WORKIN

MAR-VELOUS!!


Marlang leads all the way to win Saranac
Canadian-breds are peppering the graded stakes scene everywhere and yesterday MARLANG loped his way to a handy score in the 1 3/16 mile Saranac Stakes, grade 3, on the next-to-last day of Saratoga.

Owned and bred bu Gus Schickedanz and trainer by Debbie England, Marlang settled nicely for jockey Rick Dos Ramos and beat up on a modest field at 5 to 2.

England told the BLOOD-HORSE than Marland becme upset during the afternoon in the stakes barn as he could distinctly hear the other races going off:

“I was a little concerned because he never shipped before and he heard the races over at the stakes barn,” England said. “I was worried about him settling down. I think he will get better at shipping as he gets older. He has gotten better at everything. I’m not sure what his next will be. This is the only horse I have with Mr. Schickedanz, who is 80 years old.”

The son of Langfuhr-Marienburg has won 4 of 8 starts now and threw his hat into the ring for champion 3-year-old colt (Not Bourbon has yet to race since the Prince of Wales, he was scratched yesterday at Woodbine, read more below).


NOT BOURBON SCRATCHES
Attfield wins Vice Regent anyway


SAND COVE, a vastly improved grey colt by BOLD EXECUTIVE-MYTHICAL STATUS, by Mythical Ruler, stormed between colts to win the $125,000 Vuce Regent Stakes yesterday at Woodbine for Ontario sired 3yo's.
The grey, owned by Barbadian Ralph Johnson and trained by Roger Attfield, was possibly not going to race if his stablemate, Not Bourbon, the Queen's Plate winner, had started.

But Not Bourbon suffered another setback when he had a knock on his leg from a stall accident sometime during yesterday afternoon causing him to be scratched.

Sand Cove (whose regular rider Rick Dos Ramos was in Saratoga) was expertly ridden by Slade Callaghan, who put the whip away late in the race and got down and pushed his colt to the wire in front, a nice change from the hacking and sllhing we see most days.

Sand Cove, bred by the Everatt family's Shannondoe Farm, was a $54,000 yearling purchase (US) and he has won well over $240,000 now.

from the Woodbine media office:

"I really wasn't sure (whether Sand Cove would like turf)," added Attfield. "He had a work over it (turf) and he worked very well. He is a very genuine horse. He shows up. He's been doing so very, very well. I wasn't really sure if I was going to run him against Not Bourbon, to be honest. It was only a couple of hours ago that they told me that the horse had hurt himself in the stall. I said, 'Well, it's a good I hadn't taken him out (scratched).'"

Elaborating further on Charles Fipke's homebred Not Bourbon, Attfield said, "He was fine up until a few hours ago. I was looking at yearlings and they called me and told me I should come over to the barn. I went back and he has a hematoma on the side of his leg. I couldn't bring him over like that. He's too nice of a horse to do something silly like that. It's very upsetting for Mr. Fipke. This was an ideal spot to know where I was going to go from here. Now I don't know. The horse will be fine tomorrow morning, for sure."




YEARLING SALES STAKES DAY
Woodbine today, 6 stakes, sales implications


Today is the day local horsefolks, breeders, owners and trainers alike, get a chance to be rewarded for shopping at the yearling sale (which starts tomorrow at 3 p.m.).

Okay, well horses eligible for the six $125,000 sales stakes today can also have just bee run through the sale but if they didn't make a bid or meet their reserve, why not?

So the races today will hopefully pad the pedigree pages of a bunch of yarlings that are safely housed away in the Woodbine sales barns, readying for a trip through the ring tomorrow.

Owner/breeder ERROL BAILEY for instance, is hoping that Charles Fipke's SOCIETY'S CHAIRMAN can win the Halton Stakes for older horses at 1 mile on the grass.

Bailey bred Society's Chairman,a son of Not Impossible out of Athena's Smile,by Olympio and has a Where's the Ring yearling colt named Reap the Benefit in the sale.

SUSAN FOREMAN, agent has a colt from the first crop of Mobil in the select session out of Launch the Rocket by Forest Wildcat. If the 2yo halfbrother SILVER ROCKET wins the Simcoe Stakes today, all the better for that youngster's pedigree page.

And should DRUNKEN LOVE win the Kenora for older sprinters, that would help his yearling half brother by Tethra (out of No Sugar Tonight, by Schossberg) who will seel on saturday in the preferred session for Wynnwood Farms, agent.

Those are just some examples of the interesting implications of today's sales stakes.
Of course, there are breders' awards to go around and trainer's rewards, if they bought the horse at the sale.


SORORITY STAKES WINNER YESTERDAY

has yearling half in tomorrow's sale

SELVA remained unbeaten when winning the Sorority Stakes yesterday at Monmouth and the Kentucky bred made the Richard Hogan folks happy.

Hogan, agent has a Stephen Got Even half brother to selva in the sale tomorrow.

Selva is out of the Silver Deputy Mare Bayou Mist.

BAYOU MIST was bought by James Mann for $35,00o at the 2007 Keeneland January sale.




Woodbine $1 million Megapick contest to launch Monday

TORONTO, August 31 - There's a million reasons to pay attention to the
Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races at Woodbine over the next several
weeks.

A free-to-enter, lottery-style contest called the Woodbine $1,000,000
Megapick asks fans to choose the exact order of finish for the entire
field from three of Woodbine's six Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races,
the Woodbine Mile on September 7, the Natalma Stakes on September 14 and
the Pattison Canadian International on October 4.

The contest, powered by 123racing.com, opens after the draw for the
Woodbine Mile on September 4 and runs through to October 4. You can
enter at www.theracetrack.ca. It's powered by Racingworld Technology
Limited.

For each race, the fan who can predict the correct first-to-last finish
for any one of the races (Woodbine Mile, Natalma, Pattison Canadian
International) will win $100,000.

If one fan can predict the order of finish for all three races, they
will receive all three $100,000 prizes, as well as a $700,000 bonus,
totaling $1,000,000!

If no one predicts the exact order of finish of any one race, a
consolation prize of $10,000 will be awarded to the individual who gets
closest to the exact order in that race.

There's an added bonus for those who play. After making their
selections they can print off a ballot and take it to one of the
participating locations to enter a draw for a trip for two to the
Breeders' Cup. There's one draw for each of these races.

"We are really trying to let people know that these Breeders' Cup Win
and You're In races are at Woodbine this year," said Paul Lawson,
Woodbine's Director of Marketing and Communications. "It's also a great
way to get both new and existing fans involved in the Series, at no cost
to them."

Fans can visit to www.theracetrack.ca to play. Fans can register and
enter their selections onsite at other WEG venues (Greenwood, Mohawk,
WEGZ Stadium Bar) through kiosks that go up after each race draw and are
onsite until race day.

The Breeders' Cup Challenge Series races all feature a lucrative Win
and You're In guarantee. A victory in any of the track's six events
earns the victor a berth in the corresponding event at the Breeders'
Cup, set for October 24 and 25 at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia,
California.

Woodbine's three other Breeders' Cup Challenge Series Win and You're In
races all accompany the Pattison Canadian International on October 4,
the $1 million E.P. Taylor, $500,000 Nearctic and $200,000 Summer
Stakes.



GO CURLIN GO!

*Vanessa Ng photo, see www/.horse-races.net
VISIT Curlin's Corner...

http://www.nyra.com/Curlin/CurlinCorner.htm