WEEEEEEEEEE

FROM WWW.WINDFIELDS.COM...(Langfuhr - Blonde Executive filly born Jan. 25 at Windfields Farm. Owned by Bruno Bros.)







Woodbine Oaks winner GOLD STRIKE had her first foal, a POSSE filly, borned on Jan. 30 for Cavendish Inc.

MISSY BLEUY was born Feb. 2 and is a Bluesbreaker-Royal Brittany filly owned by David Lugli.

While mare owners everywhere are greeting their foals, the feeling of 'new' is prevalent on the racing side too. Tomorrow, the new 3yo's lines up in the Risen Star Stakes (see a story on Pyro below) and there are always newcomers debuting in some hot maiden races across the continent.

Canadian stars that had workouts yesterday included:

BEAR NOW (Palm Meadows) worked 3 furlongs in 37 4/5 and her first race of 2008 will be in March;Breeders’ Stakes winner MARCHFIELD worked in 47 4/5 at Winding Oaks Farm, the same clocking as well known stablemate HARLINGTON; TURF WAR (read more about him down the page) worked at Ocala Training Centre in 1:01 4/5 and he’s headed to Oaklawn Park.

HIP ANNOUNCEMENT ON MARE RESIDENCY PROGRAM

The Ontario Racing Commission (ORC) announced today special requirements for establishing a Thoroughbred broodmare as a 2008 Ontario Resident Mare, for the purposes of participation in the Horse Improvement Program (Program).

To be recognized by the Program as a 2008 Ontario Thoroughbred Resident Mare, a broodmare must foal out in Ontario during 2008 and must comply with one of the following criteria:

1. Resident in the Province of Ontario by February 15, 2008; OR

2. Resident in the Province of Ontario for 75 consecutive days surrounding date of foaling out in Ontario; OR

3. Bred back to an Ontario Sire registered with the Ontario Sires Stakes Program in the 2008; OR

4. Purchased (or an RNA – Reserve Not Attained) at a recognized sale or auction that operated in accordance with SITA (Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers) OR purchased privately in a bona fide arms length transaction, AND in either case, arrives within the boundaries of Ontario no later than 30 days after the date of purchase.

Notwithstanding the requirements above, by application to the Program, special considerations may be granted. Details on the application process will be made available in the near future.

Broodmare owners are reminded that these special conditions apply to the 2008 foaling season only. To qualify as a 2009 resident mare, the entry date requirement will be October 1, 2008, or 150 consecutive days surrounding foaling out, or breeding back to a 2009 Ontario Sires Stakes Stallion, with the other criteria to remain the same.

The recommendations for restructuring of the Thoroughbred Horse Improvement Program, which included the establishment of an Ontario Bred Purse Bonus, were approved by the Board of the ORC at its meeting of January 22, 2008. The original recommendations had provided special considerations for the first year, requiring mares to be in the Province by December 15, 2007. It has been determined that the deadlines should be revised due to timelines of the final approval of the Program changes.

DUBAI REPORT

ORACLE WEST – GUN SALUTE RACE TODAY

1000 GUINEAS ON TAP

from www.gulfnews.com

“Bin Surour has a sixth sense”

By Leslie Wilson Jr, Sports Editor Dubai: Saeed Bin Surour has made a habit of winning the UAE 1,000 Guineas and today the trainer will be hoping to claim a sixth victory in the race restricted to three-year-old fillies.

The Godolphin trainer won the first five editions of the fillies' Classic which has been run since 2001, while two years ago his former assistant, Jeremy Noseda, sent out Vague to become the first international winner of the race.

Last year UAE trainer Esmail Mohammad won the race with Folk.

In today's race Bin Surour is represented by Fiesta Lady and Cocoa Beach, who on current form will take a lot beating.

The pair of Southern hemisphere bred fillies were first and second in the Al Haarth Conditions Stakes three weeks ago and the manner of Fiesta Lady's victory yesterday suggests she could well be up to Listed and Group standard.

---

"Fiesta Lady is fit and well. She has come out of her last race really well and I expect the mile trip will be fine for her. I am looking forward to another good performance."

Good performance

Fiesta Lady won three of her four starts in Argentina, including the Grade One Seleccion-Argentine Oaks. Frankie Dettori takes the ride again.

Bin Surour also expects the Cocoa Beach to run a better race.

"Cocoa Beach ran well last time despite being slowly away. She has come out of that race fine and is fit and well.

"The distance will be no problem. I hope she breaks well this time and I am looking forward to a good performance.

"We are looking for a good result in the UAE 1,000 Guineas and I hope they can finish first and second again."

In her native Chile, Cocoa Beach was unbeaten in four starts, rattling off a hat-trick of Grade Three victories between six and seven and a half furlongs.

Ted Durcan has been booked to partner her again today. The Godolphin pair will re-oppose nine fillies who finished behind them in the Al Haarth Conditions Stakes, including Brazil's Olympic Glory, who ran on well to clinch the third spot despite racing off the pace for much of the trip.

Irish challenger Queen Jock finished fourth in the race and should fare well again.

Dubai Sheema Classic (Gr 1) runner-up Oracle West and fellow South African raider Sushisan look to be the ones to beat in the six-runner Meydan Racecourse Handicap over 1,777metres on Turf.

Bin Surour accounts for three of the six runners in the opening Meydan City Handicap over 2,400metres on turf, with Gravitas hoping to gain revenge for a quarter-length defeat by stable companion Book of Music two weeks ago.

Bin Surour can also land the Meydan Marina Handicap with the promising Storm Cat colt Jalil.

Selections

• 1st race: 1) Gravitas 2) Book Of Music
• 2nd: 1) Admiral of the Fleet 2) Turn on the Style
• 3rd: 1) Jalil 2) Imperialista
• 4th: 1) Oracle West 2) Sushisan
• 5th: 1) Third Set 2) River Tiber
• 6th: 1) Fiesta Lady 2) Cocoa Beach
• 7th: 1) Drayton 2) Beckermet

For part performances of today’s races…http://www.churchilldowns.com/news/racing_news/DUB%202.8.08.pdf

FROM PA SPORTS

DUBAI RE-CAP FROM YESTERDAY

Mike de Kock's Lucky Find denied Kandidate a repeat win in the Group Three Maktoum Challenge, the nine-furlong dirt feature on the fourth night of the Dubai International Racing Carnival.

De Kock's 7-4 favourite justified a few lumpy bets to defeat Clive Brittain's teak-tough globetrotter after a prolonged duel on the dash to the line.

Winning jockey Kevin Shea said: "He is a really nice horse and improving all the time.

"I always thought I was in command and he is a nice prospect who could even develop into a World Cup horse."

De Kock's Sun Classique made an impressive local debut when conceding weight to nine rivals in the Cape Verdi Stakes.

Godolphin's Many Colours chased her home but there only ever looked likely to be one winner. De Kock said: "She is classy and ideally wants further.

"That was a nice effort and she can progress from here."

Richard Hills was in the saddle when Doug Watson's So Will I opened the trainer's 2008 Carnival Thoroughbred account in the Invasor Stakes.

Watson said: "That horse has endured so much bad luck and it is nice he has finally won one."

Dhruba Selvaratnam's Almaram and Johnny Murtagh denied the De Kock-trained Frosty Secret in a thrilling finish to the seven-furlong Swain Stakes, the pair having fought out the finish from a long way out.

Selvaratnam said: "We thought he was worth stepping up in trip and he has done it well."

There was another locally-trained winner in the Jazil Stakes when Instant Recall scored for the flourishing partnership of Musabah Al Muhairi and Wayne Smith.

Smith explained: "He is a lovely horse and has been a real star for the yard."

The Saeed bin Suroor-trained Before Yo Go, ridden by Kerrin McEvoy, caused a 22-1 upset in the concluding Aljabar Stakes when having far too many guns for Hallhoo.

ON PYRO AND TURF WAR…

IF HE RUNS TO HIS CAPABILITIES, PYRO COULD BE THE HOT HORSE

By GARY WEST – FROM WWW.STAR-TELEGRAM.COM in Fort Worth, Texas

- A voodoo high priestess here named Yolanda claims she can predict the future through pyromancy, an ancient art of divination that employs fire. The ritual often involves peering into the flames and then tossing a handful of salt onto the embers, and it can take hours or, if it must be repeated, even days.

But its more modern variation, Pyromancy, requires only a moment, less than two minutes actually. And this Pyromancy soon could become the year's most popular method of triple crown divination. In other words, after he makes his seasonal debut Saturday in the Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds, Pyro could become the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

Pyro won but once and raced only four times last year, and he generally ran with unmistakably childish abandon. He sometimes left the starting gate anxiously, sometimes tardily; he lunged at the break in his second race, like a kid making a reluctant first dive into a pool.

Even more childlike, when he couldn't create trouble, Pyro eagerly found some. But -- and this is most important -- he also ran with unmistakably classic potential.

He rallied from eighth to finish second in the Champagne Stakes and from eighth again, through the slop, to run second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, leaving the impression that with more maturity and poise and distance, he could indeed Pyrolyze this year's Triple Crown.

As if to reiterate such a possibility, last month here Pyro twice trained in the eyeball-to-eyeball company of his older and more celebrated stablemate, the 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin. And Pyro didn't blink, or back down or capitulate, said their trainer, Steve Asmussen.

“He'll be a lot to handle," Asmussen said about Pyro's first start of the season. "We just hope he gets away from there [the starting gate] smoothly, comes home strongly and feels good about himself."

Asmussen said his main worry is that Pyro, who hasn't raced since October, will be too fresh and eager -- that is, too childish -- and won't relax. But if he settles early and allows The Darp, Signature Move and Rich Young Ruler to rush out there and argue about the pace, and then if he rallies with his characteristic power and finishes with the kind of aplomb and determination he showed the champ... well, it'll be downright Pyrogenic.

Fair Grounds stakes

With Saturday's six stakes worth $1 million, the Fair Grounds will put on the best day of racing so far this year.

Among the many proven stakes competitors entered are Better Talk Now, Daytona, Grasshopper, Magna Graduate, Silver Lord, Mystery Classic, Fort Prado, Euroears, Stormin Baghdad, Silverfoot, Inca King, Miss Missile, Z Fortune and Blackberry Road.

Derby Futures

In very clumsy fashion, Churchill Downs opened its first pools for Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks Futures wagering. Before betting even began, two fillies were scratched from the Oaks lineup, By the Light and Sea Chanter.

And, amazingly enough, Turf War wasn't included in the Futures lineup for the Derby. But the horse that finished in a dead heat with him to win the Delta Jackpot, Z Humor, is one of the favorites in the morning line for the derby Futures pool at 15-1.

Turf War is a "serious" racehorse and one of the leaders on the road to the Triple Crown, said his trainer, Mark Casse.

"Right now, he's one of the best [3-year-olds]," Casse said, "and he's going to get better."

Turf War will make his seasonal debut Feb. 18 in the Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

And already Calvin Borel, who won last year's Kentucky Derby on Street Sense, has committed to ride Turf War, choosing him over unbeaten Denis of Cork who's also being aimed at the Southwest.

MONASHEE RETIRED

REPORT FROM THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE

Queen of Hastings retires to motherhood

Career over, mare hooks up with stud Hard Spun

Tom Wolski, The Province

Published: Friday, February 08, 2008

The decision by Canmor Farms to retire the popular Hastings-based mare Monashee on Monday was simply a case of doing the right thing for an old grey mare they had come to love and respect.

In a perfect world, Monashee would have ended her illustrious career in Saturday's $250,000 Grade 1 Santa Maria Handicap at Santa Anita racetrack in California. The event was expected to be the final race in her illustrious career.

Now instead of going after win No. 19 from 25 starts and adding to her $780,000 bankroll, the reigning queen of Hastings is changing careers.

"Last Saturday, Monashee had an easy workout with Chris [former jockey Chris Loseth] in the saddle," said trainer Tracy McCarthy by phone from Santa Anita.

"On Sunday morning, after Monashee came out of her stall she took a few odd steps. Our veterinarian told us it really was not serious. But we decided since she [Monashee] has always been great to us, we would do the same for her and let her become a mommy."

On Wednesday, Monashee boarded a plane to Kentucky for a mating with horse-racing superstar Hard Spun, who would become the father of her first foal.

With a $50,000 stud fee price, the match-up did not come cheap. The huge stud fee raises the question: Will Vancouver fans ever see little Monashees racing at Hastings?

"Once you're playing in the $50,000 to $100,000 stud-fee range, it truly makes economic sense to offer the first baby up for sale to pay for the stud fees," said Ole Neilson of Canmor Farms.

"If we can put a few hundred thousand in the bank then I am quite comfortable in saying her second, third and fourth foals will be racing in B.C."

Because of her unusual habits at the stable and on the racetrack, McCarthy admits there will be a void not seeing Monashee each morning in her stall.

"She definitely was special and really meant so much to so many people," said McCarthy.

"Because of all her quirky habits, being around Monashee was never boring."

COMING UP

FUTURO, a Canadian-bred 3yo by Golden Missile – Forever Partners that cost $325,000 as a yearling, makes his debut at Santa on Sunday for B. Wayne Hughes and trainer Richard Mandella.

HIGHER LOVE, by Sky Classic-Bravada, is in the Wishing Well II Stakes at Santa Anita on Sunday. She is an Ontario-bred who was claimed from co-breeder Edward Freeman last year for $6,250.

DASHING ADMIRAL (Kiridashi) is entered for Sunday for $57,500 claiming in a 5 furlong turf race for Majestic Thoroughbreds and Chantal Paquette.

MUSTFUHR, ONE DREAMY CAT, POET’S DREAM, SURPRISEINTHEBOX and WEST OF GIBRALTER are some other Canadian-breds on the Gulfstream card for Sunday.