Thursday, August 28 2008

Woodward Tops Saratoga Grade 1 Grand Finale

With 54 runnings to date, the Woodward is a comparative newcomer to the NYRA stakes schedule, but the race quickly established itself as a key stop on the road to championship honors. Named in memory of racing industry leader, Belair Stud’s William Woodward, the race had been run at Belmont Park for most of its history, though Aqueduct also hosted several runnings. In 2006 the Woodward was brought to Saratoga Race Course to be a bookend to the season opening Whitney Handicap and the feature attraction to Saratoga’s closing weekend.

Next weekend promises to be a “Grade 1 Grand Finale” to the 2008 Saratoga season with three other Grade 1 stakes carded along with the half-million dollar, mile-and-an-eighth Woodward.

Authenicat is the real deal in Eternal Search

TORONTO, August 27 - Authenicat was an easy winner of Wednesday's $125,000 Eternal Search Stakes at Woodbine.

In hand through the final 70 yards, the Ontario-bred racked up her third career added-money tally and her second in a row, having entered off a strong Passing Mood score.

After settling in fourth early, the Josie Carroll trainee reeled in her rivals effortlessly on the second turn and opened up impressively for a 3 1/4-length score in the Ontario-sired event.

SPRING MAMBO COULD BE READY FOR SATURDAY’S TWIN LIGHTS

The $65,000 Twin Lights Stakes on Saturday offers 3-year-old fillies the opportunity to go long on the turf. In races like this mile and an eighth, breeding is important, a factor which gives Hardacre Farm’s Spring Mambo a leg up on the opposition.

The bay miss was sired by Kingmambo, a multiple stakes winner out of the dual Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Miesque, and produced by Chaposa Springs, a Baldski mare who won 12 stakes during her career.

GREYSTONE WARRIOR CAPTURES FEATURE AT MONMOUTH

OCEANPORT, N.J. * J and J Stables’ Greystone Warrior jumped to the lead from the gate and never looked back as he scored a two and a half-length victory in the $40,000 allowance feature at Monmouth Park on Wednesday.

The winner, trained by Jason Servis and ridden by David Cohen, zipped the six furlongs in 1:10 flat over the fast main track and paid $8, $3.60 and $2.40 across the board as third choice in the field of six.

HOTSTUFANTHENSOME BRINGS IMPRESSIVE RECORD INTO RED BANK

OCEANPORT, N.J. * Hotstufanthensome, an 8-year-old who has scored six of his 10 lifetime grass wins at Monmouth, is ready to roll again in Saturday’s $150,000 Red Bank Stakes on the turf *The very well-bred Spring Mambo will go in the $65,000 Twin Lights Stakes if she’s ready, trainer Amy Tarrant reports.

Hotstufanthensome is an 8-year-old by Awesome Again, and he’s pretty awesome in his own right. A professional racehorse, he’s asserted his fondness for Monmouth once again this season with a victory in an allowance event and a bang-up third in the Grade 3 Oceanport Stakes last out.

TEN CHURROS WINS GENEROUS PORTION

Jockey Clinton Potts celebrated his 37th birthday in style Wednesday with a convincing victory aboard Ten Churros in the featured $108,200 Generous Portion Stakes for California-bred two-year-old fillies.

Ten Churros, a daughter of High Brite owned by Patti and Hal Earnhardt and trained by Bob Baffert, outran Tammy's Luck in the stretch to win by 2 ½ lengths in 1:11.61 for the six furlongs over Del Mar's Polytrack surface.

Del Mar Stable Notes 8/27/8

11 ENTERED IN GRADE II PALOMAR HANDICAP ON SATURDAY

Multiple graded stakes winner Vacare will lead a field of fillies and mares in quest of Saturday's Grade II, $200,000 Palomar Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on the Jimmy Durante Turf Course.

The Christophe Clement-trained Vacare is high-weighted at 119 pounds, including jockey Garrett Gomez. The 5-year-old daughter of Lear Fan, owned by Rancho Santa Fe residents Jon and Sarah Kelly, was fourth in her most recent start, the Grade I Diana Handicap at Saratoga July 26.

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.