FRY DAY
HE’S NO SECRET
Thursday at Woodbine
Four years ago Vito Armata and Lorenzo Scala paid $11,000 (
Yesterday, the gelding won for the 7th time in 27 starts to boost his earnings to over $284,000.
The gelding has won 3 times this season but was disqualified from one of them.
His Beyer Figure was 86.
It was quite important to be close to the pace, if not on the lead, in yesterday’s races. The hot, steamy weather is making the Polytrack wax moist and packing down the track.
One impressive winner who rallied from last was WEST BEWARE, who was also 1 to 1 mind you, for trainer John DiMarco and J and K Stable.
Brigadier Rodney won his maiden in race 5 while in a stalking position all the way in the 1 1/16 miles race. The Service Stripe gelding is owned by Brenda Goodlet and trained by Tino Attard.
FUHREVER DANCING upset heavily favoured Executive Choice in the 6th race, the big allowance/optional claimer on the card with a purse of $78,400. The Langfuhr gelding led all the way through the 1 1/16 miles and earned an 86 Beyer Figure.
It was his 5th win in 34 starts for $360,000 in earnings. He is owned by California Stable.
A surprise winner came in race 7 when the 2yo EXPLOSIVE GREEK, by Trajectory out of Loupe de Grace by Explosive Red won his maiden for $32,000 claiming at 27 to 1 for Six Brothers Stable and trainer Pat County Jr. The gelding was bred by Gardiner Farms and was a $4,017 (
And one day after winning his first race of the meeting, trainer MIKE KEOGH struck again with
FRIDAY’S CARD
A pair of $73,500 Ontario-sired allowance races are the features on the 9-race card.
(This newspaper has super racing coverage even if its tack is not the big leagues. Here’s a story today about THOROUGHBLOG friend Marty Drexler)
Stud turns out to be a dud
Trainer looks past flop to a good season
As the racing season at Assiniboia Downs reaches the midway point, trainer Martin Drexler looks down his barn and sees a stable of mostly good results, except for one underachiever.
Drexler is tied with Carl Anderson for second in the trainer standings with 12 wins apiece and is alone in second in money won with $124,979 so far. But, he has also seen his big attraction this summer become a big flop.
An impressive-looking specimen, Shadow Rush came to Drexler's stable from Woodbine in
It turns out, though, Shadow Rush is a massive animal that is lacking the gusto championhorses possess.
"He's a little bit gutless. Some horses will run through a wall for you, he won't," Drexler said yesterday. "He lacks heart.
I knew he looked the part, but now I know why they didn't want to keep him out there.
"I honestly expected better because he has the physical ability."
In the only stakes race he has run this season, Shadow Rush finished second to last in the $45,000 event and his reputation is that he doesn't do well in traffic.
"If he gets out by himself, he could win by 10 lengths," Drexler said. "Otherwise he's just out there for a gallop."
Despite the poor performance of his was-to-be stud, Drexler has seen other horses do very well. Dexler won three races, finished second in two others and picked up a third place finish in another last weekend. Included in his weekend was Empress Pegasus finishing second in the Canada Day Stakes.
On the horizon, Drexler has Emma's Touch geared up for the Assiniboia Oakes, where she will take on Chantilly Stakes champ
"I wouldn't trade my horse for that horse," Drexler said, noting Emma's Touch is a distance runner.
"I would rather she's (
Drexler added a few horses from the States could also end up in his barn for stakes races later on this season.
As for the trainer standings, Drexler feels Clay Brinson can be caught for the top spot.
"With the difference in the number of starts we run, you can catch him," Drexler said.
"I think it's going to come down to me, Carl (
Brinson has 18 wins to lead the standings, while Sayler is sixth with nine wins in a Downs-high 86 starts.
"I always hope to be in the top three," Drexler assessed.
But winning isn't the only way to be in the money. Drexler has 13 second place finishes this season, but it isn't always a walk in the park.
"It's a lot of work and can carry a lot of aggravation," Drexler said, "but it's always worth it in the end."
Owners need deep pockets to field a winning horse
It's glamourous. It's thrilling, but it ain't cheap.
If you want to own a race horse and win, be prepared to lose a lot of money.
"You're seeing it more and more where an owner will spend $25,000 to $30,000 on a horse and then put him in races for less," trainer Martin Drexler said.
"People will lose money to win."
That's the price of having a champion stallion.
"It's more of an ego thing," Drexler said. "People like the pictures on the wall and to beat their friends at it.
"Some people shouldn't be owners, though. I get my horses whatever they need. If the bill at the end of the month is $5,000, you better be able to play for it."
MARQUEZ REPORT: Jockey Carlos Marquez, who was pinned under a horse during a parade to the post last Saturday, has a confirmed crack pelvis and will miss the remainder of the season here in
NEXT STAKES: Tomorrow night the Manitoba Maturity Stakes for four-year-olds will take centre stage at the
Other horses that could contend are 3-1 Hurri Coin and 5-1's Spectacular Humor and Simply Marvis.
TUESDAY RACING: Starting this week, Assiniboia Downs will expand its racing schedule to four days a week for the month of July. In addition to Friday, Saturday and Sunday, live racing will also take place on Tuesday nights.
DOWNS TO VEGAS: Free poker is available every Friday and Saturday at the
THE
Maryfield is already a graded stakes winner this year. The Elusive Quality mare meets 11 rivals in the 6 furlong dash.
There are 9 stakes events at Calder on Saturday.
(Meanwhile, will it ever stop raining in the Calder area?)
posted by Jen Morrison @ 6:20 AM
7 Comments:
At 10:34 AM,
Unknown said…
Good story about Funny Cide at Finger Lakes. It's nice to see the crowd they got. The poster yestreday was bang on. Horse racing lacks heroes. Horses are rushed to the breeding stables before they can capture most of the general public's imagination. The one thing people love is an underdog story and there are plenty of them in racing. The classic races are huge but unfortunately many of these horses don't race for more than a season afterwards. Unfortunate but I don't see it changing. The money is so big in the breeding game.
Intresting comment by Funny Cide's owners that the original plan was to come back to Woodbine for the Dominion Day but they didn't want to run on polytrack. It would have been nice since I missed him last year since I was out of town. Oh how I miss the old dirt. It was so much more intresting.
At 7:08 PM,
the_drake said…
In response to your response Jen, about Millenium Allstar, I am well aware of what he accomplish before he died, and if he stood in Ontario I would say he would have easily been Canada's leading Freshman sire, that does not make him a superstar though given the competition of the freshmen studs last year. The problem I had was that to a common racing fan who picked up the Form (who doesn't know his/her breeding) might take that comment and think that filly is by a real superstar (Kingmambo or A.P. Indy) and think she's more well bred than she was. It also has a little to do with credibility, what would someone say in Kentucky if they read that, they would think who ever is writing this is crazy, if they think that's a superstar.
Speaking of crazy, I don't think I would trade too many fillies for Des Moines expecially if your running in the midwest, she could run through a tornado. She should cruise in the Assi Oaks.
Finally, it's too bad the Form had Finger Lakes instead of Hollywood in it's issue today, what the hell.
At 7:56 PM,
Anonymous said…
Love Race 5 at Woodbine today. Two horses that should have been coupled in the betting, were not. (Both trained by McKenzie)
Any knowledgable bettor, paying close attention to the pre-race warm-ups, could plainly see a betting coup was taking shape. From those warm-ups, it was very clear that of the 2 entries the longer priced horse was being sent to win, but the racing gods interfered. That horse encountered a very unexpected pace duel with a longshot, and lost to his stable mate, which on form was a better horse. Although Mr. McKenzie horses still finished 1st and 2nd, it clearly was not the order contemplated.
At this time I wish to thank the ORC for allowing this kind of scenario (ie. uncoupled entries) to exist. You see, I happened to cash a fabulous exactor on Mr. McKenzie's horses, and in fact it will finance my trip to Las Vegas next week.
Once again, thank you ORC and Mr. McKenzie. (ie. ORC for generally not protecting bettors, and Mr. McKenzie for the signals shown in the pre-race warm-ups).
At 9:59 AM,
Anonymous said…
"could plainly see a betting coup was taking shape."
Perhaps you would care to expand on that to educate other punters, so that they may not be 'fleeced' in future.
Isn't that part of the whole 'game' of betting, pulling all the information together and betting accordingly.
Congratulations on the results of your keen observations, however I don't really see anything wrong with the way the race was conducted.
Perhaps you need a sterile racing structure, to maintain a comfort level with the minimum of effort.
You should try the slots, apparently it's very exciting.....apparently.
At 10:58 AM,
the_drake said…
Enough with the uncoupled conspiracy theories. Don't you think the owners of these horses might be a little pissed off if they were told sorry Charlie your horse is going to run second today and Jimbo's is going to win, oh and nevermind the rest of the field, we have a deal that we are going to beat them as well.
Wouldn't you be more pissed off if one part of the coupled entry scratched (the horse you liked) and you were stuck with a horse that would be 30-1 otherwise.
Don't you also think that for the owner to recoup the amount of $ he lost by setting up this betting coup that he would have to bet a large sum on the other horse, therefore ruining the price of the horse that was supposed to go off as the longer shot.
I could go on for days about this but I have better things to do with my time.
At 4:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
I saw the race just now on Cal Racing replays. Other than the fact that the winner was off more than a month and only had 4 relatively slow workouts, the 3 speed horses according to pace ratings sat one-two-three around the track and into the stretch.
It was a 50k purse, so I highly doubt the others didn't try.
I couldn't pick the winner, but the race looked fine the way it was raced.
Clarks horse ran great, dueled and almost still won.
At 4:28 PM,
Anonymous said…
Does anyone know why Todd Kabel took off after 2 mounts on Saturday ??
Earlier in the year he took off his mounts 2 days in a row. Was it the weight ??
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