TWIN SPIRES TUESDAY

(UPDATE) TUESDAY P.M.

Sealy Hill - post 12

Eugene Melnyk's brilliant Canadian-bred 3yo filly SEALY HILL will start from post 12 in the 14-horse KENTUCKY OAKS on Friday afternoon at Churchill Downs. The Point Given-Boston Twist, Boston Harbor miss won the Bourbonette Stakes at Turfway Park in her last outing after a beautiful trip under jockey Pat Husbands, who rides Friday. While the filly appeared to be slowing quickly in the late stages of the Bourbonette, trainer Mark Casse said the filly tends to loaf and look around when she gets the lead.
Nevertheless, Sealy Hill, a finalist for champion 2yo filly in Canada last year, is 20 to 1 in the morning line for the Oaks - perhaps on the low side based on her Beyer Figures.
Blue-blooded Santa Anita Oaks winner RAGS TO RICHES seems unbeatable but another Todd Pletcher trainee, OCTAVE, is in fine form and last year's champion 2yo filly in the US, DREAMING OF ANNA, is in the mix too.

Meanwhile, as Sealy Hill goes postward in the Oaks, one promising Woodbine Oaks candidate gets her career off to a start, albeit slightly late, in the last race on Friday at Woodbine.
DANCE WITH DOVES, who is considered a "very good horse" by her trainer Mark Frostad, has drawn post 2 in the 11 horse, 1 1/16 mile race. Todd Kabel will ride.
Dance With Doves is by A.P. Indy (sire of Rags to Riches) and is the first foal from champion and Oaks-Queen's Plate winner DANCETHRUTHEDAWN (Mr. Prospector). Her workout line is impressive and her compettion on Friday is not so much (there is another A.P. Indy in the field, Coral Beach, a $1.5 million yearling who is 0 for 8 in her career so far).
Incidentally, that 9th race on Friday, a maiden allowance, is the feature on the card.

*Lots of fast Derby workouts to rave about, read about, factor into your handicapping of the 20 horses who will go postward in the KENTUCKY DERBY on Saturday. I personally love bullet 5 furlong workouts for a horse before a race but that 57 and change move by HARD SPUN - can that be beneficial? Since I didn't see it, I will have use the eyes of the DRF columnists and others to decide.



TELL ME WANDO, WANDO, WANDO!




The first foals of Canadian Triple Crown winner WANDO (Langfuhr) are arriving and THOROUGHBLOG was recently given a nice tour by the folks at Schomberg Farm (Lauri Kenny, manager) including JEFF SULLIVAN.
At left, Jeff shows us a Wando colt out of Dake (Gulch), whose 3yo son of this year is It's a Danzig, a Queen's Plate hopeful.








And Wando's just-as-talented stablemate MOBIL (also by Langfuhr) has his first crop on the ground too. This colt (below, left) shows his mighty chest to Jeff. He is out of the mare Stop Looking.

Wando's Mom, KATHIE'S COLLEEN produced a full sister to the champion recently (below, right) The chestnut filly looks a lot like WANDO.

I’M FEELING YUMMY
(or am I?)

Okay, so there’s now the Yumfecta, for Yum! Brands that sponsors the Derby, a $1 million bonus divided amongst all the horses connections plus charity if a horse wins by more than Barbaro did last year (6 ½ lengths). Sounds interesting enough but is it possible that if a horse is winning, the jockey will go berserk and stars whipping like a maniac to get the horse to open up more distance? And will that look worse than Mike Smith on TIAGO in the Santa Anita Derby?

POLYTRACK NEWSFLASH (insert snicker here)
Collins says there has been problems

http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=38703


DRAGOONER WINS AGAIN

Will Rogers Down terror DRAGOONER, a Canadian-bred by Siphon-Dance on Fire, Conquistador Cielo won another allowance race yesterday, his 9th career win in 22 starts The 5-year-old gelding ran 6 furlongs in 1:09.