SEE THE LIGHT

WOODBINE'S TRAINING TRACK is full of horses these mornings. The first day of recorded workouts was Saturday - more than 40 made time.
Yesterday, it was closer to a hundred clockings on the training track.


If you missed some weekend action, there was lots of good racing in California (good for them since the meeting has been a wash in 2008), the Kentucky Derby picture took new angles with EL GATO MALO losing to COLONEL JOHN and Canadian did well for the most part.

COOL GATOR had the headline performance of the weekend with his 2nd place finish in his 2008 opener on Saturday (read yesterday's post). He heads the Queen's Plate nominees this year.

DAAHER, once on top of the HOT CANADIAN BRED LIST on THOROUGBLOG, has done poorly in 2 races this year now (see yesterday's post). He emerged from his race Saturday in good order apparently.

CANADIANS YESTERDAY

FRESH SHEET (Meadowlake-Parisia, by Tethra) won her maiden in her career debut as a 4yo yesterday at Fair Grounds in 1:12 20 in a maiden allowance. The grey gal is owned by Totier Creek Farm and was bred by Josham Farms in Ontario.

She ran a 73 Beyer Figure.

A $47,000 yearling purchase, she is the first foal for stakes winner Parisia, a half-sister to Parisianprospector.

It was Bomb’s away at Gulfstream yesterday when BRUNO SCHICKEDANZ’S homebred GOLD CHRYSANTHEMUM won her maiden at 54 to 1 for $12,500 claiming. It was her 4^th career start.

The Solomon’s Decree-Calveeta, Tejano filly had showed speed in her previous race, her first attempt at the one-mile distance.

Grade 1 winner JAMBALAYA’s little brother, MUSTFUHR won his maiden in the finale at Gulfstream for $25,000 claiming. Previously trained by Tino Attard, the Langfuhr gelding is trained by Steve Margolis for Ontario’s Bru-Mel Stables. Mustfuhr was bred by Dr. Brian Van Arem.

BELLEPLAINE (A.P. Indy-Marley Vale) returned to Laurel Park (site of her maiden win) and won an allowance race yesterday for Eugene Melnyk and trainer Tom Albertrani. She earned a 71 Beyer Figure. Belleplain was making her 2^nd race since being eased in the Woodbine Oaks last summer.

HARRISON’S COVE (Forest Wildcat-Abbott’s Bay, by Devil’s Bag, an Ontario bred from the Eugene Melnyk stable, led all the way in a maiden allowance but was caught late.

It was the 2^nd career start for the speedy 3yo and he earned an 83 Beyer Figure.

Trainer TINO ATTARD won another race at Gulfstream yesterday – with the tough mare SPEEDSTORM (a Florida bred) for Herbert Chambers. The mare was claimed for $6,250.

PALMERS, 2^nd in a turf allowance on Saturday at Fair Grounds, ran an 83 Beyer Figure.

DEPUTIFORMER AT gp WEDNESDAY Queen's Plate contender Deputiformer debuts for 2008 Gulfstream Park - March 5th, 2008 - Race 7 Estimated Local Post Time: 4:11 PM
Race Type: Allowance Breed: Thoroughbred Age Restriction: Three Year Old				Purse: $41,500 Distance: One Mile Surface: Turf
Post	Horse Jockey Owner	Age	Sex	Weight Trainer Breeder	Odds
1	Deputiformer (ON) Cornelio H. Velasquez David Harold Thomas James	3	Gelding	118 Michael P. De Paulo Windfields Farm	6/1
2	Akin (KY) Eddie Castro Michael Dubb, Sanford Goldfarb and Cast of Characters	3	Colt	118 Richard E. Dutrow, Jr. Kin Hui	20/1
3	Heaven's Awesome (FL) Ariel Smith Jacks or Better Farm, Inc.	3	Colt	118 Stanley I. Gold Jacks or Better Farm Inc.	20/1
4	Hedgefund Investor (KY) Javier Castellano Klaravich Stables, Inc. & William Lawrence	3	Colt	120 Richard A. Violette, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Scott E. Ricker, ThomasVanMeter, Julian DeMarco, et al	8/1
5	Sailor's Cap (KY) Edgar S. Prado Team Valor International	3	Colt	118 James J. Toner Wave On LLC	8/1
6	Cyryaco (KY) Pascacio Lopez Korina Stable	3	Colt	111 Manuel J. Azpurua Adena Springs	30/1
7	Moral Compass (KY) Eibar Coa North Shore Racing	3	Colt	118 Barclay Tagg Castleton Lyons & Kilboy Estate, Inc.	3/1
8	Caberneigh (KY) Rene R. Douglas Gerald A. Crawford	3	Colt	118 Dale L. Romans Hokuyou Farm	12/1
9	Big Brown (KY) Kent J. Desormeaux Pegasus Holdings Group Stables	3	Colt	118 Richard E. Dutrow, Jr. Monticule	5/2
10	Il Girasole (KY) John R. Velazquez Alex G. Campbell, Jr.	3	Colt	118 Todd A. Pletcher Carl Rosen Associates, Inc.	4/1
MTO	Crimson Comic (KY) Edgar S. Prado WinStar Farm LLC

HEALEY PLAYED AT LONGRUN

Jeff Healey, one of the world’s most prolific guitarists, passed away yesterday in Toronto at the age of just 41.

Healey played at the 1^st ever LONGRUN THOROUGHBRED RETIREMENT FOUNDATION GALA 3 years ago and he was fun, gracious and helped LongRun raise money for our racehorses.

DONA CHEPA RACES TODAY IN PUERTO RICO

(She’s 0 for 130 in her career)

Check out the past performances for Race 3 in this program today…

http://www.hipodromocamarero.com/pasadas_actuaciones/pasadas%20lunes.pdf

ALL HAT MOVIE

In response to a reader asking about the movie ALL HAT…this is what I found..

The film 'All Hat' is a story centered around the world of horse racing and rural life.

Shot in Southern Ontario around Fort Erie, the film explores issues such as the urbanization of farm land and the struggle of rural Canadians to hold on to their way of life. Not sure where you can catch the movie but this article talks about a recent showing:

http://www.soonews.ca/viewarticle.php?id=16041

Monashee horse of the year

Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, March 01, 2008

Monashee, the fabulous grey filly who won seven consecutive stakes races in 2007, was named Horse of the Year on Friday at the 2007 Thoroughbred Industry Awards Dinner at Hastings Racecourse.

Owned by Ole Nielsen of Aldergrove and trained by Tracy McCarthy, Monashee retired after the 2007 season with 18 wins in 24 career starts and $750,000 in career earnings.

In her last race at Hastings on Oct. 13, Monashee won the $125,000 Ballerina Stakes.

"She had this quirk, Nielsen told Vancouver Sun columnist Pete McMartin a couple of weeks ago. "At the quarter-pole, she would just open up five or six lengths on the pack and it would just take the starch out of the competition."

Monashee now is in Lexington, Ky., where she is being bred.

Dancing Allstar was named B.C.-bred Horse of the Year. Owned by Bob Cheema and trained by Terry Jordan, Dancing Allstar was undefeated at Hastings last year, winning all four starts in each fashion including the Sadie Diamond Futurity in 1:15.13.

The Diamond Award of Excellence went to 76-year-old trainer Troy Taylor, who captured the leading trainer title in 2007 after finishing with 46 winners. The title came 44 years after Taylor had shared the title.

Mario Gutierrez was saluted as leading rider (134 wins), Fernando Perez as leading apprentice (33 wins) and the tandem of Glen Todd and Patrick Kinsella as leading owners.

Dr. Don Olson won the HBPA Backstretch Award for his contribution to the betterment of racing and backstretch environment. Former trainer Alan May and retired jockey Mickey Walls were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

LAST MONTH – STORY ON MONASHEE

Strong and wilful 'wild child' became horse of a lifetime

Pete Mcmartin, Vancouver Sun

Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008

At the beginning, she gave no hint of what she was.

It was 2003, at Kentucky's famous Keeneland Thoroughbred Sale, and compared to the thousands of other yearlings up for auction that year, she was unprepossessing. She was small. She had a middling blood line. She spooked like a cat.

But she was a she, and Aldergrove breeder Ole Nielsen and North Vancouver trainer Tracy McCarthy were looking for a filly that, after a career on the track, could make them some money as a brood mare.

Her best feature: She came cheap. Nielsen got her for $14,000 US -- in hindsight, a ridiculous sum.

Nielsen had just acquired the local version of Sea Biscuit.

"Did we say this filly, who was the horse of a lifetime for the both of us, was going to be a good one when we first saw her?

"That," Nielsen said ruefully, "would be unfair to say."

She was a grey, with a dappled, snowy coat like the mountains she would be named after: Monashee.

And she had a self-regard just as mountainous. Nielsen and McCarthy discovered they had not just a horse, but a diva.

"She was just a wild child," McCarthy said.

"She was kind, yet difficult to manage. She didn't have a bad personality, but she was strong and wilful and had her own mind. She was very opinionated about who she would allow to be around her.

"She was very, very difficult with my husband, Chris (former hall-of-fame jockey Chris Loseth), who broke her. She would push you, literally push you against a wall.

"She never kicked, but if she didn't want me in her stall, she'd use her butt to force me out. It was almost like she knew just how good she was."

How good she was was not at first apparent.

In her first race at Hastings Park in 2004, she came dead last. She spooked in the gate.

Three weeks later, she broke out of the gate first and won by three lengths.

It all depended on how she reacted to the noises in the gate. Usually, it was badly.

"In the first six races of her life," Nielsen said, "she had three wins, and the starting gate had three wins."McCarthy fitted her with rubber cones on her ears that muffled the sounds of the clanging gates. Undistracted, she was, as they say, away. She began to win.

During her first winter in the off-season, she grew astoundingly, gaining several hundred pounds in weight and another hand in height. (A hand is about four inches.) Her girth became the largest Nielsen had ever seen on a filly. The smallish one-year-old had blossomed into a big, statuesque bombshell.

"She became a real eye-catcher," Nielsen said, and when she would gallop by, she was the kind of horse where people would say, 'Who was that?' "

As a three-year-old, she began to win easily. After a brief setback in Calgary, where she stumbled out of the gate and cut a hoof, she came back two months later and won, and won again.

By now the wins were routs, with Monashee going to the finish line with four- and five-length leads. And she would front-run from start to finish. She always insisted she lead the parade.

To read the rest of the story: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=0873433e-a606-4a2d-9c80-faa64d5d7552