JUICEY

YOU HAVE TO PULL THAT THING AROUND ALL DAY?

THUMBELINA, the world's smallest horse, checks out MR. BIG after that colt won the Canadian Pacing Derby at Mohawk on Saturday.

The little gal attracted hundreds of visitors and did lots of photo shoots at Mohawk, this inage captured by www.horse-races.net.




THE MAGIC OF LASIX
You Will Love Me gets out of funk with medication

Woodbine on Sunday and the track was very fast again, times were red-hot and SPEED won most of the main track races.

YOU WILL LOVE ME, Bill Jones' homebred One Way Love gal who had been off form this season, added Lasix for the first time in her 14th career start and won the VICTORIANA STAKES yesterday for Ontario sired fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on turf.

The 4yo won 4 of 8 last year including 3 stakes but she had been 5th, 6th and 8th in 3 outings this year.

Trained by Earl Barnett and ridden by Eurico Rosa Da Silva, the filly made 2 moves in the race. She chased front running GALIPETTE early in the race, tried to take the lead early in the stretch but EXCEUTIVE FLIGHT the big favourite swept by with an early move.
The latter could not hold on, however and The Jones gal got up again at the wire.



Race 1- Two horses that finished 10th and last in their first careers starts suddenly woke up and ran 1-2 in the opener for maiden allowance.
CHAMPION BULL trailed in a 6 furlong grass debut but battled on the pace with FIRST TIME LASIX and out-battled a suddenly revitalized MEDIDOCIHOSPISURG (whaaaaaat?) to win his 2nd career start for Stronach Stables.
The Florida bred also scored 7 furlongs in 1:22.97.

BANKER'S STREET was odds-on to win the 2nd race and she led all the way to win by almost 2 lengths for owner/breeder Robert Harvey. The BANKER'S GOLD filly was claimed for $50,000 by CC Farm and trainer Scott Fairlie.

GRAZETTES LANDING (Paynes Bay-Grazettes, Alydeed) won his 3rd race in succession for Eugene Melnyk who bred the red-hot Ontario sired allowance runner.

He won by almost 4 lengths in 1:09.36 at 35 cents to the dollar.

A race later $50,000 claimer CIVIL CODE ran faster than Grazettes Landing as he surged to a neck win in 1:09.33 for his 2nd consecutive win for Gail Gibbings and trainer Don MacRae.
Trainer Fairlie and the CEC group were in action again, claiming Captain Raucous for $50,000 from a 4th place finish.

SEARCH THE CHURCH, MORADO, QUENCH and now....UTTERLY COOL.
The Jim Dandy mare Destroy, a daughter of multiple champion ETERNAL SEARCH, has produced another good one it seems as the 2yo colt won his debut at 6 furlong son turf yesterday in 1:09.25 for trainer Sid Attard.
Mel Lawson owns the family, all sprinting types who handle grass or any kind of dirt surface.
UTTERELY COOL is by Smoke Glacken, the sire of Quench.

GLENN IS GOLD rarely wins but used good tactics yesterday and he was kept on the pace which helped him last for a head win for $12,500 claiming for Greg Cox and the Murray Stable.
The Mutakddim-Green Angel gelding was ridden by Emma-Jane Wilson

Trainer SEAN HALL watched MR. REGENT lead all the way in a gutsy effort to win for $12,500 at 7 furlongs in race 7. The Randy Regent 4yo has won 3 of 16 races and over $50,000.


CHIEFSWOOD FARM homebred INTRIGUING HUMOR went from a diastrous career debut on POLYTRACK to a maiden score on turf yesterday.
The Distorted Humor gal, out of the Darshaan mare WILD HEAVEN, a stakes winner overseas, stretched out from the 6 1/2 furlong Polytrace to a 1 3/8 mile turf marathon and won by a neck under Tyler Pizarro. She was 6 to 1.

And IAN JAMIESON'S homebred LA MANCHA was the win shy gal who won the finale, an Ontario sired allowance race that featured a litany of gals who never do much more than nibble. La Mancha, by Ascot Knight, reeled in Special Moment in the late stages to win at 9 to 1.



ELA FIRES IN RAINBOW CONNECTION


After a brazen display of speed and heart, SHOT GUN ELA, a 7yo owned by Rocco d'Alimonte and Frank Annecchini, outbattled Only If Split in the $125,000 Rainbow Connection Stakes and then drew clear to win the 5 furlong stake b 4 3/4 lengths in 56.69.
The race was scheduled for turf and then came off.

The time was NOT a track record or a track-record equalling time as announced numerous times after the race - but it was quick anyway.

An Elajjud mare out of Georgies Word, Shot Gun Ela was bred by her owners who have had a super year in horse ownership.

The mare is trained by Ross Armata.

The winning rider was Rod DaCosta, who replaced Emile Ramsammy, who was named at entry time.

In fact there was some bizarre jockey names on horses in the Rainbow Connection - Chantal Sutherland was serving a suspension but had a special day pass to ride Executive Flight at Woodbine - but she was also named on Paradise Cat at Fort Erie.



AT NORTHLANDS -

FURHEVER DANCING WINS $50K STAKES
first stakes win for Langfuhr gelding

FUHREVER DANCING, by LANGFUHR won the $50,000 WESTERNER STAKES AT NORTHLANDS PARK yesterday for Bon Cheema and trainer Terry Jordan. The 6yo gelding battled on the pace all the way and then edged clear to win the 1 1/16 mile race in 1:43.60 over 3 rivals. He was 1 to 1 as was Father Jones, the 2nd place finisher.
Furhever Dancing is a Kentucky bred who was claimed last time out for $62,500 from longtime owner California Stable at Woodbine.
He has won 6 of 45 races.


AT MOUNTAINEER, A LEGACY

After 14 furlong son the turf, DANCER'S LEGACY won his 5th career race in allowance company at Mountaineer last night. The grey 4yo is owned and bred by Surinder Banghoo and is by Flaming Sky—Sunaina, by Waquoit. John Simms trains.







SARATOGA ROCKIN'

(Vanessa Ng captured 17-YEAR-OLD JOHN'S CALL as he leads the horses to the gate for the stake named after him yesterday. Read news, notes and quotes at www.-horse-races.net)



HARLEM ROCKER worked five furlongs SATURDAY in a sharp :59.72 over Saratoga's main track, preparing for Saturday's Grade I TRAVERS STAKES.

Harlem Rocker, by Macho Uno, won th Prince of Wales over East End Tap with a 90 Beyer Figure.

In the Travers, Harlem Rocker, who at this point has won four of five career starts, is likely to run against Belmont S. (G1) shocker DA' TARA (Tiznow); Wood Memorial (G1) winner TALE OF EKATI (Tale of the Cat); Santa Anita Derby (G1) victor COLONEL JOHN (Tiznow); last-out Jim Dandy (G2) hero MACHO AGAIN (Macho Uno); Louisiana Derby winner (G2) and Jim Dandy runner-up PYRO (Pulpit); Swaps S. (G2) king TRES BORRACHOS (Ecton Park); recent Henry Walton S. victor MAMBO IN SEATTLE (Kingmambo); and Henry Walton runner-up YOU AND I FOREVER (A.P. Indy).


Oh, and Queen's Plate hero NOT BOURBON is "back", said an enthusiastic Roger Attfield, who trains the colt. The Not Impossible 3yo had throat surgery since he bombed in the 'Wales' and he wokred in 46 and change on Saturday.



TRUE 'MET' 2ND AGAIN


excerpt...
By John B. Saul

Special to The Seattle Times



When jockey Jennifer Whitaker rode 10-1 longshot Wasserman back to the winner's circle after the Grade III $272,500 Longacres Mile, fans at Emerald Downs met the pair with a raucous roar.

They had plenty to cheer about:

• Wasserman, a local horse, had edged out two favored horses shipped in from California and Canada.

• Whitaker, a Woodinville native, had become the first woman jockey to win the premier race in the Pacific Northwest.

Whitaker took the usual Wasserman route to victory: hanging far back for most of the race before closing furiously to win by a neck.

Wasserman started from the No. 4 post and, dropped to ninth place after the first quarter mile, was still in seventh place with a quarter mile to go and went far outside to run down True Metropolitan, the 3-1 invader from Woodbine in Toronto and Tropic Storm, the 6-5 favorite from California.

Wasserman, by Cahill Road out of Share the Knight, covered the mile in 1:35 and paid $22.40 to win, $7.60 for place and $3.20 for show. True Metropolitan, who finished a neck ahead of Tropic Storm, paid $4.60 and $3.20. Tropic Storm, ridden by Aaron Gryder, returned $2.60 for show.

The $137,500 winner's share of the purse brings Wasserman's lifetime earnings to $415,471, and the win guarantees the 6-year-old gelding a spot in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita on Oct. 25.

Except that Howard Belvoir, the owner, breeder and trainer for Wasserman, says he won't be going. He wants to run Wasserman in one of the races on Washington Cup Day on Sept. 14 at Emerald Downs and then turn him out for the winter to rest up for next season here.

"It'd cost you $80,000 to $100,000," to go to the Breeders' Cup," Belvoir said. "He runs better on this track than anywhere, and it's probably out of my limit.

"He'd go down there — and this is nothing against him or anybody — but there's probably going to be some nice horses in there, and he's going to be a longshot."

Still, Belvoir, of Kent, didn't completely rule it out — "if someone gets to me."

"It's not out of the realm yet," Belvoir said. "Someone might come up and want to give me a couple hundred thousand bucks."

In Sunday's Mile, Whitaker said she actually got Wasserman going a little sooner than usual because she thought they were farther back than they should have been with three furlongs to go. But she said she didn't want to run him too hard around the turn going into the stretch.

James McAleney, who rode True Metropolitan, said his horse didn't have a good start and "just couldn't hold off the winner."



DAILY RACING FORM'S STEVE CRIST

Newspaper coverage waning, now racing writers are BLOGGING!


EXCERPT:

Newspapers are in trouble everywhere between rising paper and trucking costs and the loss to the Internet of advertising, especially of the classified variety. Readership does not decline when the racing writer takes a buyout or gets a pink slip, at least not enough to justify filling the position, so another beat and species disappears.

This is not good news for the racing industry, which is still suffering for its failure to embrace television a half-century ago, a major reason that the sport fell from major to niche status at most newspapers even before the recent further declines in coverage. Yet there is a promising alternative rising quickly on the horizon, the same factor that brought me back to the press box, where I am surrounded by some of my colleagues of yore who no longer have their old racing-writer jobs: We're blogging.

There are probably more former turf writers filing directly to the Internet these days than there are full-time newspaper writers, including such veterans as Bill Christine, Paul Moran, Ray Paulick, John Pricci, and Maryjean Wall. If they're like me, they've found the lack of space restrictions, deadlines, and boneheaded editors to be gloriously liberating. We ink-stained vets, late to a blogging party that began four or five years ago, are also reveling in the immediacy and interactivity of sometimes voluminous response from readers.

It's a far from perfect medium. A lack of editors is not always a good thing, and many blogs are perpetrated by amateurs with limited credibility or journalistic training. But it's a racket that's shaking itself out like any other market, and the best of the current blogs are among the most interesting racing journalism (outside these pages, of course) being practiced anywhere: Check out Alan Mann's Left at the Gate, Jessica Chapel's Railbird, Seth Merrow's Equidaily, Kevin Martin's Colin's Ghost, or the eponymous Kennedy's Corridor. Their authors are all passionate fans of the game, which is more than you can say for the bowling or hunting writer who gets stuck covering the occasional horse race for a metropolitan daily.

http://www.drf.com/news/article/97363.html




"GRUESOME" DEATH OF HORSE AT MARQUIS
- TRACK SURFACE UNDER FIRE


OWNERS, TRAINERS at MARQUIS DOWNS in Saskatoon are questioning the tracks surface not long after the litany of horse daths after chuckwagon races last weekend and a horrible death of DANCE TILLER, who broke both ankles in a race.

JOCKEYS seem to be supporting the track but others are not.

MARK REGIER, CEO of Saskatoon Prairieland Park said:

"Asked why people would complain to the press -- in many cases, anonymously -- about the track if it's in otherwise good condition, Regier said "I attribute (the complaints) to people who are losing. They're losing at the track, they get frustrated and like to blame it on somebody else.

"I took my car out there and I've never been on a smoother road," he added. "There was not a bump on that track. Not a bump.""


Here's an excerpt from the lengthy story:


Break point
Track condition has some owners, trainers concerned
Kevin Mitchell, The StarPhoenix
Published: Saturday, August 16, 2008

A deadly year at Marquis Downs is prompting thoroughbred horse owners and trainers to come forward with claims the local track is unsafe, in poor condition and needing an expensive overhaul.

The final straw for many came last weekend when at least six horses and possibly as many as eight, died during a Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association stop in the city. Driver Ray Mitsuing blamed the surface, telling The StarPhoenix it's "the worst track we've run on all season."

Mitsuing says he has since received "lots of" phone calls from thoroughbred horse people who run at Marquis Downs, thanking him for his comments.

His remarks, and building anger at the track's condition, prompted some thoroughbred horse owners and trainers to step forward with claims the surface is dangerous -- a viewpoint not shared universally.

"Every weekend it seems they're hauling one off for one reason or another," says a long-time trainer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They may not all have to be euthanized, but they're definitely career-ending injuries attributable to (a surface that's) too hard, too unlevel or punching through (the base). Owners have told me never again -- they won't come back.

"I keep my fingers crossed every time I run.


READ THE REST:
http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/story.html?id=6b6f1d4a-db67-44ba-b9ca-6dc8aa0cdef3&p=1




Painter keeps pace with Triple Crown winners

Sault native finally finishes massive work

Posted By Brian Kelly, The Sault Star

excerpt:


Creating a painting of Canada's Triple Crown winners almost turned into a night-mare for a Sault Ste. Marie native.

Maureen Shelleau's long-term project started in the early 1990s with depictions of (With) Approval, Izvestia and Dance Smarty.

All three won the Queen's Plate, Prince of Wales Stakes and Breeders' Stakes in the same year.

But the Sault College graduate didn't count on Peteski winning in 1993 and Wando in 2003.

With those wins, it was back to the drawing board for Shelleau, 47.

"I finally said, 'You know what? I'm just going to stop it at Wando and if there's another winner this year oh well, I'm not starting over again. No way,'" she said from her mother's home in the Sault.

"I was so glad there was no Triple Crown winner this year."

Having to start from scratch not once, but twice on a massive work that stands eight-by-four foot was "very disheartening". Shelleau's take on the extra work — it can only make for a better painting.

"The excitement was still there when I was painting each and every one," she said.

"I thought, 'You know what? OK. Well, it's going to be a better painting this time.'"

The still-untitled oil work was shown during the Queen's Plate at Woodbine in Rexdale, Ont. June 22. It will also be featured during the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair at Exhibition Place in Toronto Nov. 7 to 16.

"I thought it would be a great honour for Canada to have these horses immortalized and captured in canvas," said Shelleau.

Shelleau still owns the work, but if sold the price tag would be about $35,000.

Prints, priced at $395 and $495, go on sale in mid-September. When Sault residents buy one, Shelleau will make a donation to Sault Ste. Marie Humane Society.

The Canadian Triple Crown winner's sister piece is The Lords of Legend. That five-by-eight work features Shelleau's depictions of legendary contemporary thoroughbreds Secretariat, Northern Dancer and Man O' War. The original is on display at the Kentucky Horse Park Museum.


CHECK OUT www.horserules.com to see Shelleau's work...