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Atlas Shrugs
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Bridgecut
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Cifercat
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Ascot Bill
Since anything can happen to a two-year-old in his first career start, many trainers are cautiously optimistic about their chances. Trainer Steve Attard saw so much potential in Ascot Bill going into his first race that he had nothing but confidence. “I absolutely loved him that day,” recalled Attard. “I didn’t think anybody could beat this horse.”
Nobody did. Ascot Bill defeated nine rivals in the maiden allowance, winning the six-furlong dash impressively, drawing off by 4 ¾ lengths in 1:10 4/5. “I liked how he did it. I thought he was going to have all kinds of speed. When he came from off the pace like that, he really impressed me. It’s not like he broke in front and kept on going.”
While Attard had high hopes for Ascot Bill in his second start, he didn’t get another chance to saddle the gelding as a two-year-old. “I actually thought I was going to win the Simcoe Stakes with him. He came up with a small (suspensory) injury. We sent him home and gave him time off. We could have run him. We didn’t want to take any chances.”
After working like ‘gangbusters’ this spring, Ascot Bill was entered in a difficult seven-furlong allowance event. From post 10, Ascot Bill was outrun early but showed interest late, rallying for fifth and finishing about 10 lengths behind Coronation Futurity third-place Shillelagh Slew, who won the race impressively. “That’s when I thought this was a nice horse. It made me feel good he only beat him by 10. Our horse had four or five workouts going into the race and Shillelagh Slew was training all winter long in Florida.”
The Beclawat homebred injured his ‘bill’ in his second start of 2006, a third-place finish in which Ascot Bill broke slowly. Attard termed the race a write-off when he discovered his charge had cut his mouth before being led over. “He was on a tie chain and it got caught up and cut his mouth. We had no control of him in the gate.”
In his third start of the season and first ever stakes attempt, Ascot Bill made a serious impression during the late stages of the Plate Trial, closing with resolve in the final three furlongs to finish second, one length behind Pipers Thunder. “He scooted up the rail and once he got through he picked his head up. It gave him some confidence and he kind of took off running,” said jockey Justin Stein. Attard believes his horse could have fared even better in the Plate Trial. “We didn’t get the perfect trip. He was a little chicken racing between horses. He didn’t really want to go and backed right off to last. As soon as he got clear, he took off. If he hadn’t fallen back, I don’t think they would have beaten him.”
After closing as strongly as he did at nine furlongs, Attard believes his pupil’s work ethic will allow him to appreciate the Plate distance. “I know my horse can go one mile and a quarter. That’s going to hit him right between the eyes. I can’t train him enough. The harder I train him, the better he feels. I send him 2 ½ miles every day.”
Attard said Ascot Bill is one of those thoroughbreds that has special observation skills. “He sees things. We don’t know what, but he sees things. We call it a sixth sense. He’s fun to have around, a good feeling horse.”
Steve Attard is one of three Attards with a stake in this year’s Queen’s Plate. His uncle Sid will saddle Hot Deputy and his sister Josie is the groom of Shillelagh Slew, who is trained by her husband Mike DePaulo. “Obviously, if I can’t win I want a relative to win. When we get in that gate, I don’t have any relatives. Before? Yes. After? Yes. But during? No family. I want to beat anybody that’s in front of us.”
Atlas Shrugs
Atlas Shrugs, a three-year-old son of Compadre, may not have to produce an all-world effort to win the upcoming Queen’s Plate, June 25, but he’ll need to improve off his fifth-place finish, four lengths behind Plate rival Pipers Thunder, in the mile and one-eighth Plate Trial, June 4. However, on the positive side, it was the first time in 12 outings that Atlas Shrugs had raced further than seven furlongs.
“He ran well. He kind of eased out at the half-mile pole, took a little more ground that he normally takes to run and came up a little short in the race,” said trainer Reade Baker, who finished third in last year’s Queen’s Plate with 2005 Labatt Woodbine Oaks winner Gold Strike. “So we’ve got reason to believe he’ll improve. He only got beat four lengths. I think the biggest thing is he just wasn’t as fit as he could be. It’s a wide-open Plate and this horse has as good a chance as any. There’s nobody in the field that would really scare you.”
Atlas Shrugs has already turned out to be quite a claim for owners C. R. (Bud) Roberts and John Pepper, principals in Edenview Investments. Regardless of what happens in the Plate, they probably feel like they’ve landed in the Garden of Eden, already, since haltering the horse for $50,000 last December at Woodbine (in his final race of the season, which he won with a tremendous closing kick over seven furlongs). He has since banked over $169,000 for them in just three starts this year. The last horse to win the Queen’s Plate after being claimed? Bompago in 1983. Before him, Epigram in 1952.
On why Baker claimed the horse, he explained, “He had great form. He’d run a lot, an indication of soundness. The trainer had claimed one off me the week before for $50,0o0, so that was part of it. The owners had instructed me to claim a horse (with the intention) to run in the Plate. I waited three months to do it and finally found one on the last day (of the racing season). So I thought I’m either getting a real nice horse or a $50,000 riding horse.”
So Baker mapped out a plan for his newly acquired Plate eligible. Atlas Shrugs first appeared in his new owners silks on April 22, scoring a smashing two and one-quarter length win in the slop in the Woodstock Stakes, defeating, amongst others, Vibank, one of last year’s top two-year-olds.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, he came back two weeks later in the Queenston Stakes on May 6, when he scored a neck decision over Plate rival Edenwold, last season’s Sovereign Award winner as Canada’s top juvenile colt/gelding. In that race, like the Woodstock, jockey Corey Fraser had hugged the rail coming off the far turn, found an opening, squeezed through and drove to the wire, while Edenwold had taken the overland route and wound up four wide. It was a monster effort by the former claimer.
“He’s taken an edge each time by travelling through on the inside and getting lucky but he’s a tough, nice little horse,” continued Baker. “However, he’s got this nasty little habit at the end of his works (or races). He’ll try to run to the outside fence and dump the rider. He did that to Corey after the Queenston. I forgot to warn him (Corey) about it. If you relax too much on him, he’ll do a ‘u-ee’ (U-turn) on you. He has no bad habits other than that.”
“He’s small to medium, size-wise. He eats well, he’s easy around the barn, a lovely little horse to have. I should probably not claim another horse after claiming him.”
Bridgecut
Ever since Bridgecut was a two-year-old, trainer Dave Bell has considered the bay at the crossroads of stardom. “He was a useful two-year-old. He had good days and so-so days. He was on the fringes - I always wondered if he would come back as a three-year-old and get better or just be an okay horse.”
After finishing fourth and third in a pair of two-turn allowance races this spring, Bell still doesn’t feel he has received the answer. As a result, he’s going to give the Melnyk Racing Stables’ homebred a chance to show his talent in the most important race for Canadian-bred three-year-olds. Who better to ride him than the colony’s top jockey, Emma-Jayne Wilson. “We’re going to give him a shot,” explained Bell. “He’s coming around. He’s sharper and more aggressive. Obviously, I would like to have a little bit more into him, but I think we’re at the right spot.”
Bridgecut’s last start came in a five-horse allowance at 1 1/16 miles on June 2. Like stablemate Thinking Out Loud in the Plate Trial, Bridgecut drew the inside post and didn’t respond well to the subsequent inside trip from just behind the pace. “He was pinned in on the fence. He ran an even third. He probably still needed the race. He’s come out of it in great shape and training well.”
Bell said the horse has already shown an ability to rebound with a big performance. “He kind of ran a poor race (fifth) in the Coronation, which I thought was not up to standard. Then he came back and ran a huge race in the Display to Seaside Retreat, who went on and did really well. If we can bounce back from a poor race, then maybe we’ll be there.”
The Display Stakes was easily the best performance of Bridgecut’s seven-race career. From the start, he dueled for the early lead and continued to fight until the end, staying on to finish third, beaten 4 ¼ lengths. Seaside Retreat, the race’s 3 ¾-length winner, returned at three to finish second in the Lane’s End Stakes at Turfway Park and 10th in the Kentucky Derby.
Bridgecut, who wintered at his owner’s Winding Oaks Farm in Ocala, had a small off-season setback that cost some training time. “He had some little issues and they didn’t get to train him as much as they wanted. He didn’t start training January 1, which is what the ideal game plan is. When he came up here, he hadn’t had as much of a base as I wanted. We’ve been behind the eight ball.”
Bridgecut may not be a very large horse, but Bell says he’s been known to act big. “He’s a fine little horse. He can be a little tough, too. He’s got some temperament to him. He can be a nice guy. He’ll just turn on you in a second. That’s kind of what makes him a racehorse.”
Bridgecut is by top-class stallion Silver Deputy, who is currently ranked 17th in progeny earnings. Silver Deputy’s top offspring include Silverbulletday, Crown Attorney, Badge of Silver and Deputy Inxs. Bridgecut is out of Brittons Hill, a Gulch mare that was second in the Schuylerville and Astoria Stakes as a two-year-old in New York.
With Bridgecut and Thinking Out Loud, Bell knows he’ll be saddling a pair of longshots. But with a pair of entrants that are bred to love the trip and are ridden by Woodbine’s two leading riders (Wilson and Jim McAleney), it may be foolhardy to totally exclude them from consideration. “They both should be 25-1. I don’t think they’re bad horses that don’t belong in the race, but we are taking a shot.”
Cifercat
Can the ‘Cat’ come back with another stellar effort? In what was arguably his most impressive performance to date, Cifercat, a son of Ciano Cat, finished a game fourth, two lengths back of Plate rival Pipers Thunder, in the Plate Trial on June 4.
Listed at a whopping 300-1 in the Queen’s Plate Winterbook, Cifercat’s dam, Shawl Dance, is a half-sister to Canadian Derby winner Native Brass.
Well, the comment line said he ‘hung’ late, but conditioner Abraham Katryan certainly wasn’t unimpressed with the showing in the Plate Trial. “It was a hell of an effort,” said the trainer, of his Alberta-bred’s gutsy performance at 26-1. “He’s bred to go around two turns, so hopefully he’ll run even better this Sunday.”
Katryan, who saddled champion Wake at Noon to a fifth-place finish in the 2000 Plate for the very same owner, would like to see Cifercat pounce at precisely the right time. “When he sees daylight early, like in the Plate Trial and his previous race, he takes off and tends to give it up at the end. We’d like to see him save a little bit of that kick for a little later on in the race.”
Knowing he can claw his way to the lead is certainly encouraging, especially for a horse that was a $32,000 claim on April 23. And speaking of the claim game, check this out…Cifercat wasn’t even the pick of the litter, so to speak. “It’s kind of funny,” said Katryan. “We were looking for a couple of horses to claim to fill the barn. My boss (owner Bruno Shickedanz) and I were looking at another horse in that race originally. But this sucker really stood out. He looked ripe for the picking.”
Katryan plucked the horse, one who happened to win that claiming event by 3 ¼-lengths, and now, just two months later, Cifercat is ready to take on some salty rivals. Can he be the cat’s meow this weekend? “He has never run the same distance twice,” remarked Katryan. “He started out sprinting and now he’s going to go 1 ¼-miles. He’ll give it his best shot.”
It was hardly a stellar start to Cifercat’s career, two races that produced ninth- and sixth-place finishes, respectively. On July 10, at six furlongs, the colt crossed the wire 14 ¼-lengths back of fellow Plate starter Edenwold. Twenty-one days later, it wasn’t much prettier. He moved up three spots, but finished even further out of it, 15 ¾-lengths, to be exact.
But that was then and this is now. “He loves to train,” noted Katryan, of the lifetime earner of $42,040. “He likes to save energy coming for home whenever he works. He’s always got something left. And he always comes home a happy horse.” Cifercat concluded his major preparations with a one mile move in 1:39.3, handily, over the main track on Sunday.
“For a colt, he’s exceptional,” said Katryan. “He likes to relax when he comes back to the barn after training. I take him out to the field in the back and he’s as happy as can be.”
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