OCEANS APART

SOUTH OCEAN STAKES TONIGHT

COLD, COLD TEMPS GREET FANS

A reader asked a question about the Polytrack maintenance terms offered on the Woodbine website.

As I understand it, “galloped mastered” means that the track is groomed to remove hoofprints and anything on the surface of the track (horse doo-doo).

Power harrowing is grooming but going deeper into the surface and turning over the material. This is done on Monday mornings.

So this evening, the track will be fresh off a power harrow on Monday.

(Last Wednesday, Oct.31, it was warm and the track seemed fair with a slant to wide ralliers).

The blue-hen mare SOUTH OCEAN is honoured tonight with the $125,000 stake race for 2yo Ontario-sired fillies named for her.

It is the 11th running of the race and the 40^th anniversary year of the New Providence mare’s birth.

SOUTH OCEAN (1967) won the Canadian Oaks in 1970 but it was as a producer where the mare excelled.

Among the champions she foaled – STORM BIRD, NORTHERNETTE and stakes winners OCEAN’S ANSWER, SOUTH SEA DANCER etc.

Five winners and five maidens will tackle the 1 1/16 miles tonight as race 7 on the 8 race card.

Expected to battle for favouritism is a couple of gals from the first crop of D’WILDCAT, who stood one year in Canada at Windfields Farm but is now in Florida.

LADY D’WILDCAT, a nice prospect for Shyman Farms, her breeder, and young trainer STEEV ROBERTS, is the lone 2 time winner in the field and she won an allowance race on Oct. 19 with a 71 Beyer Figure.

D’Wildcat won a route race on turf but was essentially a 6-7 furlong horse. Lady D’Wildcat has an ideal post position, the rail.

On the far outside is D’WILD LADY, who has the best last-race Beyer Figure in the field when 2^nd in the Victorian Queen Stakes to Authenicat, who has since been 2^nd in a graded stake at Churchill Downs. The filly is owned and bred by Jacque Armstrong.

But in the middle of the field, perhaps also a possible favourite is SHORT SHORTS, by top Canadian sire Bold Executive. The Kingfield, Anderson and Eskudt homebred is out of route winning mare Hot Pants, who herself is out of a Roberto mare. Short Shorts just won her maiden with a big rally out of traffic.

In RACE 4- the lovely MENIFEE filly YOLIE could become Woodbine’s leading race-winning horse if she wins. It would the Frank DiGiulio Jr. homebred’s 6^th win of the season (see scoreboard below)…

SCOREBOARD

JOCKEYS

Patrick Husbands 581 119 117 76 $7,939,654

Tyler Pizarro 817 113 109 94 $4,862,421

Emma-Jayne Wilson 827 110 124 118 $7,043,149

Emile Ramsammy 678 106 73 72 $4,938,850

David Clark 449 77 47 35 $3,799,279

TRAINERS

Mark E. Casse 307 73 64 37 $5,218,565

Sid C. Attard 290 50 51 29 $2,824,462

Robert P. Tiller 268 47 35 26 $2,166,605

Reade Baker 333 43 40 42 $2,789,755

Abraham R. Katryan 218 41 20 22 $1,172,891

HORSES (5-time winners)

Yolie 10 5 3 0 $179,484

Financingavailable 7 5 2 0 $457,940

Rahy's Attorney 9 5 1 2 $307,365

Gigi's Charm 10 5 1 2 $168,700

Very Professional 15 5 1 0 $62,098

Jacknows 8 5 0 1 $80,042

Dashing Admiral 8 5 0 0 $153,013

SAM-SON BUYS BACK ‘STORM’ FOR $1.5 MILLION,

SELLS HATPIN FOR $1 MILLION

AND FIPKE BUYS BIG

"They say the more horses you own, the less intelligent you are. So I'm a moron"- Charles Fipke (as told to THOROUGBRED TIMES)

Sam-Son Farms bought back it’s unraced Thunder Gulch mare DANCETHRUTHESTORM for $1.5 million yesterday at the Keeneland November sale, Day 2. The 4-year-old is a daughter of Sam-Son’s late champion Dance Smartly.

Dancethruthe storm is in foal to Giant’s Causeway.

Later,the farm sold stakes winner HATPIN, by Smart Strike, for $1,050,000 to Audley Farm.

Hatpin is in foal to Johannesburg, who was one of the hottest sires at the sale.

The stakes calibre mare WHILETHEIRON’SHOT was sold for $450,000 yesterday by Sam-Son (Anderson Farm as agent). The mare’s El Prado weanling filly sold next for $400K by Sam-Son.

B. Wayne Hughes bought the stakes placed daughter of Smart Strike in foal to Aragorn.

Ron Rauscher, agent bought the Canadian-bred weanling.

Sam-Son got $375,000 for Between the Clouds, a Sky Classic winning mare in foal to Seeking the Gold from Nancy Dillman.

It also received $425,000 for SEE THE WIND, a stakes winning Sky Classic chestnut mare in foal to Smart Strike. Padua Stables was the buyer.

On the buying front, there has not been much going on by Canadians so far. BILL GRAHAM bought KEEPING THE GOLD, a Langfuhr mare and a stakes winner, carrying her 3^rd foal, this one by VINDICATION. Graham paid $180,000 on behalf of his Windhaven Farm.

Later, Graham paid $260,000 to Sam-Son Farm/Anderson agent for MEADANDERING STORM, an unraced Gone West mare and a ½ sister to stakes winner Surging River and the dam of stakes winner Silver Ticket. She is in foal to Giant’s Causeway.

Kinghaven Farms’ stakes winning homebred SEDUCTIVELY was bought back for $450,000.

RUSSELL BENNETT, a Canadian Hall of Fame owner and breeder, was the listed buyer for Kentucky Oaks winner LEMONS FOREVER at $2.5 million but was representing diamond miner CHARLES FIPKE, who races horses in Canada and the United States.

Lemons Forever is by Lemon Drop Kid and was sold as a broodmare prospect. She will be bred to PERFECT SOUL.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ETC.

Thank you to Kings Gate Stud and Shyman Farm (also Ascot Stud) for their support of THOROUGHBLOG. Check out their cool ads on the right side... If you want space,just send me an email.

Have not found out what happened to RETALIATE from Sunday when that runner was pulled up…perhaps a reader can investigate?

The MELBOURNE CUP was a race to really enjoy as one reader noted. Some 20 horses raced 2 miles in front of 102,000 folks and the winner came from far, far behind what looked to be an honest but not fast pace. EFFICIENT passed almost the entire field during the run through the lane. You have to see the video – go to www.racingdispatch.com.

BLOOD-HORSE COMMENTARY ON “TRAINERS OF RECORD”

(what does that REALLY mean??)

Commentary: Cloud Cover
Date Posted: November 6, 2007
Last Updated: November 6, 2007

COPYRIGHT, THE BLOOD HORSE

Clouds were plentiful at Monmouth Park Oct. 26-27 for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Stalled over the area, they dumped several inches of rain on racing’s biggest parade. You can’t control the weather.

This comes to mind because of the statement from trainer Patrick Biancone after he was suspended for possession of the nerve blocker alpha-cobratoxin, or cobra venom. The drug is a Class A medication under the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority Uniform Drug and Medication Classification Schedule, meaning because it “has a high potential to affect performance” it carries the highest penalty ranking from the Association of Racing Commissioners International.

Biancone’s suspension began Nov. 1, after the Breeders’ Cup, but he agreed to have his Breeders’ Cup starters transferred to his assistant. According to his press release: “Breeders’ Cup is a celebration of our sport’s greatest athletes—the horses—and their breeders and owners. It does not deserve the distraction that my situation would create. I do not want to cast a cloud over racing’s most important day.”

Imagine the surprise, then, of those who saw Biancone on the backstretch of Monmouth during Breeders’ Cup week.

The Kentucky ruling only said Biancone could not be the “trainer of record” for the Breeders’ Cup horses; it did not bar him from the grounds of racetracks until Nov. 1.

Still, his presence did “cast a cloud” over racing’s biggest event, and unlike the rain clouds, it was a cloud something could be done about. Frank Zanzuccki, executive director of the New Jersey Racing Commission since 1992, did do something. He called Biancone and asked him to remove himself from the Monmouth backstretch, which the 55-year-old French-born trainer did.

Read the remaining column…http://opinions.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=41910