RE-LEAF

JAMBALAYA INJURED - OUT FOR YEAR

Bill Tallon of DAILY RACING FORM writes today that Arlington Million winner JAMBALAYA, Canada's main hope for the Breeders' Cup in October at Monmouth, is out for the year.
The gelding is in fact, already done an MRI and a deep bruise was found....
This could curtail any media trips south for the Cup since the gelding was the only true-blue Canuck going to the Cup (to this point).

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Arlington Million winner Jambalaya will not see action again this season due to an injury.

Catherine Day Phillips, who trains Jambalaya and is his owner in partnership with her husband, Todd, said the gelding was sent to Kentucky on Tuesday for an MRI and an acute bone bruise at the end of a cannon bone was discovered.

“They’d felt that we caught it very early, and he’s going to be okay,” said Day Phillips. “They felt it was an acute injury, as opposed to a chronic condition. It’s in a place where it’s very difficult to heal. He’ll be on stall rest, and be reevaluated in three months.”

Day Phillips said Jambalaya had emerged from the Arlington Million with some heat in an ankle but that X-rays were negative and the 5-year-old gelding continued to train well.

But after Jambalaya breezed five furlongs here on Sept. 8, the problem resurfaced and an MRI was performed.

The results were sent to New York veterinarian Steven Selway, who had performed minor ankle surgery on Jambalaya at the conclusion of his 3-year-old campaign.

Selway found the results to be inconclusive and suggested the second MRI, which was conducted by Dr. Scott Bennett in Simpsonville, Ky.

Jambalaya had earned a starting berth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf with his Million victory, but he will now head home to Kingfield Farm. The Million was his second Grade 1 stakes win of the season, following the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Breeders’ Cup in February.

Jambalaya also won the Grade 3 Pan American at Gulfstream in March and finished third in Woodbine’s Grade 2 King Edward and Grade 2 Northern Dancer prior to his successful Arlington trip.

Next Sunday’s Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic at Belmont was to have been Jambalaya’s prep for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Unfortunately, Jambalaya will not be eligible for Sovereign Award consideration as a minimum of three starts in Canada during the current season is a requisite for all horses older than 2 and he only started at Woodbine twice.

"I’m going to really miss seeing him here at the track every day,” said Day Phillips. “But it’s more important to do what we can to have a horse for next year, and the year after.”

WOODBINE WEDNESDAY NIGHT

2 more ineligible horses entered

Don’t forget to get your 123 selections in for THE SCORE handicapping contest for tonight’s racing at Woodbine.

Post Woodbine Mile week is sure to be anti-climatic but the OVERSKATE STAKES tonight is a reasonably interesting race pitting speedy stablemates (and half-brothers) COOL SELECTION and MAIN EXECUTIVE against 3yo closer DANCER’S BAJAN and older fellow EXECUTIVE CHOICE plus newcomer STONETOWN.

It’s race 6 on the card at 7 furlongs.

The other brother to Cool Selection and Main Exec, Fleets Dream, is a contender in race 2 for maidens.

An interesting contest is the 5^th race – a 1 ½ mile starter allowance ($16,000) which may be very tough to decipher.

BENZ BOY could be favoured since he was 3^rd to classy Cuba in his latest for $32,000. The Siphon 6yo has never tried the distance, however.

Watch out for marathon ace LETTHEREBEJUSTICE who has only had 3 races this season and is very fresh.

On Saturday - INTOTHEWILDERNESS was scratched form the La Prevoyante Stakes (ineligible) and tonight there are two more of these babies..

CHAPLAIN and MUSKWA are not eligible for race 4...ouch.

(from Woodbine media)

Jockey Richard Dos Ramos is three successful trips away from reaching the 2,000-victory plateau.

The Trinidad-born jockey entered 2007 just 32 wins shy of the milestone, having guided 1,968 mounts to the winner’s circle (11.7 per cent strike rate).

Dos Ramos first tasted victory as a jockey on April 20, 1981, with Lord Henry. There was no turning back after the first, as the Brampton resident went on to win the Woodbine and Greenwood Autumn meets later that year.

At the end of 1981, he was awarded the first of two consecutive Sovereign Awards as Canada’s Outstanding Apprentice.

The journeyman’s first stakes score came in 1982 with Myrthful Minx in a division of the Canadian.

A recipient of the Avelino Gomez Award in 1992, many of the 45-year-old's finest triumphs have come with some of the sport’s most unlikely heroes. For instance, in 1992, Dos Ramos guided 31-1 Benburb to an upset score in the Molson Export Million. In 1999, he upset the Canadian International with 18-1 Thornfield. Both were owned by the late Steve Stavro and trained by Philip England.

Among the stars he has ridden are Oaks heroines Ginger Gold, Playlist and Plenty of Sugar, as well as champions Blonde Executive and Palladio.

Dos Ramos and his wife Linda have two daughters named Stephanie and Melanie.

WEDNESDAY’S MOUNTS

Race 5 – Cool Irony
Race 6 – Main Executive

THURSDAY’S MOUNTS

Race 2 – Michael’s Bad Boy
Race 9 – Deputy of War

FRIDAY’S MOUNTS

Race 3 – Kesagami

CANADIANS TAKE BIG BITES SATURDAY

Leo and Bear Now in very, very tough in the U.S.

(from the Shreveport Times)

Bill Gann: Saturday's Super Derby set to be a big one

The field for Saturday's Grade II Super Derby could reach the double-digit mark by entry time this Wednesday. That is, if everyone holds to their respective pledges.

"I think we can count on at least eight or nine, for sure," said racing secretary Doug Bredar this past Saturday. "And we're talking to a couple of other outfits who sound like they're pretty serious about running in the race, too."

Travers' runner-up Grasshopper will almost certainly be the favorite in the 1 1/8 miles main track test for 3-year-olds, owing in no small part to his gallant effort against Street Sense, who is generally considered to be the best sophomore in training.

"As far as I know right now, Grasshopper will be here for the race," Bredar confirmed.

Grasshopper's recent exhibition in the Travers was good enough to lift him from virtual obscurity to national prominence in one fell-swoop. It was the first stakes try for the lightly raced Neil Howard trainee, and the second race in a row that he has surpassed the 100 Beyer speed figure mark. The colt has won $318,532 in six starts, with three wins, two seconds, and a third.

But Grasshopper's bankroll will not be the largest in the field. Or for that matter, even the second largest, assuming that everyone shows up that's supposed to.

No, that distinction belongs to another sparingly used colt, Leonnatus Anteas, who has run out almost $428,000 in six starts. After a perfect 3-for-3 record as a 2-year-old, the Kevin Attard trainee was voted the Champion juvenile in Canada last year. His 3-year-old campaign has not been that spectacular, however, with just one victory in three outings. But in his last winning effort (a six-length romp at Saratoga on July 30) he earned a 101 speed figure — which makes him the only other horse in this year's Super Derby field to have cracked the three — digit Beyer plateau.

Going Ballistic has a few bucks in the bank, as well. The Donnie Von Hemel charge is a multiple stakes winner who has pulled down almost $400,000 in 15 career outings. While most of those earnings have come on the turf, the gray son of Lite the Fuse has been competing against some awfully tough company in Chicago. He was a close second in the Grade II American Derby in July and then came back with a nice third place finish in the Grade I Secretariat in Aug.

Another shipper expected to line up for this year's centerpiece event is Past the Pont. The Darley Stables' colt is trained by Eoin Harty and brought $400,000 in last year's 2-year-olds-in-training sales. The colt made his stakes debut in his last start ( the Lemon Drop Kid stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 5), finishing second despite stumbling out of the gate. He is also one of only three horses in the expected field to have ever run at the Super Derby distance.

Heading the local contingency will be Forty Acres, who won a fees-paid berth into the Super Derby by virtue of his wire-to-wire tally in the Prelude stakes here on Aug.18. Other Louisiana Downs hopefuls expected to join that one include Beta Capo, Cajun Conquest, Point Gold, Strong City, and possibly Tortuga Straits.

The two races for 2-year-olds — the Happy Ticket and the Sunday Silence — attracted 47 and 64 nominations, respectively. While the Marie P. DeBartol Oaks and the Unbridled Breeders' Cup Handicap lured 69 and 62 nominees.

"And if you consider some of the people who are sending horses in for these races, the list sort of reads like the 'who's who' of horse racing," an elated Bredar added, reeling off names of some of the nation's most elite trainers, which included the likes of Bobby Frankel, Neil Drysdale, John Kemmel, Bill Mott, Neil Howard, and others.

And, from Brisnet.com – COTILLION PREVIEW

Mother Goose S. (G1) and Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) victress OCTAVE (Unbridled's Song) heads a field of eight sophomore fillies in Saturday's $750,000 Cotillion H. (G2) at Philadelphia Park. An earner of more than $1.2 million from a 11-4-6-1 line, Octave is now the top distaffer in Todd Pletcher's shedrow following the injury to stablemate Rags to Riches (A.P. Indy). The classy gray filly will keep John Velazquez in the saddle.

Octave exits a troubled third in the Alabama S. (G1) in which she experienced tight quarters in deep stretch. Three starts back in the Mother Goose, she defeated Lear's Princess (Lear Fan), who went on to win last Saturday's Gazelle S. (G1). In the Coaching Club two races ago, Octave knocked off Lady Joanne (Orientate), who captured the Alabama next out. The Starlight Stable and Donald Lucarelli colorbearer also owns runner-up finishes in the Kentucky Oaks (G1) and Ashland S. (G1) this season.

Tim Ritchey will send out Delaware Oaks (G2) heroine MOON CATCHER (Malibu Moon). Fourth in the Alabama last out, Moon Catcher won the Susan's Girl Breeders' Cup S. prior to her score in the lucrative Delaware Oaks two starts back. Carlos Marquez Jr. will regain the mount. Canadian invader BEAR NOW (Tiznow) merits respect. The Reade Baker trainee romped to a 6 1/4-length decision in the Duchess S. at Woodbine most recently, and she's posted convincing stakes victories in three of her last four starts. Jerry Baird will be in to ride.

Monmouth Breeders' Cup Oaks (G3) queen TALKIN ABOUT LOVE (Not for Love) will bring a five-race winning skein into the 1 1/16-mile event, and HUMBLE JANET (Humble Eleven) will be seeking her first stakes triumph after recording runner-up finishes in the Arlington Park Oaks (G3) and Iowa Oaks (G3) in recent months.

Octave will lead the post parade under a 123-pound impost. Next comes Bear Now, 119; Moon Catcher, 120; Talkin About Love, Stewart Elliott, 118; Humble Janet, Shaun Bridgmohan, 116; SYD N CARLY'S ROSE (Ecton Park), Frankie Pennington, 111; EXCHANGING FIRE (Exchange Rate), Eddie King Jr., 115; and SILVERINYOURPOCKET (Silver Deputy), David Cohen, 116.

SCOREBOARD

WOODBINE TRAINERS

Mark E. Casse 222 51 49 29 $3,809,704

Robert P. Tiller 215 41 26 19 $1,804,819

Reade Baker 273 37 35 34 $2,325,165

Sid C. Attard 218 36 37 21 $2,125,282

Abraham R. Katryan 176 36 18 19 $1,039,276

WOODBINE JOCKEYS

Tyler Pizarro 630 88 81 72 $3,804,431

Patrick Husbands 445 83 97 59 $5,902,838

Emile Ramsammy 509 83 51 58 $3,990,443

Emma-Jayne Wilson 609 75 87 86 $4,983,838

David Clark 362 61 40 26 $3,018,818

Eurico Rosa Da Silva 431 53 48 51 $2,325,347

Divisonal Leaders:

2yo filly – Clearly Foxy, Dancing Allstar

2yo colt – Prussian, Bear Holiday, Kodiak Kowboy

3yo colt – Mike Fox, Allezandro

3yo filly – Sealy Hill

Older mare – Monashee, Arden Belle, Financingavailable

Older male – True Metropolitan…??

Turf male – Jambalaya, Sky Conqueror

Sprinter – Main Executive, Gangster..??

Top FORT ERIE TRAINERS

Mark Fournier 106 32 19 14 $255,262

Nicholas Gonzalez 93 22 13 13 $243,769

Scott H. Fairlie 53 21 8 8 $177,478

Donald C. MacRae 59 13 11 7 $114,652

Lyle Morden 40 13 6 2 $90,680

JOCKEYS – FORT ERIE

Robert King, Jr. 384 83 79 51 $858,991

Chad Beckon 308 60 36 45 $595,696

Daniel J. David 213 45 35 30 $420,910

Kristopher Robinson 260 38 42 28 $408,396

Cory Clark 289 37 35 45 $408,690

KEENELAND BRINGS BUCKS TO CANUCKS

And they spent some too – on Canadian-breds!

Incredibly, many of the dozens of Canadian-breds up for sale during the marathon Keeneland sale last week and this week are being scooped up from Canadians.

The Canadian dollar is virtually on par with the US dollar now…some Can. Bredes are bringing 30$ and 40K, would it not cost less for everyone to sell SOME of these horses…
IN CANADA??

Don Blowe’s Arch colt brought a nice $115,000 for the Ontario horseman on Monday. SAINT ARCH (out of Halo Silver) was consigned by Shawhan Place, agent for Ascot Thbrds’. The Canadian-bred is out of a Silver Buck mare.

Mike DePaulo, agent for Mario Forgione was busy. They paid $180,000 for an El Corredor colt (ex Gold Liaka) on Monday and $130,000 for a Friends Lake – Win du Jour (half to Birsay). Both are Canadian-breds.

High Graham,presumably agent for Morgan Firestone, bought a Canadian-bred by Olmodavor out of the dam of stakes winner Buffalo Man for $125,000. The colt was consigned by Denali Stud.

Bill Farish of the powerful Woodford Racing LLC bought a litany of Canadian-bres during the week including Hill ‘n’ Dales grey filly by Medaglio d’oro out of stakes winner Parisia.