JC / Railbird

Races/Results Archive

Weekend Notes

– Even-money favorite Tiago won the Swaps at Hollywood on Saturday by 2 1/2 lengths after jockey Mike Smith guided the half-brother to Giacomo through an opening on the rail to the inside of pacesetter Desert Code. This was a really nice move by horse and rider: Tiago, settled into fifth, four lengths off the lead, until the field turned into the stretch, could have as easily swung to the outside and taken the lead, but Smith and his willing colt charged through on the rail with confidence (video). “Normally, I would have chosen [to go wide], but a horse like this absolutely loves the fence,” said Smith. “He’ll run through anything, so I wasn’t worried. All he needed was a little room to get his head through and he just goes” (LA Times). Albertus Maximus finished second, Souvenir Slew third. Tiago, carrying the highweight of 122, is the fourth horse to win both the Santa Anita Derby and the Swaps, and earned a 103 Beyer for the 1 1/8 mile race run in 1:48.76.
– Todd Pletcher upset Todd Pletcher in Sunday’s Delaware Handicap. Positioned third, less than a length off the pedestrian pace set by Peak Maria’s Way through the first three quarters, Pletcher’s 8-1 Unbridled Belle drew off easily to win the Delaware Handicap by 7 3/4 lengths (Blood-Horse). The trainer’s much favored Indian Vale finished fifth with no excuse.
– Sunriver proved his first race on the turf wasn’t a fluke by following up on that allowance win with a stakes victory on the grass. The four-year-old went wire-to-wire in the Bowling Green Handicap at Belmont on Sunday, winning by 1 1/4 lengths. Trainer Todd Pletcher said Sunriver would start next in the August 11 Arlington Million.
– Chalk another up for Posse: Bet the Diva became her freshman sire’s 10th winner with a maiden special score at Belmont. The Gary Contessa trainee broke smartly from the gate, took the lead early, and won by 3 1/4 lengths.
– Del Mar opening day entries are up and Bob Baffert’s much talked about two-year-old Maimonides, a $4.6 million Vindication colt with several bullet works, is set to debut in race three on Wednesday has been scratched from the day’s third (DRF). Vindication was undefeated in four starts as a two-year-old and named the 2002 champion juvenile; he was retired in early 2003 with a suspensory injury. His first crop is hitting the track now and has so far yielded two winners from seven starters.
– Apprentice Michael Baze, with 73 wins, became the youngest jockey to win Hollywood’s riding title since Hall of Famer Bill Shoemaker in 1950. “It’s unbelievable,” said the 20-year-old of his achievement (LA Times). The Hollywood trainer race was tight to the end, with Jeff Mullins and Doug O’Neill finishing in a tie (Bob Ike).

Posted in Races/Results on July 15, 2007

Scipion Tries Turf

– Friday is a day of firsts for Scipion. Remember him, the A.P. Indy colt briefly on the Kentucky Derby trail after winning the 2005 Risen Star with a giant come from behind move at 10-1? He returns to the track as a five-year-old in Belmont’s eighth, making his first start since October, his first start on turf, and his first start for trainer Christophe Clement. The race is an optional claiming/N2X, 1 1/8 mile on the inner, and while Scipion seems to fit with this bunch, he is a deep closer who hasn’t finished better than second in 11 starts since that Risen Star score. Trainer Jimmy Jerkens sends out a more likely winner, the lightly-raced and quick Tricky Causeway, and Saeed bin Suroor, 15-5-2-1 for the meet, the Brit-bred Centaurus, who breezed a bullet five furlongs on the turf in 1:00.31 on July 8.
– With three more wins this afternoon, apprentice Michael Baze heads into Hollywood’s final weekend at the top of the jockey standings, six victories ahead of fellow bugboy Joe Talamo, winner of one today. But Talamo will have many chances to take the lead before the meet closes: He’s named to ride in every race Friday, in another eight on Saturday, and nine on Sunday, while Baze will ride seven on Friday, four on Saturday, and seven on Sunday.
– Posse starter alert: Miss Triss will try to add to her rookie sire’s 9-for-19 record when she makes her second career start in Arlington’s seventh, a five furlong maiden special for fillies, on Friday.

Posted in Races/Results on July 12, 2007

Saturday Results

– Saturday was a banner day for Steve Asmussen at Churchill. Not only did the trainer break the record for most wins in a meet at the track (Courier-Journal), he swept the day’s juvenile stakes with Rated Fiesty in the Debutante and Kodiak Kowboy in the Bashford Manor. Rated Fiesty went wire-to-wire in 1:09.27, smashing the six furlong stakes record by approximately two seconds; Kodiak Kowboy went a smidge faster in the Bashford, finishing the six furlongs in 1:09.15. The Beyer for Rated Fiesty came back as an 85, for Kodiak Kowboy an 87.
Asmussen has had a real breakthrough meet with his baby stock: By end of Sunday, he had sent out 17 first-time two-year-old starters, getting eight wins and finishing in the money 15 times (47%/88%). In 2006, during the same period, he had 16 two-year-old first-timers, getting three wins, four ITM (19%/25%); in 2005, 20, getting three wins, eight ITM (15%/40%); and in 2004, 14, getting two wins, six ITM (14%/43%).
– Favorite Dream Rush had no problem winning the Prioress. “She’s just a fast filly,” said trainer Rick Violette after (DRF). The Prioress was the second graded stakes win for Violette and owner West Point Stable in a week; the connections won Wednesday’s Tom Fool with High Finance.
– Journeyman Jean-Luc Samyn proved there’s still something to the saying “Samyn on the Green,” with two wins in a row on the turf at Belmont, the first with longshot Junkanoo Party (trying stakes company for the first time) in the ungraded Crockadore, then with Inside Info in the seventh, an allowance event on the inner field.
– Trainer Barclay Tagg also got two wins at Belmont on Saturday. In the day’s two-year-old maiden special, Tale of Ekati stalked the early speed, then drew away to win his debut by 8 1/4 lengths. The colt, by Tale of the Cat, is out of Silence Beauty, a half-sister to champion mare Sky Beauty. His dam’s female family includes BC distaff winner Pleasant Home as well as Boca Grande and Pine Island. Tagg’s second score was with Dance Away Capote, trying turf for the first time, in the Duda Stakes. The mare rallied from last to win by 1 1/2 lengths.
– Calder’s Summit of Speed fulfilled the promise of its name: In the Smile Sprint, Mach Ride upset favorite Smokey Stover (Blood-Horse), who finished third after flattening out in the stretch, earning a 109 Beyer. Black Seventeen wired the Carry Back in 1:09.84, which translated into a 110 Beyer. And in the Princess Rooney, undefeated River’s Prayer dueled with Shaggy Mane for the lead before drawing away to win by half a length (ThoroTimes).
– At Hollywood, apprentice Joe Talamo scored his first two Grade 1 wins, capturing the Vanity Invitational with Nashoba’s Key and the Triple Bend aboard Bilo (LA Times).

Posted in Races/Results on July 8, 2007