LET'S GET IT STARTED

HEY, ARE YOU READY FOR RACING???

This fellow sure looks ready - he's a BOLD EXECUTIVE colt out of ALAYA and he is matching his galloping stride with mummy at CURRAGHMORE FARMS in Waterdown, Ontario.
(DAVE LANDRY PHOTO)






The BOLD EXECUTIVE colt is one of 14 born at Vera Simpson's CURRAGHMORE this spring, with another 14 to go...(DAVE LANDRY PHOTO)



















WOODBINE OPENING DAY CARD CHALLENGING
Fans should line their pockets with some extra bucks when they get ready to bet the first day of Woodbine's meeting on Saturday.
Not only is the weather predicted to be spectacular (at least 10 degrees and sunny) but the card of racing is a handicappers delight - even if all the races are only 5 furlongs.

If you get past the 6 horse field maiden field to begin the day (CLEAR THE ICE, a Mark Casse trainee looms the big favourite) there are 9-10 horse fields essentially the rest of the way.

The trainers who will be busy include ASHLEE BRNJAS, who has 6 entered and one on the also eligible list for her father's COLEBROOK FARMS (John Brnjas).

MIKE DOYLE has 5 entered including the hard-trying Ontario-sired filly BENT ATTORNEY in the 4th race.


(At right, racing fan LOUIS METTINA sent THOROUGHBLOG some pics. Here's the first one with SHILLA, the stakes winning filly who is in the favourite in the La VOYAGEUSE STAKES on Saturday. see Lou's comments from yesterday..)







The LA VOYAGEUSE STAKES drew 7 fillies, six betting interests and one was supplemented for $1,900. The supplement is BUSY BELLE, owned by Sean and Dorothy Fitzhenry.
The favourite will be SHILLA, the stakes winning Marquetry filly who is owned and bred by Brian Cullen. The filly has apparently made onlookers eyes pop out while training in Florida this year.

David Clark rides Shilla.

The 2006 and last year's SOVEREIGN AWARD winning trainer MARK CASSE has a pair entered - SPIN MOVE and DAWN RAID, both who have been training at the Ocala Training Centre.



GOOD NEWS FOR BETTORS...A second WIN 4 has been added and will be evident on cards of racing with enough dashes to warrant it - Saturday the 2nd WIN 4 is races 7 through 10.

THE PICK 7 has moved....the bet, in which you have to select 7 consecutive winners, is now ont he last 7 races of each card - so it begins on the first WIN 4 race, race 4, on Saturday.


BELOW is a chart from www.woodbineentertainment.com that gives some statistics on winning trainers in March and April. Go tot he News and Notes section on the site of you can't read my copy below...




WINNERS

Canadian-bred DYNAMIC VICTORY won an allowance race at Mountaineer on Tuesday evening for Two Five Five Racing and trainer STACEY COOPER. The Victory Gallop 4yo is out of Dynaco by Dynaformer and was bred by Ivan Dalos' Tall Oaks Farm in Ontario. It was the filly's 3rd career win in her 14th start.



SATURDAY SANTA ANITA DERBY PREVIEW Post time 5:30 EST

DICK BONNYCASTLE'S YANKEE BRAVO is on the Derby trail this weekend as he starts from post 1 in the 11-horse SANTA ANITA DERBY.
Bonnycastle co-owns the colt, who was 3rd to Pyro in his last start at Fair Grounds.
The owner's HARLEQUIN RANCHES is also represented by runners at Woodbine on Saturday. Bonnycastle is from Alberta.



More on the Santa Anita Derby from the LA Times...
LOOKING TO PULL RANK Colonel John 2-1 choice in Santa Anita Derby By Art Wilson, Staff Writer Article Launched: 04/02/2008 10:46:02 PM PDT

ARCADIA - Eoin Harty knows a thing or two about Kentucky Derby winners, having assisted trainer Bob Baffert with the development of Silver Charm and Real Quiet. He's now hoping to find the winner's circle at Churchill Downs on his own.
The next stop on the journey to Louisville comes Saturday when the Harty-trained Colonel John faces 10 rivals in the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, a 1 1/8-mile Grade I race over Santa Anita's renovated synthetic surface that is the West Coast's final major prep for the Run for the Roses on May 3.
Colonel John, a son of two-time Breeders' Cup Classic winner Tiznow, drew the fifth post position Wednesday morning and was installed as the 2-1 morning-line favorite
. He'll be reunited with Corey Nakatani after Garrett Gomez, who guided Colonel John to a half-length victory over El Gato Malo in the Sham Stakes on March 1, opted to ride Court Vision in Saturday's Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.
Nakatani is no stranger to Colonel John, having ridden the colt in three of his five career starts, including a three-length victory in the Real Quiet Stakes at Hollywood Park on Nov. 18 before breaking his collarbone.
Overall, Colonel John has won three of five races for earnings of $375,300.
Harty was Baffert's top assistant for seven years until breaking off on his own in 2000. He sees similarities between Colonel John and Baffert's first two Kentucky Derby winners.
"I'm not predicting I will win the Kentucky Derby, but I know from being around those horses that my horse will be competitive on Derby day," Harty said. "I've known this from day one. "When you've been around horses for a long time, you know the really good ones from the horses that just seem to have enough talent. He's always struck me as a horse that will show up on Derby day and run a credible race."
El Gato Malo, who suffered his first career loss after three victories when he encountered traffic trouble and had to settle for second in the Sham, is the 5-2 second choice and again will be ridden by David Flores.
Yankee Bravo, who is trained by Paddy Gallagher and will be ridden by Alex Solis, is 4-1 on the morning line. If all 11 horses start, it will match the 2005 Santa Anita Derby as the largest field since 13 ran in 1981.
Georgie Boy would have been one of the favorites but was sent to the sidelines earlier this week with a pulled muscle in his back.
Trainer Kathy Walsh expects the gelded son of Tribal Rule to be out of training anywhere from one to six months.
"That's the hardest part," Harty said. "You might have the horse with all the talent in the world. It's just actually getting them there on Derby day. You see it every year, and unfortunately I'm sure we haven't lost the last of our horses going into the Derby.
"It's devastating for Kathy Walsh. I can only imagine how she feels today. "But then you're holding your breath. Every day you show up in the morning, and the first thing on your mind is, `How's my horse? How's my Derby horse?' And that's the way it will be up until Derby day."
El Gato Malo, who won his first three starts by a combined 16 lengths, was boxed in through the stretch in the Sham before Flores found room. "He absolutely leveled when we got out," Flores said.
Trainer Craig Dollase feels the Sham will prove to be a valuable learning experience for the Florida-bred son of El Corredor. "The think he did learn a lot from it," Dollase said.

ALSO ON SATURDAY in DERBY PREP NEWS...

WAR PASS tries to come back from the doldrums in the WOOD MEMORIAL after his last-place finisher in the Tampa Bay Derby

DENIS OF CORK has disappeared but returns in the ILLINOIS DERBY at Hawthorne.