DARE TO DREAM

HEAVY RAINS CONTINUE IN T.O.

Status of Natalma - still on turf, stay away IKE!!

All the races are off the grass today at WOODBINE except for the Grade 3 Natalma Stakes although forecasted heavy rain today in southern Ontario plus thunderstorm warnings, could endager the race.
If the race is moved to Polytrack it is believed it will not maintain its WIN AND YOU'RE IN status as it applies to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Also, certainly the MEGAPICK contest, in which fans have to predict the exact order of finish of the race would be affected.

There is one scratch already - VEGAS WEDDING raced yesterday at Belmont in the MATRON STAKES.

The turf will be very soft if it stays on the grass and that will certainly make handicapping the race a dart-throwing contest as these young fillies are sure to sink.

The turf course is currently in Lane 5.


Natalma S. (Can-G3)

September 14, $150,000, f, 2yo, 1mT, Woodbine, 3:35 PM ET
PP Horse Sire Jockey Wt. Trainer

1. Vegas Wedding Chapel Royal SCRATCHED
2. Laragh Tapit Patrick Husbands 114 Mark E. Casse
3. Lady Shakespeare Theatrical (Ire) Emma-Jayne Wilson 114 Roger L. Attfield
4. Milwaukee Appeal Milwaukee Brew Na Somsanith 116 Scott H. Fairlie
5. C Karma Exchange Rate Jono C. Jones 114 Gregory de Gannes
6. Triple Flip Cherokee Run Eurico Rosa Da Silva 114 Reade Baker
7. Panther Strike Black Minnaloushe Tyler Pizarro 114 Daniel J. Vella
8. Freyga Touch Gold Justin Stein 114 Michael J. Doyle
9. Poppin City Zip James McAleney 114 Steven M. Asmussen
10. Koonunga Hill Wonneberg Constant Montpellier 116 Steve Owens
11. After the Applause Lost Soldier Chantal Sutherland 114 Nicholas Gonzalez



LIKE SISTER, LIKE...SISTER

Tenjectory emulates sibling to win La Prevoyante


Longshot TENJECTORY capped a big day for her Ontario sired TRAJECTORY when she sloshed through soft turf to get up and win the La Prevoyante Stakes at Woodbine yesterday by 3/4 of a length.
The filly is out of Pick Ten, by Ten Gold Pots, who also produced Top Ten List, the 2005 La Prevoyante winner.
The winner, ridden by Eurico Rosa Da Silva, was up to beat odds-on favourite Authenicat, who led late but, as she has shown in the past, tends to stall when she makes the lead too soon.
Here is some more info from Woodbine media office:

Trained by Mike De Paulo, Tenjectory notched her second career win in
her ninth race. Prior to the La Prevoyante, the dark bay finished second
in a 1 /16 mile Polytrack race on August 22, after a fifth-place
performance in the turf Wonder Where Stakes on July 26.

"She ran a sensational race that day," said De Paulo's wife, Josie,
of the Wonder Where. "After the race we scoped her and found that she
had a bit of a throat condition that we took care of."

"We thought we had to be a little closer today just because of the
way the turf course is playing," continued De Paulo. "She showed a
lot of heart to come from where she came. She can run on anything. At
the beginning of the year, she was a real ugly duckling and she's
developed into a beautiful swan."

Tenjectory launched her career on November 23, finishing 11th, 20
lengths back of the winner, in a six furlong race. Her next two starts
didn't produce any better results, as she finished ninth and seventh,
respectively, a combined 33 lengths behind.

De Paulo's other entrant, Krz Exec, finished sixth.

Tenjectory paid $37.50, $9.10 and $5.20, combining with Authenicat
($2.80, $2.50) for a $120 exactor. Night Fever ($3.80) completed an
$834.20 triactor.


MORE WINNERS YESTERDAY

RACE 1 - ROLL STARTS FOR SCHICKEDANZ

Early betting support on the 1 and 2 horses, 6yo debut runner Soldier Boy Blues and one-year-layoff runner FIGHTING WARRIOR and the money was true for the latter who rallied from well off a hot pace duel to win on his wrong lead for Bruno Schickedanz, who bred the Florida-born Fast 'n Royal 3yo colt.
Anybody who jumped on the early money bandwagon got 4 to 1 in the end on the Mark Fournier trainee in the $16,000 maiden race.
Fighting Warrior was also dropping from $50,000 claiming and that likely helped.
Winners on this one may have doubled up later in the first leg of the PICK 4...read on.

RACE 2 - DO IT ANYWAY won an Ontario sired allowance by a long margin for Martha Gonzalez and Nick Gonzalez who bought the filly from Barb Minshall and Minshall Farms. The Sea Wall-Count by Numbers gal is 2 for 14 now and she was 6 to 5 to win yesterday.

RACE 3- A big vet scratch in Gloriously cost the race the big favourite. The small field was tightly bunched for a long time and speedy ARCHIE'S GAL managed to chake loose from an early duel through 23 seconds and she was never caught after that.
The Archers Bay mare is a winning machine - 9 scores in 36 starts not and she zoomed over $500,000 in earnings.
It was her 3rd win this year and incredibly, she was moving up from $32K to $60K claiming for Heritage Hill Farm and trainer Scott Fairlie and Fairlie had just re-claimed her last time. It was the 3rd race in succession Arche's Gal had been claimed too.

RACE 4 - The Bruno Schickedanz-Mark Fournier team struck again (trainer had only won 5 races at Woodbine from 59 starters through the card) with PURPLE MOONLIGHT, a filly racing for the 2nd time in a $32K maiden claimer and it was her first race since March.
In that Tampa Bay debut, she was 12th all the way for maiden $25K and beaten 28 lengths.
Yesterday she led all the way while very eager to win the 1 1/16 mile race with 1st Lasix at 7 to 1. She is a Florida bred by Outofthebox.
As unlikely as the win by Purple Moonlight was, she did have a huge workout 2 weeks ago of 59 and change from the gate.

RACE 5- JIMMY LIKES TURF! JIMMY IS GETTING EXCITED! The invading JIMMY SIMMS skipped away to an easy win over soft grass in a maiden allowance to win for the first time in his 4th start for Elizabeth Alxander and Burr Travis plus trainer Steve Asmussen. The Lost Soldier 3yo colt held off the big favourite, Victory Pass.

RACE 6 - BAYWOODS became the first 5-TIME WINNER at Woodbine when she won for $30,000 claiming yesterday under a hand ride for Oriella Farm. The Archers Bay mare was claimed for $10,000 by her rider Carl DeFreitas's wife at the end of last year and the filly has skyrocketed up the class ladder.

RACE 7 - FEATHER BED LANE is a monster since he added blinkers. A win shy guy for a long time, the Skip Away gelding (one of three Eugene Melnyk bred winners on the card) roared from off the pace to win the $32,000 claimer for older horses for his 3rd win in his last 4 starts. His current owners are JMJ Stables and Greg Borg. Julia Carey trains.

RACE 9 - maiden allowance for 2yo fillies figures to have some good ones in it...the 'good thing' was EDAMANE by Bold Executive for trainer Malcolm Pierce, but the winner was longshot HEART OF COLD, who had races 4 times already with only a couple of 45 Beyer Figures to her credit. It was a surprising win for the Trajectory filly out of Werewoofy, who is owned and bred by Ted Coker. Jim Coburn also owns and Scott Fairlie trains.

RACE 10 - Ontario-vred CAPTAIN MARK loved the wet grass and won his maiden for Tallyho Racing and trainer Norm McKnight. The Van Nistlerooy-Cool Look fellow was bred by local trainer John Charalambous and was a $22,982 (US) yearling. It was Mark's 6th career start.


BIG and BIZARRE

(great shot by EXCARD1970 on www.flickr.com of the rank maniac know as BIG BROWN.)



BIG BROWN won yesterday. He's now scored two gritty wins in succession, 2 wins since he was pulled up in the Belmont, his only loss.
The race he won yesterday was a race that was actually made up for him and sponsored, if you can imagine, by his own co-owners, IEAH Equine Holdings.
And Big Brown just held on.

The fancy colt with the big speed threw his head a bit in the early stages of the 9 furlong grass race, appeared to be just too eager for Kent Desormeaux to rate, was joined by older guys off the turn but held on while his rider simply slapped him on the neck.

What was very cool was the fans that came to cheer on the colt despite the constant battle the colt's connections have had with media and all the controversy surrounding the team.

You could hear them before the race, during the race (even behind the blood-curdling screams of the track announcer) - YOUTUBE contributier alan1199 provides the video of the race below.

His Beyer was 105, essentially The same as every other race he has run.

(photo at right...One of the reasons folks find it hard to cheer...earlier this year we have to be quiet when the horse walks by...)

LAST 5 BEYERS OF BIG BROWN

105
106
-
100
109

106
106


LAST 7 BEYERS OF CURLIN

112
104
110
NAD AL SHEBA
NAD AL SHEBA
119
114



EXCERPT TODAY:

Jerry Bossert of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS



OCEANPORT, N.J. - Big Brown always has shown his ability, but Saturday he showed off his heart in capturing the $500,000 Monmouth Stakes on the turf at Monmouth Park by a neck over Proudinsky.

It was his final start before the Oct. 25 Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita, where he may get the opportunity to face reigning Horse of the Year Curlin.

"I can't wait to run against Curlin," said Michael Iavarone, co-president of IEAH Stables, the majority owner of Big Brown. "If he's going to show up, he should show up in the Breeders' Cup. That's where we are going to be."

Curlin is scheduled to start next in the Sept.27 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park. His connections have not revealed where they will race him after that, but have hinted that the Breeders' Cup is doubtful since it will be run over a synthetic surface.

Facing older horses for the first time in his career, Big Brown was sent to the front by jockey Kent Desormeaux and raced a little rank as he was pressed by longshot Get Serious. Entering the first turn, the Kentucky Derby winner caught a break when Get Serious blew the turn, allowing Desormeaux to relax Big Brown.

"It made a huge difference," Desormeaux said. "When the other horse left his side he threw his ears up and started to watch where he was going and not the competition and slowed down dramatically."

Down the backside, Big Brown continued to cruise by himself and turned for home with several seasoned older grass horses ready to pounce on him after he cut quick fractions of :23.46 and :46.83. But Big Brown never quit.

Proudinsky, a Grade II winner on the grass earlier this year, nearly drew even with Big Brown at the top of the stretch, but never could get by.

"I think he showed what kind of heart he's got," Desormeaux said. "He's a tiger. He really is. This horse wasn't getting by him. ... I knew I had him because Big Brown just resurged."

Turning for home, even trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. thought Big Brown was beaten.

"I thought they were going to pass him," Dutrow said. "I thought they had him but again Big Brown showed another dimension like he did in the Haskell."

Big Brown looked beat in the Aug.3 Haskell Invitational last month at Monmouth, when Coal Play opened up a commanding lead turning for home before Big Brown dug in to prevail by a length and three-quarters.