START AGAIN

One of the biggest events for Canadian racing this weekend is the Cigar Mile tomorrow at Aqueduct featuring locally bred DAAHER, bred by Yvonne and Dagmar Schwabe. Photo from Terence Dulay at wwww.horse-races.net. Read more below.

POLYTRACK, NOT ALL-WEATHER

Hopefully Woodbine will get its card of racing in today after the events were cancelled after the first race yesterday. Jockeys elected not to ride as the verdict was that the Polytrack was balling up in the horse's feet.

The Polytrack was put in at Woodbine in the middle of 2006 and has been in use for over one year. The surface is not an "all weather" surface as they have in Europe but simply a synthetic surface. Yesterday's mix of rain, ice and snow left the Polytrack in clumps.

Sunshine this morning should melt the snow.

In other news -

TYLER PIZARRO, Woodbine’s top apprentice, is going for his first stakes win today at….Churchill Downs. The youngster rides Chiefswood Stable’s homebred gelding SKIPPED BAIL in the River City Handicap, Grade 3, at 1 1/8 miles on the turf.

Canadian-bred WESTMORELAND kicked off the Thanksgiving Day card at Aqueduct with a bang yesterday. At 28 to 1, the Danzig gelding, bred by Eugene Melnyk and now owned by Blue Devil Racing, was near the pace all the way in the $50,000 turf claiming race and then would not let anyone pass in the stretch run. He was an overlay at 28 to 1 since his last 2 starts were a sloppy track run and a lost-jockey incident.

Not right, not right at all

COOL RECEPTION was scratched from a maiden filly race at Aqueduct - not the brave Canadian bred colt who finished 2^nd in the 1967 Belmont Stakes on a broken leg, not the 2005 Hall of Fame inductee, not the same colt who was one of this country’s best horses at ages 2 and 3.

Seems a shame to have allowed his name to be used again.

SOVEREIGN AWARDS PREVIEW –

PART 4

TURF FEMALE

ESSENTIAL EDGE

WON Canadian Stakes – Grade 2

WON BELLE GESTE STAKES

3^rd Nassau Stakes – Grade 3

SEALY HILL

WON WONDER WHERE STAKES

2^nd Canadian Stakes

2^nd E.p. Taylor Stakes – Grade 1

Others: THE NIAGARA QUEEN, SILKY SMOOTH

TURF MALE

AWESOME ACTION

Won Ontario Jockey Club Stakes

Won Labeeb Stakes

CLOUDY’S KNIGHT

WON Canadian International – Grade 1

ECCENTRIC

WON CHIEF BEARHART STAKES

SKY CONQUEROR

WON TURF CLASSIC – Grade 1

Others: Le Cinquieme Essai, ,Last Answer, Rahy’s Attorney

CANADIAN-BRED DAAHER GOES FOR THE ‘LUTE’

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin, one of the most talented horse trainers on the continent, calls Canadian-bred Daaher a “serious horse” and the 3-year-old, who turned into a sizzler once the blinkers were put on, takes on Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Midnight Lute in tomorrow’s Cigar Mile at Aqueduct.

Daaher (Awesome Again- Irish Cherry), bred by Yvonne Schwabe and her mother Dagmar, won the Grade 2 Jerome Stakes in his last start. The colt tried the Queen’s Plate and Prince of Wales at Woodbine and Fort Erie, but was not a polished runner at the time.

The Cigar Mile is a 6 horse field.

Also tomorrow, Canadian-bred BUFFALO MAN, once on the Kentucky Derby trail, makes his 2^nd start since fracturing a leg in the Discovery Handicap (gr 3) at Aqueduct. Second in the Wild Again Stake sin his return from a layoff, the El Prado colt is a favourite for the 9 furlong race.

Sunday, TWILIGHT METEOR, also a Queen’s Plate contestant, is a contender for the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby at Hollywood Park. The Smart Strike 3yo meets Nobiz Like Shobiz.