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Thursday,
January 5,
2012 |
| NTRA Thoroughbred
Notebook |
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PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
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Santa Claus gets a non-reindeer ride on the morning of
December 25th at Santa Anita Park. (Image via John
Ortiz’s Facebook page) |
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Rapid Redux scores his 22nd consecutive win at Laurel
Park on January 4 (Image via Jim McCue, Maryland Jockey
Club) |
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Owner Jim Rome basks in the winner’s circle following
Mizdirection’s win in the Grade III Monrovia Handicap at
Santa Anita. (Image via Santa Anita Park/Benoit Photo) |
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Baseball Hall of Fame legend Brooks Robinson (right)
poses with Rapid Redux’s trainer David Wells and owner
Robert Cole after Rapid Redux scored his 22nd
consecutive win at Laurel Park (Image courtesy of Jerry
Dzierwinski, Maryland Jockey Club) |
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Rapid Redux becomes the second most-talked about
non-promoted subject in America on Twitter following his
22nd consecutive win on
Wednesday |
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FAN PHOTO OF THE WEEK
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Congratulations to this week’s Fan Photo contest
winner, Lisa Coates! From Lisa: “This is Chindi
and jockey Tim Doocy on the day they retired
Chindi. They paraded him in front of the crowd
at Oaklawn, and I took this picture when they
had him in the winner's circle for the last
time.” |
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FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
@NTRA
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Photo courtesy of of Angie Athayde Stevens |
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens rode 4,888 winners and
earned purses of $221,212,704 (10th all-time) in a
career that stretched from 1979-2005. In 1993, Gary
Stevens became the youngest jockey to surpass $100
million in earnings. In 1998, he won an Eclipse Award as
the nation’s Outstanding Jockey. Always a sought-after
pilot, Stevens won three Kentucky Derbys, Two
Preaknesses, three Belmont Stakes and Eight Breeders’
Cup events.
He also visited the winner’s circle of the Santa Anita
Derby a record nine times.
Stevens remains a very prominent figure in the sport
today, serving as the analyst on NBC Sports’
award-winning horse racing coverage. He has also crossed
over successfully to the world of acting with a
recurring role on the new HBO series “Luck”. And, of
course, back in 2003, Stevens impressed Hollywood
critics with his portrayal of George “the Iceman” Woolf
in “Seabiscuit”, which received an Oscar nomination for
Best Picture.
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TWO MINUTE LICK WITH
GARY STEVENS
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Name:
Gary Stevens
Birthplace:
Caldwell, Idaho
Most influential person in my career:
My dad, Ron Stevens.
Other sports/teams I follow:
Boise State University, Minnesota Vikings
Most treasured possession/momento:
My Uncle Henry’s knife
A pet peeve:
When people say, “I’ll see you in the winner’s circle.”
Music I listen to:
Country and classic rock
Favorite website I visit daily:
The TDN (Thoroughbred Daily News)
Gadget I can’t live without:
iPhone
Hobbies away from Thoroughbred racing:
Golf
Favorite movie:
Casey’s Shadow
Favorite TV show:
Two and a Half Men
Favorite foods:
Japanese and BBQ steak
Favorite exercise regimen:
Riding horses
What I drive:
Nissan 370z
If I could be a guest on any television show it would be:
Anderson Cooper
If I were in a band I would play the:
Drums
Favorite musician/band:
U2
Favorite actor:
Charlie Sheen
My philosophy on life:
Slow things down.
Favorite animal other than a horse:
Giraffe
Twitter handle:
I don’t tweet.
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TRIPLE
CROWN WATCH
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Photo courtesy of Horsephotos.com |
LIAISON
Owner:
Arnold Zetcher LLC
Trainer:
Bob Baffert
Sire:
Indian Charlie
Record:
4-3-0-1
Earnings:
$469,560
Current Wynn
Las Vegas Derby odds:
12-1
The skinny:
Has won three in a row, including the CashCall Futurity.
Distance aptitude may be the main question. |
Photo courtesy of Daily Racing Form |
ALGORITHMS
Owner:
Starlight Racing
Trainer:
Todd Pletcher
Sire:
Bernardini
Record:
2-2-0-0
Earnings:
$61,500
Current Wynn Las Vegas Derby odds:
25-1
The skinny:
Perfect in two sprints, including a win last time over the
highly regarded Consortium. Bred to appreciate more
ground. |
Photo courtesy of Horsephotos.com |
EL PADRINO
Owner:
Let’s Go Stable
Trainer:
Todd Pletcher
Sire:
Pulpit
Record:
3-1-1-1
Earnings:
$60,600
Current Wynn Las Vegas Derby odds:
40-1
The skinny:
Beaten less than a length when third behind O’Prado Again in the
Remsen. Training now at Palm Meadows. |
Photo courtesy of Horsephotos.com |
ROUSING SERMON
Owner:
Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Williams
Trainer:
Jerry Hollendorfer
Sire:
Lucky Pulpit
Record:
6-2-2-2
Earnings:
$274,000
Current Wynn Las Vegas Derby odds:
20-1
The skinny:
Cal bred overcame wide trips to finish a good, closing second
behind Liaison each of last two tries. |
Photo courtesy of Horsephotos.com |
ALPHA
Owner:
Godolphin Racing LLC
Trainer:
Kiaran McLaughlin
Sire:
Bernardini
Record:
3-1-1-0
Earnings:
$90,000
Current Wynn Las Vegas Derby odds:
35-1
The skinny:
Looks to rebound in Saturday’s Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct
after BC Juvenile flop. |
Photo courtesy of Julie Ziek |
BASMATI
Owner:
Zillah Reddam
Trainer:
Doug O’Neill
Sire:
Borrego
Record:
8-1-3-1
Earnings:
$278,800
Current Wynn Las Vegas Derby odds:
125-1
The skinny:
Experienced colt was disappointing 11th in CashCall Futurity,
but has leg up in graded stakes earnings race thanks to
runner-up finish in Delta Jackpot. |
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VOICES
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FROM THE GRANDSTAND
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Luck
creator David Milch on what horse racing means to him:
“To me, the track is what the river was to Mark Twain.
Where you see the most life and interesting people, go
there.”
Owner Robert Cole, quoted by Marcus Hersh in
Daily Racing Form,
on Rapid Redux’s future after winning his 22nd
straight race yesterday:
"We’ll give it a week and start looking at the condition
books again. The game plan is to keep running him as
long as he’s healthy."
Owner and sports radio personality Jim Rome on winning
Santa Anita’s Monrovia Stakes on Monday with
Mizdirection:
I’ve had a lot of really good things happen to me in
business and in life, but nothing has ever felt as good
as that felt, in a professional sense. I don’t know
anything that’s ever felt that good.”
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VIDEOS OF THE WEEK
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John Shear, the 90-year-old Santa Anita Park paddock
guard who sustained a broken back and internal bleeding
after throwing himself in front of a runaway horse to
save a little girl, returns to work at the Great Race
Place (KABC-TV
Los Angeles)
Last night’s episode of the ABC hit comedy Modern Family
takes a trip to Santa Anita (ABC)
Legendary jockeys Shoemaker, Arcaro and Longden take on
Jackie Robinson and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the classic
game show "Sports Challenge" (circa 1971) (TheWhammy83
YouTube channel)
Kauto Star, an 11-year-old steeplechase gelding who
captured an unprecedented fifth victory in the King
George Stakes in Great Britain, is paraded around his
hometown of Somerset before a crowd of adoring fans (BBC)
Garrett Gomez considers Mizdirection a contender for the
2012 Breeders’ Cup (JimRome.com)
Game On Dude puts in his first work of 2012 (Mary
Forney’s YouTube channel)
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IN THE NEWS
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2011 Eclipse Award finalists announced (NTRA)
Cot Campbell to receive Eclipse Award of Merit (Aiken
Standard)
Rapid Redux to receive Special Eclipse Award (Thoroughbred
Times)
Rapid Redux extends U.S. record with win No. 22 (Chicago
Tribune)
Undefeated BC winner Secret Circle stretching out in
Saturday’s Sham Stakes (The
Blood-Horse)
Following the early development of a pricey young filly
(ESPN
The Magazine)
Havre de Grace expected to arrive at the Fair Grounds on
Thursday morning (New
Orleans Times-Picayune)
Handle up for Turfway Park’s Holiday Meet (Turfway
Park)
Jockey
Greta Kuntzweiler is making the most of her second chance after drug
addiction (Cincinnati.com)
First Winner for Dougherty is Trainer’s Second Big Win
This Year (Turfway
Park)
At 81, trainer Eddie Gaudet putting his stable in the
hands of wife and daughter (Baltimore
Sun)
Influx of trainers to Laurel Park gives renewed vigor to
Maryland racing (Baltimore
Sun)
A great time of year for people sick of hearing that
their sport is dying (L A Times)
Santa Anita Park is ready for its close-up (Forbes.com)
At Santa Anita, The Factor blows away Malibu foes in
front of an opening day crowd of 44,519 fans (Daily Racing Form)
A giant leap forward in Thoroughbred aftercare in New
York (ESPN)
Aqueduct casino revenues aim to fund Thoroughbred
aftercare programs in New York (Saratogian)
Aqueduct reopens with higher purses and lower takeout (Daily
Racing Form)
Richard Grunder back in the announcer’s booth at Tampa
Bay Downs (Paulick
Report)
Churchill Downs’ stock is burning up the track (Forbes)
New faces arrive for Oaklawn’s opening day (Oaklawn
Park)
Santa Anita opener draws biggest crowd since 1994 (Salt
Lake Tribune)
HBO’s Luck
dives deep into horse racing (Wired)
A Q & A with Luck
creator David Milch (L A Times)
Documentary will focus on pioneering female jockeys (Aiken
Standard)
A look back at the year in horse racing (Tulsa
World)
Six trainers who enjoyed the spotlight in 2011 (Saratogian)
Mott plans no changes after strong finish to career
year (Thoroughbred
Times)
Seven-time champion jockey Jerry Bailey gets his Eclipse
Awards say (Daily
Racing Form)
Claire Novak and Jennie Rees win Media Eclipse Awards (Miami
Herald)
Bob Fortus to join Fair Grounds Press Box Hall of Fame (New
Orleans Times-Picayune)
A Standardbred named Blagojevich Focused on Horse
Racing, Not Horse Trading (Chicago News Cooperative)
The Factor and Pandorum looking for fresh starts in 2012
(Houston
Chronicle)
Chuck Jenda, one of Northern California's most
successful trainers over the past 26 years - highlighted
by guiding Brown Bess to an Eclipse Award – retires (San
Francisco Chronicle)
Betting against the Eclipse Award winner (Wall
Street Journal)
"Hats Off to the Horses: The Road to the Derby” is a
unique online Derby hat auction to benefit Old Friends (Old
Friends Equine.org)
Jockey Leandro Goncalves scored his 1,000th
victory (Thoroughbred
Times)
War Horse in the news:
Finders Key, the off-the-track Thoroughbred equine star
of War Horse,
deserves an Academy Award (Thoroughbred
Times)
Tom Hiddleston on War Horse, His Devoted Fan
Base, and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Hiddleboner’ (New York Magazine)
War Horse a rousing, heartbreaking classic (Miami Herald)
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IN THE BLOGOSPHERE
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Brian Zipse gives his picks for the 2011 Eclipse Awards
(Horse Racing Nation)
This could mark the first year in the Eclipse Award era
that division winners for older male, older female,
three-year-old male, and three-year-old filly return to
racing (TwinSpires.com)
Horse racing in 2011 from A to Z (ESPN)
Laurel Redux: photo essay by Barbara Livingston (Daily
Racing Form)
He’s going to Vegas for the NHC!
(sort of) (Red Rock or
Bust)
Looking at the role of technology
in racing (And Down the
Stretch They Come)
Santa Anita Park brings smartphones
to the races (TECHi)
Luck could pay
off for Santa Anita (Daily
News)
“Luck” gets high marks from a
Seattle restaurant critic (Seattle
Weekly)
Kim and David Carroll reflect on
the real meaning of Christmas (Louisville
Courier-Journal)
Trainer Leigh Delacour gives a
first-person perspective of life on the backstretch (Racing
in the Sunshine)
Giant Oak retired (Horse
Racing Nation)
Brian Zipse takes a look at some of
the best races of 2011 (Horse
Racing Nation)
Jon White’s top 10 performances of
2011 (HRTV.com)
Horse Racing Nation has a Best of
2011 post up that's got some great moments from the past
year: (Horse Racing
Nation)
The top horse in New York in 2011 (ESPN)
Looking back at racing in Chicago
in 2011 (Horse Racing
Nation)
Teresa Genaro looks back on her
year in racing (Brooklyn
Backstretch)
Ten horses to look forward to in
2012 (Thoroughbred Chat)
Duke Hunt lets the old year out and
welcomes the new year in horse racing (The
Spectrum)
The road to the Kentucky Derby goes
through Southern California (Horse
Racing Nation)
And the Derby
trail also goes through Gulfstream Park (Horse
Racing Nation)
Pedigree analysis of some
interesting 3-year-olds (Classic
Champions)
A look into the
process of matching mares to stallions (South
Coast Bloodstock)
Adam Mooshian remembers Winter
Memories in the Grade I Garden City at Belmont (Facebook)
Point/Counterpoint: Brilliant Speed
vs. Mr. Commons (Horse
Racing Nation.com)
The hats of Santa Anita’s opening
day (LA Times)
Racing at Santa Anita: it’s always
sunny in Arcadia (Pick 4
Blog)
War Horse blogs:
Terry Finley on
War Horse and the bond between man and horse (West Point Thoroughbreds)
War Horse earns an A (The
AV Club)
Roger Ebert:
War Horse recalls a John Ford Western (Chicago
Sun-Times)
War Horse offers
old-school polish and emotion (LA
Times)
War Horse critic: movie
is “the most touching bromance I’ve seen all year” (Eclipse
Magazine)
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CALENDAR
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RACING TO
HISTORY
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Jan. 5, 1944: A bill permitting off-track betting was introduced in the
New York State Assembly. Over the next several decades, a series of
bills would be introduced in favor of OTB, which finally gained legal
sanction in New York in 1970.
Jan. 5, 1980: Spectacular Bid began his undefeated four-year-old season,
winning the Malibu Stakes by five lengths at Santa Anita. The gray colt
finished his 1980 campaign a perfect nine-for-nine.
Jan. 6, 1998: Bill Mott was named to take over 1997 undefeated
two-year-old Favorite Trick, replacing trainer Patrick Byrne, who
accepted a job as a private trainer for owner Frank Stronach.
Jan. 8, 2000: Steven Walker of Lincoln, Neb., captured the inaugural
$200,000 Daily Racing Form/NTRA
National Handicapping Championship, held at the MGM Grand in Las
Vegas. Walker would be presented with the first-ever “NTRA Handicapper
of the Year” award on Jan. 17 during the Eclipse Award ceremonies in
California.
Jan. 11, 1950: Five-year-old Citation returned to racing at Santa Anita
Park, having been sidelined by injury since December 1948. Sent off at
odds of 3-20, he won easily over a sloppy surface to log his sixteenth
consecutive victory. His winning margins for those races totaled 59 ½
lengths.
Jan. 12, 2001: Affirmed, the 1978 Triple Crown winner, was euthanized at
age 26 due to chronic musculo-skeletal problems.
Jan. 13, 1978: Seattle Slew, in training for his four-year-old seasonal
debut at Hialeah, first displayed symptoms of the deadly virus Colitis
X. The colt was sidelined until May 14, when he won an allowance race at
Aqueduct Racetrack as the 1-10 favorite.
Jan. 13, 1989: Jockey Brian Peck was injured when his horse, Top
Booking, collided with a deer in the fourth race at Turfway Park. The
deer jumped onto the track from the infield, where it had gone to drink
from a man-made lake. Top Booking was unharmed, but Peck suffered a
broken arm.
Jan. 13, 1997: The National Steeplechase Association became the first
horse racing organization in the U.S. to require jockeys to wear
“certified” safety helmets, beginning with the 1997 NSA season.
Jan. 13, 2001: Judy Wagner, a grandmother from New Orleans, captured the
second annual $212,000 Daily Racing Form/NTRA
National Handicapping Championship, held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Wagner received a check for $100,000 and was presented with the “NTRA
Handicapper of the Year” award on Jan. 30 during the Eclipse Award
ceremonies.
Jan. 13, 2003: Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye announced his
retirement. Delahoussaye won 6,384 races and his horses earned
$195,881,170.
Jan. 14, 1932: Jockey Eddie Arcaro rode his first career winner, at Agua
Caliente.
Jan. 14, 1953: Pimlico’s Preakness Stakes, originally slated for May 16,
was switched to May 23, allowing for the first time a three-week break
after the Kentucky Derby.
Jan. 14, 1998: Jockey Patricia Cooksey became the second female rider to
win 2,000 races when she guided Noble Annie to a five-length victory in
the second race at Turfway Park.
Jan. 14, 2003: Citing the devastating effects of mare reproductive loss
syndrome (MRLS), Keeneland announced that it would not conduct its July
selected yearling sale. It
was the first time the auction had been canceled since its inception in
1943.
Jan. 15, 1932: Australian champion Phar Lap arrived in San Francisco. He
was shipped by steamship to the U.S., en route to Agua Caliente in
Mexico, where he was to make his North American racing debut in the
March 20 Agua Caliente Handicap, the continent’s then-richest race.
Jan. 15, 1969: Barbara Jo Rubin was named to ride in a race at Tropical
Park. Thirteen male riders subsequently boycotted the race rather than
compete against a female, and were fined $100 each.
Jan. 15, 2004: Hall of Fame jockey Russell Baze won his ninth
consecutive Isaac Murphy Award, given to the rider with the year’s
highest winning percentage.
Jan. 17, 2000: The first ever NTRA “Moment of the Year” award went to
the post-race scene after the 1999 Belmont Stakes, when jockey Chris
Antley held Charismatic’s injured foreleg.
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WEEKEND STAKES RACES (unrestricted
stakes in N.A. worth $75,000 and up)
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 7
San Pasqual Stakes, 4&up, $150,000, Grade II, 1 1-16M, Santa Anita Park
Count Fleet Stakes, 3yo, $150,000, 1M 70 yds., Aqueduct
Marshua’s River Stakes, 4&up (f&m), $100,000, Grade III, 1 1-16M (T),
Gulfstream Park
Sham Stakes, 3yo, $100,000, Grade III, 1 1-8M, Santa Anita Park
Busanda Stakes, 3yo fillies, $100,000, 1M 70 yds., Aqueduct
SUNDAY, JANUARY 8
Daytona Handicap, 4&up, $150,000, Grade III, 6 1-2F (T), Santa Anita
Park
Rise Jim Stakes, 4&up, $75,000, 6F, Aqueduct
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11
Zonk Stakes, 4yo fillies, $75,000, 1M 70 yds., Aqueduct
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