbred racing simulcasts from such legendary courses as Sandown, Newmarket and York.

Adriano tops Kent Stakes Field at Delaware Park

Donald Adam's Adriano tops a strong field of three-year-olds running in the $500,000 Grade III Kent Stakes (includes $100,000 Breeders' Cup Fund) at Delaware Park on Saturday, August 30.

Willmott Stable's Wesley and Heiligbrodt Racing Stable's Ablaze With Spirit should give Adriano strong competition in the mile and one-eighth turf race, which has attracted a field of eleven.

The Kent Stakes field also includes one of the top local three-year olds, Augustin Stable's Deal Making. In his most recent start, the August 4 $150,000 Hall of Fame Stakes at Saratoga, he tasted defeat for the first time, finishing third after being blocked in the stretch. Deal Making has recorded three wins and a third from four starts with earnings of $106,200.

SUPER HIGH FIVE PAYS RECORD $437,893.40

Keyed by the 52-1 upset by Kiamika in the eighth and final race Monday, Del Mar's Super High Five wager returned a record $437,893.40 to a single ticket-holder. The bet was placed at a hub in Lewiston, Maine.

The Super High Five, new to Del Mar this summer, calls for bettors to select the first five finishers in exact order in the day's last race.

Juvenile’s Unexpected Win Puts Trainer on Different Track

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," as the saying goes.

It may be a bit extreme to think that trainer Ron Ellis is facing desperate times, but he is facing a time calling for some measures he didn't think he'd need to call on quite so soon.

And it's all because of a precocious 2-year-old named Believe in Hope.

Del Mar Stable Notes 8/25/8

POSSIBLE FULL FIELD SHAPING UP FOR GRADE II DEL MAR DERBY

With seven potential starters already in the fold, a full field of 10 appears likely for Sunday's 64th running of the Grade II, $350,000 Del Mar Derby.

Leading lights of those committed at this point to the 1 1/8-mile race on the Jimmy Durante Turf are Sky Cape, winner of Del Mar's Grade II La Jolla Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the turf August 9, and Gio Ponti, winner of the Grade II Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs July 19.