MILLIONAIRE'S ROW

(Thanks to Cindy and Terence at www.horse-races.net for these great shots of JAMBALAYA from Saturday's Arlington Million. Check out all their other stuff on their site.)

JAMBALAYA is back at home with his friend Sox and Catherine Day Phillips and Todd Phillips who did the amazing - developed their star gelding into an Arlington Million winner, the first Canadian-bred to win that prestigious race.
It was the biggest win by a local horse in years and should once again keep the Canadian racing and breeding industry squarely in the headlines as the gelding continues through the marquee grass races on the continent.
He's 16th now on the list of Canadian-bred millionaires.

More on Jambalaya later on in this post..

TRAFFIC UPDATE

STUCK IN TRAFFIC avoided any such problem as he streaked to the lead and kept going to win the VANDAL STAKES yesterday at Woodbine for 2yo’s foaled in Ontario.

A 12 to 1 bomber, the cleverly named Kiridashi – Deadlock, by Regal Classic bay, narrow and leggy in stature like most of the Kiridashi’s, Stuck in Traffic laughed his way to the front and held off a closing Don’s Folly for the win.

His Beyer was a good 79.

The Polytrack got quite packed down with afternoon rains and made things fun for speedballs in the sprint races during the card.

Stuck in Traffic was hard to figure since he had been well beaten in two stakes since his maiden score. He went 21 1/5 on the pace in his latest, the Clarendon,won by Doneraile Gem, who finished 8^th yesterday.

David Clark took over on Stuck in Traffic for the first time in the colt’s 4 starts.

The colt was bred by Minshall Farms and is the second foal of a mare who earned $0 in 2 starts and is out of Mountain Monarch, a daughter of Flicker Queen (stakes winner and dam of Grade 3 winner Stephanotis).

STER-ING STRETCH RUN

It may have looked scary but the ever confident Patrick Husbands guided STERWINS to his first stakes win in his 10^th career start yesterday while not abusing the grey gelded son of Runaway Groom.

The half-length winning margin did not tell the story although drizzling rain and a turf course
 that was getting squishy quickly may have slowed down the Eugene Melnyk homebred a bit.

The filly The Niagara Queen rana super race to be 2nd and Sam-Son Farms’ French Beret
 was another half-length back in third.

The running time for the 1 1/8-mile "firm" turf event was 1:47.98.

Sterwins stalked French Beret and Another Ascot, who dueled through

early splits of :23.82 and :46.96.  Around the wide turn on the E.P

Taylor Turf Course, he began to make to make his move and seized the

lead in mid-stretch before hanging on to beat a tightly bunched group

 at the wire.

Malcolm Pierce, who trains the grey Ontario-bred for Melnyk Racing

Stables Inc., thought he had a good turf horse when he acquired

Sterwins in the spring.  "He has some pedigree for the grass and he worked very well
 the first time he went out there.  He's developed into a nice four-year-old."

Sterwins now has four wins in 10 career starts for earnings of

$355,680.

He’s the second foal of SWEET VALE,by Wild Again, who earned a mere $675 in her 3 career starts.

MORE WOODBINE SUNDAY

The day started off with longshot TRIGONE winning a $60,000 claiming race in 1:09 2/5, one fifth off the track record and earning an 85 Beyer Figure, besting his previous top of 66 in his 3 previous starts.

The Florida bred ran a hole in the wind with the blinkers on for the first time.

Trainer Roger Attfield had a pretty good day with 2 winners and a 3^rd in the Vandal Stakes with the gorgeous colt NOT BOURBON. His first winner was his new arrival GHOST MAKER, a Kentucky bred by El Prado who won his maiden in a 9 furlong turf race.

Attfield came right back (with Richard Dos Ramos riding again) with SAND COVE, who earned just a 46 Beyer Figure for his maiden allowance score. The Ontario-bred is by Bold Executive out of Mythical Status and is owned by Ralph Johnson, who bought the colt for $54,000 (US) at the local sale from the Everatt family.

(About the same time Sand Cove won his maiden, his big sister Trade Fair won her maiden at Fort Erie for Hendrie Stables and trainer Mike Doyle.)

Speed won the 5^th race for maiden $12,500 claiming fillies. A second Churchill Downs shipper, PINEAPPLE EXPRESS was the first of two winners for jockey Martin Ramirez when she led from start to finish for Prairie Star Racing.

Back on the grass for race 7, the bottom fell out of a card of racing that was already hard to compute when TWILIGHT LANGSTAR, twice a loser for $10K claiming,won a maiden allowance on the grass (her first turf attempt was a 16 length drubbing) at 55 to 1 for Castle Peak Farm. She is by the red-hot Langfuhr and is a homebred.

Speed dominated the next race on Polytrack when BOBBI SIOUX held off everyone through the stretch to win the $40,000 claiming event for 3yo fillies. The Kentucky bred was turf-to-Polytrack and the lone speed.

But speed did not work in the 9^th race around 2 turns when a crazy pace duel developed between the once-promising High Act and the heavily favoured Kuma, plus another fave,Bilbo. All three folded while WISDOM FURY (Whiskey Wisdom) won his 2^nd race in succession for Scott Lung Choy Chen. Kuma did well to stay for third beaten 2 necks but a very tough trip for that Unbridled’s Song colt.

And the day wrapped up with a $19,000 superfecta payoff that was keyed by NANCY’S CALLING, bred by Tameshwar Singhand owned by Robert Gerl, who won her maiden for $11,500 claiming. She is by Bold Executive and was the 2^nd winner for jockey Ramirez.

DAY PHILLIPS OWNER OF THE WEEK

The Thoroughbred Daily News has CATHERINE DAY PHILLIPS as owner of the week thanks to Jambalaya’s win in the prestigious ARLINGTON MILLION on Saturday.

Day Phillips took out her trainer’s license in 1994 and trained her grandmother’s horses. Janet Burns owned Kingfield Farms, which owns Jambalaya.

FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL

By Bev Smith

Jambalaya was on his way back to Woodbine in Toronto yesterday after conquering the thoroughbred world in David and Goliath fashion on Saturday, becoming the first Canadian-bred to win the prestigious Arlington Million.

The five-year-old gelding arrived in Chicago for the race last week in a humble horse trailer driven by one of his owners, Todd Phillips, whose wife, Catherine Day Phillips, trains the horse. They bought Jambalaya four years ago for a bargain-basement price of $2,500 (all currency U.S.).

Jambalaya, named for a Hank Williams tune, was surrounded by flash and dash on the Arlington Park backstretch. Day Phillips admitted she has the country music programmed into her cellphone. She played it in the winner's circle on Saturday.

"Being at the Arlington Million was surreal," Day Phillips said yesterday, her cellphone jammed with messages. "It's the big leagues."

Even though Jambalaya had won the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Stakes and the Grade 3 Pan American Handicap in Florida over the winter, some racing analysts curtly dismissed his chances in the field of classy American-bred and European-bred horses.

With the win, Jambalaya gets automatic entry to the Breeders' Cup Turf at Monmouth Park in New Jersey in October.

Day Phillips is the first female trainer to win the Arlington Million.

"I think it's fun," she said of the achievement. "There have been a lot of firsts for females this year." She had hoped to become the first female winner of the Queen's Plate, but missed out on that milestone when Josie Carroll did it last year with Edenwold.

The Arlington Million is tougher to win, though. Jambalaya was blocked on the rail for most of the race, until midstretch, when jockey Robbie Albarado pointed him toward a clearing and "Jambalaya knew what to do," Day Phillips said.

He steadily gained ground on the U.S. star, The Tin Man, who won the race last year. The Canadian underdog won by three-quarters of a length on yielding turf.

"Robbie said that he was so easy to ride," Day Phillips said. "He just did everything he asked him to."

It now appears that the top two turf runners in North America are Canadian-bred. The other, Sky Conqueror, gave the Arlington Million a pass, but has defeated Jambalaya the past two times they've met at Woodbine.

"[Jambalaya] has given everybody such an absolute thrill," Day Phillips said.