Usually my Horse Racing Race of the Week focuses on the major tracks around the country. Belmont Park, Santa Anita, Gulfstream Park etc but this week we are heading to Parx Racing and Casino (formerly known as Philadelphia Park) in Bensalem, PA to look at 2012 $1 million Cotillion Stakes, where the streaking Questing will take on the undefeated and 2012 champion two year old filly My Miss Aurelia. Also, we will be looking at the 2012 $1 million Pennsylvania Derby, where Alpha and Golden Ticket will square off again. The nine furlong event will serve as a rematch of the Travers, in which Alpha and Golden Ticket dead-heated for the win.
Godolphin Racing and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin will by looking to sweep both races as both Alpha and Questing are owned and trained by the aforementioned duo.
Before we get into those two races, I’d like to point out two other races that, like the two highlighted races, should be thrillers.
The race before the Cotillion is the Gallant Bob Stakes. The six furlong sprint for $300,000 will features multiple stakes winner Currency Swap vs. the speedy Trinniberg.
The other is at Belmont Park on Saturday. The $300,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap, a Grade: 2, 6 ½ furlong sprint for fillies and mares. 2011 champion female sprinter Musical Romance will face the fleet Turbulent Descent.
Read More: Horse Racing: Closer Looks at the 2012 Cotillion Stakes and 2012 Pennsylvania Derby
Digiturf-com wasn't exaggerating when they announced that the future of horse racing was going online. They've just celebrated their 34th successful season of virtual horse racing by sponsoring their races with $320,000 sponsorships, and they've also introduced some changes to their program that will see them going from strength to strength.
They've moved away from their traditional automated race program, which scheduled all races over different tracks, distances and goings, to an automated system that schedules races according to popularity. The unpopular races, which never attracted many runners, will be scheduled less frequently to create room for more of the popular races. Digiturf-com explained that the utter diversity of horses (there are 100,000 horse types with varying characteristics) in the game required that all races had to be pre-scheduled in anticipation of the community's racing needs. While this was an ambitious task it also entailed a cluttered race program with diluted fields and wasted sponsorships.
The new ARP (Automated Race Program) represents a new era in the programming of virtual horse races based on supply and demand. Digiturf-com has also backed up their ARP with a RAR (Request A Race) program so that trainers whose horses have special preferences don't find themselves excluded. The virtual horse racing community at Digiturf-com has always been a competitive community but with their ARP and RAR they will have a leaner and meaner race program that is still comprehensive but equally dynamic.
One potential disadvantage is that trainers will need to adjust to a virtual horse racing program that runs in real-time, because popular races can be repeated within 24 hours, so they will need to ensure that their horses are always in peak condition and racing fit, or at least keep more horses ready to race at the drop of a hat. If trainers find themselves pressed for time preparing their horses for a race on short notice they can always take advantage of increased training sessions, fitness boosters from the Tack shop, or if they're unable to tack their horses personally they can automate their horses' tack applications.
With increased racing opportunities, trainers were looking to increase the size of their barns, so Digiturf-com introduced the Crazy Horse Sale, additional free horses -- they got two free horses for every five horses purchased or six free horses if they bought ten. Those horses came with free tack, so all trainers needed to do was train them and then race them. Digiturf-com said they were doubling the free horses so trainers could get twice as much fun.
It goes without saying that all those horses needed somewhere to race, so the ARP and RAR became essential tools in the game of virtual horse racing so that trainers could recoup their expenses and see some returns on their virtual investments. The Grade 1 and Grade 2 horses had plenty of races, tailored to their preferences, but the Grade 3 horses only had two tracks, which made it a bit tricky if your horses only liked specific goings and had to wait for the weather to turn, so Digiturf-com increased the different tracks to six tracks to offer more variety and racing opportunities to the weaker horses.
One could get pretty confused between all the new races, enhancements and updates, so Digiturf-com also upgraded their site's search function. If you ever feel overwhelmed or get lost, you just type in your query and Digiturf-com will find you everything that anyone has had to say on the matter. You can even find your neighbor's horse!
If you're searching for some fun, assuming you like horses, racing and gaming, then you don't need to look much further than Digiturf-com. They're the future of horse racing alright!
Digiturf-com is a simulated online horse racing game where players develop their skills and strategies in owning, training and racing virtual horses against others from around the world. The horses are computer generated but the stakes are real.
For those who like a flutter, the odds on success for the British horse racing industry have lengthened. In the summer, it was announced Hereford and Folkestone racecourses will close at the end of the year owing to a lack of punters.
There are fears horse racing is running on empty and unless changes are made to the way the sport is organised, these latest closures could open the floodgates.
Many horse racing experts feel it’s a sign of a flawed financial model – that there are simply too many tracks and, as a result, money that may desperately be needed to maintain larger courses has to be shared with smaller ones which don’t generate as much revenue.
So could the closures be a sign that the sport is in decline? Not according to Prof Leighton Vaughan Williams, director of the Betting Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University. He points to the opening of a racecourse in Wales as proof this isn’t the case.
‘Nobody can be complacent, especially in the context of a sluggish economy, but most of the indicators paint an optimistic picture for horse racing in Britain,’ he said.
‘The business model of the industry might see a couple of particular racecourses closing but a counter-example is Ffos Las in Wales, which is thriving.’
Attendances have increased for the third year in a row – not that more people necessarily means more money.
One thing those behind the sport agree on is that it will need to change if it is to survive in the long term, with funding the biggest worry. Betting is a factor and, currently, it’s hardly surprising that fans have less cash to splash. However, more gamblers are choosing to stake their bets online, or on other sports.
Read more: Will horse racing survive closure of more racecourses? | Metro.co.uk
Arlington Park retained the right to conduct live racing on Kentucky Derby day but lost 18 out-of-state simulcast host track days during January and February when the Illinois Racing Board awarded dates Tuesday for 2013.
A factor in the board's decision to deprive Arlington of host track revenue during these days when there is no thoroughbred racing in the Chicago area was the decision its sister track, Churchill Downs, made to eliminate Hawthorne Race Course's showcase spring race, the Illinois Derby, from its controversial list of Kentucky Derby qualifying races.
Churchill and Arlington are subsidiaries of Churchill Downs, Inc. and Arlington Chairman Dick Duchossois is the largest shareholder in the parent company.
Churchill Downs President Kevin Flanery told the Racing Board that the racetrack management team devised the 36-race qualifying format and that and the Churchill Downs, Inc. hierarchy wasn't involved in the process of determining the races chosen.
Read More: Illinois horse racing: Illinois racing dates set for 2013 - chicagotribune-com
The New Mexico Racing Commission has suspended prominent horse trainer John H. Bassett for 10 years after two of his horses tested positive for a banned painkiller.
Bassett also was ordered to give back any purse money won by the doped horses and fined $10,000.
Bassett was one of three trainers whose quarter horses tested positive for an exotic painkiller at Ruidoso Downs in May.
The commission also suspended and fined the trainer for horses owned or partly owned by state Racing Commissioner Ray Willis and his wife, Lola, at a meeting Saturday in Hobbs, according to an Albuquerque Journal report.
The sanctions reflect what had been the state's maximum penalty for the use of the drug dermorphin, a potent painkiller derived from the skin of a South American tree frog. Each infraction carried a maximum penalty of five years' suspension, a $5,000 fine and return of purse money.
Read More: NM horse racing commission suspends prominent trainer John H. Bassett - Farmington Daily Times
Out of habit many people still call Santa Anita's fall meet Oak Tree. That's because it was the Oak Tree Meet from 1969 through 2009. But Santa Anita owner Frank Stronach did not renew a lease agreement with the Oak Tree Racing Association, which subsequently conducted one fall meet at Hollywood Park in 2010 before the California Horse Racing Board awarded the fall dates to Santa Anita in 2011.
Now it is officially called the Santa Anita Autumn Meet. The second one opens today and ends Nov. 4, a five-week stretch with 24 days of racing, generally Thursday through Sunday. First post will be 1 p.m. every day except on Nov. 2-3 when the Breeders' Cup World Championships will be contested at Santa Anita.
There is much new about the Santa Anita Autumn Meet. A key thing is that 14 stakes races, six of them of the GradeI variety, have new names. The changes were made by a committee headed by Santa Anita's vice president of racing, Rick Hammerlee, in conjunction with CEO Mark Verge.
On opening day today, the featured race, a Grade III, will be the Eddie D. Stakes, named in honor of retired Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye. The race was formerly called the Morvich Stakes, named after the 1922 Kentucky Derby winner. Delahoussaye remains one of the best-liked people in horse racing.
On Saturday, there will be five Grade I stakes contested. But instead of the Norfolk, Goodwood, Yellow Ribbon, Lady's Secret, and Oak Leaf, they will be the FrontRunner, Awesome Again, Rodeo Drive, Zenyatta and Chandelier.
Read More: Santa Anita's horse racing Fall Meet is not Oak Tree anymore - The Daily Breeze
The Santa Anita autumn meeting opened on a warm, clear day Friday in front of a tepid turnout at the track.
There were only 5,775 on hand to see 3-1 favorite Unbridled's Note, ridden by Corey Nakatani, post a victory in the feature race, whose namesake got more attention than either the winning horse or winning jockey.
The race, formerly the Grade III Morvich Stakes, now is the $100,000 Eddie D Stakes, named in honor of Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, and is 6 1/2 furlongs on Santa Anita's hillside turf course.
"It's an honor to win this race," Nakatani said. "Eddie was one of the guys I idolized when I first started."
The victory by Unbridle's Note was the only one by a favorite on Friday's card. It was the Steve Asmussen-trained horse's first race since finishing a close third in the Grade I King's Bishop Stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 25.
Friday's attendance represented a slight increase over last year's opening-day crowd of 5,739.
At 11 a.m., two hours before Friday's first post, Delahoussaye began signing autographs for fans in a book that was put together for him by Santa Anita. He signed for more than an hour.
After the race, Delahoussaye was presented with two proclamations, one by Arcadia horseman Gary Dimkich, representing County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, and the other by Arcadia City Councilman John Wuo. It officially was "Eddie D Day" in Arcadia.
A horse racing fan is sitting in Hoosier Park's Homestretch Steakhouse, enjoying dinner and conversation with friends when it's time to bet on the next race.
The fan jumps up, heads to a teller or self-service terminal and waits in line to place that bet, missing out on some of the social aspect of the Hoosier Park Racing & Casino experience.
Not anymore.
"(Now) guests can place wagers while spending time together with no interruptions," Gene Ciscell, director of information technology, told The Herald Bulletin (Hoosier Park introduces mobile wagering » Local News » The Herald Bulletin).
Hoosier Park is the first racino in Indiana to offer a new, convenient way to place wagers with the FastBet Mobile wagering system, Ciscell said.
The company decided to try FastBet after a Churchill Downs survey indicated that horse racing bets were down because guests were tired of standing in long lines, he said.
With FastBet, guests no longer have to do so. They can wager from anywhere in the building and bet closer to closing time, he said.
The service is free and can only be accessed through Hoosier Park's secure wireless network on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, said Grant Scharton, director of public relations.
He said Hoosier Park is aiming to attract new fans, including a younger betting demographic, with new technology that will make wagering easier and faster.
The Breeders' Cup Classic, the $5 million showcase race of thoroughbred racing's two-day world championships, will be run at 5:30 p.m. PST on Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.
It will highlight the program on the second day of the 29th annual event. Nine Breeders' Cup races will be run on Saturday, with three others completing the 12-race card. Six Breeders' Cup races will be run on Nov. 2, with four others on the card. The big race on Friday's program will be the $2 million Ladies' Classic, which will be run at 4:30 p.m. PST.
The official order of races on both days will be finalized on Oct. 23.
Saturday's races will be: $1 million Juvenile Turf; $1 million Filly & Mare Sprint; $1.5 Sprint; $1 million Turf Sprint; $1 million Dirt Mile; $3 million Turf; $2 million Juvenile; $2 million Mile; and the Classic.
Friday's races will be: $500,000 Juvenile Sprint; $500,000 Marathon; $1 million Fillies Turf; $2 million Juvenile Fillies; $2 million Filly & Mare Turf; and the Ladies' Classic.
HORSE RACING: Post times set for Breeders' Cup : Sports
When it comes to The Big Fresno Fair horse racing, less is incrementally more.
One year ago, citing low stock numbers throughout the state, fair officials made the decision to reduce the number of racing days from 10 to nine.
The switch paid off. Despite fewer races, both the meet's on-site handle ($2.62 million) and total attendance (72,608) were up slightly from 2010. Average field size also increased from 7.69 horses per race to 7.90.
"Racing more doesn't always bring you more money," CEO John Alkire said. "By racing one day less, we were much more efficient. It gave us stronger fields overall."
This year's program includes eight stakes races headlined by the $75,000 Charlie Palmer Futurity on Saturday and the $50,000 Bulldogs Stakes Races on Oct. 14, the final day of racing. Three other stakes races are scheduled that day -- the Fresno Quarter Horse Futurity, the California ARC Gold Cup and the Fresno AMRA Gold Cup.
Read more here: Big Fresno Fair has winning horse-race formula - Sports - fresnobee-com
British-Indian Ipswich Town striker, Michael Chopra, and jockey Andrew Heffernan, are among nine individuals, who could face long bans from racing, after being charged with betting corruption by the British Horseracing Authority.
The charges against them include offering bribes, exploiting inside information for personal gain and in the case of Heffernan, three charges that he intentionally failed to ensure that a horse was ridden on its merits, The Guardian reports.
According to the paper, Chopra's agent, Yogesh Joshee, also faces charges, along with Mark Wilson, a former player with Manchester United, Paul Garner, a former stable lad, Kelly Inglis, who is believed to have been Heffernan's girlfriend at the time of the offences, Douglas Shelley and Pravin Shingadia.
The BHA charges follow an investigation into suspicious betting patterns on a number of races at Britain's four all-weather racecourses between November 2010 and March 2011, before finally zeroing down on the nine races, where they found the players guilty of betting corruption.
In three of those races, Heffernan is alleged to have intentionally "stopped" his horse, knowing that it had been laid to lose on a betting exchange, and is also charged with passing inside information for reward about the prospects of his rides in the races concerned. Chopra, Joshee, Shelley, Wilson and Garner are further charged with offering bribes to Heffernan, the paper said.
Chopra, a striker, started his football career at Newcastle United and now plays for Ipswich Town.
As of now, no date has yet been set for the hearing into the case. The Football Association (FA), which had been informed of the investigation by the BHA, will not be able to decide what action to take, if any, until the outcome of a hearing, the paper said.
Michael Chopra charged in horse racing 'betting corruption scam'
Bob Baffert has a lot of decisions to make heading into the Breeders' Cup.
Coil and Capital Account made things a little more interesting with their 1-2 finish for the Hall of Fame trainer in the $250,000 Santa Anita Sprint Championship on Saturday.
Coil edged Capital Account by a head in a finish decided by a photo.
Amazombie, last year's champion sprinter, was fourth as the 4-5 favorite ridden by Mike Smith.
Coil ran 6 furlongs in 1:09.89 under Martin Garcia and paid $17.20, $7.60 and $4 after being sent off at 7-1 odds in his ongoing transition to sprinting this year.
"It's a great opportunity to get this horse back and I did my job," said Garcia, who had ridden Coil in five straight races before being replaced by Rafael Bejarano in the 4-year-old colt's previous two.
Capital Account and jockey David Flores returned $5.80 and $3.80, while Jimmy Creed was another three-quarters of a length back in third and paid $6.40 to show.
The result was a reversal of the Pat O'Brien Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 26, when Capital Account beat Coil by a half-length.
"It was very close at the end, but I knew it would have taken a couple more jumps to beat the winner," Flores said. "I have to give great credit to my horse because when I asked him to go he was responding. Maybe next time I'll have to go a little bit earlier."
Amazombie was being prepared to defend his title in the Breeders' Cup
Read more: Horse Racing: Coil sprints to victory in upset of Amazombie - Whittier Daily News Horse Racing: Coil sprints to victory in upset of Amazombie - Whittier Daily News
Eclipse Award winner Acclamation will again miss the Breeders' Cup World Championships due to injury. He was held out of last year's Breeders' Cup with an injury.
Trainer Don Warren reported that the 2011 champion older male thoroughbred has a sprained ligament of the left leg and will not compete in the World Championships at Santa Anita.
"It flared up a little bit again," Warren said Sunday. "It heated up on me, the sprain that he had a month ago. He worked good on the training track four or five days ago, but it heated up the next day, so we're going to give up on the Breeders' Cup.
"Everything had to go perfect to make the race. We're done for the rest of the year. We've got to get him fixed right. We've got to give him more time."
The 6-year-old, co-owned by Bud Johnston, missed defending his 2011 Pacific Classic victory due to the injury. Acclamation finishes 2012 with two wins in as many starts.
He began the year with a victory in the Charles Whittingham on June 12 at Hollywood Park, his third straight in the race and notched his second straight win in the Eddie Read Stakes at Del Mar on July 21 for his seventh consecutive victory.
Acclamation has won 11 of 30 career starts for $1,958,048.
Read more here: Acclamation to miss Breeders' Cup - Wire Horse Racing - The Sacramento Bee
AAIM To Prosper will have to shoulder top weight of 9st 10lb if he is regain the Betfred Cesarewitch at Newmarket on Saturday.
Brian Meehan’s eight-year-old gelding was a narrow winner of the second leg of the autumn double in 2010 and has since been campaigned exclusively at Listed and Group level.
He could, however, return to handicap company this weekend. Leading ante-post fancies Hurricane Higgins, Countrywide Flame, Montaser and Motivado feature among the remaining 55 entries, of which 34 horses are guaranteed a run.
Hidden Universe is one of the more notable defectors, but trainer Dermot Weld still has a major contender engaged in Olympiad, last seen winning at York’s Ebor Festival in August. Alhellal (8st 3lb) is an interesting contender for County Kildare handler Maurice Phelan.
The six-year-old has won twice on the all-weather at Dundalk this year and registered his first victory on turf for the campaign when landing the Ulster Derby at Down Royal in June. Phelan has given his charge a mid-season break and feels he is going into this weekend’s race in good order.
Tominator could have his first run for Jonjo O’Neill, while other possible runners include I Have A Dream, Martyr and Albert Bridge. Nicky Henderson’s huge string of National Hunt horses are getting ready to swing into action and he will take heart from the victory of Lieutenant Miller in the Phil Bull Trophy Conditions Stakes at Pontefract. The six-year-old had never run on the Flat before but had won twice over hurdles last season.
Fit from a summer jumping campaign, Tom Queally’s mount was expected to struggle against the likes of last year’s November Handicap winner Zuider Zee and Darley Sun, the 2009 Cesarewitch hero. Zuider Zee was sent off the 4-11 favourite to give John Gosden another winner but made hard work of getting to Petaluma before being worn down close home by what is believed to be Henderson’s first runner at the track. Lieutenant Miller was sent off at 11-1 and prevailed by a short head.
Rab Havlin picked up a four-day suspension (October 22-25) for his use of the whip on the runner-up. “He dug deep,” said Queally, who was celebrating his 28th birthday. “He handled the ground and it’s nice to have a winner on my birthday.”
Horse racing: Meehan aims to prosper again - Horse Racing - Scotsman-com
A horse veterinarian and longtime racetrack regulator from some of the nation’s most successful tracks has been tapped to head up the state’s racing industry, officials said today.
Jennifer Durenberger has been hired by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission today as the board’s director of racing. Her annual pay will be $120,000. Durenberger has been a regulatory veterinarian for the New York Racing Association at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga racetracks. She also worked as a regulator for California’s racing board at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita and Fairplex. An attorney, she’s also been a regulator for several high-stakes races, including the Breeder’s Cup.
“This is an opportunity to be a part of something. Its very exciting,” Durenberger told the gaming board today, referring to the anticipated merger of casino gaming and racing. “I like what I see here. It’s very encouraging.”
Durenberger’s hiring was unanimously approved by the commission. Her job will be to oversee racing at Suffolk Downs and Plainridge Racecourse in Plainville. Both tracks are seeking expanded gaming licenses.
Durenberger will start the job immediately.
State director of horse racing hired for $120,000 post - BostonHerald-com
HORSE racing in the Western Cape will receive the death knell if the acquisition of Gold Circle’s business in the province by the Thoroughbred Horseracing Trust and a new entity, Kenilworth Racing, remains prohibited, the parties argued before the Competition Tribunal on Wednesday.
The transaction was prohibited by the Competition Commission earlier this year on the grounds that it would lessen competition and lead to foreclosure of other players in the market.
The commission is of the view that the country’s dominant player in the horse-racing industry, JSE-listed Phumelela Gaming and Leisure, is behind the transaction, which will ultimately increase its dominance in horse-racing administration and betting in South Africa.
Phumelela has tote-betting licences in seven of the nine provinces, and holds 61% of the tote-market share.
Gold Circle has licences in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal, and holds 39% of the market share.
Gold Circle, with an annual turnover of more than R1.8bn, is an important player in the national horse-racing industry.
Thoroughbred Horseracing Trust has a 30% share in Phumelela, and its only source of income arises from dividends it receives from Phumelela.
The parties (Gold Circle, the trust and Kenilworth Racing) have approached the tribunal to review the commission’s decision, arguing that a fall-out between Gold Circle’s KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape businesses led to the deal before the competition authorities.
Mike van der Nest SC, representing the commission, questioned the presence of the trust in the merger structure, arguing there was a clear link with Phumelela, although it features nowhere in the merger documentation.
He said claims by the merging parties that the prohibition of the transaction would lead to the demise of horse racing in the Western Cape and subsequent job losses of 4,500 was overblown.
He said everybody in the industry understood the industry needed restructuring and cash was required to kick-start the process.
Alfred Cockrell SC, representing the trust and Kenilworth, said without co-ordination and complementarity in the industry, there would be no horse racing in the country.
He denied Phumelela was a party to the merger, explaining that it did consider a merger with Gold Circle (Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal) earlier, but abandoned the idea. It was approached by Gold Circle in the Western Cape, but did not consider it a commercially viable option given the business’s dire financial position.
It transpired that Phumelela will administer the Western Cape business if the tribunal overturns the commission’s decision. It has an agreement in terms of which it would only get a proportionate share of the prize money while the business remained loss-making.
Mr Cockrell said the trust was merely a vehicle for the deal since it and Kenilworth Racing did not have the infrastructure to run the business.
Their horses are fit and well and ready to run the race of their lives.
But none of the trainers lined up against Pierro and Gai Waterhouse in Saturday’s $1 million Group One Caulfield Guineas are rehearsing victory speeches.
Pierro and Waterhouse are as formidable a combination as will be seen in any Group One race this spring.
The horse is favourite at $1.26 and his trainer, no doubt, thinks he should be shorter.
“He’s quite exceptional,” Waterhouse said after Pierro’s final Guineas workout this week.
“You’ll see that in the Guineas on Saturday.”
Pierro is attempting to stretch his unbeaten run to nine in the race that ranks behind only the Golden Slipper – which he’s already won – as a stallion maker.
And there appears to be no stopping him.
The trainers of some the best three-year-olds available will each be rewarded for turning up in the Guineas in which the last of the eight runners receives $20,000.
But the $600,000 first prize seems bound to be added to Pierro’s tally of $3.1 million.
John Hawkes, who saddles a horse perfectly named for the Guineas – All Too Hard – believes the frustrations he has endured with the colt this preparation are behind him.
But Pierro is in front of him.
Hawkes said All Too Hard’s barrier manners seem to be improved and the distance of the Guineas is right for a colt once rated as Pierro’s equal.
“It’s just a matter of whether he brings his A game to the races,” Hawkes said.
“The thing is Pierro does that every time.”
John O’Shea runs Ashokan, a colt who could be the one to serve it up to Pierro.
“We’ll be aggressive, we won’t die wondering,” O’Shea said.
“But it’s going to be tough.”
Leon Corstens, the Melbourne trainer who has produced a couple of the best Guineas winners of the past decade, goes in double-handed against Pierro.
“I’m hoping, but what can you do,” he said.
“It would have to go drastically wrong for Pierro to be beaten.”
Pierro’s closest rival in the Guineas is Epaulette, a colt who has also been his closest rival on the racetrack.
Epaulette ran Pierro to a short half-head at Rosehill in March.
“One of the few positives we can take into it is that we’ve got closer than anyone else has to Pierro,” said Epaulette’s rider Kerrin McEvoy.
McEvoy was exaggerating.
The narrow defeat is the only positive he came up with, and it was really a negative.
There is, however, one glimmer of hope.
Kingston Town, who was trained by Waterhouse’s father Tommy Smith, came to the 1979 Caulfield Guineas flying in much the same banner as Pierro.
He started a long odds-on favourite and finished third.
Waterhouse isn’t a better trainer than her father, and there may not have been a better horse to race in Australia since Kingston Town.
This Group One Middle Park Stakes, one of the end-of-season highlights for juvenile colts, has been billed as a match between the unbeaten favourite, Reckless Abandon, and Marco Botti’s exciting, progressive challenger, Moohajim, who was undeniably impressive when winning at Newbury last month. But their duel has created an inflated price for Aidan O’Brien’s number one contender, who represents the best of the year’s two-year-old form when he was third to the top-class Dawn Approach in the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot in June. That form has been franked several times over and although this son of 2008 Guineas winner Henrythenavigator has not won since, he was very unlucky last time when clipping heels and coming down as he was about to make his move. The colt has been given a break since and arrives at Headquarters primed to prove what he’s made of. The fact that Ryan Moore has been booked for the ride can only be another plus.
A host of European horses shipped over to Woodbine earlier this week, in an effort to prep for the Breeders Cup. On Sunday, Woodbine will run the last three GI races before the two day world championship event which will take place at Santa Anita Racetrack on the first weekend of November. The three GIs; the Neartic Stakes, the E.P. Taylor, and the Canadian International, are all scheduled to be run on turf.
The E.P. Taylor is scheduled to go off at 4:38 EST and is run at 1mile¼ for fillies and mares. The race kicks off the first leg of a guaranteed $200,000pick 4, with Woodbine offering a generous .20 minimum bet in their betting format. The inexpensive bet may be best utilized to go deep in this race, as the two morning line favorites may be vulnerable for an upset.
At first glance Siyouma (Ire) looks like a logical 3-1 morning line favorite. The Irish bred filly is coming off an impressive, hard fought Group 1 win in the Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes. Yet after a second look at her past performances it becomes clear that this horse has distance limitations. The Sun Chariot Stakes was run at a mile, and although she has not disgraced herself in going longer distances, Siyouma seems best suited to run at shorter distances. From that handicapping angle it seems like anything shorter than 3-1 may be an overlay.
Read More + Video: Breeders' Cup: Woodbine hosts final preps - Newark Horse Racing | Examiner-com
FINGAL BAY made a winning debut over fences in the Blue Square Bet Robert Mottram Memorial Novices’ Chase at Chepstow on Saturday.
Trained by Philip Hobbs, the six-year-old met defeat only once over hurdles, in a Grade One event at Aintree, and was always expected to be a better chaser.
The race lost much of its lustre when Poungach, trained by Paul Nicholls and ridden by Ruby Walsh, fell at the first fence.
That left Fingal Bay out on his own in front and while he jumped well, if a little big, he appeared to be idling after the last, which enabled Tiger O’Toole to throw down a challenge.
Once Richard Johnson got stuck into him, Fingal Bay (8-13 favourite) responded to win by a length and a half.
Johnson told At The Races: ``He jumped really well – he's a very good horse.
“Obviously the job was made a lot easier with Paul Nicholls’ horse crumpling at the first – he was a bit unlucky. He’s had a nice time, he’s enjoyed himself, and hasn’t had a hard time.”
Read More www-walesonline-co-uk/sports/racing-news/2012/10/15/horse-racing-chepstow-success-for-fingal-bay-91466-32031636/#ixzz29Ly1ApLt
Godolphin Racing and trainer Kiaran McLaughlin will by looking to sweep both races as both Alpha and Questing are owned and trained by the aforementioned duo.
Before we get into those two races, I’d like to point out two other races that, like the two highlighted races, should be thrillers.
The race before the Cotillion is the Gallant Bob Stakes. The six furlong sprint for $300,000 will features multiple stakes winner Currency Swap vs. the speedy Trinniberg.
The other is at Belmont Park on Saturday. The $300,000 Gallant Bloom Handicap, a Grade: 2, 6 ½ furlong sprint for fillies and mares. 2011 champion female sprinter Musical Romance will face the fleet Turbulent Descent.
Read More: Horse Racing: Closer Looks at the 2012 Cotillion Stakes and 2012 Pennsylvania Derby