First turf stakes of season this weekend
It was Go Time in no time.
The two-year old chestnut filly, Go Time, won the shortest race in the 62-year history of Monmouth Park, clocking in at :22.08 in a two-furlong race on May 16.
Trained by Jim Ryerson and ridden by Jose Lezcano, Go Time was a two lengths winner over second-place finisher Hold Dance, who was the long shot at 22-1. Sandi's Ready, the 3-2 pre-race favorite, finished in third.
"We're just trying something different," said Mike Dempsey, Monmouth Park's director of racing. "Usually we run our first 2-year-old race around Memorial Day, and we start at five furlongs. This year, the first baby race is earlier, so we thought we'd try the short distance, see if horsemen like it."
The unique event was not the only Monmouth Park first on a busy weekend that included simulcast betting on the Preakness Stakes, which was won by Big Brown.
In the fifth race on May 18, Kickapoo, ridden by 13-time leading racer Joe Bravo, won the first ever 4 1/2-furlong race, an event for maiden 2-year olds.
With a time of :51.95, Kickapoo won a comfortable 3 1/4 lengths over second-place finisher Atomic Rain. The 8-5 favorite, Wild Proof finished in third.
Bravo, a Long Branch native, also rode the 3-year-old filly D'Wild Ride to victory in the $65,000 Just Smashing Stakes on May 17.
Sumptuous made a late charge but D'Wild Ride held on for the half-length win with the odds-on favorite, Mikeslittlegirl landing another two lengths back in third.
"(Trainer) Joe (Orseno) did a great job getting this filly ready today," Bravo said. "She broke really well and was able to settle down nice and easy down the backstretch. Turning for home she just turned it on down the lane."
The unofficial start to summer offers race fans a busy four-program weekend at Monmouth Park beginning today and running through Monday.
The first turf stakes of the year highlights a six stakes race weekend as the $70,000 Elkwood Stakes will be run on Saturday along with the $60,000 John J. Reilly Handicap.
Saturday also offers the debut of the Sixty Minute Six, a new pick-six wager that joins races from Monmouth, Belmont Park, Philadelphia Park and Delaware Park.
The wager combines two races from a pair of tracks and a single race from each of the other two and will be chosen so all six races are run within a one-hour time frame.
Sunday's action features the $65,000 Lamplighter Stakes for 3-year olds on the turf track and the $70,000 Monmouth Beach Stakes for fillies and mares on the main track.
Race fans also can attend the annual Jim Mazur Handicapping Seminar, which begins at 11 a.m. Sunday near the Paddock walking ring.
Copyright (c) 2008 Asbury Park Press. All rights reserved
Breeding Trends Under Fire In US
Thursday, 8 May 2008: The death of Kentucky Derby runner-up Eight Belles has sparked a nationwide controversy in the United States, with racing coming under widespread scrutiny.
The Three Chimneys bred filly broke both front legs soon after the finish of the Derby, where she ran second to Big Brown.
Her death follows other recent high profile deaths in the US like Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro (who eventually succumbed to injuries suffered in the Preakness Stakes) and European classic winner George Washington (Breeders' Cup Classic).
Fingers have been pointed in many directions, with the breeding industry coming in for a significant amount of criticism.
It seems everyone in America has an opinion on the matter, owing to the fact the Derby is one of the few races shown on free to air television in the US.
Andrew Beyer writes in the Washington Post. "America's breeding industry is producing increasingly fragile thoroughbreds."
"They may not break down, but they have shorter and shorter racing careers before going to stud to beget even more fragile offspring."
Pat Ford of ESPN.com wrote along similar lines.
"Racing is taking its own bad steps if it thinks it can continue dismissing the fatal breakdowns of star animals with shoulder shrugs and some sympathetic words," he said.
"If racing wants to act as though it is powerless to prevent - or at least significantly limit - these gruesome occurrences, it will run itself right out of business as a legitimate American sport.
"American race horses are bred (and inbred) for speed racing on dirt tracks, not for durability.
"The collective gene pool has been reduced, and physical infirmities are being passed along like hair color in humans," Ford concluded.
Washington Post Sports Columnist Sally Jenkins, describing Eight Belles legs as "champagne-glass ankles" asked "Is horse racing breeding itself to death?"
"The camera cut away from her, but it should have stayed on her. Eight Belles had run herself half to death and now the vets were finishing the job as she lay on her side, her beautiful figure a black hump on the track," she wrote.
"Modern thoroughbreds are bred for extreme speed, maybe to the point of endangerment.
"Thoroughbreds are muscularly more powerful than ever, but their bone skeletons seem to be getting lighter and frail."
A New York Times Editorial claimed the nature of racing and breeding has changed over the years.
"Good horses, whose careers often begin and end before their bones are fully mature, are racing less often than they used to, which means they only need enough endurance to last a few races," the Editorial stated.
"That makes it all the easier to breed for the lightness of build -- and the fragility -- that Eight Belles showed.
"The real race increasingly seems to be to capitalize on a horse's success -- to move a horse through its career as quickly as possible.
"The sums involved are immense, so much so that the horses seem more like financial vehicles than animals with an existence of their own."
Also in the New York Times, William C Rhoden asked why there isn't more pressure to put horse racing under the umbrella of animal cruelty.
"Why do we keep giving thoroughbred horse racing a pass? Is it the tradition? The millions upon millions invested in the betting?" Rhoden asked.
"The sport is at least as inhumane as greyhound racing and only a couple of steps removed from animal fighting.
"Within the racing industry, Eight Belles was a tragic but glorious casualty.
"The industry is in denial: racing grinds up horses, and we dress up the sport with large hats, mint juleps and string bands.
"Why do we refuse to put the brutal game of racing in the realm of mistreatment of animals?
"At what point do we at least raise the question about the efficacy of thousand-pound horses racing at full throttle on spindly legs?
"This is bullfighting. Thoroughbred racing is a brutal sport. Why do we keep giving it a pass?"
CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel went even further.
"Show me a spectacle where animals are bred beyond their physical limitations, then raced to the brink of destruction, all for the sake of one rich owner and thousands of gambling gawkers, and I'll show you a pathetic way to spend an afternoon," he opined.
racingandsports.com.au
Preakness is region's 'Super Bowl,' racing panel chief says
BALTIMORE - Mike Hopkins is executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission, part of the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The commission oversees both the harness and thoroughbred horse racing industries in Maryland, as well as the state's four off-track betting sites.
How important is the Preakness to Maryland's racing industry?
It's a vital thing to have as far as the racing industry is concerned. Someone said having the Preakness is like having the Super Bowl in town every year. It's like the Super Bowl every third weekend in May.
Could the Preakness be moved out of Maryland?
If the Preakness is moved, there are penalties under state statute, kind of the doomsday scenario. If you move Preakness without the commission's approval, then all the tax penalties pre-1984 come into effect. [A 1983 state statute eased taxes on money wagered at tracks.]
Are you concerned about the race being moved?
I don't know that I'm concerned about it. That's a hard one. Do I want to see it moved? No, of course not.
Would it be better for Maryland horse racing if the Preakness were run at Laurel?
If they [Laurel and Pimlico owner Magna Entertainment Corp.] wanted to do that, the racing commission would get involved. Would it be better for Maryland racing? Your guess is as good as mine.
Some say Pimlico's biggest difficulty is its location in Northwest Baltimore, where there's not much mass transit.
If you get 100,000 people out there for an event, it's pretty popular. They're putting seats up everywhere for the Preakness this year. They've been getting there somehow for 135 years.
examiner.com
The Third Friday in April
On the third Friday in April, the horse racing documentary entitled "The First Saturday in May" was shown in Chicago for the first time.
As happens in the horse racing industry when something of tangential interest in the sport is met with recognition by the outside, it gets blown out of proportion on the inside. So, horse race insiders, maybe you’ve heard about it.
Of the 150 people in attendance at the Landmark's Century Centre for the premiere, at least a couple dozen seemed to be friends of the editor and almost all the rest were friends of racing. They rose to applaud the final curtain, stayed for a brief question and answer period and a computer printed flyer, and seemed generally satisfied with the return from their $10 ticket purchase, $2.50 of which reverted to the Grayson/Jockey Club Research Foundation.
This generous slice of box office proceeds, at least for a little while, is being donated to charity by John and Brad Hennegan, who wrote, directed and produced the movie. The Hennegans, sons of a New York Racing Association placing judge, grew up around the racetrack and decided to mix their passion for the horses with their knowledge of film-making. It is noteworthy that they had the grace to be generous to others, and admirable of Churchill Downs Incorporated and Truly Indie, the distribution company co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban, to assist in the movie's financing.
Not everyone is able to quit their employment and embark on a 16-month worldwide odyssey for the purpose of gathering film footage. But that's exactly what the Hennegans did. On the basis of good salesmanship and plentiful charm, they were able to cajole their subjects into providing them with copious cooperation. They parlayed an investment of roughly $100,000 in living expenses, travel and equipment for a 96-minute cinematic escape. "The First Saturday in May" is their first feature film.
The horse racing fans in the cinema were of the experiential kind, not the gambling kind. So even if the quality of the film wasn't what the Hennegans imagined or they expected, losing ten bucks on the ticket wasn't denting their betting stake. There are very few ways to better spend a sawbuck, especially if one possesses some knowledge of the game.
By all means, "The First Saturday in May" isn't perfect, nor is it an Oscar nominee. But the movie has played to positive reviews in most corners, excluding Eighth Avenue and W. 40th Street. The movie was a selection of the Tribeca Film Festival and a winner at film festivals in Savannah, Durango and Austin. More importantly, it succeeds mightily in bringing warmth to the blood of its audiences.
By now, racing fans know that the movie traces the lives of six trainers with contenders for the 2006 Kentucky Derby. But what many people don't realize is that the Hennegans started their project out by filming 15. The half-dozen they were left with included Frank Amonte Jr., whose Achilles of Troy broke down mercilessly en route to providing the trainer with a life-long dream, and Michael Matz, whose dream was realized before having it come unraveled in the most spectacular and least expected way.
The main criticism of the movie has to do with the Derby's aftermath. "The First Saturday in May" should have ended on an up-note, leaving Barbaro fans with the positive image of their hero in triumph. Instead, it pandered to the temptation of sympathy revival. Clearly, nobody engaged in the process of making the film could have expected what would happen in the Preakness. But the Hennegans should have ended the film by draping a blanket of roses on the Kentucky Derby winner.
If this had happened, the film-makers could have taken pride into being rare historians. After all, the movie is called "The First Saturday in May," not "Fourteen Days Later."
Does every blessing of joy in the sport have to be tempered by an example of unhappiness? In this instance, it was. The Preakness coverage was never properly entwined with the main subject of the work, and thus became a clumsy postscript.
Some viewers at the Century Center complained that the film fell short in providing them insight to what trainers do on a day-to-basis. The New York Times reviewer is correct to place blame on haphazard scene gathering. Although the scene which portrays the young son of one trainer with "a brick" of cash in his pants from playing poker is unique, it was not fully developed. One team of Kentucky Derby participants was shown playing in a golf tournament, and that lent credence to the concept of a life outside the business. A shot of Frank Amonte Jr. boosting 72-year-old Frank Amonte Sr. into the saddle of one his runners emphasizes how much families are involved in this pastime.
The film is instructional. Casual racing fans don't realize how horses earn their way into the Derby by accumulating earnings in graded stakes races. Nevertheless, in utilizing a chronological format and some well-placed title cards, the point that there was a long and winding road en route to Louisville was made effectively. The scenes in which the trainers provided emotional information to an off-screen interviewer triumphed over similar scenes in which on-screen turf writers were involved.
"The First Saturday in May" breaks poorly from the gate, and races forwardly for most of the way to the finish line. Then it appears to have won everything intended of it, until stumbling a bit at the end.
There aren't many horse owners and trainers who would be dissatisfied with coming close in the Kentucky Derby. The Hennegans have every right to feel proud of their movie. Anyone who accepts the challenge of creativity does his best to deliver a product that everyone will love. Movie-goers, especially the fans of horse racing, will embrace this effort.
(c) Copyright 2007 - 2008 HorseRaceInsider.com
Baird now has plans for Derby Day
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - E.T. Baird was not riding anywhere when the year started, did not join the Gulfstream riding colony until mid-February, and is uncertain where he's going when the meet ends here April 20.
But the jockey knows exactly where he will be on May 3 - at Churchill Downs to ride Recapturetheglory for trainer Louie Roussel in the Kentucky Derby.
Recapturetheglory earned a starting berth in the Derby by virtue of his impressive victory in last Saturday's Illinois Derby at Hawthorne. The win was one of two on the day for Baird, who then returned to south Florida to post a riding triple at Gulfstream on Sunday. Baird has ridden 12 winners from 87 mounts since arriving at Gulfstream about a month into the meet.
Recapturetheglory earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure for his victory in the Illinois Derby, and Baird said he was impressed with the colt's performance and eagerly looking forward to the first Kentucky Derby mount of his 22-year riding career.
"When Louie called me up and asked me to come to Chicago to ride Recapturetheglory in the Illinois Derby, he told me he was a really nice horse who reminded him a lot of Risen Star," said Baird, referring to the Roussel-trained colt who won the Preakness and Belmont in 1988.
"We had the 1-hole on Saturday and I had to take advantage of it and put him on the lead," Baird said. "A lot of winners had won with speed and on the fence earlier on the card. And that strategy really worked out well.
"When I cut him loose at the quarter pole he was really running, and I especially liked the way he kept the same speed up at the end as he'd shown earlier in the race. He never backed up."
Baird, 41, had the best year of his career in 2007 when he won 121 races and his mounts earned $2,635,539. He finished third in the jockey standings at Arlington Park last summer while teaming up with the track's leading owner-trainer combination of Frank Calabrese and Wayne Catalano. But he and Catalano parted ways at the end of the year, leaving Baird's career somewhat up in the air when the 2008 season began.
"I really have no definite plans when the Gulfstream meeting ends in a couple of weeks," said Baird, the son of the late jockey Robert Baird. "But winning a race like the Illinois Derby and having an opportunity to ride in the Kentucky Derby might change things for me. Needless to say, I couldn't be more excited."
Trujillo still recuperating
Jockey Elvis Trujillo, whose career was skyrocketing until he was injured in a nasty spill here six weeks ago, is about ready to get back to work.
Trujillo, who won the 2007 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint aboard Maryfield, sustained a broken right wrist and an injured neck when his mount, Dinner Guest, fell suddenly while near the lead in a turf race on Feb. 23. Trujillo was knocked unconscious and underwent surgery on the wrist within days after the mishap.
"The doctors say I can probably start back in a couple of weeks," said Trujillo, who was still sporting a brace on his wrist when he visited the track over the weekend. "Everything with the recovery has worked out well, and I can't wait to start back as soon as I am 100 percent."
* My Princess Jess, an easy maiden special weight winner on the grass here on Feb. 23, will head a well-matched group of 3-year-old fillies in Friday's $41,500 allowance feature. The race, scheduled for 1 1/16 miles on the turf, drew a field of 10, plus one entered for the main track only. Joe Bravo, who rode a pair of winners on Monday, will be aboard My Princess Jess for trainer Robert Barbara.
drf.com
Seven Md. horses to watch this spring
Sun reporter - As horse racing's prime season races on, seven Maryland horses who have excited local horsemen are entering new stages of their careers.
Veteran runners are taking stock, while new names are rising.
Ah Day, Maryland's 2006 Horse of the Year, is working his way back from a shoulder injury. Sweetnorthernsaint, owned by Marylanders Ted Theos and Joe Balsamo, has been transferred from Laurel Park based trainer Mike Trombetta to Leo J. Azpurua, Jr., who began his training career at the Bowie Training Center in 1987 and is now based at Gulfstream.
"My major goal is to have him come back to what he was," said Azpurua, referring to The Saint's 3-year-old season when he won five of eight races, was the betting favorite in the Kentucky Derby and the runnerup in the Preakness.
The Saint's last victory came a year ago at Laurel Park in the Harrison Johnson Handicap. In his last race, he finished last among nine horses in the Grade II San Antonio Handicap at Santa Anita.
Meanwhile, two 3-year-old fillies, Bsharp Sonata, trained by Tim Salzman, and Access Fee, trained by Larry Murray, have caught the eyes of local horsemen.
Bsharp, who has already won two Grade II races, is to start Saturday in the Grade I $500,000 Ashland Stakes at Keeneland. Meanwhile, Murray said the excitement over Access Fee, who has won her first two starts impressively, might be premature. "This filly sprints very well, but I don't know who she has beaten," he said.
A 3-year-old colt in trainer Tim Tullock's Laurel Park barn, Gattopardo, will probably start in Saturday's Grade III Bay Shore Stakes at Aqueduct, though his owner said there is an outside chance the son of Johannesburg could start in the Grade I Wood Memorial.
"We could have the best seven-furlong horse in the country," said owner Mike Ueltzen, shortly after watching his colt turn in a 58-second work over five furlongs. "The smart thing to do would be to run him in the Bay Shore. That's what Tim is recommending. But the Wood could come up softer [less competitive]."
Ueltzen said the final decision would be made tomorrow. Both races draw Thursday for Saturday's Aqueduct card.
The dreamer in Ueltzen would love to run Gattopardo in the Wood, do well and advance to the Kentucky Derby. The realist in him knows the Bay Shore is the next logical step for the horse coming off last month's victory in the seven-furlong Miracle Wood Stakes at Laurel Park.
"If we chose the Bay Shore, then, well, we'd skip the Derby and go after the Preakness," Ueltzen said, adding that to have a horse in the second leg of the Triple Crown Series would in itself be a dream. "It's like having lightning strike," he said.
Trainer King Leatherbury said Ah Day is recovering well from pulled right shoulder ligaments that caused him to be scratched from the General George Handicap two months ago.
"He's about four or five more weeks away from getting back to training," Leatherbury said. "About two months after that he should be back to a race."
Two others who had excited their trainers earlier this season, the Gary Capuano-trained Wonder Mon and the Trombetta-trained Caves' Valley, have proven to be solid horses, but not up to top 3-year-old competition.
"Wonder Mon's Florida experience was tough," said Capuano of the horse who was well-beaten twice. "He got outrun. ... We'll see how he trains going forward."
As for Caves' Valley, who has lost his last three races after winning his first three, Trombetta said he is "a work in progress."
When asked about the move of Sweetnorthernsaint to anther trainer, Trombetta declined to elaborate.
Copyright © 2008, The Baltimore Sun
Blurry picture could be cleared up soon
War Pass, the 2-year-old champion, finished last in his last Kentucky Derby prep race.
Double or Nothing, a 3-year-old who won the Private Terms Stakes at Laurel Park last Saturday, earned a higher Beyer's speed figure (the scale used by many prognosticators to determine a horse's effort) than Adriano, who won the Grade II, $500,000 Lane's End at Turfway in Kentucky the same day.
Elysium Fields, who could wind up the betting favorite in today's Florida Derby because of his big second-place performance in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, was 0-for-3 as a 2-year-old and couldn't break his maiden at Laurel Park in two November attempts.
To say the crop of 3-year-old contenders vying for the opportunity to win the Kentucky Derby on May 3 at Churchill Downs has yet to sort itself out would be an understatement.
The picture, however, should become clearer over the next three weeks as five of the season's biggest Derby prep events - the Florida Derby, the Wood Memorial, the Santa Anita Derby and Arkansas Derby and the Blue Grass Stakes - unfold.
At Gulfstream today, the Florida Derby will reveal at least two more horses that have yet to show their stuff in the most elite company: Big Brown, who has run just twice in the past six months, and Tomcito, even less familiar having run all of his races in Peru.
Since War Pass' nightmare finish in the Tampa Bay Derby, Pyro, who won the Louisiana Derby, has moved to the top of most betting lists. But Big Brown has become the darling in Florida, where he is the morning-line favorite despite drawing the outside post position for the $1 million Grade I race.
Since Gulfstream was redesigned four years ago, horses starting from the No. 12 spot are 0-for-11 at the Florida Derby distance of 1 1/8 miles.
But this, evidently, is the year of the unexpected. How else to explain War Pass' last-place finish in a race in which he was the hands-down, 1-20 betting choice at post time? How else to explain the rise of the Barclay Tagg-trained Elysium Fields? Or the skewed speed figures where Double or Nothing earns a 94 to Adriano's 92?
How else to explain a horse like Big Brown, who has been sidelined twice with quarter cracks in his hooves, who has some people talking about him being the favorite for the Kentucky Derby before he's even run 1 1/8 miles on dirt? Or faced really good horses. Or run in two races less than a month apart - which he'll have to do to compete in the Kentucky Derby.
But his trainer, Richard Dutrow, left little doubt during a conference call that he is 100 percent sure of his horse.
"He's taken my breath away," Dutrow said. "We feel very confident with our chances."
Dutrow told Jay Privman of the Daily Racing Form after the draw that not even the outside post worries him.
"I like it," Dutrow said. "As long as he breaks good, I think it's going to be to our advantage. It eliminates any chance of him getting into trouble. He'll get a clean trip, which is half the battle going in. ... Look, we're not going to cry. We get to play the intimidator from out there, instead of being intimidated. We are ready, babe."
In other weekend races, Preakness winner and 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin is another star bucking the odds today in the $6 million Dubai World Cup. Curlin will attempt to become the first winner from the No. 12 post.
Fans wanting to watch the races from Dubai can catch the last three races on the card at Laurel Park beginning at 11 a.m.
The Laurel stakes race for the afternoon is the $80,000 Harrison Johnson Handicap in which five horses will compete, including Forty Crowns, who won the Maryland Million Day Turf.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Baltimore Sun
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