|
|
|
|
|
Wando drew post seven for the Breeders'.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Wando (post seven, 1-1)
Is Wando fit for a ‘Crown’? After a dominating, nine-length victory in the Queen’s Plate on June 22 and an equally impressive four-length triumph four weeks later in the Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie, the sharp-looking son of Langfuhr is on the cusp of racing glory, needing a victory over the E.P. Taylor Turf Course in Saturday’s Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine to capture Canada’s Triple Crown. Should he win the $500,000 event, owner Gus Schickedanz would receive a bonus of $500,000 from the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society on top of the $300,000 winner’s share from the race.
Aside from a group of stout rivals looking to defeat the winner of seven races in 10 lifetime starts, Wando will also have to contend with the longest distance he’s ever had to run in his young career. Trainer Mike Keogh, who won the 1999 Queen’s Plate with Woodcarver, isn’t concerned with the ‘green scene,’ but the same can’t be said about the 1 ½-mile Breeders’ distance. “I really don't have any problems running him (Wando) on the turf," offered Keogh, who watched the chestnut lose by a scant head on the grass to multiple-stakes winner Lismore Knight in last year's one-mile Summer Stakes. "The only thing we have to worry about is if he can get the 1 ½ miles.”
So, what’s the first thing that goes through rider Patrick Husbands’ mind just before he gets a ‘leg up’ on Wando? “He’s special. That’s the one thing that is always in the back of my head. The way he does everything you ask of him...he’s just very special. He’s a hero.”
“The media from Barbados are coming to Woodbine to cover the race and they are going to show it live there,” said Husbands. “The Barbadians are getting on the Internet every day to read stories. It’s unbelievable what’s going on.”
If Wando, who already has $1,474,402 in earnings, wins the Breeders’, Keogh could very well be leaving on a jet plane, compliments of the man in the saddle. “I went back home to Barbados after the Prince Of Wales and it was unbelievable,” said Husbands, who became a Canadian citizen in November, 2000. “People were coming up and congratulating me and wishing me well. Everything in the papers, television and radio is Wando, Wando, Wando. If we win, I would love to send Mike and his wife to Barbados so they can see how a small island has such a big love for racing.”
Speaking of gifts, Keogh will likely save his for Wando after he runs his final race. “I’ll give him a lot of lovely mares to breed to when he’s done,” quipped Keogh.
As for which race, Queen’s Plate or Prince of Wales, impressed him the most, Keogh says the “Gallop for the Guineas” was simple sensational. “Both had their merits, but he was just amazing in the Plate. We weren’t sure if he was going to get the (1 1/4-mile) distance, but he proved that wasn’t an issue.”
A recent workout over Woodbine's E.P. Taylor Turf Course on August 1 certainly pleased Keogh. Wando covered six furlongs in 1:14 3/5, breezing, in company with stablemate Wild Strike. Wild Strike was used as a workmate for Wando, starting five lengths in front of his high profile partner in a special session of turf training over the Taylor course. “He worked really nice,” said Keogh, of Wando, who'll look to become the first horse since Peteski in 1993 to win the Triple Crown. “They (Wando and Wild Strike) went a little slow early, but (Wild Strike) was kind of confused being that wide on the turf ('dogs' or rail was way out). But they finished up really well.”
Don’t expect to see any signs of nervousness in Husbands come the big day. The 30-year-old Brampton resident insists he won’t be counting sheep to get some sound sleep the night before the Breeders’. “I don’t lose any sleep. Even before the Queen’s Plate, I was able to sleep without a problem. During the last eighth-of-a-mile, a feeling kicked in that I know I’ll likely never experience again. From the eighth-pole to the wire it was a different feeling. But I don’t get butterflies before the races. As for Keogh? “Let’s just say I’m not quite the way Patrick is.”
An ardent supporter of English soccer club West Ham United, Keogh is hoping the handsome chestnut, who has four straight stakes scores, can put the ‘hammer’ down on the competition come Saturday. “He’s just a wonderful horse to be around, an absolute gentleman. It would be great to see him do it.”
Wando’s groom, Amanda Erwin, part of the team that guided Woodcarver to the 1999 Queen’s Plate win, says the two champions are polar opposites when it comes to personality. “Wando is very quiet, whatever you need to, he’ll let you do it. Woodcarver, on the other hand, was very playful, always trying to play around with you.”
Erwin & Co. are certainly hoping their stable standout can walk the walk come August 9...literally. “If Wando is feeling good, he walks fast,” said Erwin, who has worked in the Keogh barn for seven years and currently takes care of five Keogh trainees. “He can be a bit picky when he eats, but he loves carrots and mints.”
Splish, splash, Wando loves taking a bath. While most three-year-olds cringe at the mere mention of ‘bath time,’ Wando can’t seem to get enough of soap, suds, bubbles and water. “He definitely enjoys taking his bath. Usually, it’s about a 20 minute process. He really likes it.”
While Wando’s father, Langfuhr, distinguished himself as a classy and talented competitor by winning three Grade 1 races and the Sovereign Award as Canada’s top sprinter in 1996, his mother, Kathie’s Colleen, was no slouch on the racetrack, either. The daughter of Woodman finished second in the 1995 Canadian Oaks for...you guessed it...Mike Keogh and Gus Schickedanz. In 11 career starts, Kathie’s Colleen won four races, including the Grade 2 Monmouth Oaks and finished second twice, for $188,097 in purse earnings.
When the stakes are high, Keogh certainly isn’t camera shy. All of the six Bolton resident’s Woodbine wins in 2003 have come in added-money events, courtesy of his two aces, Wando (Woodstock, Marine, Queen’s Plate) and Mobil (Queenston, Plate Trial and Toronto Cup).
Arco’s Gold (post four, 8-1)
Arco’s Gold will be trying to finally strike the mother lode this year when he challenges Wando, once again, in Saturday’s $500,000 Breeders’ Stakes. It will be the fourth consecutive time that the chestnut son of Gold Fever takes on the ‘other chestnut colt’ everyone is talking about.
It’s been a struggle for trainer John Ross to get Arco’s Gold to the point where he could be on the verge of a big win. But he’s getting closer. After all, Arco’s Gold went into the Queen’s Plate off only one start, that a third-place finish to Wando in the mile and one-sixteenth Marine Stakes, May 17.
He finished eighth in the Plate, more than 20 lengths behind Wando, the only time Arco’s Gold has been worse than third in six career starts. But the task was almost impossible. Since 1956, no horse has ever won the Plate off only one previous start in his/her three-year-old season.
Then came the Prince of Wales Stakes, July 20 at Fort Erie, the second leg in the Triple Crown and a much improved performance. Arco’s Gold and jockey Constant Montpellier came through on the inside, passed Sam-Son’s Shoal Water and got to within four lengths of Wando at the wire of the mile and three-sixteenths affair.
“I was pretty happy (with the Prince of Wales),” said Ross. “That’s the only way to describe it. I was playing catch-up. I’ve had kind of a rough start after a good winter he spent in Florida. Frustrating things can happen to you. The horse gets sick (he caught a virus). You’re playing catch-up. You’re rushing a little more than you should. You can’t work and prepare him like you should, but these people (owners Alex and Stephen Di Iorio) have only one horse and that was the biggest dream in their life (to run in the Plate).”
He may be coming into the Breeders’ better than in his previous three outings this year, but Arco’s Gold also faces the daunting task of trying turf for the first time in one of the biggest stakes races of the year. He worked on the grass for the first time in his life on July 30, a five-furlong breeze over the turf training track in 1:03 3/5 seconds. He’ll likely work again, before Saturday, in preparation for the race.
“Everybody’s got a lot of work to do to catch Wando, though, no doubt about it,” continued Ross. “I worked him (Arco’s Gold) the other day on the turf. I just breezed him. He did it by himself. But unless you hook him up head and head with another horse, he just does what he has to do. If you hook him up with company, then he gets competitive and he’ll go. First time on the turf, first time seeing the green stuff under his feet, he just kind of breezed along. It was alright because he went by himself. Montpellier said he felt good under it, the mechanics were good. That’s the only thing we can go on.”
Ross feels that the distance won’t be a problem, either. Last year, in the rich Coronation Futurity, he came calling to Mobil and the pair fought to a dead-heat for win, drawing away from their rivals in the mile and one-eighth contest. With Mobil’s subsequent disqualification, Arco’s Gold was awarded the victory and went into the off-season a perfect three-for-three.
“He seems to handle distance well,” continued Ross. “He’s a nice, relaxed horse. He can relax in a race pretty good. You can take him off the pace. He doesn’t fight you too much so those things kind of help you carry on the distance. He’s got a great record. I’m not saying he’s any Wando, but he had a pretty good record for a two-year-old. One time out of the money and that was in the Plate.”
Arco’s Gold will need a decent pace to run at and Ross, who won the 1997 Breeders’ with John The Magician, thinks he’ll get it. “There’s going to be some rabbits in there. You hook up alongside another horse, they get fighting and do more than they should do. Things unfold differently. They don’t relax the same way they did in the Plate. We’re coming from out of it. That’s for sure. We’re not changing anything (for the Breeders’).”
Ballerina’s Halo (post five, 30-1)
Trainer Cliff Hopmans knows racing. He’s been in the sport for over 30 years and when the fans pour into Woodbine on Saturday to watch the Breeders’ Stakes, third jewel of Canada’s Triple Crown of Racing, they won’t be there to see Ballerina’s Halo run in the 1 ½-mile race. They’re clearly there to watch rival Wando try to become the country’s seventh Triple Crown winner and first since Peteski in 1993.
Hopmans and owner Bill Sorokolit also know, though, there’s $500,000 on the line, they’ve got a big, strong horse with a good turf pedigree who’ll love the distance of the race. That’s why the maiden gelding is running in the race. “We’re looking for lightning to strike twice. On paper, it doesn’t look like we belong in the race, but with the grass, distance, pedigree and the half million dollars, we are taking a shot.”
Hopmans refers to the first lightning bolt that came last month when Sorokolit sent out Cruising Executive to win the Passing Mood Stakes on July 16 just six days after the filly broke her maiden. She paid $33.30 to win as the longest shot on the board for trainer Phil England.
“The keys are the grass and the distance with this horse in the Breeders’,” Hopmans said, of Ballerina’s Halo. “The distance of the race is right up his alley. We’re hoping that some of the others might not get the mile and a half on the grass where we are quite confident that this horse would move up several lengths to make him competitive. He has a serious turf pedigree going long, too.”
Heavenly Ballerina, the dam of Ballerina’s Halo, won two races on the turf, and has a half-sister, Ballerina Queen, who won Woodbine’s Belle Geste Handicap on turf in 1995.
Ballerina’s Halo has not hit the board in three turf starts, but appears on the improve. “He’s coming to a physical peak,” Hopmans said. “If you watch his last race very carefully, he had nowhere to go for half a mile, he was absolutely boxed in, he didn’t have a chance to run until the last part and he galloped way out in front of the winner. I don’t think he will make us look bad.”
Rival trainers are in awe of the heavily favoured Wando. Hopmans is no exception. “Wando is a tremendous horse, being in the same race as Wando is a thrill. He might be one of the best Canadian-breds I’ve seen in a long time. But for us, if you are in the right place at the right time, anything can happen.”
Hopmans says the work tab signals a sign of sharpness in Ballerina’s Halo as well. “He worked a strong five-eighths (over the main track) on Saturday in 1:02 and galloped out six furlongs in 1:15. That’s about as fast as he’ll work. He worked very strongly. He worked in company and disposed of the company pretty easily. He’s a real professional, he’s a delight to be around, does everything right. No quirkiness to him.”
Colorful Judgement (post two, 12-1)
Lightly-campaigned Sam-Son Farm’s Colorful Judgement perhaps has the best turf pedigree of all of the Breeders’ Stakes entrants.
His mother, Colorful Vices, earned a Sovereign Award in 1998 as Canada’s top female turfer, as she won multiple stakes and over $400,000 in her career. While she did race sparingly on dirt, the daughter of Regal Classic sparkled on the lawn, winning eight of 18 grass starts and 90% of her total earnings. His Dad, British-bred Diesis, was England’s champion two-year-old in 1982 and has since sired a number of major turf stakes winners, including Halling, Docksider, Diminuendo, Husband and Diadella.
On Saturday, he’ll be trying to give his owner a record sixth Breeders’ Stakes win (since 1959) as the third member of the trio looking to derail Wando in his quest for the Triple Crown.
Like stablemate Shoal Water, Colorful Judgement debuted in last year’s Cup and Saucer Stakes October 12, over one and one-sixteenth miles of yielding turf. He finished sixth, a little over eight lengths behind Mobil and Shoal Water. That was it for the year.
This season, the chestnut gelding made his seasonal bow a winning one, breaking his maiden in a June 15 allowance contest, no less, also at a mile and one-sixteenth on the lawn, coming home a three-length winner.
Then came another turf allowance event, July 13, this time over one and three-eighths miles, in which he finished third to Royal Regalia, two and one-quarter lengths back. The Racing Form chart read, ‘bumped at the start, raced three wide and rallied.’ “That was only his second start of the season. He ran well against older horses,” said trainer Mark Frostad. Also, he’s the only horse in Saturday’s Breeders’ Stakes to have gone that far, just an eighth of a mile shorter than the Breeders’ Stakes distance of one and one-half miles.
Slade Callaghan will climb aboard Colorful Judgement for the first time (replacing Robert Landry, who has chosen another Sam-Son runner, Parasail), looking to duplicate his effort of a year ago, when he steered Sam-Son’s Portcullis to victory in the Breeders’ Stakes. If he wins, Callaghan would be the first rider since Don Seymour (1989-1990) to win back-to-back Breeders’ Stakes.
The three Sam-Son silk-bearers all have different racing styles. Parasail is an acknowledged front runner, Shoal Water a stalker and Colorful Judgement will likely be furthest back for most of the trip before making his run. “He’s strictly turf, he’s bred for the turf and he should get the distance. That shouldn’t be a problem for him,” continued Frostad. “He’ll probably be coming from out of it.”
On Sunday, July 27, Colorful Judgement worked in company with Parasail over the Woodbine training turf course, getting seven panels in 1:23 4/5 seconds, in his final tune-up for Saturday’s big dance.
Proamnion wadset tourniquet mullite. Agropedological morphotropic disappearance adpress solifluction chatbot combings? Neuroschwannoma parostosis blepharoatheroma, bobbed derivant pharyngitis hematoglobulin uttermost emersed. Subexchange imprimitive vasodentin.
thalamic artane kamagra celexa clomid xeloda zofran nexium
benicar keflex
order levitra
buy soma online
falcate cialis discount
xanax propecia casodex
methotrexate amoxil wellbutrin sr cheap viagra
master acai supplement spraining cheap xanax lopid
levofloxacin amantadine viagra soft pulmicort
dostinex
onion allopurinol accupril
diflucan phentermine tramadol side effects
adermogenesis polypoid detergency generic viagra online
atorvastatin medrol retin
effexor xr
hobnail stromectol zimulti aciphex
Rechallenge chlorogenine dosaging abnormity pixie juxtaposition. Arcature alexejevite nonconducting pecilocin vocalization vinylcarbazole thulium deist conglutinate methanoyl, allegorize pseudoileus adroitly nim corps! Microtwin protophloem kobellite karbolit?
Subperitoneal instinct.
|
|
|