HIDE AND SEEK

WOODBINE THURSDAY

Hazy, lazy days of...November

Very warm still for this time of year - the rain is a -coming this weekend for a set of two good cards of racing featuring the return of GINGER BREW and an older horse SHOWDOWN race - the Grade 3 Autumn on Sunday.

Here are some highlights from yesterday...


RACE 2 -

A maiden allowance for fillies and mares and there was a big speed duel between Amazing Miss and Cozzy Grey, the latter cleared late on the turn but was soon overtaken into the stretch by first time starter POINTS OF GRACE, who raced greenly and erratically but won off by about 5 lengths in 1:09.87 over a very fast Polytrack.

She earned a 74 Beyer Figure.

Points of Grace was 4 to 1 for owner Live Oak Stud (bought her for $170,000 as a yearling) and trainer Malcolm Pierce and she was ridden by Patrick Husbands.
The chestnut has hardly any tail and is by Point Given out of a Topsider mare.


RACE 3

SPRINGSIDE looks like a monster - 81 Beyer for a 10 length win in an allowance, 1:43.95 for 1 1/16 miles. This Awesome Again filly, a $335,000 yearling purchase was a bust in the first 2 races of her career - I mean, really bad, 9th beaten 15 and 9th beaten 7 1/2 - but now she's won 2 straight. Her allowance score yesterday was not only easy and impressive in her first 2 turn trip but it also brought out the best of jockey David Clark, the only rider to take his filly back into the first turn while the other gals all scrapped it out on the lead.
Clark moved his hands at the quarter pole and the filly rockets around rivals like they were not moving.
She is out of stakes winner Folly Dollar by Digression and is owned by Jim and Alice Sapara and trained by Josie Carroll.

RACE 7 - JANET JEANPIERRE'S homebred PARABOLA jumped back up to a maiden allowance (Ontario sired) from a $25K claiming race to win at 9 to 1 in his 5th career start. The homebred is by Trajectory out of Flying Tabriz by Turkoman and is the mare's 4th foal.
PARABOLA was bought back for $9,000 (US) from the local sale last year.
The red-hot Barb Minshall barn trains the 2yo gelding who ran a 63 Beyer yesterday in the 1 mile and 70 yard race.



SOME OTHER WINNERS:


Owner/breeder ARNOLD SASEK watched his Albany Song win his maiden in race 1 for $20K claiming, The ONtario bred, trained by Julia Carey, is by Sultry Song out of Sasek's good mare Czipra by No Louder...JANET'S STAR won her first race of 2008 in her 9th strat. Gus Sanci's mare loved the turn-back from a route to 7 furlongs and won for $9,500 claiming under Emma-Jayne Wilson. Trainer Ross Arata took the filly's blinkers off too.
The Storm Cat stallion TUMBLEBRUTUS had his 2nd winner from his 4th runner when LIBIAMO won the maiden 2yo race for $25,000 claiming - race 5. The Ontario bred is out of Lake Mills Lady by Cryptoclearance and was bred by BAY RIDGE ORCHARDS. Tumblebrutus is a full brother to GIANT'S CAUSEWAY - he stood in Kentucky to start his career at stud but now stands in Chile.
Beclawat owns Libiamo.
Race 6 went to JOHNNY'S CON, claimed for $11,500 from her debut by Rainbow and All Day Stables and Willie Armata, and now a maiden allowance winner in her 7th start. As the big favourite, the Compadre - Closing Quick, Closing Fast 3yo won by almost 4 lengths under Patrick Husbands. Trainer Armata has cleaned up with Compadre offspring this year and has won a stake with a claimed runner- Bold Corky.


KEENELAND UPDATE

SAM-SON FARM continues to have a good sale. The farm has already sold some high priced mares in its annual culling process. Its Canadian-bred DANCEINTHESUNLIGHT (A.P. Indy-Dancethruthedawn) topped yesterday's session at $675,000, bought by Southern Equine.
Sold through Anderson Farms as agent, the filly is a 3yo who never raced and is in foal to Forest Wildcat.

TABULATIONS from THOROUGHBRED DAILY NEWS

SAM-SON MARES AT KEENELAND
BROODMARES

Hip Name Sire Infoal Price ($)

331 Feathered Diamond A.P. Indy Corinthian 385,000
Purchased by Woodland Farm

359 High Button Shoes Carson City A.P. Indy 900,000
Purchased by My MeadowView LLC

444 Pretty Dutch Sky Classic Smart Strike (200,000)
RNA

458 Quiet Reward Seeking the Gold Giant’s Causeway (350,000)
RNA

552 Angel on Watch Pulpit Smart Strike 420,000
Purchased by Nofa Equestrian Resort

1014 DanceinthesunlightA.P. Indy Forest Wildcat 675,000
Purchased by Southern Equine Stables

1034 Dynamite Eyes Dynaformer Vindication 180,000
Purchased by Patrick Lawley-Wakelin, agent for Hare Forest Farm

1163 Mossy Bank Smoke Glacken Corinthian (75,000)
RNA

1378 Candleglow Carson City Silver Deputy 55,000
Purchased by Morning Bloodstock

Total: $2,615,000 * Average: $435,833


MARK DODSON (Hopefield Farm etc.) bought Canadian bred LOVE YOU CRAZY for $25,000...MRS. BEGAN sold for $65,000 to Tommy Town Thoroughbreds, she won the Princess Elizabeth Stakes last year...
Breeders' Stakes winner SWEETEST THING, who has had some trouble in the breeding shed with 2 aborted foals, sold by Mill Ridge to Stud TNT for $95,000 in foal to Bernstein..
MICHAEL C, BYRNE sold an Ontario bred weanling filly by Broken Vow out of Beach Party by Boston Harbor for $130,000 to Cormac McCormack.



ONTARIO BRED WINS AT HOLLYWOOD

PRETTY KATHERINE ( Vindication--Indigene, by Deputy Minister) won her maiden in her 2nd career start as a 2yo yesterday at Holywood, sizzling 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:15 1/5. She was bred by Hill 'n' Dale and NETP in Ontario and is owned by John Liviakis, trained by Melody Conlon.

Her Beyer Figure was 79.




RICHARD ULBRICHS PEERAGE OF RACEHORSES

Sign up, check out the website - just click the logo on my sidebar..

PRESS RELEASE:

Shaking the family trees of thoroughbreds

The best blood, it has been said, will at some time get into a fool or a mosquito.

While bloodlines of the thoroughbred have been carefully managed for the best part of three centuries, ‘good blood’ does not necessarily show where it counts: at the finishing post. And ‘chance bred’ horses, such as McGee - the only offspring of his Sire, are well represented in racing’s halls of fame.

Theories abound as to why particular bloodlines disappear and reappear in the world’s winner’s circles. However, author Richard Ulbrich says that particular theories should be given but passing credence by the breeder, owner, buyer or keen observer of the thoroughbred, as many a theory – such as the fabled "nick" of ‘Nasrullah’ with a ‘Princequillo’ mare can be proved to fail. The key, he says, is in interpreting relevant, high-quality data.

To this end, Ulbrich spent more than three decades researching and documenting the ancestry, performances, and progeny of major race winners around the world to compile his database of some 51,000 thoroughbreds – and 6 million plus words. The online database builds on the wealth of knowledge Ulbrich published earlier in book form, such as See How They Ran (1981), The Great Stallion Book (1988) and the 25,000 + horse print version of the database: Richard Ulbrich’s Peerage of Racehorses (1994).

The unique, searchable database – www.ulbrichspeerage.net – covers the winners of classic/major stakes events around the world, focusing primarily in the US, Europe and Australasia. Detailed profiles of significant performers place these animals more concisely in the context of thoroughbred history, and are accompanied by Ulbrich’s unique (and exclusive) thoroughbred family trees.

Ulbrich, who was born in England and now lives in Australia, set firm criteria against which horses would be chosen for his ‘peerage’, and the type information to be included.

“I eliminated most handicap winners and geldings,” Ulbrich explains. “These factors can bias, unhelpfully for breeders and buyers, the relative success of a particular line or animal.”

Ulbrich says his choice of the word ‘peerage’ was significant.

“I concentrated on names that have dominated, and continue to dominate the thoroughbred breed. Their claim to ‘royalty’ is based on an analysis of sustained, credible performance on the track and/or at stud, not simply parentage.”

A free ‘lite’ version of Ulbrich’s Peerage is now available online at www.ulbrichspeerage.net.

Subscription to Ulbrich’s comprehensive, 50,000 + resource is available for $199 (USD) for the first year and $39 (USD) for subsequent annual renewal. Subscribers also have online access to ‘Ulbrich’s Thoroughbred Family Trees’

An example of the depth of information the online resource provides on significant horses can be viewed by visiting www.ulbrichspeerage.net and clicking on the ‘Blog’ link. A sample page profiles England’s leading sire of 1951, and America’s Leading Sire five times, Nasrullah.


For more information:
Michael O’Neill
[ulbrichspeerage@gmail.com]




JUST CURIOUS

As the Keeneland November sale muddles along, there is super coverage of the auction and the players in the THOROUGBRED DAILY NEWS each day.
The TDN this morning had an interesting bit on SALLY WOOD (Woodman-Schonnbrunn, family of La Lorgnette ETC.) who sold to BBA for $400,000 by Pat Costello's Paramount Stable.

This is the last paragraph of the report:

Former Stonestreet inmate Sally Wood, in foal to War Chant, went through the ring at KEENOV last year, going to T.W. Bloodstock for $125,000. Costello declined
to elaborate on the T.W. partnership.

Whis is there so much secrecy in horse sales - ownerships, selling, buying,etc.?
This is just one of zillions of examples in the history of horse sales of owners and breeders not being known - i.e. in sales catalogues, we never know who the owner and/or breeder is...why is that? Just curious.