Aidan O’Brien runners letting their presence be known (Charles Pravata)

There’s more Breeders’ Cup posting than Godolphin BC entries so I won’t add too much more to the frey. The only interesting thing I’ve picked up on that might not be mentioned elsewhere is that Dettorri and Maragh seem to be the only two out of town jocks riding at Santa Anita on Thursday. The Mig is riding on Thursday too, is he a Cali local these days?

I’ve got a post up at BreedersCup360 providing my best exacta bets. I covered the FM Classic (which I was polite enough to call the Ladies Classic while writing for the BC) and the Mile. If I were more together like some people I would provide my thoughts on all of the races but I haven’t even handicapped them all yet and probably won’t make decisions until I see them warm up (and I’m a huge procrastinator!).

One of the things that’s been keeping me from posting here has been working on this, the preview release of Hello Race Fans. We wanted to get a little something out for the Breeders’ Cup while we work on the fully featured version of the site that we’re planning to launch in the Spring. More on this later!

While I was scanning headlines tonight I came across this little item… Boboman Retired, will stand at Walmac Farm.

The eight-year-old Kingmambo horse out of Slewvera, by Seattle Slew, was bred in Kentucky by Wertheimer & Frere. A winner at two, he raced in the United States for Racing Hall of Fame trainer Richard Mandella and won the 2006 Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes (G1) in his stakes debut.

Boboman also ran third to Lava Man on the main track in the 2007 Santa Anita Handicap (G1). Overall, he won four of 17 starts with five third-place finishes and earnings of $444,363.

First off, he wasn’t already retired? When was the last time he raced? But moving on to the real reason I bring him up, he was a crucial sign post for me on the road to spotting and loving horses poised to make a jump in class.

Right after the Breeders’ Cup 2006 was when I had the fever, all I wanted to do was handicap. Swifty and I devised a plan where we would pick a race or two every weekend and give ourselves a fake $50 per race to wager with as “practice” (this was before we discovered ADW accounts). The 2006 Hollywood Turf Cup was one of those races (past performance).

Part of our plan was that we kept a spreadsheet with our picks and reasoning. I distinctly remember being on the phone discussing this race. One of the first things out of both of our mouths was that we didn’t get Boboman’s odds (9-1) considering this was a G1, his first stakes race and that horses like Artiste Royal, TH Approval, Cosmonaut and Meteor Storm were proven in graded company. Sure, he was coming off two wins but WTF?

My notes & wager where:

Artiste Royal closer close on TH Approval’s heels every race.

$16 WPS Artiste Royal (wow, I’ve come a long way!) and $2 on long shot Mighty Mysterious.

And Swifty’s notes & wager were:

TH Approval horse to beat but Symphony Sid & Boboman wild cards

$50 Place TH Approval (not sure what’s worse, the place bet or noting Boboman and not (fake) wagering… he’s also come a long way!)

No replay over at YouTube but he sat off a moderate pace and then came on strong to win by a length… and he did it with relative visual ease (chart – full card). Swifty and I immediately got on the phone after the race and in unison said “Boboman” in that “duuuh” tone when you overlook something that you shouldn’t have. We also went on to discuss class jumps and how our classy safe picks had bombed. For awhile “Boboman” was our shorthand for horse poised to make a jump in class.

Learning this lesson has served me well over the past few years as finding a horse poised to make a jump is one my favorite angles. Thank you Boboman, have a great retirement!

Captain Candyman & Vineyard Haven duke it out in the stretch of the King’s Bishop (Adam Mooshian)

This break in Breeders’ Cup content is brought to you by the De Francis Dash and Vineyard Haven!

The De Francis Dash is back this Saturday at Laurel after a brief hiatus.

The 57-day schedule is highlighted by the return of Laurel’s marquee race, the $300,000 Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G1), which was not carded in 2008 due to a purse account shortfall, on October 24.

Many were entered, including Fabulous Strike and Kodiak Kowboy but the recently returned Vineyard Haven is the only marquee name for this years event.

You may remember his stunning return in the King’s Bishop a couple of months ago at Saratoga where he ran huge coming off an 8 month layoff but was rightfully DQ’d for pilot error.

(partymanners)

He’s been working great and had a nice blow out today so it’s probably safe to assume that he’ll be sharp on Saturday. But let’s not forget the second choice in the morning line odds, Fleet Valid, son of 1993 De Francis Dash winner Montbrook.

In fact, Vineyard Haven has some family ties to the DeFrancis dash as his half brother On the Vineyard is by the 1996 De Francis Dash winner Lite the Fuse. Who are the previous De Francis Dash winners? Several have turned out to be champion sprinters (from Brisnet):

Introduced in 1990, the De Francis Dash is one of the elite six-furlong sprints in the country with four of the 18 winners — Housebuster (1991), Cherokee Run (1994), Smoke Glacken (1997) and Thor’s Echo (2006) — earning Eclipse Award honors for champion sprinter.

Update: As it turns out current entrant Peace Chant also has ties to the De Francis Dash! This was brought to my attention this morning in the comments by Val of Foolish Pleasure and Fillies First (thank you!):

Don’t forget that the mare Safely Kept, who was left in the gate and came from dead last to finish third in that 1991 De Francis (and had won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint in 1990) is the dam of Peace Chant who drew post 6. He wasn’t bad for six furlongs in the G1 Forego last out.

Vineyard Haven won’t become this year’s champion sprinter but that doesn’t mean a strong win wouldn’t be impressive and probably a giant relief for whoever made all those Godophin purchases that are finally paying off! And perhaps this is a prep for the Cigar Mile at the Big A.

While I couldn’t dig up Thor’s Echo’s rendition, here are the rest of the champions mentioned above + Montbrook & Lite the Fuse’s (i.e., everything over at YouTube).

1997 – Smoke Glacken:

(partymanners)

1996 – Lite the Fuse:

(partymanners)

1994 – Cherokee Run:

(partymanners)

1993 – Montbrook:

(partymanners)

1991 – Housebuster – WARNING: there is a breakdown in the stretch.

(partymanners)

It should also be noted that GbG and Brooklyn Backstretch fav Saratoga Russell is entered as well. Good luck to all!

(Sarah K. Andrew)

I’m no investigative journalist (or any kind journalist for that matter) however I am a Facebook user. And on Facebook I uncovered (just happened to notice) that a Facebook friend (i.e., someone I don’t know otherwise) who works for a horse transportation charter said their phones were ringing off the hook this morning with people wanting to ship their horses to California.

And who can blame them after how well shippers did yesterday. Cowboy Cal and Gitano Hernando shipped in to California while Court Vision, Diamondrella and Negligee all shipped in to Keeneland for the win.

While it doesn’t look like there are any local preps left at Santa Anita, perhaps Cowboy Cal’s win yesterday has emboldened connections to throw caution to wind against B-list euro shippers such as Gitano Hernando.

Speaking of which, who knows what the heck is going to come over from Europe. This little passage in the Thoroughbred Times Goodwood article hints at what’s to come.

If the Goodwood is an indicator of how the Breeders’ Cup Classic will unfold in four weeks, the American contenders could be in trouble after Gitano Hernando, Group 3-placed in England, turned aside some of the strongest Classic contenders. Last year, European-based runners Raven’s Pass and Henrythenavigator finished first and second, respectively, in the Classic, and this year superstar Sea The Stars and Group 1 winners Rip Van Winkle and Mastercraftsman are among the potential European contingent for the Classic.

You can always check in here to find out more about the euros.

Since I doubled my money yesterday, primarily because of the Oak Tree races (and a whole lotta luck… parade handicapping seems to be surface agnostic!), I’m looking forward to seeing who and what turns up in California. It should be interesting… that is if you’re willing to look at it the whole affair as it’s own particular set of circumstances. If not, you’re probably going to be miserable and probably not even bet on the Breeders’ Cup… it’s your choice!

And regardless of what you think about any of this, racing got some big time mainstream sports coverage yesterday…

Can I get some love from the racing tweeps. Two Big Time races were part of college football on ESPN yestrday. That’s huge…

And I thought it was played very well – seeing Lou Holz talk about horse racing “trifectas” was an unexpected gem

Huge? Indeed.

(Charles Pravata)

Let’s put aside any discussion about Horse of the Year or Rachel Alexandra vs. Zenyatta for a moment and just enjoy this incredible moment. 13-13 is nothing to sneeze at… thank you Zenyatta, we’re lucky to have you!

Carol Cendeno, winner of the Philly Park Female Jockey Challenge (EBarnes624)

While you can find plenty of accounts of Careless Jewel’s triumphant performance in the Cotillion at Philly Park, you’ll have to look a little harder to find anything about the other jewel at Philly Park on Saturday, the first annual Female Jockey Challenge.

In fact, the only thing I’ve found about it outside of Female on the Horse, Flickr and Live Journal was an article at Philly.com by Dick Jerardi:

All 11 races on the card will be for fillies and mares. Races 1, 2, 4 and 8 will feature only female riders in a jockeys challenge. The track will donate $25,000 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast-cancer awareness organization.

Had I not seen this great photo set at Flickr by way of Raceday360 this morning I would have forgotten about it completely, apparently like everyone else! GbG fav Carol Cendeno won 3 of the 4 challenge races to take this year’s title.

From what I can tell jockeys Tammi Piermarini, Janice Blake-Baeza, Ashton Fitzpatrick, Jill Jellison, Jenna Joubert, Carol Cedeno , Tara Hemmings, Shannon Uske, Joanne McDaid, Jackie Davis, Anna Napravnik and Maylan Studart competed in the challenge. That’s quite a formidable group!

While it’s certainly hard to compete with 5 G1 races carded at Belmont in the height of Breeders’ Cup prep season, a little coverage would have been nice. Apologies if there was some coverage that I missed (please leave the link in the comments!), my online grazing time has been a touch diminished these days.

It looked like a lovely day, complete with autograph signing, bringing home long shots and plenty of thumbs up. As it turns out, it isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened, Hoosier Park used to do a Female Jockey Challenge, and in fact still might, unless they’ve radically changed their concept of “Ladies Day” in recent years.

From the 2007 Hoosier Female Jockey Challenge:

Here’s hoping that next year will be a little more widely covered!

(Seattle Slew winning the 77 Derby © Bettmann/CORBIS – LI Phil)

I won’t be making it out to Belmont today for “Super Saturday” but wanted to share this gem from Jockey Club Gold Cups past. It’s Exceller’s 1978 win, but what I found compelling about it was Seattle Slew’s performance. The race is run so crazily and fast and Slew holds for a photo finish, fighting back down the whole way down the lane. Truly impressive.

Slew is Ernie Munick’s favorite horse and he posted the link at Facebook along with this first hand account and thought about jinxes:

Marlboro, Woodward, Seattle Slew – the finest autumn of my lifetime. Best supporting actor to Exceller, classy, ambitious and brave. Dad stood behind me near the rail as I screamed, all Fall, Stick, Slew! Stick! He broke thru the gate before the JCGC; the ultimate hoodoo. Yet Six Perfections made us wait, and wait, and wait; Green Girl went happy-haywire at the Gulf; Rachel tossed Calvin. Jinxes’re getting soft on us.

Best of luck today and let’s hope that rain holds out!

Didn’t think I’d be using this photo again anytime soon! (Charles Pravata)

I love Lava Man. I have the above shot of him by Charles Pravata (from the 2008 DRF Calendar) up in my office where I can stare at it at length. If hard pressed, my answer to the question “who is your all time favorite horse” might be Lava Man as I arrived on the scene just as he was at his height. And to be honest my initial thought when I saw the crazy news about him was “heck yeah!”.

Like everyone else I went to the initial post (dated September 21st) and there weren’t a lot of details (that have since been added), which lead to speculation on the worst… the worst motives, the worst outcome, the worst everything. But then reports starting pouring out with details about crazy things like stem cell therapy and donating winnings to retirement funds.

From the Thoroughbred Times:

“He had to continue training at Magali as part of the stem cell treatments,” O’Neill said. “They found they were able to actually grow back cartilage. No one knew that was possible, so it’s exciting that this treatment may be able to help other equine athletes in the future.

“He really took to the treatment and it has done wonders for him. The doctor said that he is and will be the strongest horse in my barn. I couldn’t put into words how good he looks and how happy he seems to be back in training.”

If and when he runs, all of the trainer earnings will be donated to CARMA (California Retirement Management Account) so people don’t think this is all about greed.

And then there was his crazy first reported work out. Maybe there is something to this stem cell business or as a friend emailed to me upon reading the initial news “That poor horse. His ankles are like glass and he is DONE being a racehorse”.

So, what do you think, is it cool or alarming… or a little of both? I come down somewhere between “Concerned but hopeful” and “Stem cells? Very Cool!”. Of course, if it ends like it did for Gorgeous George there will be plenty of anger and hate to go around. They do seem to love him and want him to be happy so let’s just all keep our fingers crossed that Lava Man has an enjoyable and SAFE stay at fantasy camp.

For some back story on the story, namely how the heck does a horse like Lava Man go under the radar with something like this, check out Ed DeRosa’s account at his Big Event Blog. And on a Jockey’s note, Corey Nakatani must be happy with this news!

And finally, in our last poll, Fav Summer Racing, our east coast bias was showing!

I was too lazy to type all that out, but thanks as always for participating!

Pyro and Kodiak Kowboy in the Forego (Adam Mooshian)

Yours truly has been under the weather the past few days, and is now playing a little catch up. What did I miss? Stuff you already know and possibly even forgot about such as the fabulous come backs of Ventura, Regal Ransom and Theregoesjojo(?). There was also a timely reminder about not getting carried away plus the return of one of my favorite tweeters!

Filed under “not more of the same”, Breeders’ Cup 360 launched late last week, a site designed and developed by Jessica of Raceday 360. Congrats to the BC and Jessica on the launch and be sure to check out the stats section!

While no doubt folks can still find things to grouse about re: the Breeders’ Cup, they’ve been making a nice effort this year to not only include fans and players in the feedback process, but to cater to them with things like evening out the two days a bit and creating two all BC Pick 6s, creating a site specifically for players and announcing a Friday TweetUp (or Tweeters Cup as Ernie calls it). While I still hold out hope that by this time next year the Ladies Classic will be renamed the Filly & Mare Classic, I’ll also give them props for listening and starting to make changes.

The R2 Collective, brain child of Dean from Pull the Pocket, quietly launched last week. Dean’s idea is to have a specific place to discuss marketing, technology and new media as it pertains (or doesn’t yet!) to racing. I have a few ideas for posts kicking around but Dean is on fire, check him out!

Also notable, pals and former colleagues from the TBA have taken up over at the NTRA to cover the Breeders Cup. Val of Foolish Pleasure & Fillies First wins the best author photo!

And finally, War Echo returns! The stunning 3yo 3/4 sib to my beloved Pyro (a.k.a. the new Kodiak Kowboy) made a triumphant debut as a 3yo in the Silverbulletday (who was inducted in the Hall of Fame this year). Shortly after she was sidelined with an injury. She jumped out at me in the parade and looked a lot like Pyro in that long Fairground stretch.

Back before Rachel Alexandra unleashed her torrent of kick ass on the racing world War Echo seemed like a promising up and comer. Will she be able to put it together in time to get to the 2009 Breeders’ Cup? Check her out in the 3rd at Belmont tomorrow and then stay tuned!

(visualkaos)

Those of who have become fans of Chantal Sutherland by watching the show Jockeys no doubt will be pulling for her to improve her place in the jockey standings at her home track of Woodbine in Canada.

The most recent episode featured Sutherland pulling out all the stops to get Smith to propose, and therefore give her a reason to stay in SoCal. Smith didn’t take the bait and advised her to do whatever it is that she needed to do (i.e., go back to Woodbine where she can get better mounts and make more money). After toiling on claimers to be with her beloved she decided to back to whence she came in search of the big bucks. But how has it worked out?

Currently Chantal Sutherland is 2nd in the Woodbine jockey standings behind Patrick Husbands. As of September 12th she’s had 608 mounts, won 88 times, placed 89 times and showed 89 times. Her earning so far are $5,028,992.

Compare this to how Sutherland did at Santa Anita where she ended up 11th (not 10th!). She made just 155 starts, won 18 times, placed 21 times and showed 19 times. Her win percentage was 12% compared to her current 14% but no earnings were available.

Obviously it’s not an apples to apples comparison if you look at the number of starts the top riders at Woodbine have compared to the number of starts for the top riders at Santa Anita but I think it’s safe to say that things have worked out for her!

You can keep track of Chantal’s current place in the Woodbine standings here and keep track of her race results here by scrolling down to Woodbine.