OH SAY CAN YOU SEE

Happy Independance day (more like a week this year since the holiday is on a Wednesday) to the folks south of the border.

(Re: yesterday's post on DANCING ALLSTAR. The reference to superstar stud MILLENIUM ALLSTAR was made because of his 2 very small crops, good results out west at a very small circuit and was not meant to compare him to stallions in Ontario, Kentucky etc. The horse is now deceased.)

BETTING BONANZA

Betting on Woodbine’s card on Monday was up $1.1 million from the same day last year to $3.5 million in a stunning turn of events.

Perhaps the availability of Woodbine to California players (who were betting millions into their own pool because of the giant pick 6 pool) helped boost the Woodbine wagering.

WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIGHTS

Big fields for 8 races tonight at Woodbine and some much-needed rain is falling at the time of this writing. The turf course was brown and crunchy so the rain should make it nice – no way the races should come off grass tonight.

Maiden allowance fillies go 7 furlongs on turf in race 3 with Triple Crown champ’s WANDO’S half-sister, HALF SISTER, still trying to win her maiden.

Race 4, the first leg of a tough Pick 4, is allowance boys at 7 furlongs on turf. One-time QUEEN’S PLATE hopeful HIGH ACT is returning from a minor injury and he’s a half-brother to turf winner Stag Nation. Also in the race is the well-bred Sam-Son colt RIDE THE WESTWIND, who had trouble in his season debut and the sharp JU JU BEAST, a half-brother to graded stakes winner Wanna Runner.

PRINCE OF WALES NOMS

Sixteen 3-year-olds were nominated to the July 15 PRINCE OF WALES STAKES, slated for July 15 at Fort Erie racetrack.

The second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown is at 1 3/16 miles on conventional dirt.

MIKE FOX, the Plate winner, plus ALEZZANDRO, JIGGS COZ, DAAHER and MARCHFIELD are expected to compete.

The draw for posts is a week today at Fort Erie.

CLASS SETS COURSE RECORD

‘about’ distances used yesterday

Six-year-old CHEMISTRY CLASS (Bold ‘n Flashy) set a course record for ‘about’ 5 furlongs on the turf at Fort Erie yesterday in :58. The gelding won a 3 horse photo at the wire for owner William Payne and trainer Paul Nielsen.

An ‘about’ one-mile grass race also produced a course record as LA GRAN DOMINIQUE (Compadre) won in 1:39 for $5,000 claiming.

(Equibase charts were the source for this information)

From the King-Sentinel
By Bill Rea

Most agree last Sunday's Queen's Plate was a real thriller, and that was especially the case for King City area resident Ian Black.

Black, the former manager at Kinghaven Farms, is the trainer of Mike Fox, and he watched his colt come off the rail on the stretch, scoot by the favoured Jiggs Coz and spoil what had been shaping up as an easy win for Alezzandro.

Mike Fox took the Plate by half a length.

He is owned by Morgan Firestone, and he went off at 15-1 odds from the outside post position.

"I thought he had a chance," Black commented a couple of days later. "I thought he'd run well."

Alezzandro seemed in command of the race until jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson got her mount moving.

"It was a pleasant surprise," Black said. "It was a last-minute surge."

Mike Fox had seven previous starts and three wins before the Plate.

The race was historic because it was the first time a woman jockey was in the winner's circle at the Plate.

"If I had the choice right now, I wouldn't switch with any horse in the race," she told TSN's Sandy Hawley before the start. "Ian's done a tremendous job getting him ready. I'm really happy about the position I'm in and just looking forward to see if we can get our nose in front."

Wilson later told TSN's Renee Kierans that things looked a little worrisome coming out of the final turn, but rider and horse were able to get things together.

"He wanted it just as bad as I did," she said. "I knew I had it. He was moving so strong coming to the wire."

"I just buried my head and kept on driving," she added. "He got down so deep and out of nowhere, I just knew we were flying."

"I'm just very honoured to be part of Emma's great day," Black told TSN's Jeff Bratt, adding he was also happy that Firestone got a Plate win.

Councillor Linda Pabst praised the local effort at last Monday's council meeting.

"I had one of the most exciting Queen's Plates that I have ever been to," she told her colleagues.

She also commented that Firestone has been hoping for a Plate win for years. "It couldn't have gone to a more deserving owner," she remarked, stating Firestone has done much for the horse industry over the years.

"And I won money," Pabst happily declared.

Mike Fox paid $32.40, $13.10 and $5.

Black said the horse is slated to run in the Price of Wales Stakes, the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown, later this month. He was hopeful of his chances there, all being well with the horse. "You kind of take it one day at a time," he remarked.

From Texas...

Silly rule keeps great horse off our track

(Courtesy Star-Telegram)

By GARY WEST

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

GRAND PRAIRIE -- If he were a litigious sort, more interested in lawsuits than racing, he could slam the state with an age-discrimination claim. Well, if he weren't a racehorse, he could.

Texas won't allow Proven Cure to race at Lone Star Park, but not because of a lack of talent or accomplishment or even because of inactivity and safety. No, Proven Cure can't race Wednesday because, according to the bureaucrats who regulate the sport in Texas, he's too old.

Never mind that he won a Lone Star stakes last year, or that 2 1/2 months ago he finished second here, losing in a photo finish, or that just five weeks ago he ran fourth in a stakes race at Canterbury Park in Minnesota.

Waving their rule book as if it had come down from Mt. Sinai, the regulators say that at 13, Proven Cure is too old to race, and so that's it. Once again the confederacy of ignorance and authority defeats an alliance of reason and common sense.

In the end, the fans lose an opportunity to see one of the sport's most admirable performers in the $50,000 Lone Star Park Turf Stakes.

And there's the problem: The governing bureaucracy, the regulators and the rules themselves that supervise racing in Texas neither protect nor serve the fans. The fans are generally ignored.

Texas rules state that a horse older than 12 can race here only if he has won in the preceding 12 months. Proven Cure last won 14 months ago, taking the Littlebitlively Stakes at Lone Star. So he's ineligible.

John Locke, who trains Proven Cure, characterized the Texas rule as "extremely silly." Locke, who, by the way, is also a veterinarian, had been led to believe that the rule was changed.

And as he prepared to enter Proven Cure for Wednesday's race, he found out otherwise.

But why is there such a "silly" rule? Why isn't it left to the state veterinarian and the stewards to determine if a horse, regardless of age, is physically and safely able to compete?

The rule, I presume, represents some bureaucrat's misguided effort to become the champion and protector of geriatric horses, as if the state's stable areas overflow with scurrilous rogues eager to bring their tired and debilitated 13-year-olds out of retirement. And so there's another problem: The state's regulators and rules generally begin with the assumption that everyone in racing, or nearly everyone, is a villain.

The irony is that Proven Cure is owned by William A Reed, a Kansas City physician whose care for his horses is renown. At his 115-acre farm, Reed gives his horses an annual three-month vacation whether they need it or not. And so many of his horses continue to race at ripe ages.

His Perfect Drift, for example, has raced in every Breeders' Cup Classic since 2002 and at 8 is still performing in major stakes. And since his 11th birthday, Proven Cure has won eight of 16 starts, including three stakes sprinting on the turf.

"It's amazing," said Bryan Reed, Dr. Reed's son, about Proven Cure's ineligibility. "He's probably accomplished more over the last three years than any turf sprinter in the region.... He deserves his shot."

Proven Cure, Reed explained, is one of those rare horses who seem most happy at the racetrack. That's the only reason he's still racing, but the rules say he can't race in Texas.

And that's worse than silly.

Two-dollar bettor still the king at Ellis Park

(from thegleaner site, www. web.courierpress.com)

By Cliff Guilliams
Sunday, July 1, 2007

Sports has taken me places that always will be special.

One is Huntingburg Memorial Gym during boys' high school basketball tourney time. Nothing did Dubois County ever do so well for so long.

Another is dawn on Churchill Downs' backstretch during Kentucky Derby week.

No distraction can ruin a morning with a Derby horse.

A snook and redfish expedition in the Everglades always cleanses the senses.

Assembly Hall wasn't bad when Bob Knight was in Bloomington.

Then there's Ellis Park.

It's the Tri-State's evocative summer racing paradise where about anything in the way of clean fun goes -- and sometimes the rent goes, too.

As the track's former overseer Ruth Adkins still says, "it's the only place in racing where you don't have to be somebody to be catered to. The $2 bettor is still king. The beer is cold and the hot dogs good..."

In the beginning, Ellis Park was Dade Park, a countrified retreat carved out of the river bottom sticks given little chance to succeed. That changed when James C. Ellis bought the joint out of bankruptcy in 1924 for $35,000.

No traffic hummed over the Twin Bridges. A ferry took folks across the Ohio River. Where U.S. 41 lies was a dirt road. Going to and from Ellis was arduous -- though then, like now, probably more joyful. The most popular method of transportation was an "inter-urban" traction line that departed Evansville from Second and Locust Streets.

On Wednesday, the track bearing Ellis' name opens for the 84th time with a 10-race holiday card filled nicely with 93 horses, including two 11- and two 12-horse fields.

What type of people attend Ellis Park? How and why do they make their selections? Why do they come in mass to support the game? How many win? How many lose?

There are attorneys, physicians, merchants, bar owners, construction owners and their employees, excavators, architects, plumbers, barbers, coaches, teachers, retirees, firemen, policemen, car salesmen, fishermen, farmers, waitresses, real estate agents, public officials, laborers, postal employees, truck drivers, convenient store owners, milk men, housewives, college kids and disabled pensioners.

There are attorneys, physicians, merchants, bar owners, construction owners and their employees, excavators, architects, plumbers, barbers, coaches, teachers, retirees, firemen, policemen, car salesmen, fishermen, farmers, waitresses, real estate agents, public officials, laborers, postal employees, truck drivers, convenient store owners, milk men, housewives, college kids and disabled pensioners.

Some play hooky from other responsibilities. Some are regulars and sit in the same spot. There are weekenders and twice-a-year amateurs.

Most use a program or Daily Racing Form when making selections. Others follow hunches, tips, colors, names, numbers, trainers or jockeys.

Ellis Park is Americana, a melting pot where everyone is equal at the mutuel windows.

- One of the best things that new track owner Ron Geary accomplished in the past 48 hours was securing the right to offer a Pick-Four with only a 4 percent takeout. Usually the takeout is a gaudy 22.5 percent. The bet will be offered daily on the final four races.

"It's kind of like a loss leader," said Geary. "But fans will appreciate getting back so much of their money. And if they're alive in the Pick-Four, maybe they'll stick with our signal."

RACING POST RATINGS IN DRF

A reader asked why the DAILY RACING FORM would switch from Timeform ratings in the paper for European horses to Racing Post ratings.

The following response was supplied to THOROUGHBLOG:

“With the Racing Post we are embarking on an exchange program with our British racing counterpart. The Racing Post Ratings are also more in line with the official handicap rating produced by the various Jockey Clubs around the world. They are used by everyone who bets in betting shops in Britian and Ireland as the Racing Post form is posted in all of them.”

WEEKEND WATCH

Ontario foaled 2yo’s are up in the Clarendon Stakes on Saturday. The race could be the debut outing for the most expensive auction yearling in Canada last year – BRODERICK, by Hold that Tiger – Brittan Lee. The colt is owned by Jim and Alice Sapara and trained by Josie Carroll.

Ontario-foaled 3yo fillies race Sunday in the Ontario Damsel Stakes on turf at 6 ½ furlongs.