LOVE-IN

It may be late November, 2007 but the Canadians are still kicking butt folks! Add DAAHER to the list (thanks to Vanessa Ng at horse-races.net for the photo) as the Awesome Again -Irish Cherry Ontario bred smoked Midnight Lute in the Cigar Mile (read more below).

Read on for a Woodbine re-cap too (The Polytrack is very, very fast and condusive to all sorts of runners but yesterday, more for speed and stalkers).

CANADIANS WIN IN U.S.

DAAHER – 114 BEYER FIGURE IN ‘MILE’

Top Woodbine trainer READE BAKER sent out Roger Fortier’s 2yo Pennsylvania-bred colt NOTGIVINMYLOVEAWAY to win the Pennsylvania Nursery Stakes yesterday at Philly Park.

The Not for Love colt won by 5 lengths under a hand ride (!) in 1:23.59 for 7 furlongs, good for an 81 Beyer Figure. Fortie’s Jus Luk Stable is new to the game and the Alberta owner is getting more involved.

At Laurel, Bear Stables and Baker watched BEARACTOR get up for 4^th in the Laurel Futurity at 18 to 1 after a troubled trip through the stretch. The colt had some run but had to angle out and come around tired rivals.

In New York, DAAHER chalked up another big win for a Canadian-bred when he won the Cigar Mile, sponsored by Hill ‘n’ Dale, which incidentally sold the colt as a yearling for $375,000 on behalf of Ontarians Yvonne and Dagmar Schwabe.

Daaher led all the way to beat Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Midnight Lute and he scored the 1 mile in 1:33.79 – a 114 Beyer. He’s the fastest Canadian bred of the year.

More from the re-cap from BRISNET.COM

Shadwell Stable's DAAHER (Awesome Again)moved to the lead in Saturday's $294,000 Cigar Mile H. (G1) at Aqueduct despite being bumped at the start and was never headed en route to a 2 1/2-length score under Mike Luzzi. Setting splits of :23, :46 1/5 and 1:09 4/5, the Kiaran McLaughlin-trained sophomore easily held off reigning Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) winner Midnight Lute (Real Quiet) in the stretch to stop the clock in 1:33 4/5 for the fast-track feature. "He's turned out to be a good horse," a satisfied McLaughlin said. "Hopefully, we can take him over to Dubai for either the Godolphin Mile (UAE-G1) or the (Dubai) World Cup (UAE-G1)." "He's got a short little neck, so you can only take one hold of him. That's the hold you got," Luzzi said of his mount. "I still had horse turning for home. He kicked for me and there was plenty left. He can run, there's no question about it." Daaher was an easy winner here, but was sent off as the 2-1 second choice in favor of the more well-known Midnight Lute, who was the 1-2 favorite when the gates opened. The Cigar Mile victor rewarded his faithful backers with payouts of $6.70 and $2.80 after show wagering was canceled. Midnight Lute was worth $2.10 while ending the $9.30 exacta. Naughty New Yorker (Quiet American) was another 4 1/4 lengths back in third as the 22-1 longshot and finished the $43.40 trifecta (5-2-4). Xchanger (Exchange Rate) and Sir Greeley (Mr. Greeley) completed the order of finish after City Attraction (Vicar) and Diamond Isle (Gilded Time) were withdrawn.

Much has been expected of Daaher from the beginning. The sophomore is out of multiple stakes winner Irish Cherry (Irish Open), making him a full brother to multiple Grade 1 queen Spun Sugar. He began following in the hoofsteps of his big sister by making his stakes debut a fourth in the Queen's Plate S. at Woodbine. He moved up one spot in the Prince of Wales S. next out and now shows three wins in a row. The bay began his current streak with a dominating 13 3/4-length score in an allowance/optional claimer at Saratoga, and followed up last out with a 2 1/4-length victory in the Jerome H. (G2) at Belmont.

Bred in Ontario, Canada, by Yvonne & Dagmar Schwabe, Daaher sold for $375,000 to his current owners at the 2004 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. He counts an unraced juvenile named A Cat Named Snipe (Sky Mesa), an unnamed yearling Medaglia d'Oro filly and an unnamed weanling Storm Cat colt as half-siblings.

STEALING ON THE Q.T

DISCREET COMMANDER NEEDS JUST 62 BEYER TO WIN DISPLAY

While there was big chunks of track flying back into horses during yesterday’s races, the surface was very very fast. It was power harrowed after many of the races but that just made things faster…

6 ½ furlongs in 1:14.97??? Are you kidding? That crushed the track record set by Saskawea and was a similar time to a long-standing record that was held over the old Woodbine dirt.

The record yesterday was set in a 3yo claiming event won by PRINCE ATLANTIS (okay, he runs mid to high 80 Beyer Figures but that time is astounding)

The entire day was like that.

DISCREET COMMANDER scored a huge upset in the Display Stakes yesterday, getting away with a ridiculously slow pace in what was termed by this corner and other places as one of the best 2yo fields of the year in Canada.

Owned by Don Rowbotham and partners and trainer by Arthur Silvera, the son of Deputy Commander out of Forgiving Monarch by Wavering Monarch was a $30,000 2yo purchase from the Ocala April sale from Mark Casse and he is a Kentucky-bred.

He was 41 to 1 and was ridden by new rider Constant Montpellier.

“On paper he looked like he was the speed of the race, Arthur said try to open him up and ease him back,” said Montpellier, who got away with downright theft.

If it wasn’t for bad luck, MIGHTY VOW would have not luck at all. He has had terrible trips in 3 consecutive starts. The colt was beaten 2 noses yesterday after trailing turning for home after a half mile in 49 seconds and 3/5.

Between the winner and Mighty Vow was a spotty BRIARWOOD CIRCLE, who was the popular pick in the race by many folks and even hailed as the best horse after the race on the SUN TV show - the subject of comments like “too bad he didn’t win it” and “probably should have won it” after the race.

The result confirmed that American colt KODIAK KOWBOY and BEAR HOLIDAY will fight for the Sovereign Award for champion 2yo.

MORE FROM WOODBINE YESTERDAY…

FIRST PICK 3 – Three Aces

GIRL TAK won for the 3rd consecutive time for the red-hot stable of Mike DePaulo even though her main rider departed to ride LOOKS MIGHTY SWEET. Girl Tak (Mutakkdim), an Ontario-bred owned by Frank and Clare Russo, won twice for $16,000 maiden and $15,000 claiming with new rider Jerry Baird on board.

Yesterday, she rallied from last to win under leading jockey Patrick Husbands. Baird’s mount looked great on post parade but was badly outrun in the early stages and closed only mildly.

The hot barns are ones to watch at this time of year. JOHN CHARALAMBOUS’ stable is wild right now. SIR GALAHAD, also a #1 horse, won the 2nd race after being scratched from a tougher allowance race on Friday. The Richter Scale 2yo, owned by the Winners Circle Stable, won his maiden 3rd time out with 1st time Lasix and he was recently 4th in a $50K claimer when showing speed and faltering. He was given a smart ride yesterday to win from off the pace.

Trainer MARK CASSE, long gone as the leading conditioner at Woodbine by wins, had 2 maidens in the 3rd race with first-timer CAPITAL OFFENSE, a son of route winning sire Arrested as the lone first time starter.

That one was favoured but broke a bit slowly and ran to his route breeding (out of a Skip Trial mare) as he trailed.

Winning the race in very courageous fashion and under heavy, heavy pressure (he appeared to be lugging in so he felt a lot of whip) was first-time BLIZZARD BUDDY BEN, from the first crop of the regally bred sire Greatness (a winner by Mr. Prospector) out of John Hillier’s own mare Snowy Wager, a speedy winner. The dark bay gelding was nicely prepared by trainer Paul Attard.

“He is named for a skiing buddy of mine out in Wyoming,” said Hillier. “We’ll have to get him a win picture too.”

Capital Offense rallied mildly for 4th and was claimed.

The other Casse trainee D’Wild Affair led late but the winner came up the rail to beat him.

The winner sped 5 furlongs in near-track record time of 57 1/5.

RACE 4 – PICK 4

Demi Song will always be known as the answer to the trivia question – who won the first ever Polytrack race at Woodbine. The gelding has done much since winning his first 2 Polytrack runs last year but he was in for a new low level yesterday and had a lovely 3 wide stalking trip, duelled for the lead late in the race with front runner Grato Recuerdo and hung on over a belated P J’s Paulie Boy (who was re-claimed by Lorne Richards, the horse was going to be Casse’s pony). The 48 second half-mile mark set by Grato Recuerdo worked for the top 2 and against the 3rd place finisher.

Demi Song is owned by one of the top owners of 2007 – 3 Sons Racing Stables Ltd – and trained by George Newland.

RACE 5- Trainer NORM MCKNIGHT, hefty 17% winning trainer this season said his colt PRINCE ATLANTIS (Stormy Atlantic) would be tough to beat (in a pre-race interview on SUN TV) and if you ran to the windows, you collected $6.90 for each $2.

The colt was winning for the 5th time this year. He earned a career best 92 Beyer Figure.

“He relaxes a lot in the barn, he’s easy on himself,” said McKnight, who said he will not be returning to the harness racing set this winter as he has for many years.

RACE 7 – While trainer READE BAKER was out of town (see above), his BEAR BULLET TOO quashed heavily favoured GINGER BAY, who would not close to the Red Bullet filly in the stretch. The allowance race wrapped up a $17,000 Win 4 payoff.

Race 9- AS EXPECTED and OMAGGIO got locked into a predictable duel, although it was a lot faster than one could imagine and the allowance race set up nicely for favourites DEMETEOR and TAP SHOW, who finished 1-2. The winner is an 8-year-old stakes winner for Ken Hoffman.

TODAY AT WOODBINE

The 11-race card includes a good edition of the BESSARABIAN STAKES (named for a famous locally based mare) with invader WILD GAMS tackling Woodbine's quirky Polytrack. Watch out for an upset winner here - perhaps SUDSY BABY or ELKHART or ONE ACROSS.