NEWS – Woodbine Entertainment Group Negotiations Ongoing

Deloitte Touche LLP is still in the process of conducting their audit of Woodbine Entertainment Group’s finances. In the interim, the Woodbine Entertainment Group (WEG) and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) continue to negotiate a lease agreement for floor space for the slots at Woodbine Racetrack. As a result of the status of the these important negotiations, the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association (HBPA) does not know when horse people will be able to ship into Woodbine to train for the upcoming race season, nor can they confirm 2013 race dates or the proposed purse structure at Woodbine. Woodbine and the HBPA are communicating on a regular basis.

 

 

Dave Landry at WINDHAVEN in Caledon, saying hello to some fun and frisky ones

 

**send us your foal pictures, they could make into our APRIL,, CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED MAGAZINE!!

**have you seen CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED LATELY?  Our special feature FACES AT THE RACES  has featured the following cool folks:

DR. ANNE WALKER

JEFF BRATT

SHELLY BROWN

CHRIS ROBERTS

ADRELL SAYLER

KATERINA VASSILIEVA

BERT BLAKE

LIZ STOLZENBERG…and many, many more!

DAVE WILSON

 

 

 

MAKING A SPLASH AT AGE 8

 

POOL PLAY, born at the famous –  now-tattered old Windfields Farm 8 years ago, roared through the stretch and almost got up to win the Hal’ Hope Stakes on  Sunday at Gulfstream. The Grade 3 race was run at a one-turn mile and featured a wild early pace set by Associate (by Wando) and Good Morning Diva. The half mile in 44 and change was silly and set things up for CSABA (Kitten’s Joy) and Pool Play, who came from far back.

Owned by WS Farish Jr and trained by Mark Casse, Pool Play came back from a serious leg injury in July last year and won the Grade 2 Hawthorne Gold Cup. He has won $1.2 million and was a $625,000 purchase. He is by Silver Deputy out of Zuri Ridge by Cox’s Ridge.

Casse won the last race on the Gulfstream card on Sunday with beginner FLY GAL, who was 3 to 1 and favoured. She is by the red-hot Sky Mesa and from John Oxley’s Grade 1 winning mare GAL IN A RUCKUS. Fly Gal was the 2nd winner for Woodbine rider Patrick Husbands at Gulfstream.
MORE CANADIANS ELSEWHERE

Ontario-bred STREET FIGHT won a $20,000 claiming race at Aqueduct on Sunday for Dogwood Stable. He is a Street Sense 4yo gelding out of reportedly, by Silver Deputy, bred by Kinghaven Farms.

SHARON AND JOHN SIMMS won with TOCCET MAN at Tampa Bay Downs on Sunday in an $8,000 claiming race. The gelding had just been 2nd for $5,000. The Simms have 2 wins on the year.

HOLY WINE, an Ontario bred by Holy Bull – Flows Like Wine, by Mt. Livermore, won for $8,000 claiming at Tampa on Sunday for Over the Moon Racing. The filly had been trained by Carl Christoffersen. Sje was bred by James Begg.

GEORGINA BILLERS and trainer SHANE LEARN won a $16K claiming race at Parx Racing on Sunday with LIAM AND ALEX, a son of Afleet Alex.

 

 

KENTUCKY DERBY ODDS FROM WYNN LAS VEGAS
Violence, the unbeaten winner of the CashCall Futurity in his third start, stayed the 12-1 Kentucky Derby favorite in John Avello’s latest future-book odds at Wynn Las Vegas Casino. That’s slightly more than once-beaten Kentucky Jockey Club winner Uncaptured, who was raised slightly from 14-1 to 15-1.

Here’s the link to updated BRIS past performances of the Wynn Las Vegas-listed horses, courtesy Bloodstock Research Information Services.

Here are the horses listed at 25-1 or less:

Odds*horse*sts–1-2-3*earnings*last race

12-1 Violence*3–3-0-0*$543,000*1st G1 CashCall Futurity

15-1 Uncaptured*7–6-0-0*$510,837*1st G2 Ky. Jockey Club

18-1 Shanghai Bobby*5–5-0-0*$1,687,000*1st Breeders’ Cup Juvenile

18-1 Goldencents*4–3-1-0*$782,000*1st G3 Sham

22-1 Frac Daddy*3–1-2-0*$80,116*2nd G2 Ky. Jockey Club

25-1 Normandy Invasion*3–1-1-0*$92,240*2nd G2 Remsen

25-1 Flashback*1–1-0-0*$27,000*1st Dec. 8 Hollywood Park maiden

DYNAMIC SKY is currently 100 to 1.

 

 

OBS MIXED SALE – BIG LIGHTNING, BIG BARGAIN??

 

CARLA CHRISTOFFERSEN, as agent, paid $42,000 for the 3yo Ontario bred BIG LIGHTNING, a Bernardini colt out of Wild Lightning by Wild Again. at the OBS Mixed sale yesterday in Florida.
What is interesting about the purchase is that the colt, bred by Anderson Farms and Marett Farrell, was a $185,000 weanling sold to Chestnut Valley Farm.
He was then a $320,000 yearling in 2011 at Keeneland, bought by Whitehorse Stables.

He had some workouts last summer in New York including a :48 flat workout time, a bullet. He has yet to race.

COLEBROOK FARMS, John Brnjas, was busy. It paid $50,000 for APOCALYPTICA, an unraced 3yo filly by Pulpit out of a half sister to sprint champion SQUIRTLK SQUIRT. She is a Kentucky bred.

COLEBROOK also  paid $30,000 for a 3yo colt named EUREKA SPRINGS, an unraced ENGLISH CHANNEL colt out of the winning mare Cuddle Her, by Dehere. Colebrook also bought a Pleasantly Perfect 2yo for $11,000.

Assiniboia Downs leading trainer SHELLEY BROWN bought some prospects: EL CADET, a 3yo colt for $8,000, he’s by Bwana Charlie and is unraced. BETTERINTHEBAHAMES, A 3YO FILLY, for $4,5,00, is an unraced Graeme Hall filly.
And Brown bought a 2yo filly by Readys Image for $5,000.

WILF JONES bought Woodbine runner NUVO for $5,000

Also, stakes winner QUEEN STREET BEACH sold for $11,000
CAPE RACE $20,0oo, sold by Sam-Son Farm.

 

 

LIBERAL LEADERSHIP CONVENTION
from Standardbred Canada

As the Liberal Party will elect its next leader amid pledges to reconnect with Rural Ontario, Ontario horse racing is urged to show support for the industry at the 2013 Liberal leadership convention.

“With 55,000 lives in the balance, we need to show the newly-elected Premier how important our industry is,” said driver Anthony MacDonald. “Everyday 600,000 Ontarians wake up jobless. There is no excuse to make it 655,000.

“This is a great industry full of hard-working people who were confident that their livelihoods were secure, their sons and daughters were going to school and coming home to employed, functioning families. Why put more hard working Ontarians out of work?”

The leadership convention runs from January 25-27 at Ryerson’s Mattamy Athletic Centre at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Ont.

 

 

ESPN COLUMN

 

“Racetrack executives often know little or nothing about betting on horses, and, even worse, they don’t care. You didn’t think all those vice presidents at CDI spend their lunch hour cobbling together a Pick Six ticket, did you? Some of them probably don’t even know how to figure up the cost of a ticket.

That’s why the morning line at most racetracks is worse than worthless and downright misleading, why accurate information can be hard to come by, why takeouts are high and why some programs seem indifferent to the interests of bettors”

Executive indecision
Updated: January 13, 2013, 6:14 PM ET
By Gary West | Special to ESPN.com

A racetrack president once explained that because he didn’t want to confuse the public he was opposed to including too much information, especially all that folderol about Lasix and blinkers and workouts, in the track program. And can’t you sleep more peacefully now knowing there’s a racetrack executive who wants to spare you confusion?

Another racetrack, believe it or not, refused to pay off on a winning bet, arguing that because the simulcast signal went down the bet was void.
A racetrack general manager, after a long procession of winners from inside post positions, once said there could be no such thing as a track bias and the only bias, if there was one, existed in bettors’ minds. Doesn’t it warm your heart to contemplate such a place, one that’s completely free of bias? Then there’s the general manager who thought he had created the fourth jewel of the Triple Crown, or quadruple crown, which, absurd as that sounds, isn’t nearly as foolish as the racing commissioner who fell asleep during a meeting or the president who banned jockeys “now and forever” from his racetrack. Remember the incomparable Horse Wizard, and did you know that a racetrack once ran a stakes race twice during the same season, and it wasn’t even a good race? Another racetrack, believe it or not, refused to pay off on a winning bet, arguing that because the simulcast signal went down the bet was void. Then there are all those overlapping dates and high takeouts and virtually simultaneous post times. And did you hear the one about the dog that was licensed as an owner? Or was the dog a licensed groom?

When a paddock host simply reads the conditions of the race — “The fourth race is a $25,000 maiden race for maidens” — and then goes on to summarize the recent running lines of the favorites, he’s basically saying he thinks the audience is incapable of reading. And that must be the racetrack’s attitude as well, that its customers don’t deserve anything better than a reiteration of what’s available and obvious. And when a host says, “My first pick is … and my second pick is … and my third pick is, … ” he’s saying, in effect, that the game is about him and his picks..

read more at

http://espn.go.com/horse-racing/story/_/id/8841212/executive-indecision



WINDFIELDS HANGING ON – BARELY

It has been almost a year since I went into WINDFIELDS FARM and toured the famous Oshawa plant, long since sold and built up to housing developers and the Durham College set down there in Oshawa.

They are not in any hurry to decide what to do with the ‘core’ of the farm, the stallion barn where NORTHERN DANCER lived and the grave where he rests (among others).

http://www.channel12.ca/Watch/ST12N/13-01-15/Studio_12_News_-_Tuesday_January_15th_2013.aspx

 

 

from LONGRUN….

**WARNING TO HORSE OWNERS: there are MEN AND WOMEN from the Kawartha Lakes region posing as seeking “companion horses” and then shipping for meat! Make sure if you are giving away a horse, you document EVERYTHING, check out the home and references AND follow-up on your horse!!! These homes are VERY rare therefore, please protect your horses…its no way for a horse meet their end in a slaughterhouse.