GOLD MINES

MORE CANADIANS TO BREEDERS' CUP?
Mine That Bird wins Grey, Rose blooms in Mazarine









Grey Stakes G3...Mine That Bird - 75

Mazarine G3 - Van Lear Rose 83

Canadian International G1 Marsh Side 105

Summer S. G 3 Grand Adventure 94

E.P. Taylor G1 Folk Opera 103

Nearctic G2 True to Tradition 100


VAN LEAR ROSE ran fast in her Mazarine Stakes win from post 10 yesterday - the 4th winner for jockey Chantal Sutherland, who has now departed Woodbine for California.

She was the filly that nobody wanted - no bid at the sale last year, her sire STROLL stood briefly at Claiborne but was sent packing to ITALY (he has 3 stakes winners fomr his first crop already!!)... well Ms. Rose was 9 to 1 yesterday after winnig the Muskoka Stakes in her last start.

The respect comes now.

The filly was a bit sweaty before the race but looked professional in her score and she ran faster than the boys in the Grey S...earning an 83 Beyer Figure.

Owner and breeder RICHARD DAY and his sister Catherine Day Phillips, who trains the gal were not sure about the Breeders' Cup.

Indeed the Princess Elizabeth is a big target on home grounds and that race is for Canadian bred 2yo fillies so it will be a few days before the team figures out what it wants to do.

(Photo at right, CHANTAL SUTHERLAND is on her way to L.A. and a reality show called Jockeys, to air Feb. 6, she is also on David Letterman in December with the other jockeys in the show..photo of Chantal and writer/rider/teahcer Alex Brown taken by WendyU..see her stuff over at flickr.com)




Steve Klesaris trainee LIVIN LOVIN was a good 2nd as the favouirte and had been supplemented to the race. The filly rode the rail most of the race and did well on it despite the fact that the path has been horrible for many days in succession.


(A beautiful fall morning at Woodbine, captured this weekend by visiting WENDYU, who posts her photos at flickr.com)

In the GREY STAKES...steady and tractable MINE THAT BIRD, also ridden by Sutherland, came from just off the pace to get past front runner Bear's Conductor to win the 1 1/16 mile race with a 75 Beyer.
The Birdstone fellow, bought for $9,500, is owned by Dave Cotey, Derek Ball and Hugh Galbreath.
Cotey said a definitive 'no' to the Breeders' Cup but was entertaining plenty of offers for the gelding after the race so don't be surprised if the Bird ends up at the Breeders' Cup but for other interests.

Tough race for SOUTHERN EXCHANGE, who was leading the 2yo colt division for a while. He was taken off the pace but clearly did not like that and he put up a fight for a long time before he finally just dropped back to last place.


GREATEST RACEHORSE OF 2008?
The undefeated ZARKAVA (Zamindar) came from last place, in misty conditions, got out of messy traffic and blew by to win the Arc. She will not race again this year.
Vanessa Ng photo, see her photos and reports at www.-horse races.net



CANADIANS ELSEWHERE

DISFUNCTION ran super for Weila Ye and JMJ Stable, trainer Julia Carey in the Grade 3 Phoenix Stakes at Keeenland.
The British Columbia berd earned a 96 Beyer in his 4th place finish - just 1 3/4 lengths out of the win and he ran on his wrong lead all the way down the stretch.
Ontario sired Legal Move was just behind him at the finish.


(WendyU captured SKIPADATE before the Summer Stakes really having some fun! The colt is headed to the Breeders' Cup with blinkers to be added.
Check out WendyU's page at flickr.com..it's a great place to put up photos)


RAHY'S ATTORNEY had a rocky trip in the Grade 1 Shadwell Mile...well, at least in the latter part of the race. He assumed a good position early in the race but he was sruuounded by rivals in the stretch and knocked quite a bit.
He earned a 98 Beyer Figure for his 6th place finisher, beaten just 3 lengths. It appears that he likely bounced big-time off his 107 Beyer in the Woodbine Mile too.

EL SINALOENSE, one of the better 2yo's in Canada, had a similar day as Southern Exchange...yesterday he was 7th beaten 15 lengths (last) in the $100,000 Jack Diamond Futurity causing big show payoffs since $12,000 was bet on him to show.
The Mud Route fellow has won 5 of 7 races.

HARLEM ROCKER, 96 Beyer in yesterday's Jerome..he was 3rd beaten 4 in an even effort behind TALE OF EKATI, owned by Charles Fipke.



GREAT HUNGARIAN SPRINTER 'WINS' 'ABBAYE..
well, the first time anyway..

EXCERPT from the Guardian...
by Greg Wood
False start floors Overdose after 1,700km journey


The glamour and excitement of France's premier Flat meeting teetered on the edge of farce here yesterday, as the Prix de l'Abbaye, the race to find the fastest horse in Europe, was delayed until the early evening by a false start.

Originally due to go off at 2.15pm local time, the Abbaye was eventually won by Marchand D'Or, the favourite, nearly five hours later. However, the field had been reduced by three after the initial false start, when stall 17, holding Jeremy Noseda's Fleeting Spirit, failed to open.

One of the absentees was Overdose, probably the best horse to emerge from Hungary since the great Kincsem in the 1870s. His jockey, Andreas Suborics, did not respond to the signal to pull up and the pair carried on to 'win' the first running of the race in a time that was only a fraction outside Habibti's 25-year-old course record.

Even allowing for a strong following wind, it was an exceptional performance and Overdose was arguably the moral winner on the day. They do not pay out prize money on the basis of morality, though, and it was Marchand D'Or, already the winner of the July Cup earlier this season, who emerged with the cash and, without doubt, the status of Europe's champion sprinter.

Freddy Head, the trainer of Marchand D'Or, had initially been unhappy with the decision to move the Abbaye to the end of the card. "I do not see why they do not False start re-run the race straight away," he said. "The flag was up and it's too bad for the others who did not see it. If they ran it now, those who want to can run and others do not have to do so. It's already happened like that at least 10 times before."

read the rest here...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/oct/06/horseracing2

Watch the race here (after the start they show Fleeting Spirit just standing alone in the gate...funny stuff)









AND FROM THE
'LET'S GET THIS GUY' FILE...

an excerpt from the National Post on the discussion of taxes on winnings in bets...



By Allison Hanes, National Post

A new city report discusses potential new taxes on the lucrative gaming industry, including the purchase of lottery tickets, slot-machine winnings or on entry to Woodbine race track.
The report, which seems to pour cold water on such measures for being legally and logistically difficult to implement, does not call for any imminent action.
But one of the champions of a Toronto gaming tax said today he is lobbying furiously behind the scenes to see his idea at least debated by members of the executive committee when it is tabled there next week.
“We have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” said Councillor Cesar Palacio (Davenport).
He said he is “disappointed but not surprised” that the report is drafted in such a way that it seems destined to gather dust indefinitely. A tax on lottery ticket purchases, gambling winnings or slot machine proprietors in Toronto is preferable to the new vehicle and land transfer taxes pushed through by the mayor last year, he said.
Stuart Green, a spokesman for Mayor David Miller, said today taxing gaming is “not a priority.

Woodbine Entertainment, the group that runs the racetrack and the city’s only slot machines, said it would vociferously oppose either an entry fee, a levy on slot machines or a tax on betting transactions and winnings.
Jane Holmes, vice-president of corporate affairs for Woodbine Entertainment, said the race track decided a decade ago its entrance fee detered business and removed it.
Any new tax would be counterproductive, she added.
“I think it would also put this slot facility at an unfair competitive disadvantage. Because obviously it’s not that far to drive to some of the other facilities, such as Ajax or Rama or Niagara,” Ms. Holmes said. “They could be thwarting their own efforts to raise money… If they start doing something to encourage people to come here then they’re impacting their own revenue from that area.”
She also pointed out Toronto already gets a share of gambling profits through the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. – 5% from the first 450 machines and 2% on every slot thereafter.
But Mr. Palacio – echoed by the report to the executive committee – said attempts to get a greater share of revenues from the province have been fruitless.

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2008/09/30/city-hall-studies-gaming-tax.aspx


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http://theturkandlittleturk.blogspot.com/