READ, WRITE, and BET

(This is what's going on in snow-belt Brampton North this morning...who's going to shovel this stuff???)



NEWS ITEM

It took a couple of months but the news has become public now...former Kinghaven Farms office manager Christiane Krohn has been taking money from the farm and its owner David Willmot. Sad story made the TORONTO STAR, GTA section, this morning.


OLD HORSES

Sometimes one is happy, or at least contented when you see really old horses still strut their stuff in fine style (AZURE CIEL won at age 11 at Gulfstream the other day) and 10-year-old TOP BUNK remained undefeated in 2007 as he won for the 2nd consecutive time yesterday at GP for trainer Peter Walder. The gelding is racing for a $10,000 claiming tag. It was his 18th win in his 79th start and he has earned over $520,000.
Sometimes we cringe too. Stakes winner HYDROGEN, an 8-year-old horse, has won half a million and more but is not in the breeding shed and instead losing badly to Top Bunk in his first race for Canadian owner and trainer Martha and Nick Gonzalez. Earle Mack won the 2003 Valedictory at Woodbine with this guy, who was trained by Mark Casse and ridden by Emile Ramsammy that day.
Hydrogen was claimed yesterday by Rhiannon Vitello.
Have yet to see classy stakes winner SHAKE YOU DOWN return from a poor outing in New York in January, perhaps someone has retired that multiple stakes winner finally…perhaps.

Today...Canadian champion 3yo from two years back, PALLADIO, returns to action at Gulfstream today in an allowance that lured, gulp, Grade 1 turf stakes winner ENGLISH CHANNEL

CANDY BOX, a Canadian-bred 5-year-old mare from the Stronach Stables, is a 3 to 1 second choice in the Stormy Krissy Stakes at Aqueduct today. Livermore Valley is the 7 to 5 favourite.

Yesterday...Stronach Stables’ MOUNTAIN WOLF, a Queen’s Plate nominee, bore out badly in the stretch in his grass debut yesterday at Gulfstream and finished a messy 5th…READY EDDIE, touted by this author as a likely winner in an allowance yesterday at Philadelphia Park had a beautiful trip in that 1 mile allowance but was simply 2nd best to a promising 5yo, SCHMOO (Real Quiet). ‘Eddie is an Ontario-bred by More Than Ready.

GOOD READ FOR ‘CAPPERS

My motto has always been FIGS DON’T LIE. Okay, so that’s a blanket statement but Beyer Speed Figures are not often far off the mark, and I’m not just talking about the horse’s last race. Read Dick Jerardi’s DRF column about why the HARD SPUN hype was silly at best because of his oh-so-mediocre figures heading into Monday’s Southwest Stakes. (You have to sign up to be a member to read it or pick up a copy at your local store!)
http://www.drf.com/

GOOD READ FOR RACING HISTORY FANS

If I mentioned this already it is just my fading memory setting in (I forgot my alarm code yesterday and had to listen to the siren for 5 minutes)…THE GREAT MATCH RACE is a cool read, written by John Eisenberg. It’s a fun journey through 1822 and 1823 when the biggest sporting event of the time, a match race between ECLIPSE and SIR HENRY held hostage over the United States and the battle between north and south. A very breezy and interesting book.

TOMORROW STUFF – Canadian-breds HERB ENGAGEMENT (Plate eligible by Silver Charm – Bold Engagement, by Bold Ruckus, bred by Majestic Thoroughbreds) and UNGI BLANC (Hennessy – Romantic Tryst, by Woodman, bred by Huntington Stud Farm in Ontario) debut in an $80,000 maiden claimer at GP… CAT’S GOOD TO GO (by Tactical Cat), owned by Canadian Don Danard and trained by Renee Kierans at Woodbine (Malcolm Pierce at Fair Grounds), debuts at FG in a maiden allowance.