SPARKLING

(Queen's Plate contender/favourite NOT BOURBON worked fast yesterday.....www.horse-races.net photo)

PICK 7 IS WON!! $102,000 payoff

CLEAR SAILING FOR STUCK IN TRAFFIC

Multiple stakes winner STUCK IN TRAFFIC (Kiridashi) benefitted from a short rest on the farm and a return to sprinting to romp in the $125,000 Bold Ruckus Stakes last night at Woodbine. It was the colt's grass debut.

And the eager bay was able to slow things down on the softish turf course and go easy on the pace and there was no way that his 5 rivals could run him down.

It was yet another stakes score for trainer Nick Gonzalez (six this year), whose wife Martha owns the horse with M.A.D. Racing. Bred by Minshall Farms, Stuck in Traffic has won 5 of 10 races and zoomed over $400,000 in earnings.

After a second-place finish, most recently, in the Queenston Stakes,
Gonzalez opted to abandon the Queen's Plate trail and, for the time
being, stick to sprinting with the earner of $445,900.

"After his last performance, albeit a great one, we elected to get off
the Queen's Plate path and take this direction. It worked out pretty
good," he said.


WRAP...


The track, as is often the case at the beginning of a race week, was slower than it is on weekends..


RACE 1- SLIGOVITZ, a one-time Queen's Plate hopeful, won his maiden off a short layoff in race 1. The Stronach Stables homebred by Sligo Bay was coming off a 61-180 day layoff and trainer Brian Lynch wins with those at at 41% rate. Pat Husbands rode the Ontario bred who had an 85 Beyer Figure at Calder in the winter.
Morgan Firestone's Iron City, the second favourite, was last.


THE PICK 7, race 2, with a $147,000 carryover kicked off with heavily favoured DRUNKEN LOVE (Whiskey Wisdom) who led all the way through 6 furlongs and never felt the whip of Husbands. Originally a $4,463 yearling purchase by Mark Casse, the gelding was won three races in succession for new owner Bud Malette and trainer Terry Jordan who bought the horse off of Casse.

A total of $77,000 was bet into the PICK 7 so it appears there were 2 winners of the bet.

RACE 3 - BRIGADIER RODNEY stalked the slow pace in the 1 mile turf race (the turf was likely a bit giving) for $40,000 claiming and the gelding by Service Stripe won his grass debut at 12 to 1 under Emma Wilson. The 4yo gelding was beaten only a neck in his season debut for $20,000 for owner Brenda Goodlet and trainer Tino Attard.
Favoured Gray Jet came from miles behind to be 2nd.
"He never stepped on the grass in his life," said Attard. "I had another race for him but we decided to try him on turf."
Rodney has won 3 of 15 races

Race 5- TENJECTORY was the 'Fig' horse in race 5 - a 65 from her last race, and she overcame a ton of trouble to win her maiden for allowance (Ontario-sired).
She was a fat 8 to 1.
The Trajectory-Pick Ten, Ten Gold Pots gal was surrounded by family and friends of the T.V. Stables and Mike DePaulo in the winner's circle. She was bred by Gardiner Farms.

Race 6 - MOLLI DAY was favoured and won for the red-hot owner Richard Lister (Cinnamont Stable). Th Harlan's Holiday filly has two wins in 3 races this year, yesterday she won for $16,000 claiming. She is an Ontario bred trained by Barry Lerman.

Race 7 - Second favourite DANS A DANCIN was a logical winner at $10.60 for Dominion Bloodstock et al and trainer Dave Cotey. Dropping in for $20,000 claiming but meeting older horses, the Langfuhr gelding, bred in Ontario by Bill Graham, had a dream trip just off the pace and he surged clear under Constant Montpellier to win by 3 lengths.

Race 8 - The Pick 7 wrapped up with favoured ARONA (Inspired Prospect-Swamp Rose) a homebred for Goldmart Farms. Trained by Robert Tiller, the 4yo was making her 3rd start off the layoff and she won by 2 1/2 lengths in her 9th career start.




QUEEN'S PLATE NEWS

NOT BOURBON SIZZLES

Charles Fipke's homebred NOT BOURBON, who figures to battle for favouritism in the June 22 Plate, announced that he's still sharp with a 59.40 workout at 5 furlongs on the Polytrack yesterday morning.

Incredibly, according to Bill Tallon in DAILY RACING FORM, it was yet another workout for the colt that did not go the way Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield wanted.
Attfield said he caught the colt in "about" 33 seconds for the first 3 furlongs and was unhappy he went too fast for the early part.

Jono Jones rides and works the colt.

Not Bourbon had a botched one-mile workout not long before the Plate Trial.


PALMERS (Grand Slam), the Eugene Melnyk Plate contender for this year, worked in 1:02.20 for trainer Mark Casse.



PLATE HOPEFULS


NOT BOURBON (Not Impossible)- won Plate Trial

SOLITAIRE (Victory Gallop)- 2nd Plate Trial, maiden

HARLEM ROCKER (Macho Uno)- graded SW

SEBASTIAN'S SONG (Cherokee Run) - 3rd Trial PALMERS (Grand Slam)- 2nd allowance

SHADOWLESS (Stormy Atlantic)- winner '08

TOOK THE TIME (Greenwood Lake)- allowance placed J

UNGLE BREW (Milwaukee Brew) - maiden

MAMMA'S KNIGHT (Ascot Knight)- OSS allowance winner

DEPUTIFORMER (Silver Deputy)- SW at 2

GIGUERE (Mutakkdim)- winner at 2

HARVEST HOME (Smart Strike)- maiden

D. FLUTIE (Langfuhr)- maiden

DYLAN'S CHOICE (Sligo Bay)- maiden claiming winner


WEEKEND PREVIEW -
Mixed bag at Woodbine, calm before the storm

It is the calm before the racing storm.

Next week is Plate week when all the best horses come out.

So this week we have three 8-race cards leading to a weekend of an Ontario sired stake and a 2yo stake on Sunday.

Actually, the 2yo stake looks interesting as many impressive babies are expcted to run -this could be a super edition of the Victoria, a race won by the likes of WINDFIELDS, VICEREGAL, BRIARTIC, DEPUTY MINISTER and ALYDEED.

Victoria Park contenders include:

Ken and Sarah Ramsey's sensational 2yo debut winner NOTONTHESAMEPAGE (Cateinus) won his maiden with a 104 Beyer Figure when he set a track record in April at Churchill Downs.

Ramsey told DRF that he turned down $750,000 for the colt after the race.

Wesley Ward trains the 2yo colt.


LONGRUN CHARITY POKER!

Woodbine horsepeople are running a LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation poker tournament.
It is being held at Andrew Bankuti's Brickyard BBQ Pit Restaurant down
near Sherway Gardens in Etobicoke on Monday June 16th at 2pm. Prizes and a buffet
are included with the entry fee ticket of $100.
All are welcome drop by and socialize, have a drink or make a donation.



BIG BROWN AFTERMATH - PART 2

JERRY BOSSERT of the New York Daily News reports that Rick Dutrow Jr. and Kent Desormeaux have met

Rick Dutrow, Kent Desormeaux back in saddle after meeting together fir the first time since Dutrow made naty comments about the jockey's ride on Big Brown in the Belmont.

The colt is expected to race next in the Haskell or the Travers Stakes on Aug. 3 or 23 respectively.

Excerpt -

Dutrow, who is scheduled to testify next week at a congressional hearing examining safety issues in racing, was happy to report that Big Brown came out of the Belmont in good shape and that the colt jogged Wednesday at Aqueduct.
"He's good. I don't know how else to say it," the trainer said. "Right now, so far so good. Tomorrow's another day. He came out fine. He'll be okay."
The trainer also noted that Big Brown will resume his monthly steroid shot of Winstrol this week after not receiving his May15 injection, which his connections said the colt didn't need.
"(Winstrol) had nothing to do with it," Dutrow said of the Belmont outcome that saw Big Brown eased on the way to the Triple Crown hopeful's last-place finish.


also/..check out...
SARAH K. ANDREW's sequence of shots of BIG BROWN OUT OF THE GATE....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rockandracehorses/



And, THE NATIONAL follows-up with SLAUGHTER ISSUE

Alex Brown appears in a short follow-up to CBC's super feature on horse slaughter....a movement that has simply exploded in the last 2 months.
The TORONTO STAR was the first to run a major story on the issue - it appeared on KENTUCKY DERBY DAY..

Here is last night's NATIONAL REPORT...

http://www.cbc.ca/national/latestbroadcast.html