WINS

DRAWING STRAWS:

GEORGE STRAWBRIDGE'S homebreds win 2 stakes this weekend - ICE BEAR (above earlier this year with Corey Fraser on board) ran a 95 BEYER FIGURE to win the WITH APPROVAL STAKES yesterday. The tough grey was later seen pushing his handlers around like rag dolls in the winner's circle.
photo by www.horse-races.net




SUNDAY AT WOODBINE Win and 'rain' - some Ice too!

More rain during the day, cool and no grass including the WITH APPROVAL STAKES which was moved to 1 1/8 miles on Polytrack.

WIN AND REIGN, beautifully named, became the 1st STAKES WINNER for his 1st crop sire TOMAHAWK with a gutsy win in the Ontario foaled VANDAL STAKES FOR 2YOS AT 6 FURLONGS.

His Beyer was 73.

The small field featured a re-match between the 1-2 finishers of the Clarendon Stakes - BUCEPHALUS and EL BRUJO but the former was under a ride and outrun all the way and finished last last and the latter rallied and just failed to catch up.

The winner, owned and bred by Garland Williamson's HILLSBROOK STABLE is yet another stakes class runner from the Rubiano mare ITS A RUBY.

Williamson has had stakes winner LIKE A GEM and stakes placed COOL GATOR out of his prized mare. Interestingly, both runners were injured this year and have been sidelined.

Nick Gonzalez trains WIN AND REIGN, who led all the way through slow fractions and finished in 1:10.88 to win his 2nd career start (he was a maiden coming in).

The smooth striding dark bay colt was ridden by David Clark.

The other stakes race on the card, for Canadian foaled older horses, was the WITH APPROVAL, off the grass at 1 1/8 miles.

The race continued the bizarre story of Queen's Plate winner MIKE FOX, who has undergone numerous trainer changes in his career.

The big Giant's Causeway colt was overbet in the race yesterday but seemingly got lucky when it came off the turf, a surface he has not shown he can handle.

Instead, the colt battled through slow pace fractions and then stopped badly to be last.

It was ICE BEAR, who has also undergone come strange changes lately, jockeys this time, who finally won a photo to get the win.
The Maria's Mon gelding had some near misses this year under Corey Fraser but it was Chantal Sutherland who was up yesterday.
The gelding outnodded last year's Breeders' Stakes winner MARCHFIELD at the wire.

OTHER STUFF..

One day after Chantal Sutherland rode five winners on a card, EURICO ROSA DA SILVA bagged four.

RACE 1- Promising 2yo BEAR'S CONDUCTOR (Conagree) was one of 2 winners for the Bear Stables and trainer Reade Baker on the card, a nice ending to a tough week for the stable (see more below).

The $52K yearling purchase, a Kentucky bred, broke slowly in his debut and was 6th behind stablemate Bear's Rocket in his debut.
That was the first winner for Da Silva.

Race 3 - Da Silva was on BEARURSA too and that gal had a nice trip from just off the pace to win her maiden at the B level. Sh is a New York bred by Precise End.

The stallion TRAJECTORY continues to have bunches and bunches of winners.

A nice prospect is FORCE OF GRAVITY, out of Halo Alfaari, who was a yearling purchase for just $11,853 from the local sale by the high profile Pin Oak Stud.

Trained by Malcolm Pierce, the colt was ridden a whole lot differently by Da Silva in this 2nd career start. The blinkers were off, the colt relaxed and was not sent hard to the lead. He rallied to win the maiden allowance. His breeders are Lester and Wanda Pakulski.
Pin Oak raced Trajectory and wanted to show support of the local industry and the sire by purchasing the colt at auction.

Other winners:
GAJA won her 3rd race of the year for Goldmart Farms in a low level claiming event...CAPE SCHANK (Kinshasa) won on the classic bounce-back pattern. A big race when 2nd by a neck first time out was followd by a bomb race and then a maiden score yesterday for $25K. Takes to Make and partners lost the filly in the claim box too...the last race was a mess, horses lick ORNA and DONERAILE GOLD had awful trips and how about SEASIDE LINKS suddenly running a career best Beyer Figure fo 85?
The $20,000 claim by Three Out of Four Stable/trainer Scott Fairlie, has won 2 straight off the claim and looks like a renewed runner. The 6 1/2 furlong event was off the turf.




SPIRIT ONE - a beautiful portrait of the ARLINGTON MILLION WINNER, taken by Vanessa Ng.

















BEAR HOLIDAY EUTHANIZED

Last year's Sovereign Award finalist, the undefeated 2yo colt BEAR HOLIDAY, was euthanized late last week in Ocala, Florida after a bout with wobbler syndrome.

It took dozens of veterinarians and specialists to try and find out what was wrong with the grey colt, who won 2 stakes in 3 races last year for Bear Stable.

Bear Holiday was " a reason to get up in the morning" according to jockey Jerry Baird.



RING OF GREATNESS TO CHARLES TOWN


That ultra fast 2yo RING OF GREATNESS, the one who won his debut with a 92 Beyer Figure when in for just $40,000 claiming 2 weekends ago (and was claimed) will race next in the CHARLES TOWN JUVENILE STAKES, worth $100,000 on Aug. 23.
Trainer Reade Baker may also ship other horses for that stakes card at theWest Virginia track.


TRUE MET IN LONGACRES MILE THIS WEEKEND..
excerpt from Seattle Post Intelligencer

BY DICK ROCKNE


With two of the top three high-weighted nominees out of next Sunday's $300,000 Longacres Mile, True Metropolitan and Tropic Storm loom as the most prominent shippers for Emerald Downs' annual showpiece race.

Richard Mandella, trainer of high-weighted Perfect Drift (123 pounds) and No. 3 One Union (120 pounds), said in a telephone call to an Emerald official Sunday he will not be sending either thoroughbred to the Mile. Perfect Drift is a 9- year-old with lifetime earnings of $4.7 million. One Union is a 5-year-old owned by Herman Sarkowsky, the Seattleite who won the 2005 Mile with 60-1 shot No Giveaway.

True Metropolitan, second high weight at 122 pounds, is a 6-year-old, Florida-bred gelding with earnings of more than $1 million for owner Cheema Bahadur. After beginning his 2008 season by winning the George Royal Handicap at Vancouver's Hastings Park in May, he has been first or second in three Grade 3 races at Woodbine in Toronto.

Tropic Storm, trained by Craig Dollase, is a California-based 4-year-old with four wins in 11 starts and earnings of $227,300 for West Point Thoroughbreds.



OCT. 18 - SANDY HAWLEY RIDES AGAIN!!

Santa Anita is putting on a Legends race with jockeys from yester-year..

SANDY HAWLEY, Canada's greatest rider, will ride in a race against the likes of: Cordero, Vasquez, Hawley, Day, McCarron, Bailey, Stevens, Krone on OCTOBER 18.




MANITOBA MISS WINS -
while 'bro' races 2nd at Woodbine

Richlyn Farms' MANITOBA MISS finally won her maiden and did so at Saratoga yesterday in a 7 furlong event. Bred by Windways Farm in Ontario, the D'Wildcat-Enchanted Spell gal was making her 10th career start.

Her little 1/2 brother, EL BRUJO, had earlier just missing winnnng a stake.



THE NOT-SO-NICE- STORY FILE..

Is this where Canadian-bred multiple stakes winner FOREVER GRAND wound up?

Chuckwagon races are a career than some racehorses head to...this story is from yesterday in the SASKATOON STAR-PHOENIX..



Eight horses injured, put down in weekend wagon races

By Dustin Munroe, TheStarPhoenix.com


Ray Mitsuing was on track to hit paydirt when the right pull horse on his chuckwagon hook hit bad dirt.

On the verge of winning a $25,000 horse trailer, the grand prize in the Prairie Racing Series championship this afternoon, Mitsuing met disaster in the third corner of the track at Marquis Downs.

"The dirt is too old; hard and soft, hard and soft," said Mitsuing. "When the horses hit that, that's when they snap their legs."

Brutus, an eight-year-old grey gelding, broke his leg, bringing Mitsuing's wagon to a halt. The horse was euthanized.

"(Canadian Professional Chuckwagon Association competitors) lost seven outriding horses and the pull horse of mine," said Mitsuing. "That's eight head of horse that we had to put down this weekend on this track."

Mitsuing, a veteran chuckwagon driver, had a solid lead in the showdown race when Brutus went down near the third corner. Mitsuing tried to pilot his rig out of harm's way by pulling off to the right.

"We were too close so I couldn't get around him," said Ryan Preece, who was in second place at the time. "(My wagon) tipped over and threw me out."

Preece's wagon was dragged on its side through to Turn 4 before it came to a halt. After a few tense moments, the crowd saw Preece walking away from the crash, where Mitsuing's wagon was stopped.

"I'll be pretty stiff and sore tomorrow," said Preece.

Gary Gorst, the leader in the CPCA standings, and No. 2 driver Neal Walgenbach avoided the pileup and finished the race.

"It was lucky (Mitsuing's wagon) didn't veer left or it would have been a big mess," said Gorst.

Walgenbach crossed the finish line first, but penalties and disqualifications were needed to decide the winner.

"(Ray Mitsuing) was disqualified because he caused the accident," explained Saskatoon Chuckwagon championship spokesperson Brenda Sapergia. "The other two (Gorst and Waldenbach) had infractions when they left the start.

"Ryan had a clean run."

When a crash occurs, the race times of the drivers who cross the finish line are averaged among all racers. Preece was awarded first place because he avoided penalties up to the point where his wagon crashed. He was crowned the Prairie Racing Series (PRS) champion and received the $25K C&C Stock Tack Trailer grand prize.

"I guess it's a win, but it's not how I wanted to win it," said Preece.

Preece, 21, is half the age of the three finalists he competed against.

The four-day chuckwagon event at Marquis Downs is the playoffs for the PRS.

Gorst won the Saskatoon Chuckwagon meet championship by clocking the quickest aggregate time overall.

"We still ran good, so you can't complain," said Gorst. "If it wasn't for the misfortune, I would have had (the PCS championship.)"

Mitsuing believes track quality should be blamed for the accident.

"This is the worst track we've ran on all season," said Mitsuing. "The track is so beat up, the surface is totally screwed.

"They need to resurface the whole thing if they are going to keep running horses on it."

Mitsuing is in third place going into the CPCA final starting Thursday in Lloydminster behind Gorst and Waldenbach. The top four drivers advance to the championship race Sunday.

"With a key horse missing, it's going to make it a little difficult," Mitsuing said of Brutus. "You can ask anybody, he was one of the best in the business."

dsmunroe@sp.canwest.com


© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2008