RESPECT

WANDERIN BOY -2001-2008

Sarah K. Andrew photo, taken minutes before he was euthanized yesterday

SOVEREIGN AWARDS - VOTE GETTERS

Voting closes tomorrow for the Sovereign Awards and horses such as SPRINGSIDE (photo at right by Sarah K. Andrew) and SECRET GETAWAY made some noise that should earn them respect in the voting.
SPRINGSIDE is not on the ballot however and will have be written in.
The Awesome Again filly is at New Bolton Centre with multiple fractures in her pastern following a huge win in the Grade 2 Demoiselle at Aqueduct yesterday.
She earned an 87 Beyer Figure and should probably be the champion 2yo filly in Canada - if voters are paying attention.

SECRET GETAWAY likely cannot win champion 3yo colt over Not Bourbon or Fatal Bullet but he did some good things yesterday too (see more below)


ROCKED!

Canadian-bred HARLEM ROCKER ran super to win the Grade 1 CIGAR MILE and and move up to the top CANADIAN BRED on the THOROUGBLOG LIST (at right).
Bad news is, he was disqualified in a controversial call and Canadian owned TALE OF EKATI (Charles Fipke bred) was placed first)
Great photo by Sarah K. Andrew









WOODBINE YESTERDAY

LEARNING CURVE - Parabola upsets Kingarvie,
McAleney wins only mount to stay in front...

JANET JEANPIERRE'S homebred colt PARABOLA, cleverly named by Trajectory out of Flying Tabriz (Turkoman), won the 34th Kingarvie Stakes with a rally from far back yesterday. The 2yo had raced for $25,000 claiming 2 starts ago, won his maiden last time for allowance and then improved his maiden Beyer of 63 into a 72 for the stake win yesterday.

Parabola was bought back from the local sale for $9,009.


OTHER STUFF

PATRICK HUSBANDS did more winning yesterday in the midst of a wild weel by he is still 1 WINNER behind Jim McAleney, who somehow managed to get the win-shy MORO MOO to win the last race in his only ride of the day.

HUSBANDS won on Eugene Melnyk's PARRIS HILL in race 4, a grey A.P. Indy miss, and talked to SUN TV after about trying to win the title with 6 cards of racing left:
"It's been what it's all about, I'm going after it," said Husbands. "It's been another top season for myself and Mark."

Trainer Mark Casse, who has a sizy lead in the trainer's standings said PARRIS HILL is now retired and will be bred next year:
"It has been interesting this year, a lot of ups and downs, probably the most difficult I have had.
A month ago (Patrick) said he was going to catch (McAleney),I said I didn't know but he's a very determined man."


Race 3- The field of maiden 2-year-olds was very strung out early in the race and perhaps that said volumes about the runners in the allowance. One of the favourites, COSTA BLANCA (Porto Foricos) had a bad start for the 2nd consecutive race, rearing up, and the big favourite, MONSTROSE AVENUE (Endeavour) tried to lead all the way.
But the winner was D'WILD MAN (D'Wildcat-Gleaming) the last colt to move and the first winner of the season for Hall of Fame trainer GIL ROWNTREE.
Bred by Norm and Mark Casse in Ontario, the colt was making his 6th start.

"He'll be a better horse when the races get farther, I was just running him because the races kept coming up," said Rowntree, who heads to Florida for the winter.


TODAY AT WOODBINE

Pat Husbands
race 3 Come On Love 2-1
race 4 Garzon 6-1
race 6 Pure Attitude 10-1
race 7 Igootgojoe 9-2
race 8 Retraceable 9-5
race 9 Grazettes Landing 2-1
race 10 Guipago 3-1
race 11 Lady Loreli 6-1

Jim McAleney

race 2 Jemerra 7-2
race 6 hydro handshake 20-1
race 8 Moonlit Beauty 15-1
race 9 Seismic Force 8-1
race 10 Little Reuben 12-1


SECRET GETAWAY JUMPS INTO SOVEREIGN PICTURE

SECRET GETAWAY, a two-time stakes winner at Woodbine on turf and Polytrack won over older horses on traditional dirt yesterday at Fair Grounds....
He should get votes for champion 3yo in Canada.

Secret Getaway wins on sloppy dirt track at Fair Grounds
Posted by Bob Fortus, The Times-Picayune November 29, 2008 10:03PM

Racing on dirt for the first time in more than a year, Secret Getaway found a sloppy Fair Grounds track to his liking and rolled to a 2 3/4-length victory over Good and Lucky on Saturday in the Tenacious Handicap.

Ridden by James Graham for trainer Mike Stidham and Carmen Wilson's Sand and Cee Stables, Secret Getaway stalked front-runners Stonehouse and Good and Lucky much of the way before mounting a challenge entering the stretch. He pulled away powerfully.

Mambo in Seattle, the favorite, finished third, three lengths behind Good and Lucky in a field of eight older horses.

Secret Getaway's first six races this year were on synthetic surfaces or turf.

"He just keeps improving, " Stidham said of the 3-year-old colt, whose first two stakes victories were on turf at Woodbine in Canada. "The amazing thing is the horse actually looked better doing it on the mud than he did on the turf or Poly(track). He just traveled better. He did it more the right way today."

Graham said: "He's a good horse. I've never seen a horse transfer from turf to dirt that easy."

Neil Howard, trainer of Mambo in Seattle, offered no excuses for him saying, "He just didn't run any good. It's as simple as that. He's had a hard year."

Secret Getaway ran a mile-and-a-sixteenth in 1:45.06 and paid $9 to win.


WINTER MIXED SALE SUFFERS GIANT DECLINES

Broodmares, yearlings and Horses of racing age were all down in average price at a very rocky winter mixed sale yesterday at Woodbine.
The Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's auction had a lot of horses that did not receive a bid.
The broodmare average was down almost 50% from $6,380 last year to $3,363 this year for more mares sold.

Yearlings were down a bit from $3,655 last year to $3,200 and horses of racing age went from $4,250 to just $1,609.

Weanlings were up from $4,166 to $4,280.

One of the leading buyers, interestingly, was ZAYAT STABLES, which sold most of its bloodstock at the Keeneland November sale and is an American-based farm.

Zayat bought the top priced mare JOANNE JUBILATION from Hill'n' Dale for $34,000. The unraced Monarchos 5yo is in foal to Bold Executive.



OLEX - DOZENS OF HORSES EACH WEEK LAND THERE FROM THE TRACK..

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

The video shows Olex, the auction in London, Ontario that everyone should know about.
Many a racehorse ends up there waiting to be sold for meat every week.

Most are standardbreds but there are lots of thoroughbreds too.
(Just do a search on THOROUGHBLOG and you will see how many horses who raced this year ended up there)

ELLIE ROSS is doing her part....you should too, help LONGRUN or the ONTARIO STANDARBRED ADOPTION SOCIETY today!


http://news.therecord.com/videogallery/451314