STARS COMING BACK
It will not be long before all our champion runners from a year ago will be back at Woodbine and in just 1 1/2 weeks, the big stakes schedule gets underway with the Jacques Cartier.
Light news morning but more on Woodbine and Keeneland on Friday to come later today...
ARRAVALE ARRIVING NEXT WEEK
Horse of the Year and Grade 1 winner ARRAVALE is headed back to Woodbine early next week to buckle down for serious training. The Arch 4-year-old filly, owned by Bob Costigan, may debut in the Nassau Stakes on June 6.
A report on the plans for the filly appeared in today’s THOROUGHBRED DAILY NEWS (Thoroughbred Times). The ultimate goal will be the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Monmouth Park in November.
HORSEPEOPLE ‘SCARED TO DEATH’ AT WOODBINE
‘Cheaters go home’ is what Woodbine Entertainment CEO David Willmot has said and he is determined to clean up the horse racing industry in Canada (more Willmot quotes can be read in an earlier post on this site, use the Search button up top).
Willmot is apparently sorry he gave any leeway to horsepeople recently as the study into Aminorex positives continues (see link below)
Meanwhile, many thoroughbred horsepeople on the Woodbine backstretch are happy about the crackdown and hoping nothing ever makes its way into the their horses systems by accident or unknowingly.
“I’m scared to death about being back there,” one trainer told Thoroughblog yesterday. “I just want to run a clean ship and enjoy my horses.”
Today’s story…
http://torontosun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2007/04/04/3914822-sun.html
COBRADOR SWITCHES TO GRASS
Queen’s Plate hopeful COBRADOR is switching to grass on Friday as he is entered in the Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland. The El Prado colt has been nibbling in Polytrack stakes at Turfway Park but has appeared to have distance limitation against Kentucky Derby contenders.
Cobrador, trained by Paul McGee, is listed as the 3rd favourite at 8 to 1 in the Queen’s Plate winterbook.
Woodbine’s 9-race card on Friday features a $62,800 allowance for 3-year-olds including Plate eligible NORTHERN REPORT (Snow Ridge-Annasan, Corporate Report), a half-brother to Horse of the Year A BIT O’GOLD. The colt is owned by Steven Di Iorio and trained by Mike Keogh.
Curiously, after just 2 racing days, there are events at 6 ½ and 7 furlongs already on Friday. Hope the horses are fit to travel that far on Polytrack!
Light news morning but more on Woodbine and Keeneland on Friday to come later today...
ARRAVALE ARRIVING NEXT WEEK
Horse of the Year and Grade 1 winner ARRAVALE is headed back to Woodbine early next week to buckle down for serious training. The Arch 4-year-old filly, owned by Bob Costigan, may debut in the Nassau Stakes on June 6.
A report on the plans for the filly appeared in today’s THOROUGHBRED DAILY NEWS (Thoroughbred Times). The ultimate goal will be the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Monmouth Park in November.
HORSEPEOPLE ‘SCARED TO DEATH’ AT WOODBINE
‘Cheaters go home’ is what Woodbine Entertainment CEO David Willmot has said and he is determined to clean up the horse racing industry in Canada (more Willmot quotes can be read in an earlier post on this site, use the Search button up top).
Willmot is apparently sorry he gave any leeway to horsepeople recently as the study into Aminorex positives continues (see link below)
Meanwhile, many thoroughbred horsepeople on the Woodbine backstretch are happy about the crackdown and hoping nothing ever makes its way into the their horses systems by accident or unknowingly.
“I’m scared to death about being back there,” one trainer told Thoroughblog yesterday. “I just want to run a clean ship and enjoy my horses.”
Today’s story…
http://torontosun.com/Sports/OtherSports/2007/04/04/3914822-sun.html
COBRADOR SWITCHES TO GRASS
Queen’s Plate hopeful COBRADOR is switching to grass on Friday as he is entered in the Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland. The El Prado colt has been nibbling in Polytrack stakes at Turfway Park but has appeared to have distance limitation against Kentucky Derby contenders.
Cobrador, trained by Paul McGee, is listed as the 3rd favourite at 8 to 1 in the Queen’s Plate winterbook.
Woodbine’s 9-race card on Friday features a $62,800 allowance for 3-year-olds including Plate eligible NORTHERN REPORT (Snow Ridge-Annasan, Corporate Report), a half-brother to Horse of the Year A BIT O’GOLD. The colt is owned by Steven Di Iorio and trained by Mike Keogh.
Curiously, after just 2 racing days, there are events at 6 ½ and 7 furlongs already on Friday. Hope the horses are fit to travel that far on Polytrack!
posted by Jen Morrison @ 6:13 AM
6 Comments:
At 10:50 AM,
Anonymous said…
Congrats on the plug of your blog in this months The Game. There is no way I'm gonna get plugged because I'm way too controversial:)
At 2:27 PM,
Anonymous said…
Who is the cheat here?A trainer who drugs his/her horse or a trainer who enters a horse with no intentions of running it hard(horse only being 90 percent or preparing the horse for a bigger purse race in a weeks time)?
At 3:24 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi Jen, I enjoy reading your blog evey day. Keep posting! Thanks.
At 7:28 PM,
Trackman said…
Seems these days everybody that is a non-horse trainer knows how to train horses, AND it seems they know whats best for someone else's horse. I just received a call from a friend of mine asking me if i heard the latest news. I asked him what he was referring to, and he then proceeded to tell me about Todd Pletcher's move to skip the Wood Memorial with CIRCULAR QUAY, and instead, train the horse up to the Derby. Before I could reply my friend, who is a very knowledgeable person about horseracing and handicapping in general and about life in particular, started in on Pletcher. His (my friend) rant's were the usual, "what's he (Pletcher) doing"?. WHY is doing THAT?, Circular Quay isn't going to win the Derby now, blah, blah, blah. Whatever negative reason one can think of to now eliminate Circular Quay out of winning the Derby based on the recent Pletcher move, my friend came up with it. Let me state that my friend and I attended the 2006 Breeders Cup, and after the race was over, we did what all horseplayers should do,and that is, watch the replay. After watching the replay of the B.C. Juvenile, my friend turned to me and said "CIRCULAR QUAY is my pick for next years (2007) Derby". At the hotel room that night we watched it again and my friend stated his position again, even stronger. So, i understand why he is so upset, heck, up to now his believe of C.Q. winning it all on May 5th was progressing quite nicely and if C.Q. did win the Derby, my friend was going to sound like a prophet to all his horse pals. He has been touting C.Q. to anyone who wanted to know his early look at this years Derby. He was going to gloat and tell everyone, including me, "I told you so"! When he finished complaining and left a space for me to jump in , i said, " if Pletcher believes that this is what's best for C.Q., then who are you to question the move"? I then asked my friend how was C.Q. this morning, did C.Q. walk the shedrow, did he gallop, did he eat all his feed, are his legs cold and tight, what's the horse's current state of conditioning? My friend responded with "WHAT"??? . Obviously he didn't catch on to what i was implying. I told him he couldn't answer those questions, because he is NOT with the horse everyday, doesn't know a single thing about the horse, other then it's name, trainer and that it's his pick to win the Derby. I said "pal, Todd Pletcher can answer everyone of those questions, How many times i have told you, that nobody knows a horse better than it's trainer, and if Pletcher is calling an audible with the horse, you should feel just as confident as you were prior to the change of plans". I mentioned the 5 week layoff that BARBARO had last year which had many people raising there eyebrows at Michael Matz, and when Barbaro won the Derby, those same people were raising their clenched fists in celebration as if to say, i knew he could do it after the layoff. I admit Pletcher's move is unconventional, and would trump Matz' move with a C.Q. win off a layoff of 8 weeks, but, then, what IS conventional these days in terms of preparing one's horse for the Derby. GREAT HUNTER & STREET SENSE with 2 preps each, CURLIN with 3 lifetime races when he enters the Derby, RAVEL, had he not been injured would have had only one prep going to Churchill,and would have been in the Derby off a 13 week layoff. Thats right, count them up, a 13 week layoff, from Feb 3rd (Sham Stakes) to May 5th(Derby).RAVEL, incidentally is another horse trained by Pletcher, whom you would agree is a very competent horseman. Hey there pal o'mine, keep the faith, this Pletcher guy does really know how to train horse's,and you my friend, certainly don't.
At 11:03 AM,
Anonymous said…
Just a brief thought on the drug positives. The wormer in question that can cause a false Aminorex reading is designed for cattle, not horses, and does not effectively destroy parasites in equines.
Why were these horses an injectible cattle wormer in the first place?
Most horse wormers are in a paste form that is ingested. As far as I know, these wormers don't leave traces of other drugs.
At 11:11 AM,
Anonymous said…
This whole Aminorex thing conjures up thoughts of the Barry Bonds "Cream and Clear" defense.
I have a hard time believing that no one knows the source of this "class 1" drug.
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