COVERED BY MOSS

The fun has begun as far as racing fans and horsepeople feeling the excitement of summer racing.

The LABATT WOODBINE OAKS is on Sunday and features the best of the 3yo fillies born in this country. The race has a strong and important history for this game. And this year’s field is very strong with STREET SOUNDS (Sounds, not Sense) the likely favourite coming in from Fair Hill for trainer Michael Matz.

Toss in a couple of Eugene Melnyk fillies, gals from the mighty Todd Pletcher barn, plus the locals like SASKAWEA and QUIET JUNGLE, well, it’s a barn-burner.

The BELMONT Stakes will always be a true test of a champion racehorses. The 1 ½ mile classic does not have STREET SENSE in the field but has the big ‘other’ two, HARD SPUN and CURLIN and now the weirdos are dropping in.

DIGGER? He’s going to the lead and race the half-mile in :44? Okayyyyyy.

Please read the columns below - you will learn about racing, where it’s at and the media coverage.

CHRISTIE BLITZES IN OAKS PREP

The big chestnut Canadian-bred CHRISTIES TREASURE, an allowance winner owned by Elisabeth Alexander and trained by Todd Pletcher, bulledt at Arlington yesterday morning – 4 fur. In :47 – in her final prep for the Labatt Woodbine Oaks on Sunday.

The Belong to Me filly, bred by Cam Allard, was a $160,000 yearling purchase by Alexander, a leading owner and breeder in Ohio.

Pletcher’s other Oaks contender, BELLEPLAINE, owned by Eugene Melnyk, worked in the slop at Belmont in 51 3/5 for the same distance. The filly is a full sister to graded stakes winner INDIAN VALE.

The Pletcher fillies will arrive at Woodbine on Friday morning, according to the trainer.

Pletcher also confirmed with THOROUGHBLOG yesterday that JOHN VELAZQUEZ will ride Belleplaine in the Oaks and Garret Gomez will ride CHRISTIES TREASURE.

Trainer Mark Casse, who won last year's Oaks with KIMCHI and the Sovereign Award for top trainer of 2006, said SEALY HILL, whom he trains for Melnyk, is a much better filly than KIMCHI, but how she fares depends on her mood.

"She's weird," said Casse yesterday. "Sometimes she'll work like Man o'War and sometimes she'll work like Man o'War's workmate."

Sealy Hill got to gawking, or being annoyed that fillies were coming close to her in the stretch run of the Kentucky Oaks and simply gave up, according to Casse. The filly did indeed look like she was going to be a big factor heading into the last turn of the Ky. Oaks.

OAKS NOTES

(courtesy Woodbine Entertainment)

EARLY LOOK AT LABATT WOODBINE OAKS (10)

Horse/Owner/Trainer/Jockey

Belleplaine/Melnyk Racing Stable/Todd Pletcher/ John Velazquez

Christies Treasure/Elisabeth Alexander/Todd Pletcher/ Garrett Gomez

Dance to My Tune/Dominion Bloodstock, D. Ball & H. Galbraith/David

Cotey/Constant Montpellier

Love You Crazy/Four Board Stable/Reade Baker/Jono Jones

Palace Pier/Bill Sorokolit Sr./Darwin Banach/Emile Ramsammy

Quiet Jungle/Sam-Son Farm/Mark Frostad/Todd Kabel

Saskawea/Beclawat Stable/Steve Attard/Justin Stein

Sealy Hill/Melnyk Racing Stable/Mark Casse/Patrick Husbands

Street Sounds/Hidden Creek Farm/Michael Matz/Ramon Dominguez

Suva/Jeffrey Sangara/Steve Henson/Pedro Alvarado

PALACE PIER GOES FISHING FOR OAKS WIN

Palace Pier, a chestnut daughter of Out of Place, is hoping to regain

her winning form in what will be the biggest test of her career to 

date,

Sunday's $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks at Woodbine.

In her most recent effort, the Bill Sorokolit Sr. filly was sent off as

the mutuel favourite in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes, on May 20, at the

Toronto oval. Palace Pier finished eighth, 16 1/4-lengths behind 

winner,

Bear Now.

"We worked out a few minor problems and some kinks," said conditioner

Darwin Banach, of the lifetime winner of two races from eight starts.

"She stopped on us and that's just not like her. She loves to show what

she can do out there. She loves to run and she loves to win.

"She's worked well leading up to the race, too," continued Banach,

who'll have Emile Ramsammy in the irons on Sunday. "The work (June 3,

five furlongs, 1:01-flat, handily, over the 'Poly') was good. I was 

very

happy with it. She galloped out quite strongly."

Last year, Banach watched his 47-1 longshot Executive Flight finish

fifth to Kimchi in the Oaks.

WELCOME TO THE 'JUNGLE'

She doesn't have many races under her saddle - three, to be exact - but

that doesn't mean Quiet Jungle won't be making some noise in the 52nd

running of the Labatt Woodbine Oaks.

The Sam-Son Farm filly, who has two wins from three lifetime starts,

all as a three-year-old, has looked impressive in her young career,

including a gutsy score in her latest race, a head nod on May 6, at 1

1/16 miles over the Woodbine Polytrack.

"She hasn't had the best of trips in her career - she seems to have

been in some sort of trouble in each of her starts," said trainer Mark

Frostad. "She's been green, too. But I've always liked her. She's very

talented and she's very athletic."

Two-time Oaks winner Todd Kabel (1998, Kirby's Song and 2004, Eye of

the Sphynx) also has faith in his ever-improving filly. "She's doing

well. She's easy to ride. I don't think you've seen the best of her."

Sam-Son horses have won the Oaks a record seven times, the first coming

with Classy 'N Smart in 1984. Frostad has saddled three Oaks winners 

for

Sam-Son, Catch the Ring in 2000, Dancethruthedawn in 2001 and Eye of 

the

Sphynx in 2004.

BAKER LOOKING FOR SECOND OAKS WIN

Trainer Reade Baker, the 2005 Sovereign Award winner as Canada's top

conditioner, will be seeking a second Labatt Woodbine Oaks win when he

saddles longshot Love You Crazy in the Canadian-foaled three-year-old

filly classic on Sunday, June 10.   Baker won the 2005 Oaks with

heavily-favoured Gold Strike.  

Monday morning, Four Board Stable's Love You Crazy, with Jono Jones

aboard, worked five furlongs in 1:02 over Woodbine's Polytrack, the 

12th

fastest of the 32 horses which worked the distance.  "I was very happy

with the work," said Baker.

Love You Crazy, a $35,000 US purchase at Adena Springs' Florida

two-year-old sale in March of 2006, is a Frank Stronach-bred product of

1997 Belmont Stakes winner Touch Gold out of Moonlight Affair, who won

several stakes at Woodbine in 2001.   The Ontario-bred has only won one

of her four career outings but has not been worse than third.

"I could run her in non-winners of two any time in her life," continued

Baker.  "She's bred to go a distance, built like she wants to go the

distance.  You've got to get a mile and an eighth with a lot of weight

on you.   It's not cut and dried.   For that much money ($500,000),

you've got to take a chance."

 SAM MITCHELL SPECIAL GUEST FOR LABATT WOODBINE OAKS DRAW

Sam Mitchell, head coach of the Toronto Raptors and NBA Coach of the

Year for 2006-07, is the special guest drawmaster for the Labatt

Woodbine Oaks draw, on Thursday, June 7, at WEGZ Stadium Bar.

He will assist in determining the post positions and speak briefly of

his participation in horse racing at the noon media conference.

In his third season as the Raptors' head coach, Mitchell totaled 394

points, including 49 first-place votes, from a panel of 128

sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada,

in winning the Red Auerbach Trophy.

Mitchell, the first coach in Raptors history to receive the honour, led

the Raptors to their first Atlantic Division title and a

franchise-record-tying 47 wins. The sixth head coach in franchise

history, Mitchell guided the team to an NBA-best 20-game improvement

(27-55) over the 2005-06 season. 

MOSS HAS IT RIGHT

For those who are perhaps convinced that racing is a “dying sport”..you might want to check out Randy Moss’ column on ESPN this morning…he completes it with this comment…

“The Sport of Kings has many aspects that make it truly unique and at times wonderful. Only in this arena can a semi-literate Cajun jockey team with a professional bullrider-turned-trainer to win a race witnessed by the Queen of England, and days later be at the White House on the receiving end of a bear hug from the leader of the free world and seated next to the Super Bowl MVP at dinner.”

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/columns/story?columnist=moss_randy&id=2892898

AND MR. STAN BERGSTEIN IS RIGHT TOO..

The media and racing (story by Stan Bergstein last Thursday)

NOT ALL BELIEVE IN BALANCED COVERAGE

(From the Daily Racing Form last Thursday)

TUCSON, Ariz. - The media loves to cover racing, as long as there is a shred of scandal or the faintest sniff of drugs in the air. It loves to cover it, that is, as long as facts don't clutter up the story.

A prime example was a May 14 mishmash on HBO's "Real Sports, with Bryant Gumbel." The gist of the segment, called "Faster Horses," was the use of performance-enhancing substances. The contention was that since many major horse trainers, such as Steve Asmussen, Doug O'Neill, and Todd Pletcher, have had positive tests, the whole sport is tainted.

People other than the on-air talent produce these shows, of course. In this edition of "Real Sports," the correspondent was Jon Frankel and the producer Chapman Downes. One would hope, futilely, that they might have had some sense of fairness and objectivity. That was not their mission.

HBO producers and researchers spent almost two hours talking with Dr. Scot Waterman. Waterman runs the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, American horse racing's lead agency in its constant fight against illegal medication and performance enhancing substances. Waterman is this country's most articulate and eloquent - and clearly most authoritative - spokesman for racing's multi-million dollar efforts to detect sophisticated drugs, provide uniform rules for punishment for using them, and eliminate them from use. He is a world respected expert, and he gave HBO producers and staffers the entire story from racing's point of view, providing a detailed overview of the problem and what is being done about it.

Not only did HBO not use a word or line of Dr. Waterman's information, but the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium never was mentioned on the show.

This not only is bad faith but bad reporting. "Real Sports," of course, is commentary, not journalism, but even blather would dictate that fairness demands letting the public know something is being done about the problem, who is doing it, and what they are doing.

HBO also did an on-camera interview with Gary Bisantz, one of the most ardent and forceful of racing leaders bitterly opposed to performance-enhancing substances, but this too wound up on the cutting room floor - an editing choice that affected the objectivity of the presentation.

In an interesting magazine article recently, Beverly Smith, who writes for the Toronto Globe and Mail and has covered racing for more than a quarter of a century, wrote about coverage of racing.

She justified the coverage of bad news in a number of ways, saying the public loved the stuff, noting that her recent drug articles in the Globe were among the 10 best-read of that week. She also said sportswriters were not paid to glorify racing, a job she said the publicists were paid to do, and in many cases do poorly. And she railed against what she considered personal affronts from racing management, ranging from bad seats at banquets to being ignored or treated rudely.

I have read Bev's stuff for years, and do not plan a line item rebuttal or refutation here. She speaks for herself, from long experience, and is entitled to her views from personal encounters and observations.

A few facts, however, may be pertinent.

First, the public loves everything gory, gruesome, and grisly. It wallows in multiple murders, depravity, celebrity drunkenness, kinky sex, roof jumpers, multiple car crashes, disappearances, and kidnappings. So making the top 10 in stories of the week may be ego-satisfying but does not necessarily indicate Pulitzer prize accomplishment. It means you've satisfied a taste for the morbid.

Reporters certainly are not paid to glamorize or glorify horse racing. They should be held, however, to a standard of fairness and objectivity. If assigned to "go get 'em" stories with pre-directed verdicts, like the HBO piece, they should have enough professionalism - and pride - to report both sides.

As for publicists, whose job it is to provide fodder for the mill, many indeed have lost their way, grinding out mundane daily releases, some that seem like templates with the names merely changed daily. They are neither news nor newsworthy, and are treated as such.

The game always could use truly skilled racing writers, who are in short supply. It was stunning, therefore, when experienced wordsmiths such as Bill Christine of the Los Angeles Times and Billy Reed of the Louisville Courier Journal left their papers and were not snapped up by tracks that could have benefited greatly from their racing knowledge and their ability to write about it in glowing prose.

Not all writers can be eloquent, but all in the profession, on television or anywhere else, should be expected to practice objectivity, and not selectively discard facts. There is a word for doing that. It is called disingenuous.

(DRF)