Beetle battle closes track
WA provincial racing has been thrown into chaos by the axing of three meetings at the beetle-infested Northam track --- and Belmont Park will be pressured into compensating the thoroughbred industry by running bigger programs.
Stewards and officials cancelled Northam's regular Thursday meetings scheduled for tomorrow week, July 31 and August 7 after yesterday inspecting the battered and beaten Avon Valley course.
The State's main winter provincial racetrack will close for major remedial work after its meeting tomorrow. A moveable rail has been placed 6m out from the inside position to provide safe racing.
"Considerable repair work will be done on Northam's track for the next four weeks," chief steward John Zucal said yesterday. "Unless we stop racing there now and fix the track, the remainder of Northam's season will be in jeopardy."
There are 13 meetings scheduled to be run at Northam before the club begins a recess in October.
"A black beetle infestation has seriously damaged root systems in grass on the Northam track and its surface has deteriorated badly," Zucal said. "Frost bite has made it worse."
Belmont will conduct 10-race programs on Wednesdays and nine races will be run at Saturday meetings.
But the industry will still lose five races a week because standard meetings at Belmont Park on Saturdays and Wednesdays and Northam on Thursdays average eight races each in winter.
"Provincial-class horses which usually race at Northam will be catered for in Belmont programs on July 23 and 30 and August 6," RWWA executive general manager Ken Norquay said. "Belmont's Wednesday meetings will have a mix of city midweek and provincial races.
"Events will also be added to Belmont's Saturday programs to suit provincial gallopers. Sections of Northam's track are cut up and bare from the 450m to the 550m. An agronomist will examine Northam's course this week and recommend measures to fix it."
Perth Racing track curator Geoff Murphy said he was confident Belmont would stand up to 19 races over two meetings a week.
Murphy was critical of Northam's track maintenance. "Black beetles should have been eradicated before causing damage," he said. "And grass that is resistant to frost should have been planted, as is the case in Perth. Mowing of the track should have also been better managed, to prevent the course becoming bare."
WA Racing Trainers' Association committeeman George Daly was angered by the cancellation of Northam meetings. "It's a joke," he said. "Geoff Murphy should be supervising maintenance of provincial TAB courses, not country track staff."
Provincial racing will face a crisis unless Northam is quickly restored because possible replacement tracks York and Toodyay are unsafe in wet weather. Ascot is being refurbished, Bunbury is waterlogged in winter and Pinjarra won't be ready until October.
Saturday's Belmont entries have been extended until today.
(c) West Australian Newspapers Limited 2008
Benny the Bull, Dream Rush highlight Summit of Speed
The Summit of Speed on Saturday at Calder Race Course features six stakes races, four of which are graded, offering a combined $1.3-million in purses.
Each of the six stakes is slated for six furlongs on the main track, highlighted by the Princess Rooney Handicap (G1) and the Smile Sprint Handicap (G2). The Princess Rooney and Smile offer the winners a guaranteed berth in the Breeders' Cup World Championships as part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge "Win and You're In" series. The Princess Rooney winner will be rewarded with a starting spot in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on October 24 and the Smile winner will secure a berth in the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) on October 25.
Benny the Bull, considered one of the elite sprinters in the country, will carry 124 pounds and concede from seven to 13 pounds to eight challengers in the $400,000 Smile Sprint Handicap.
The five-year-old Lucky Lionel horse has won his last four start, including the Gulf News Dubai Golden Shaheen (UAE-G1) on March 29 at Nad al Sheba Racecourse. He enters the Smile off a win in the True North Handicap (G2) on June 7 at Belmont Park.
Multiple Grade 1 winner Dream Rush will face six other fillies and mares in the $400,000 Princess Rooney Handicap while conceding from three to six pounds to her challengers as the 120-pound highweight.
The four-year-old Wild Rush filly won four graded stakes races last year, including the Darley Test (G1) and Prioress (G1) Stakes, and finished second by a length in the Acorn Stakes (G1).
Dream Rush was given time off after finishing fifth in the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on a sloppy track at Monmouth Park. She returned from a seven-month layoff on May 25 with a runner-up finish to Looky Yonder in the Vagrancy Handicap (G2).
Eight three-year-olds are scheduled for the $250,000 Carry Back Stakes (G2) headed by multiple graded stakes winners Salute the Sarge and Lantana Mob.
Salute the Sarge has raced exclusively on synthetic surfaces this year, opening his three-year-old campaign with a victory in the San Miguel Stakes before finishing unplaced in graded stakes at Keeneland Race Course and Hollywood Park. The Smile will be just his second start on a dirt track. Salute the Sarge finished ninth in the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) in his only previous start on dirt.
Lantana Mob is undefeated in his two starts this year, most recently winning the Hirsch Jacobs Stakes (G3) on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course.
Dancing Allstar carries strong Canadian form to the $250,000 Azalea Stakes (G3). The three-year-old Millennium Allstar filly has made each of her ten starts in Canada, winning eight times and finishing second twice. She was named Canada's 2007 champion two-year-old filly.
The Frank Gomez Memorial Stakes for two-year-olds and the J J'sdream Stakes for two-year-old fillies round out the stakes card for the Summit of Speed.
(c) 2008, Thoroughbred Times
Rose gets 6-month suspension for 'misuse' of whip on horse
In the post-Eight Belles world, just about any racetrack transgression is looked at through a different lens. Which might be why jockey Jeremy Rose got a 6-month suspension from the Delaware Park stewards yesterday after he struck his mount in the head with a whip during Monday's third race.
That length of suspension is unprecedented for the offense. Trainers with drug positives get much shorter suspensions.
"The [length of the suspension] really caught my attention," said attorney Alan Foreman, who will represent Rose. "Putting aside all that's going on right now, there have been a few incidents like this, and the penalties were not anywhere near what was given in this situation. It struck me when I heard about it as potentially an overreaction to all that's going on with the animal rights people, the look at the whip and everything else. That's not to suggest that Jeremy isn't going to get penalized and should not be penalized. But 6 months was just really way beyond anything I've seen."
Rose's mount, Appeal to the City, chased 4-5 favorite Robin des Tune from the inside during the 5-furlong turf race. Rose took his mount outside the favorite at the top of the stretch and was forced back to the inside when Robin des Tune drifted out. Just before the finish line, Rose, the whip in his left hand, struck the 5-year-old mare on the side of her head, as she was finishing third behind the winning favorite. Appeal to the City veered quickly out to the middle of the course after being hit with the whip.
In the official ruling, the stewards said Rose "engaged in extreme misuse of the whip during the stretch run while on the horse Appeal to the City."
According to Bloodhorse, John Wayne, executive director of the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission, said the horse had some hemorrhaging around one eye and was sent to the New Bolton Center in Kennett Square for examination.
Rose was taken off all his mounts yesterday. His appeal will be heard July 22. His request for a stay of the suspension until the appeal is heard was denied.
Typically, other states honor suspensions in any state, so, unless Rose gets a stay in real court, he effectively is barred from riding, at least until his appeal.
"We're going to talk about all that tomorrow," Foreman said. "I would rather Jeremy accept responsibility here and approach it the right way rather than running to court."
Rose, a Bellefonte native, was the regular rider for 2005 Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner Afleet Alex. He has been one of Delaware Park's top riders this decade.
Neither Rose nor agent Kid Breeden returned phone calls last night. Chuck Zacney, one of Afleet Alex' owners, said he talked to Rose, who told him he expected a suspension along the lines of 14 days. Clearly, however, times have changed.
The stewards also ruled that Rose is responsible for all the vet bills incurred by the owner of Appeal to the City and must complete an anger-management class within 6 months.
Last year, the Philadelphia Park stewards gave jockey Victor Molina a 30-day suspension after he kicked a horse in the stomach. The horse had acted up in the starting gate, nearly injuring Molina. The normally mild-mannered rider lost his temper for an instant and kicked the horse. A public outcry ensued. Molina was ejected from the track and eventually got the suspension.*
(c) Philly
Big Brown set to race again, this time at the Haskell Invitational
NEW YORK - Big Brown is on his way back to the races, his next start set for the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 3.
Less than two weeks after Big Brown's Triple Crown attempt ended with an inexplicable last-place finish in the Belmont Stakes, co-owner Paul Pompa Jr. said the Haskell on the Jersey Shore will mark the colt's return.
"The race fits his style," Pompa said Thursday. "We were disappointed after the Belmont, and we needed to regroup. We did and the Haskell is the plan."
Big Brown has been training daily at Aqueduct Racetrack, while his poor performance in the Belmont remains a mystery to the owners and trainer Rick Dutrow Jr.
"Big Brown is healthy and our plan right now is to keep racing him this summer and fall," Dutrow said in a statement to a congressional committee investigating horse racing safety.
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner never seemed comfortable in the 1 1/2-mile Belmont, and jockey Kent Desormeaux eased up with a quarter-mile remaining.
The choice of the 1 1-8-mile Haskell over the 1 1/4-mile Travers Stakes on Aug. 23 at Saratoga was made based on the track and weather.
"Monmouth is a speed-favouring track and it's comparable to Gulfstream Park, which Big Brown is fond of," Pompa said, a reference to Big Brown's two overpowering wins at the Florida track before the Triple Crown races. "And the spacing between races sets up other options."
Michael Iavarone, co-president of majority owners IEAH Stables, told the Daily Racing Form that it's hotter and more humid at Saratoga, while it's likely to be cooler at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. Temperatures on Belmont day reached into the 90s, with oppressive humidity.
Bob Kulina, Monmouth Park's general manager, was delighted by the news.
"It will make it our biggest day of the year and a huge day for New Jersey racing and Monmouth Park," he said. "We have been fortunate to get some good horses. Hopefully, our luck will continue."
Running in early August also leaves open the possibility of another race before the US$5-million Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 25 at Santa Anita - Big Brown's final start before he is retired to stud at Three Chimneys in Kentucky. Pompa said the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont on Sept. 27 is an option.
Desormeaux, criticized by some for his ride in the Belmont, is expected to retain the mount.
"There's been no discussion on replacing him," Pompa said.
Monmouth Park initiated a Triple Crown race bonus a few years ago that will pay the owners and Dutrow $50,000 each to run their colt in the Haskell. The bonus is worth $25,000 for each Triple Crown race victory.
When Big Brown's breeding rights deal was announced last month, Iavarone said the colt would not run next year as a four-year-old. There had been speculation Big Brown's final race would be the Belmont, but Iavarone has said as long as Big Brown is healthy he would continue racing through the Breeders' Cup Classic.
(c) 2008 The Canadian Press
Worthy rival for Big Brown?
NEW YORK - There was a little extra buzz one morning last week around Belmont Park when Casino Drive, also known as The horse that could beat Big Brown, went to the track for a breeze.
In American thoroughbred racing, a breeze means a horse shows off a little speed, moving faster than its regular morning gallop. But Casino Drive, while bred in Kentucky, is trained in Japan. His work last Wednesday confused the clockers at Belmont Park, who timed him in just over a minute and 12 seconds for five furlongs - 12 seconds slower than Big Brown breezed over the same distance yesterday morning.
"I don't have a good fix on that horse, but I know that the horse is not at the top of his game. There's no way," Big Brown's trainer, Rick Dutrow, said yesterday at a news luncheon in Manhattan, promoting his horse's attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years at Saturday's Belmont Stakes. "I've seen this horse. My friends around the stables have seen this horse. There's just no way this horse can beat Big Brown in a horse race. That's impossible."
Dutrow had made similar remarks last week, causing Nobutaka Tada, the racing manager for the owner of Casino Drive, to respond, "It sounds like he knows my horse more than us."
Ordinarily, a horse such as Casino Drive racing for just the third time in his life already would have been written off trying to get the mile and a half required of the Belmont, but not this year, not when Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby in his fourth start. Casino Drive is here expressly because of his exquisite genes. His half-sister, Rags to Riches, won last year's Belmont Stakes. His half-brother, Jazil, won the Belmont the year before. If Casino Drive, expected to be the second betting choice, were to knock off Big Brown, his dam, Better Than Honour, would pull off an unprecedented feat, producing three straight Belmont winners.
Because of that history, Casino Drive was aimed for this race before he ever left a starting gate. In February, he raced for the first time in Japan, winning a 11/8-mile race by 111/2 lengths. He missed a chance for another race in Japan because he had to be moved to several training centers and racetracks to avoid an outbreak of equine influenza that had hit Japan.
Purchased for $950,000 by a Japanese businessman, Hidetoshi Yamamoto, the son of 2003 horse of the year Mineshaft came to the United States last month. A week after Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby, Casino Drive won the Grade II Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park by 53/4 lengths. As it happened, Kent Desormeaux, the rider of Big Brown, rode Casino Drive in the Peter Pan, and Desormeaux immediately announced that Casino Drive would be Big Brown's competition in the Belmont.
"I can't wait to see the end result," Desormeaux said yesterday, aware that two-time Belmont winner Edgar Prado, the jockey on Birdstone when he upset Smarty Jones, will be on Casino Drive this time. "I know we're going to be together turning for home..... They both have beautiful long fluid strides. I think the difference is going to be the power that [Big Brown] has when I turn him on. He doesn't have to quicken his legs. He just starts adding power to his stride."
The last six Belmont favorites who left the gate at odds of less than even money all lost, so there is reason not to assume Saturday's race is a coronation. One highly regarded speed figure, the Ragozin Sheets, had Casino Drive's Peter Pan a touch more impressive than Big Brown's Preakness, so the horse clearly has a chance. The big question is whether Casino Drive will improve or regress, and nobody can answer that.
If the breeze seemed like a strong clue, it shouldn't. Casino Drive had breezed the same distance 13 seconds faster before the Peter Pan, but his trainer felt as if he needed some speed work at that time. For the Belmont, Casino Drive walks for an hour around the barns before going to the track, then walks for another hour afterward.
"That horse is going to have some foundation on him," said Desormeaux, who rode in Japan for five years, often for Casino Drive's trainer, Kazou Fujisawa. "He's got plenty of foundation. I've been there. I know how they train. They train up hills and they train for hours a day. He's got the miles on him."
As for that slow breeze, Desormeaux said of Fujisawa: "He's only been leading trainer in Japan for the past 17 years. I rode the morning workouts for him three months for five years. It works. That's how they work, all of them."
So he's genuinely worried about Casino Drive?
"Absolutely - yes, I am," Desormeaux said.
Does he think Dutrow, for all his bravado, is secretly worried about him, too?
"No," Desormeaux said immediately.
(c) 2008 Philly
Big Brown back on track for Belmont Stakes
On a cool, windy morning at Belmont Park, all the news about Big Brown was good. The 3-year-old superstar trained yesterday for the second consecutive day, galloping 1 1/8 miles on the main track, and the healing process in his left front hoof is "the best-case scenario," hoof lameness specialist Ian McKinlay said.
McKinlay repaired the small crack in the hoof wall Monday morning with steel sutures. Yesterday he said that because the quarter crack is healing well on its own, he did no further work on it. "We're trying to stay out of the way and let nature take its course." By tomorrow McKinlay expects to apply a patch with acrylic adhesive and fiberglass mesh.
"The first thing we looked at this morning was around the hairline, and where there was an abscess, it had drained," he said. "Today the foot cooled out. It's definitely improving. Both feet are the same temperature. When one foot is warmer than the other is when you have a problem."
Once exercise rider Michelle Nevin took an antsy Big Brown from Barn 2 to the track at around 9 o'clock, he calmed down and went about his business. At 9:10 he left his pony at the mile pole near the start of the backstretch and Nevin pulled him up a furlong past the finish line. The day before, Big Brown only jogged as he resumed training for the first time since Friday.
"He felt great. He doesn't look or act like a horse who's had two big races back to back," Nevin said. "He's eating everything."
Prado on Casino Drive
Edgar Prado will get a chance to spoil a Triple Crown bid for the third time when he rides Japanese-owned Casino Drive June 7 in the Belmont Stakes. Stable spokesman Nobutaka Tada named Prado yesterday "because of his experience and success in the race and his patience." Prado upset War Emblem in 2002 with 70-1 shot Sarava in 2002 and knocked off Smarty Jones with 36-1 Birdstone in 2004.
Prado's alliance with the horse considered Big Brown's best rival creates intriguing subplots. Prado is the go-to jockey of Big Brown's trainer, Rick Dutrow, and would have ridden the colt in his debut last summer had Prado not been injured two days earlier. During the winter Big Brown's co-owner, Michael Iavarone, upset Dutrow when he chose Kent Desormeaux over Prado. And Desormeaux rode Casino Drive to a runaway win May 10 at Belmont in the Peter Pan Stakes, his North American debut.
"Kent did a great job," said Tada, whose trainer, Kazuo Fujisawa, used Desormeaux when he rode in Japan. "We wanted to monitor Big Brown's [injury] situation, out of respect to Kent."
A few hours earlier, Casino Drive turned in what could be called a decelerated breeze or an accelerated gallop, because his 5-furlong time of 1:12.52 was so slow that the clockers did not list it on the workout tab. "He was going steady, a good canter," Tada said.
"That's exactly the time we wanted. Before the Peter Pan he needed a fast work [5 furlongs in 59 4/5 seconds], but now he's fit and his mind is good. We didn't want to fire with him."
Around the track
Tomcito breezed 7 furlongs in 1:29.95 for Alan Garcia, who will ride him in the Belmont. Tomcito won a Grade I at 1 1/2 miles last fall, but that was in Peru. This year he's 0-for-3, with a combined margin of 38-1/2 lengths. At least he adds more international flavor . . . Racing resumes today at Belmont, and for the next four days general admission and parking are free as part of Customer Appreciation Week. Unfortunately, there will be no discounts on losing tickets.
(c) 2008, Newsday Inc.
Do-gooders dash 'round Hub on a good-will mission
Race to raise funds, perform tasks
By Megan Woolhouse
Globe Staff / May 4, 2008
Think of it as "The Amazing Race" TV show for do-gooders.
Hundreds of volunteers raced through Boston streets by foot and by car yesterday, performing tasks at social service agencies across the city. For many players, it was foreign terrain. Lots of participants had never ventured into Dorchester or Mattapan neighborhoods and had only heard about Roxbury's Mission Hill in news reports.
"I don't really know where I am, but I suppose that's good," said player Elisabeth Aylesworth, standing in the hallway of Dorchester Cares, a service agency in the heart of a neighborhood known in part for poverty and violence.
The race, called the "Dash for a Difference," got many people out of their comfort zones and into the streets. The event was a fund-raiser for Boston Cares, an agency that matches volunteers with social service agencies throughout the city. Twenty-nine teams raised a minimum of $500 to compete. The goal was to perform a series of volunteer duties at agencies across the city and track down the answers to clues that tested their knowledge of city landmarks and lore.
At the Boston Latin School in Roxbury, players unpacked crates for teachers. In Dorchester, they created baby baskets for young mothers, many of them immigrants. In Jamaica Plain, they prepared meals for Hope Found, an agency that works with the homeless.
Upon the completion of each task, players had their mock passports stamped. Boston Cares organizer Rick Wallwork said the agency hoped to raise $25,000 through the race, money used to organize 150 volunteer projects each month. The local race was designed by Boston Cares organizers, board members, and volunteers. Wallwork said they have already received requests from groups around the country hoping to copy it.
"First and foremost, this exposes people to volunteering," Wallwork said. "Part and parcel of that is bringing people into parts of the city they've never seen."
Players met at Faneuil Hall at 9 a.m. and dispersed to sites across the city. They had to finish the tasks by 2 p.m. Participants hurriedly prepared baskets with blankets made by senior citizens and fresh diapers and bibs to be given to young mothers. They met, however briefly, people like Maria Andrade, a 59-year-old Cape Verdean woman who delivers the baby baskets to new mothers.
"This is a fun way to get out and be in the community," said 27-year-old lawyer Emily Hodge, who grew up in suburban Dover. "I've never been to any of these sites."
One clue required players to visit the Trotter School in Roxbury, win a card game with a volunteer, and locate a Gothic spire in the distance. The spire sits atop the majestic Museum of the National Center of African American Artists on Walnut Street in Dorchester. Players had to go there, locate park benches on the grounds, and identify the group that built them before they could get their passport stamped.
A clue asking players to find the Ralph Waldo Emerson plaque in Franklin Park proved to be many teams' undoing. Several teams reported wandering around the park for an hour or more.
By the end of the race, only three of the 29 teams had completed all eight tasks. Five fifth grade teachers from the W.L. Chenery Middle School in Belmont took first place and won six Bruins tickets.
Other teams, such as The Loan Rangers, sponsored by the company Accion International, showed up at the finish sweaty and aggravated. They arrived at the last stop minutes after 2 p.m.
"We were so close," said 32-year-old Kevin Saunders, as his teammates hugged and consoled each other.
No one felt too bad. Among their accomplishments, the group had collectively sorted 40 bags of donated clothing in Jamaica Plain, fixed 200 meals for AIDS patients in Roxbury, and packaged 75 baby baskets in Dorchester.
(c) Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
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