CELEBRATE THE BREED

UPDATE - BLOG READER OFFERS CHALLENGE!

'The Drake' has submitted his top 3 picks for each Breeders' Cup race...send in yours! His challenge is below in the comments section! Picks will be accepted up until 2 p.m. Friday!!


(Pictured is BEAR NOW at Monmouth Park thanks to our friends Cindy and Terence at horse-races.net)

The post position draw for the Breeders’ Cup (all 11 races) apparently was a very long procedure but once done, the fields and odds are set and we’re all ready to go!

(If you watch Woodbine Entertainment’s Video Diary on the draw, you can tell why the draw was so long…too much talking folks!!! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Meanwhile, the Breeders’ Cup Diary is quite clever and kudos to WEG for sending a crew there despite very little Canadian content)

Yesterday’s RETURN TO POSTING by ‘BLOG give you Woodbine’s times for its 11 race card plus the times for the Cup races and the betting profile.

Start studying!

Some interesting notes on the races….

KODIAK KOWBOY won Woodbine’s Victoria Stakes in June and won 2 graded stakes at Churchill and Saratoga after that. He was recently 2^nd in the Grade 2 Futurity and his Beyer Figures topped 99 at Saratoga.

A good effort on Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Monmouth would have to make the 2yo Posse colt the champion 2yo in Canada. Juvenile sonly need to make 2 starts in Canada to be eligible, unlike the older horses who have to make three.

CLEARLY FOXY would give her stablemate Officer Cherrie a run for champion 2yo filly with a good effort in the Juvie fillies. Her sire Volponi scored one of the biggest Breeders’ Cup upsets in its history and she is bred for the dirt.

Canadian-breds MARYFIELD and INDIAN VALE have decent chances in their races. The former, bred by Mike Carroll and John Harvey in Ontario , is a Grade 1 winner this year and while she likes a bit more distance than 6 furlongs, the Elusive Quality mare is fresh off a 2 month break. She’s won 8 of 27 and $726,000.

Mike Carroll, incidentally, is the breeder of MRS. BEGAN (Bay-gon), the Jump Start filly that won the Princess Elizabeth Stakes last weekend for Zayat Stables and trainer Reade Baker. The Beyer Figure of 75 was impressive for the filly since the time was quite slow. Mrs. Began was bought by Zayat at the Woodbine yearling sale last fall and was moved to Baker’s barn this winter.

INDIAN VALE meets BEAR NOW in the Distaff and this Ontario-bred mare has been a hard trying gal in her 13 race career (7 wins). She may have moved a bit too soon in the Grade 1 Beldame last time when Unbridled Belle edged her late. She’s 1 for 1 at Monmouth!

Canadian-bred JAZZ NATION, winner of his 2yo debut at Woodbine earlier this month, is 10 to 1 for the Favorite Trick Stakes on Friday’s card at Monmouth.

The City Zip fellow, bred by Shirley Prosser’s Box Arrow Farm, is considered one of the fastest colts in Reade Baker’s barn.

Also on Friday at Monmouth, Canadian-breds THREE IN THE BAG and INTUITION MAGIC are in allowance races.

Former Woodbine and Fort Erie jockey NEIL POZNANSKY works for Bill Mott apparently in New York and gave Juvenile filly starter Z HUMOR her last Cup prep 2 days ago.

A neat segment on OPRAH WINFREY yesterday about the grey mare OPRAH WINNEY who has a super chance to win the inaugural Filly/Mare Sprint.

Rain expected this week at Monmouth but drying out by Friday and Saturday.

FROM GLOBE AND MAIL…

Lawyer Ron slight favourite in Classic

Son of Langfuhr is the hotshot

LARRY MILLSON

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

October 23, 2007 at 9:06 PM EDT

OCEANPORT, N.J. — Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense had an impressive workout Tuesday morning at Monmouth Park, but later in the day, Lawyer Ron was made the slight favourite for the $5-million Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday.

Regular rider Calvin Borel had Street Sense out at 1 minute 11/5 seconds for five furlongs, with a mile galloped out in 1:382/5. Trainer Carl Nafzger called the workout “great, right on schedule.”

So the scene is set for what could be one of the better Classics since the Breeders' Cup World Championships began in 1984. There have not been many Classics with this much quality and depth of talent.

Street Sense also won the Jim Dandy and Travers Stakes this past summer, and his opponents in the nine-horse field for the 11/4-mile Classic will include Preakness winner Curlin.

The three-year-olds Street Sense and Curlin have been made co-second favourites at 3 to 1 in the morning-line odds determined yesterday. Four-year-old Lawyer Ron is the 5-to-2 favourite.

Lawyer Ron was a convincing winner in the Whitney Handicap and the Woodward Stakes and finished second to Curlin in the Jockey Club Gold Cup in his last start. Street Sense was second to Hard Spun in the Kentucky Cup Classic.

“Lawyer Ron was made the favourite because of his consistent excellence in his last three races,” said Brad Thomas, Monmouth Park's oddsmaker. “It was very difficult to separate the first three horses.”

He set the early lines for the 11 Breeders' Cup races to be run on Friday and Saturday at Monmouth. Total purses will be $23-million. Three races have been added to the Breeders' Cup program this year, and for the first time, the event will be held over two days.

Three-year-old Any Given Saturday, the winner of three races in a row, including the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth, was made the 4-to-1 fourth choice. He also likes to be close to the pace.

Also entered are Hard Spun (8 to 1), Tiago (12 to 1), Diamond Stripes (15 to 1), George Washington (20 to 1) and Awesome Gem (30 to 1).

Street Sense, owned by Jim Tatel, drew the No.2 post, and Lawyer Ron, with John Velazquez aboard, has the rail. Hard Spun drew post No.8 and is expected to set the pace, with Lawyer Ron right there, too.

Lawyer Ron's handlers were hoping he might draw slightly more to the outside so he could stalk Hard Spun. Lawyer Ron, owned by Hines Racing and trained by Todd Pletcher, has a tendency to get rank early in his races, while Hard Spun's best results have come when he has been on the lead.

Lawyer Ron's worst races have come in 11/4-mile classic events – last year's Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic.

Hard Spun's trainer, Larry Jones, liked the outside draw for his three-year-old.

The inner post should help Street Sense, whose jockey is known as Bo-rail.

Borel also has used the rail in several of Street Sense's victories.

CALLING ALL ANGELS

WOODBINE WEDNESDAY NIGHT

Canadian Horse of the Year RULING ANGEL (1986, when she was a 2yo) is being honoured tonight with the first running of a stake in her name worth $100,000.

And the field is quite good too.

The 3yo filly, 6 ½ furlong sprint has lured a Sam-Son (breeder of Ruling Angel) miss, SPEAK WISELY, a stakes winner, SASKAWEA, also a stakes winner coming off a freshening, and three gals from the Ian Black barn plus a host of others.

Also in the field is newcomer AUTOBAHN GIRL, a daughter of Canadian champion Saorise, who actually beat SEALY HILL in an allowance race in Florida in the winter. She comes off layoff for new trainer Malcom Pierce.

Other stuff..

Day 2 of the Fasig Tipton Kentucky Fall sale saw Canadians doing more buying. TONY MATTINE, ROBERT TILLER, JOHN CHARALAMBOUS, DAVE COTEY and DEBRA ROMBIS were busy.

Tiller paid $45,000 for a Forest Wildcat filly and bought 11 yearlings over the 2-day sale for over $230,000.

Don't forget THE SCORE'S 1-2-3 contest, put your picks in for a chance to win cash! Check out thescore.ca.