SPEEDING TO OPENING DAY
UPDATE: POLYTRACK SHUT DOWN FOR TRAINING
(WHOOSH! AT WOODBINE )
WOODBINE's POLYTRACK was closed for training, less than 3 weeks after it opened for horses to prepare for the Mar. 31 opening - which is less than 3 weeks away.
Apparently, water has been pooling on the track and not draining and the tricky part has been from the 3/8 pole and through the stretch which is often in a shadow from the grandstand and thus not in the sun to warm it up. A Woodbine spokesperson said the track hopefully will re-open on Friday after management takes a look at the situation.
The bad news, the temperature will climb to 12 Celcius tomorrow and then plummet through to the weekend again.
The surface was yielding some insane times in the last few days:
On Friday, the 3yo filly MY LIST, stakes placed as a juvenile last year, sped 3 furlongs in :33.00 and old-timer, low claimer SAN DIEGO BLOWOUT came close to that on Saturday when he blew out in :33 3/5.
Also since Friday, high claimer BALLADO DANCER went 5 furlongs in :58, stakes class turfer DALAVIN went in :59 and a litany of others hung up :35’s, :47’s etc.
The Polytrack is scheduled to be tinkered with again perhaps in late spring.
JOSIE WINS TWO AT THE FAIR
Josie Carroll saddled consecutive allowance winners at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans yesterday to boost her totals to 8 wins from 54 starters (10 seconds and 8 thirds) at that 2007 meeting.
Carroll, who became the first woman to train a Queen’s Plate winner when her student Edenwold won last year, won the last two races on the card with American-breds TALE OF THE DEVIL (owned by Canadian Ivan Dalos) and LIQUID SILVER.
Sam-Son Farms and trainer Mark Frostad plus jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson combined with the 4yo filly HER EXCELLENCY to win an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on the turf earlier on the card. The filly is by Deputy Minister out of Go Classic.
OUT OF TOWN UPDATES
There have been a lot of wins for Ontario horsepeople this winter. Certainly the top stories of 2007 to this point have been the graded stakes wins by Canadian-breds but trainers and riders have done well too.
In addition to Carroll’s 8 wins at the Fair Grounds (see above), trainer MALCOM PIERCE has had a super winter with 12 winners from 47 starters and 15 more seconds and thirds.
EMMA-JAYNE WILSON sits in 13th place in the riders standings (through yesterday) with a smart record of 25 wins from 247 mounts and $860,000 in earnings.
At Sam Houston, MARK FOURNIER is 11 for 35 and most of his horses are owned by Bruno Schickedanz. At Mountaineer, DON MACRAE is 5 for 21, MIKE NEWELL is 4 for 27 and LESLIE FROST is 4 for 11.
At the very tough Santa Anita meeting, one of Woodbine’s favourite riders, GERRY OLGUIN has done very well with 8 wins from 87 mounts.
BETTING ON ST. MAARTEN/ST. MARTIN
If you want to spend an awesome winter away from civilization in a really hot climate and still check out racing from all over, this is the Caribbean island for you. The Dutch side (St. Maarten) is smaller than the French side but has numerous casinos including Paradise Plaza, which has a sportsbook and horse racing (www.paradisecasinosxm.com). A THOROUGHBLOG reader asked about locations on the island.
Internet cafes are all over the island with many on the much larger French side.
(Top right) Dozens of tall peaks that are tough to drive up in St. Martin. This is a northeast corner overlooking Oyster Beach and the Caribbean sea. (Below left). From YELLOW BEACH on Pinel Island which is just off the east side of St. Martin, you can see Red Rock Mountain on fire. This brush fire went on throughout the afternoon.
(WHOOSH! AT WOODBINE )
WOODBINE's POLYTRACK was closed for training, less than 3 weeks after it opened for horses to prepare for the Mar. 31 opening - which is less than 3 weeks away.
Apparently, water has been pooling on the track and not draining and the tricky part has been from the 3/8 pole and through the stretch which is often in a shadow from the grandstand and thus not in the sun to warm it up. A Woodbine spokesperson said the track hopefully will re-open on Friday after management takes a look at the situation.
The bad news, the temperature will climb to 12 Celcius tomorrow and then plummet through to the weekend again.
The surface was yielding some insane times in the last few days:
On Friday, the 3yo filly MY LIST, stakes placed as a juvenile last year, sped 3 furlongs in :33.00 and old-timer, low claimer SAN DIEGO BLOWOUT came close to that on Saturday when he blew out in :33 3/5.
Also since Friday, high claimer BALLADO DANCER went 5 furlongs in :58, stakes class turfer DALAVIN went in :59 and a litany of others hung up :35’s, :47’s etc.
The Polytrack is scheduled to be tinkered with again perhaps in late spring.
JOSIE WINS TWO AT THE FAIR
Josie Carroll saddled consecutive allowance winners at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans yesterday to boost her totals to 8 wins from 54 starters (10 seconds and 8 thirds) at that 2007 meeting.
Carroll, who became the first woman to train a Queen’s Plate winner when her student Edenwold won last year, won the last two races on the card with American-breds TALE OF THE DEVIL (owned by Canadian Ivan Dalos) and LIQUID SILVER.
Sam-Son Farms and trainer Mark Frostad plus jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson combined with the 4yo filly HER EXCELLENCY to win an allowance race at 1 1/16 miles on the turf earlier on the card. The filly is by Deputy Minister out of Go Classic.
OUT OF TOWN UPDATES
There have been a lot of wins for Ontario horsepeople this winter. Certainly the top stories of 2007 to this point have been the graded stakes wins by Canadian-breds but trainers and riders have done well too.
In addition to Carroll’s 8 wins at the Fair Grounds (see above), trainer MALCOM PIERCE has had a super winter with 12 winners from 47 starters and 15 more seconds and thirds.
EMMA-JAYNE WILSON sits in 13th place in the riders standings (through yesterday) with a smart record of 25 wins from 247 mounts and $860,000 in earnings.
At Sam Houston, MARK FOURNIER is 11 for 35 and most of his horses are owned by Bruno Schickedanz. At Mountaineer, DON MACRAE is 5 for 21, MIKE NEWELL is 4 for 27 and LESLIE FROST is 4 for 11.
At the very tough Santa Anita meeting, one of Woodbine’s favourite riders, GERRY OLGUIN has done very well with 8 wins from 87 mounts.
BETTING ON ST. MAARTEN/ST. MARTIN
If you want to spend an awesome winter away from civilization in a really hot climate and still check out racing from all over, this is the Caribbean island for you. The Dutch side (St. Maarten) is smaller than the French side but has numerous casinos including Paradise Plaza, which has a sportsbook and horse racing (www.paradisecasinosxm.com). A THOROUGHBLOG reader asked about locations on the island.
Internet cafes are all over the island with many on the much larger French side.
(Top right) Dozens of tall peaks that are tough to drive up in St. Martin. This is a northeast corner overlooking Oyster Beach and the Caribbean sea. (Below left). From YELLOW BEACH on Pinel Island which is just off the east side of St. Martin, you can see Red Rock Mountain on fire. This brush fire went on throughout the afternoon.
posted by Jen Morrison @ 7:09 AM
1 Comments:
At 12:17 PM,
Jen Morrison said…
EDITOR'S NOTE: THOROUGHBLOG loves getting comments (well, the clean ones anyway). Feel free to send along your opinions. I have the right to delete if I wish, however.
One that I did not delete came in today from "Anonymous" whoh replied to a Nov. 2006 post on Russell Baze exclaiming that this site is biased, in particular towards a certain trainer.
I don't claim that this site is going to be objective.
They are my views and opinions only.
Any comments sent are certainly appreciated (although sending them along with a current posting makes a bit more sense).
-JM
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