DAYS OF KINGS

YIPPEE!! - - FUNNY CIDE at the Kentucky Horse Park is pretty darn happy these days...he doesn't have to shovel Toronto snow!
(www.horse-races.net)



HOLIDAY RACING

It's a big week for our neighbours and there is racing today for MARTIN LUTHER KING day.

Among the action - Canadian International winner MARSH SIDE is in the San Marcos Handicap at Santa Anita.



THE MORE THINGS CHANGE...

TOUR OF THE CAT (Tour d'Or) won his 11-year-old debut at Aqueduct yesterday for DAVID JACOBSON, owner/trainer.

Yep, he's really old but the point of him racing/winning is that he is a MILLIONAIRE racing for $7,500 claiming.

He raced 74 times for SUE GANNON'S DOUBLE G STABLE and then was claimed in November for $16,000 by Jacobson.


STATS:
75 Starts: 20 - 12 - 13, $1,094,558

At 3: 1st The Vid S. (CRC), Rizzi S. (CRC), 2nd Flamingo S (HIA), Calder Derby (CRC), Pete Axthelm S. (CRC), Needles S. (CRC), 3rd Simply Majestic S. (CRC)

At 4: 1st Jack Dudley Sprint Handicap (CRC), Groomstick Handicap (CRC), Exclusive Praline Handicap (CRC), Naked Greed S. (CRC), 2nd Kenny Noe Jr. Handicap (CRC), Super S. (TAM), Jackie Wackie Handicap (CRC), 3rd Tampa Bay Breeders' Cup S. (TAM), Carterista Handicap (CRC)

At 5: 1st Richter Scale Breeders' Cup Hcp. (GP), Miami Mile Breeders' Cup Handicap (CRC), Spend A Buck Handicap (CRC), 2nd Carl G. Rose Classic Handicap (CRC), Tampa Bay Breeders' Cup S. (TAM), 3rd Kenny Noe, Jr. Handicap (CRC), Linear S. (CRC)

At 6: 1st Sumter S. (CRC)

At 8: 3rd Radar Love S. (CRC)

LAST YEAR, trainer MYRA MORA said to Calder racetrack after the 10yo won an allowance/optional claimer in May:

"I wouldn’t think there are a lot of people out there ready to deal with a horse that has 10-year-old issues,” said Mora, referring to the possibility that Tour of the Cat could be claimed.

(He was claimed a few races later by Jacobson)


and then there is MOONSHINE JUSTICE, a stakes winning Ontario bred who is 7 this year, was recently claimed for $5,000 by owner/trainer Loren Cox at Mountaineer Park.
He races for $7,500 claiming today at MOUNTAINEER
He's won $522,000 and has raced for a litany of owners and trainers as he slides down to the bottom of the racing world.

MORE NOTES - RACE 2 at MOUNTAINEER PARK today has 5 Ontario-breds in the 10 horse field...
tomorrow, MISS GUIDED (Randy Regent) is 3 to 5 in the MORNING LINE for DEBRA ROMBIS in a maiden allowance.


STORM CAT IN ACTION

(thanks to those who sent the comments and emails sent to me about this topic..._
FROM AMERICAN QUARTER HORSE ASSOCIATION website

LEADING THOROUGHBRED SIRE STORM CAT BRED TO QH MARE

January 16, 2009 – Leading Thoroughbred sire Storm Cat has been bred by artificial insemination to Your First Moon, a Grade 1 winner and American Quarter Horse racing’s champion 2-year-old in 2001.

The resulting foal will be co-owned by songwriter and recording artist Lyle Lovett and Frank “Scoop” Vessels III, the owner of Vessels Stallion Farm at Bonsall, California.

Storm Cat was retired from stud last year because of age-related subfertility issues. Although quality and quantity of sperm in ejaculates of the stallion were failing, a new procedure developed at Texas A&M University was used to obtain high-quality sperm from the semen, followed by insemination of the mare using a guided low-dose technique, whereby less than 1 ml (less than ¼ teaspoon) of semen was used as an insemination dose.

Dr. Dickson Varner, Professor and Pin Oak Stud Chair of Stallion Reproductive Studies at Texas A&M, Dr. Joe Yocum, Farm Manager and Resident Veterinarian at Overbrook Farm, and Dr. Stuart Brown II, Partner of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, combined forces to collect semen from Storm Cat.

“The procedure has been applied successfully to many American Quarter Horse stallions, but this represents the first attempt at using the procedure in a Thoroughbred stallion,” Dr. Varner said. “While the Jockey Club prohibits the use of artificial insemination, semen processed in this manner from a Thoroughbred stallion can be used for insemination of American Quarter Horse mares. This represents a means to prolong the breeding career of a stallion whose fertility declines as a part of the aging process.”

Semen from Storm Cat has also been processed in the laboratory in the same manner, followed by freezing in very low doses, such that sperm from one ejaculate would be sufficient for establishment of pregnancy in hundreds of mares, through a process termed intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Drs. Katrin Hinrichs, Professor and Link Endowed Chair in Mare Reproductive Studies and Young-Ho Choi, Research Scientist, both at Texas A&M University, are international leaders in the field of equine ICSI and have done much of the research on this technique, which requires only one viable sperm per egg. The egg is collected from the mare’s ovary before ovulation, then fertilized in the laboratory by injection of a sperm. The resulting embryo is allowed to grow in culture for about seven days before it is transferred non-surgically to the uterus of a recipient mare to be carried to term.

Texas A&M will provide the ICSI procedure for breeding to the famous stallion in 2009, through semen being offered by Overbrook Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

“”It is rewarding to see the research we have done on ICSI applied clinically to obtain foals from such an important stallion” said Hinrichs. “Storm Cat was not available to non-Thoroughbreds when he was standing at stud, but now American Quarter Horses can benefit from the infusion of his great racing genes into the breed. These are exciting times for people working in equine reproduction.”

A 26-year-old son of the Northern Dancer (TB) stallion Storm Bird, Storm Cat won the $500,000 Young America Stakes at The Meadowlands and ran second in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes at Aqueduct. He was Thoroughbred racing’s leading sire in 1999 and 2000.

Your First Moon is a 10-year-old mare by all-time leading Quarter Horse sire First Down Dash. From 2001-03, she earned $750,726 from seven wins in 19 starts, and she won the '01 Los Alamitos Million (G1) and Governor's Cup (RG1) futurities.

Storm Cat’s fee is $20,000 per live foal. He stood for a $300,000 fee in 2008 after six seasons at $500,000.

Parties interested in accessing Storm Cat through this special arrangement can contact Dr. Joe Yocum of Overbrook Farm at (859) 273-1514. For more information on the Stallion Reproductive Studies program at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, contact the Large Animal Clinical Sciences Department at (979) 845-9127.


The incomparable CIGAR! He can't have foals but his racing prowess can never be argued...here is CIGAR at the Kentucky Horse Park last week (www.horse-races.net)











CINDY PIERSON DULAY'S "ACTING UP" won the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance photo contest yesterday. The contest, set up somewhat tongue-in-cheek since the silly results at the Eclipse and Sovereign awards, attracted a ton of attention.














COMMENTS

Thanks to all the comments and emails this week (most are printed in the comment sections, see yesterday's post for latest comments).

THOROUGHBLOG does not publish ANONYMOUS COMMENTS.

Here's one from Krista...


Congrats Jen on Post 900! For potential advertisers - I get a large number of hits on my website via Jen's Thoroughblog - it's a great way to expose your product!