Diamond Diva gets her rider
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - David Flores or Mike Smith. Mike Smith or David Flores.
Those were the names that occupied trainer Jim Cassidy's mind earlier this week as he finalized a rider for Diamond Diva in Monday's $250,000 Gamely Stakes at Hollywood Park.
Flores rode Diamond Diva in her last start, the Grade 3 Wilshire Handicap here on April 23. Smith rode Diamond Diva when she won the American Beauty Handicap at Santa Anita on March 30 in her U.S. debut.
Flores was expected to ride Monterey Jazz in Monday's Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, but when Monterey Jazz was declared from that race because of a slight injury both jockeys were available on Monday.
For Cassidy, the debate continued until he chose Smith when entries were taken on Friday.
"I had to make a decision," he said. "I'd love David to ride, but Mike has done nothing wrong. I think Mike is deserving of her."
In a way, Cassidy has become a baseball manager, trying to platoon the two jockeys at the same position and keeping both happy.
"I'm not Casey Stengel," he said. "I love them both. I only have one horse."
Diamond Diva is one of five fillies and mares in the Grade 1 Gamely, which is run over 1 1/8 miles on turf. The race is led by Precious Kitten, the winner of the Matriarch Stakes here last November and a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding turf female of 2007. The other entrants are Lavender Sky, Rutherienne, and Solva.
Diamond Diva worked six furlongs in 1:11 last Monday, quicker than Cassidy expected. The workout left him more confident about her chances in the Gamely, her first appearance in a Grade 1 race.
"The way she worked the other day, she scared me to death," he said. "She went out easily and she picked it up in the second eighth."
When she returned to training on Wednesday, Diamond Diva showed no ill effects of the quick work. "It was like nothing happened," Cassidy said.
The impressive work led Cassidy to tell Lincoln Collins, the managing partner of the Three Chimneys Racing partnership that owns Diamond Diva, that she was in excellent shape approaching the biggest race of her career.
Three Chimneys Racing owns a stable of females that will eventually be bred. The partnership is affiliated with Three Chimneys Farm of Kentucky, which is operated by Robert Clay. Last week, Three Chimneys Farm announced that it will stand Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown at the conclusion of his racing career.
"I told Lincoln, 'You tell Mr. Clay if she comes out of this work and wins the Gamely, bring on Big Brown,'" Cassidy said.
Rebellion cuts leg, skips Shoemaker
Rebellion, the winner of the Grade 2 Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland last month in his 2008 debut, was not entered for Monday's Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile after sustaining a cut on a hind leg earlier this week, according to trainer Graham Motion.
Rebellion was not shipped from Motion's base in Maryland.
"It's frustrating," Motion said. "I would love to have run this weekend, but he's got several stitches in it.
"It was a pretty nasty cut. It blew up at the wrong time. It didn't seem to me the right thing to put him on a plane to go across the country for a Grade 1."
Owned by Hickory Tree Stable, Rebellion, 5, has won 6 of 15 starts and $400,347. He was eighth in the Breeders' Cup Mile last fall at Monmouth Park.
Motion said that Rebellion is not expected to miss considerable training and will be nominated for stakes at Woodbine and Belmont Park as well as the $100,000 Ack Ack Handicap here on June 7.
The Shoemaker will have a field of eight, led by the 2008 Santa Anita stakes winners Ever a Friend (Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile in March) and Daytona (Grade 2 Arcadia Handicap in April).
Bobby Frankel has two entrants - Thousand Words, who was fifth in the Grade 2 Churchill Downs Handicap on May 3, and Mast Track, who won an allowance race on the main track at Santa Anita on April 20.
The other entrants are Get Funky, Hyperbaric, Notional, and Perfect Drift.
Affirmed next for Dixie Chatter
Dixie Chatter, third in the Laz Barrera Memorial Stakes in his first start of 2008, will return in the $100,000 Affirmed Handicap on June 15, trainer Richard Mandella said.
The winner of the Grade 1 Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita last fall, Dixie Chatter was making his comeback after suffering a leg injury that kept him sidelined for two months. In the seven-furlong Barrera, Dixie Chatter finished 5 1/4 lengths behind winner Two Step Salsa, another Affirmed contender.
drf.com
Superstar emerges from Kentucky Derby amid tragedy
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- It was triumph and tragedy as horse racing gained a superstar and lost a competitor this weekend at the Kentucky Derby.
The tragedy was the death of filly Eight Belles on a major stage. It was a freak accident, and longtime horse racing observers, including veterinarian Larry Bramlage, said they had never seen anything quite like it, a horse suffering two broken ankles at once.
Trainer Larry Jones wasn't blaming the track or anything else for his horse collapsing after galloping out for nearly a quarter of a mile after crossing the finish line.
Eight Belles' death comes on the heels of the well-chronicled Barbaro tragedy of 2006 and European star George Washington being euthanized on the track in front of the grandstands at October's Breeders' Cup.
The superstar is Derby winner Big Brown, who appears to have a good chance of becoming horse racing's first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. Next up is the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore on May 17 and then the Belmont in New York on June 7.
Big Brown was bought for $190,000 by Paul Pompa Jr. at Keeneland's April sale last year. Pompa gave him the name because, as a trucking executive, he does business with United Parcel Service. The company refers to itself as Brown because of the color of its trucks.
Big Brown won his first race by 11 1/4 lengths and then scored a 12 3/4 -length victory in an allowance race.
The son of Boundary gained national attention in his third race with a five-length victory in the Florida Derby, and then came the 4 3/4 -length victory in Saturday's Kentucky Derby.
Big Brown became the first horse to win the Derby with only three starts since Regret in 1915.
Pompa sold a majority interest in the colt after his first race in September 2007 to a group that operates under the name IEAH Stables. It is headed by Mike Iavarone and Richard J. Schiavo, who live in the New York area.
They brought in Dick Dutrow Jr. to train the horse and Kent Desormeaux to ride him.
Before the Derby, Dutrow was so confident about his horse's chances, he was saying he couldn't be beat and the race would be a mismatch.
Turns out he was right.
But he is taking a more cautious approach going into the Preakness.
"Now things start to change," Dutrow said. "Maybe there's going to be some hotshot speed horse in there. Maybe it will rain and it will be sloppy and some other horse will really like it.
"There are a lot of things that are going to be different now, but I like our chances because we have the best horse. And that always helps."
Big Brown's Derby victory was so thorough, it appears none of his Derby rivals will make the trip to Baltimore's Pimlico Race Course, a Preakness spokesman said.
"We're going to Pimlico with expectations of winning the race but it's not going to be like it was for the Derby," Dutrow said. "If it was five weeks away instead of two I'd be talking big."
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California horses didn't fare well in the Derby, with Santa Anita Derby winner Colonel John doing the best of the group with a sixth-place finish.
But Southern California-based filly Intangaroo pulled off an impressive victory in Saturday's $334,800 Humana Distaff, a seven-furlong affair for fillies and mares that was held here two races before the Derby.
Intangaroo, a 14-1 shot, generated payouts of $30, $12.50 and $6.80.
Owned by Carl Grether, who runs a family farm near Camarillo, Intangaroo got the final jump to edge Baroness and another Southern California horse, Hystericalady, in a three-horse photo.
The 2-1 favorite, Sugar Swirl, finished fifth. Sugar Swirl is owned by Frank Stronach, the chairman of Magna Entertainment, which owns Santa Anita.
Before the race in the paddock area, Stronach and Grether wished each other good luck.
Ridden by Alonso Quinonez and trained by Gary Sherlock, Intangaroo covered the seven furlongs on a fast track in 1:22.03. The 4-year-old Kentucky-bred filly earned $201,348 for her fourth victory in 10 starts. Grether paid $37,000 for the horse.
Intangaroo won the Grade I Santa Monica Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 2 and finished third in the Las Flores on April 6.
"She really vindicated her win in the Santa Monica," Sherlock said. "A lot of people thought she lucked out in that race."
Intangaroo was a 26-1 choice in the Santa Monica and paid $55.80 to win. Hystericalady was the 1-5 favorite in the Santa Monica and finished fourth.
The first race of Intangaroo's career was June 30 at Hollywood Park, and she won it at 11-1. A few days before the race, Carl Grether's father, Tom, who had been battling Parkinson's disease, asked his son to place a $400 bet on the filly.
Tom Grether was unable to watch Intangaroo race in person and died the next day.
"This horse has a very special place in my heart," Grether said after Saturday's race.
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times
Trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. dominates the Kentucky Derby scene
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Rick Dutrow, Jr., has emerged as the media star of this year's Kentucky Derby.
In the Derby for the first time with undefeated Big Brown, the trainer held his initial news conference Tuesday morning in a recreation room on the Churchill Downs backside. He warmed the throng of reporters with tales of a vagabond life on the backstretch and honest admissions about past suspensions for medication violations.
Wednesday morning was more of the same with a location change - to barn 22 where Big Brown is stabled. Reporters could not get too close, as yards of yellow crime-scene tape marked an off-limits area where Dutrow hobnobbed with TV personalities while the well-tanned partners in the ownership group, IEAH Stable, lingered in the background.
About 10 a.m., Dutrow turned his attention to the media, reporting that Big Brown, in addition to a gallop around the track, went to the starting gate for additional schooling.
"We couldn't be happier with him," Dutrow said. "We'll give him a little workout on Thursday to let him know what's going on, to let him know we're zeroing in. We're rounding everything up to where it's coming to a head. He knows it. He's not stupid."
Having provided the update on the horse, the conversation drifted back to Dutrow. He recounted many of the same tales from Tuesday, including time spent in the 1990s living in a storage area at Aqueduct Racetrack with no horses but a burning desire to be successful.
"I didn't have any overhead," Dutrow said. "No electric bill. It was OK for the time. It got me here."
Life is better now.
"I've got a hotel room here," Dutrow said. "I get a wake-up call and everything. I'm having as much fun as I can. I'm with my people, my family is coming tomorrow. My girlfriend is coming tomorrow. I'm in a good zone and that's only because the horse is doing so good. It couldn't be better, as far as I can see. I just hope I'm not missing anything.
"I still don't believe it's happening. I'm still afraid of not getting there because I know what can happen in this game. Come Saturday, if everything is good, it's going to be over the top for me."
PRINTS IN CEMENT: Three Kentucky Derby-winning jockeys added their handprints in cement Wednesday to the Gallop to Glory display outside a downtown hotel.
The prints of Braulio Baeza, who won aboard Chateaugay in 1963; Ismael Valenzuela, who rode Forward Pass in 1968 and Tim Tam in 1958, and Dave Erb, the 1956 winner aboard Needles, joined the display that began in 2005.
The handprints in cement blocks surround a life-size fiberglass horse, and roses made of steel are added to each jockey's handprints. Each year, the newest winning jockey's handprints join the display.
Valenzuela finished second behind Dancer's Image in the 1968 Derby, but Dancer's Image was disqualified because of a positive drug test and Forward Pass was moved up to first.
The 73-year-old former rider is in ill health in Arcadia, Calif., so officials brought the cement to Valenzuela's home so he could make handprints in it and the block was shipped back to Louisville. His nephew, Patrick Valenzuela, rode 1989 Derby winner Sunday Silence.
PLETCHER ARRIVES: Trainer Todd Pletcher and Derby entrants Cowboy Cal and Monba made a quiet arrival at Churchill Downs on Wednesday. The scene was hardly reminiscent of last year, when Pletcher came to the track with five Derby horses in hopes of winning his first Run for the Roses.
Both horses have spent the last few weeks at Keeneland in Lexington, where they ran 1-2 in the Blue Grass Stakes on April 12 to put the sport's leading trainer into the sport's biggest race.
"I think they both have the credentials to win," said Pletcher, who won his first Triple Crown race last year when Rags to Riches took the Belmont Stakes. "Obviously, you've got to show up and do it."
Though neither horse figures to be among the favorites at post time, that suits Pletcher just fine as he looks for his first Derby winner.
"I think both my horses would need to improve a little bit to win, but I think they're both better horses now than they were when they ran in the Blue Grass," said Pletcher, 0-for-19 in the Derby. "I'm pleased with the progress they've made the last three weeks. We'll see if that's good enough."
Pletcher spent a few minutes outside Barn 34 chatting with retired NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett and current owner and driver Michael Waltrip. While the drivers gave Pletcher words of encouragement, their loyalties are elsewhere. Both wore pins supporting likely Derby favorite Big Brown. That's hardly surprising, since the shipping company known for its big brown trucks has sponsored teams for both drivers through the years.
(c) Copyright 1995-2008 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Hall of Fame Voters Make Right Calls But Balloting Needs Tweaking
Couldn't be happier that contemporaries Carl Nafzger and Edgar Prado will be inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in August as first-ballot nominees. Because it's good when ability and humility can be recognized all at once.
"If you don"t believe in God, study my life," Nafzger said after collecting his thoughts when he learned of his induction on Monday. "It's been a miracle."
Said Edgar Prado: "Just to be nominated for the Hall of Fame among all my peers was great. To win is amazing."
The addition of the 73-year-old Ismael Valenzuela, as determined by the Historic Review Committee, was no less gratifying.
I fell in love with the game after I fell in love with Kelso. Back in the day it seemed he was in the feature race every Saturday. The handicap weights kept going up and up; 130, 133, 136, whatever. But the result was always the same.
Valenzuela won 22 of those stakes races aboard Kelso. When considering that history often associates the great Eddie Arcaro with Kelso, Valenzuela's accomplishments on the great gelding needed to be recognized.
Throw in a couple of Kentucky Derby victories and it must have been a slam dunk for the committee to bestow such a deserved honor. They made a good call with the hard-hitting and versatile Ancient Title, too.
I recognize the 14-for-17 slate of the filly Inside Information as deserving, even if I voted for Silverbulletday. The same can be said for Manila, although I preferred Best Pal.
The late Robert Wheeler was deserving but he didn't make it.
Whatever differing opinions concerning eligibility and voting rules as expressed by, well, virtually everyone, my colleague Steve Davidowitz proposed minimum benchmarks for Hall inclusion that are worthy of serious consideration.
Surely greatness should include some objective standard, some framework for reaching an honorable accord.
Davidowitz, in some instances, set the bar very high. Perhaps that's as it should be:
A jockey who wins 6,000 races and 50 graded stakes should gain an automatic Hall of Fame berth. I'll say. Five thousand, with the same graded stakes proviso, works for me.
Or jockeys who win a combined 10 Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup races, or led the country in money-won, and/or number of races won, for a total of eight years.
Those would be automatic Hall of Fame credentials, indeed.
Any trainer whose horse sweeps the Triple Crown should gain an automatic berth. (In the case of Billy Turner, who accomplished this with Seattle Slew, the only one to do so while undefeated, his absence from the Hall is a charade).
Trainers that win eight Grade 1 stakes; or 12 graded stakes including six Grade 1s; or two or more Eclipse Awards; or two or more money-won titles; or a combination of four Triple Crown and/or Breeders' Cup victories--would deserve automatic inclusion.
Haggle over specific numbers but the notion that some objective standard should merit inclusion by rite is worthy of discussion.
But no one who loves the sport should feel cheated this year. This was no popularity contest, although it could have been considering the character of the awardees.
As the winner of over 6,000 races and more than $207-million in earnings, including five champions, an Eclipse Award, and three Triple Crown races, to enumerate a few of his accomplishments, no one can deny Prado's greatness.
Nafzger's Hall of Fame destiny was sealed when his second Kentucky Derby winner, Street Sense, crossed the finish line at Churchill, racing's first winner of the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Derby. His first Derby horse, Unbridled, was only the second to win the Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic in the same season.
Nafzger guided three-year-old filly champion Banshee Breeze to five Grade 1 wins and last year won only 18 races but over $4.3 million in earnings, 24th nationally, the only trainer in the Top 100 in earnings with fewer than 100 starters.
And the moment wasn't lost on either man. Said Prado to Bloodhorse.com: "This sport is very, very special because you never know who you can meet around the corner and which one will have a champion for you to ride."
"You've got to remember the responsibility of where you are now," Nafzger said. "You represent a sport and you better represent it good. I just hope I can represent it as good as some of the people who are in the Hall of Fame."
Current Hall of Famers will be in good company, too.
(c) Copyright 2007 - 2008 HorseRaceInsider.com
Princess Zuca rallies to classic victory
TNT Stud homebred Princess Zuca rallied in time to capture the Grande Premio Zelia Gonzaga Peixoto de Castro (Brz-G1), the third leg of Rio de Janeiro's Triple Crown for fillies, on Sunday at Hipodromo La Gavea.
Under a timely ride by Tiago Josue Pereira, the Southern Hemisphere three-year-old Dubai Dust filly closed from the far outside to nip runner-up Sensibilidade by a head in the final strides.
Haras Santa Maria de Araras homebred Rainbow Bright finished a close third in a blanket finish.
Conditioned by Venancio Nahid, Princess Zuca covered 2,400 meters (11.93 furlongs) on turf rated as soft in 2:31.12 to earn her first stakes victory and her second win in nine starts for prominent South American owner-breeder Goncalo Torrealba.
Princess Zuca was unplaced in the first two legs of the Triple Crown series.
Princess Zuca is out of the Stud TNT homebred Baby Rafaela, by Beau Genius. She is half sister to 2007 Grande Premio Diana (Brz-G1) (Brazilian Oaks) winner Immortelle (Brz), runner-up in the '08 Santa Ana Handicap (G2) at Santa Anita Park.
(c) Copyright 2008, Thoroughbred Times
Barrier Reef, Big Glen among late nominees to Triple Crown
Recent stakes winners Barrier Reef and Big Glen and fillies Eight Belles and Proud Spell were among ten three-year-olds made eligible for the Triple Crown in the late nomination stage that ended March 29.
My Pal Charlie, the runner-up to Pyro in the Louisiana Derby (G2) at odds of 60.90-to-1, also was nominated for the $6,000 late fee. The ten additions push the total number of nominated horses to 459, one below the record of 460 set in 2007.
Barrier Reef, winner of the Whirlaway Stakes in his most recent start on February 2, is scheduled to return on the turf on Friday in the Central Bank Transylvania Stakes (G3) at Keeneland Race Course. To this point, the Mizzen Mast colt has no graded stakes earnings, and he would be a longshot to make the Derby field even if he garnered the $93,000 winner’s share of the $150,000 Transylvania.
Rushaway Stakes winner Big Glen is a candidate for the Coolmore Lexington Stakes (G2) on April 19 at Keeneland.
Larry Jones trains Eight Belles and Proud Spell, and both graded stakes winners are headed for major races this weekend. Proud Spell is scheduled for the Ashland Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Keeneland Race Course, and Eight Belles is slated to contest the Fantasy Stakes (G2) on Sunday at Oaklawn Park.
The other late nominees are Florida Derby (G1) fourth-place finisher Hey Byrn, Fair Grounds allowance winner Jazz in the Park, Aqueduct allowance winner Spurrier, and Santa Anita Park maiden winners Kinsale King and Rosso Corsa.
The late nomination list, with (sire), owner, trainer, and breeder (state):
Barrier Reef (Mizzen Mast), Godolphin Racing, Saeed bin Suroor, Matthew Herbener (Ky.);
Big Glen (Cactus Ridge), John T. L. Jones Jr. and Bill Jones, Frank Brothers, John T. L. Jones Jr., Bill Heiligbrodt, and Richard Taylor, et al. (Ky);
Eight Belles (Unbridled’s Song), Fox Hill Farms, Larry Jones, Robert Clay and Serengeti Stable (Ky.);
Hey Byrn (Put It Back), Beatrice Oxenberg, Edward Plesa Jr., Arther Appleton (Fla.);
Jazz in the Park (Ecton Park), Russata Stables, Bobby Barnett, Katy Cowan (Ky.);
Kinsale King (Yankee Victor), Super Horse Inc., Jesus Mendoza, Marvin Little Jr. (Ky.);
My Pal Charlie (Indian Charlie), B. Wayne Hughes, Albert Stall Jr., John Penn (Ky.);
Proud Spell (Proud Citizen), Brereton C. Jones, Larry Jones, Brereton C. Jones (Ky.);
Rosso Corsa (Ferrari [Ger]), Charlotte and Chris Wrather and J. F. Ernenwein, Darrell Vienna, Charlotte Wrather (Ca.); and
Spurrier (Dixieland Band), Peachtree Stable, Todd Pletcher, NATO (Ky.)
(c) Copyright 2008, Thoroughbred Times
Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches is retired
MIAMI - Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches was retired on Monday after re-injuring her right front leg, the filly's trainer said.
Rags to Riches beat eventual 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin down the stretch in the Belmont Stakes last June to become only the third filly to win the Triple Crown event.
"It's a sad day for racing and all of her fans," her trainer Todd Pletcher said in a statement. "She will go down in the history books as one of the best fillies ever to run."
Rags to Riches was sidelined last September after suffering a hairline fracture to her right front pastern during the $250,000 Gazelle Stakes at Belmont Park.
The filly returned to Pletcher's barn at Palm Beach Downs earlier this year and resumed training.
"She has re-injured her right front pastern and because of the timing, the decision was made to retire her as opposed to trying to bring her back in the fall," said Pletcher.
Rags to Riches had five wins from six starts in 2007 and amassed career earnings of more than $1.3 million.
She will be retired to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., and will be bred with leading sire Giant's Causeway, said Rags to Riches' owner Michael Tabor.
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