WELCOME TO AUGUST

(updated 904 am)The mercury rises here in TORONTO - so does the humidity - racing takes place this evening at WOODBINE and that will be better for horses and humans. No racing tomorrow as we move towards a long CIVIC HOLIDAY weekend of racing.
POLYTRACK woes at Del Mar led to a spat between an owner and management (see yesterday's updated post)...Woodbine's Poly has never really landed in a groove of any kind, it's sort of a guess-the-bias as you go thing.

BREEDERS' STAKES - SUNDAY
$500,000 3rd Jewel of Canadian Triple Crown
1 1/2 miles - turf

PROBABLE FIELD

ALEZZANDRO (Prince of Wales winner)
GOLANI (maiden)
ICE BEAR (Sup) (stakes winner turf)
IT'S A DANZIG (turf winner)
IT'S LIKE THIS
MARCHFIELD (stakes placed)
MIKE FOX (Queen's Plate winner)
RUNOFF TO L.A. (maiden)
STORM THE CASTLE (maiden)
TOP SPEED (turf winner)
TWILIGHT METEOR (stakes winner turf)
WALK WITH KINGS (maiden)

SPA STUFF

Saratoga is up, up, up after one week, betting-wise, etc. In RACE 2 TODAY, Canadian trained C C HOPMANS JR. bought and prepared SOUTHERN SOPRANO, A $10,000 weanling purchase whom Hopmans and owner Morgan Firestone sold for $22,000 at the April 2yo sale. The colt by Erlton worked in 22 3/5. Better put him in your wagers.
Canadian bred 5yo maiden GLASNOST makes his grass debut after fading in his dirt debut as the favourite. The Awesome Again - Rabiadella is well bred for the turf.

WOODBINE WEDNESDAY

So ARTIE HOT should be the hunch bet in the first, never mind the fact that he has a bit of a class edge over most of his rivals.. The Black Minnaloushe Kentucky-bred should have been closer in the Toronto Cup Stakes on turf last time but was moved way too soon. Emma-Jayne takes over and this gelding has won on the Polytrack.

Race 2 is a loaded maiden allowance (the $60,000 maiden races are the features on the night. The Eugene Melnyk homebred from Ontario KEWLAND (by Dixieland Band) has to be considered with blinkers and siblings like Late Carson and Miner's Prize.

Race 6 is a B level maiden allowance for fillies and mares - the gals who were not entered in race 2. FLIGHT TO CASH comes in from Hollywood Park and last year, the Pine Bluff filly was 3rd to RAGES TO RICHES (okay, beaten 12 lengths) in a maiden race.

SCOREBOARD

WOODBINE LEADING TRAINERS (through July 31)

ROBERT TILLER 35 (FROM 168) - $1.4 MILLION

MARK CASSE 31 (FOR 146) $2.2 MILLION

SID ATTARD 28 (FOR 154) $1.6 MILLION

WOODBINE JOCKEYS

*TYLER PIZARRO 64 (for 440) $2.6 million

PATRICK HUSBANDS 54 (for 311) $3.8 million

EMILE RAMSAMMY 53 ((for 354) $2.3 million

FORT ERIE JOCKEYS

ROBERT KING JR. 43

CHAD BECKON 39

DANNY DAVID 32

FORT ERIE TRAINERS

MARK FOURNER 22

SCOTT FAIRLIE 15

NICK GONZALEZ 11

BOB ANDERSON (and son David) in HAMBO-BREEDERS’ DOUBLE

Thoroughbred breeders have 3 to 1 second choice in

$1.5 mil Hambletonian

(from Canadian Press)

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.–Driver Tim Tetrick and Canadian-owned Pampered Princess will be out to shock the harness racing world Saturday night.

The 3-year-old, owned by David Anderson of Aurora and Bob Anderson of St. Thomas, Ont., will attempt to become just the 14th filly – and first in 11 years – to win the 82nd running of the $1.5 million (U.S.) Hambletonian at Meadowlands Racetrack.

Donato Hanover was installed as the early even-money favourite at yesterday's draw and will start from the No. 2 position. Pampered Princess, the 3-1 second pick, goes from the No. 4 spot.

"If they thought Donato (Hanover) was the winner they would go ahead and give him the money," said the 25-year-old Tetrick, who leads all harness drivers this year in wins and earnings.

"He's not yet. They have her to beat."

Two-time heavyweight boxing champion George Foreman will present the trophy to the winner Saturday in harness racing's most prestigious event.

It will be a busy weekend for Bob Anderson, who also owns It's Like This, a thoroughbred that will be running Sunday in the $500,000 (Canadian) Breeders' Stakes, a 1 1/2-mile turf event that's the final jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown, at Woodbine racetrack.

Also in the 10-horse Hambletonian field is Laddie, a 15-1 long shot owned by Jean and Paula Wellwood of Cambridge, Ont., that drew the No. 7 spot. Paula Wellwood is also Laddie's trainer while Paul Macdonnell of Oshawa will drive.

As well, John Campbell of Ailsa Craig, Ont., harness racing's richest driver, will take Flirtin Man, an 8-1 pick, from the No. 10 spot Saturday while Michael Lachance of St.-Augustine, Que., will drive Great Success, a 15-1 pick, from the sixth spot.

Campbell, who also co-owns Flirtin Man, is in quest of his seventh Hambletonian win and said his horse's second-place finish to Donato Hanover in their elimination race proved he's worthy of competing with the best.

"It was the biggest test that he's had so far," Campbell said. "We're hoping he can build on that."

Donato Hanover has won 12 straight starts since losing his career debut.

After losing her first start of the year, Pampered Princess has won five straight races, and 15 of 18 in her career.

THIS MAKES SO MUCH SENSE...

(from ESPN.com)

by Jay Cronley

There are so many stupid things in sports, what's No. 1?

Shaking hands with a professional basketball player who makes a free throw? That's pretty stupid, all right. Forty million, nobody guarding you: so shut up and make it. But that's not number one. Looking skyward, as though to the Lord after doing something good, as though God wanted you to win, not the evil other team? Can be awkward. Not at the top of the charts, though. Moving the ball to mid-court toward the end of an NBA game? Really dumb. Not the dumbest. Announcers who simply won't be quiet? Not smart. Just short of the worst. Pass interference in the NFL, where there can be one of those somebody-alert-the-feds 70-yard penalties, when it is assumed the pass would have been caught, but when it wouldn't have been caught half the time. Stupid beyond belief. But not the stupidest.

Here's the sporting occurrence that makes 0.00 percent sense: TV ratings for most sporting games in general, and horse racing, to be specific.

Buy a newspaper, or tune in to TV or radio after the Kentucky Derby, or one of the other Triple Crown races, or after the Breeder's Cup, and here's what you will see or hear: The ratings are down again. Nobody's watching. Same with baseball, the ratings are the worst ever. Horse racing is in almost as bad a shape as boxing. Horse racing needs a savior. Here's why horse race ratings are low: We're at the track. Or we're at the off-track betting halls and simulcast venues and casinos. We're not filling out a rating diary. We're there, we're live on the scene, we're betting.

The races that are given the most attention in the TV ratings are the races that get the fans out of their homes and away from their television  the Triple Crown races and the Breeder's Cup. I've had a number of TV ratings books before. One of them sends you a crisp greenback dollar bill for your troubles. I put this buck with some others and head for the track and, as a major horse race fan and proponent of the sport, will have a blank space on my Saturday or Sunday afternoon rating diary when a one of those big races is televised. That's because they don't count watching the TV screen at a race track or simulcast hall. Being there, supporting your sport, turns out to be to the detriment of your game. It's as though by going to the track, you're helping to give horse racing a bad name. But not everybody can or will bet from home.

There are no bleachers at your basic TV sit-com or dramatic series. You have to watch these displays on your home set. I'm not 100 percent sold on the accuracy of ratings in the first place. How could programs like the crime scene bunch, and "The Closer," be watched by so many people? The woman's fake southern accent in "The Closer" is the stuff of which sourpusses are made. Many of my friends love this show. I have given it numerous chances, but don't believe a word of it, y'all are under arrest, murder one. Jack Lord did it better. To rate sporting events under the same system as "Two and a Half Men and a Duck," or whatever the hit sit-com is called, is completely unfair. Most everybody sitting in a college football stadium should be considered the same as a TV viewer. If they weren't sitting in the stadium, you think they'd be watching knitting shows?

There are 60-some horse race tracks in this country, and thousands of casinos and off-track and simulcast betting locations. Try to get into one of them on Derby Day or on Breeders' Cup Day. Saratoga's opening weekend handle was almost $40 million. Del Mar is packed. These are real numbers, not ghosts on a TV screen. It's a case of some of the greatest fans in sports getting no credit; again.

Write to Jay at jaycronley@yahoo.com

The Thoroughbred Farm Managers of Ontario in partnership with CARD invite you to the Kleinburg Golf Club to enjoy a fun filled day with friends and family at the 4th Annual Charity Golf Classic in support of Community Association for Riding for the Disabled

$150 Indiv. golfer, $50 for dinner only...also available, foursome rates and sponsorship rates.

PAYMENT AND ITEMS CAN BE SENT TO CARD AT: 4777 DUFFERIN STREET,

TORONTO, ONT. M3H 5T3 P:416-667-8600 F: 416-739-7520

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