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Shoal Water
A victory by Shoal Water in the Woodbine Mile, presented by Bell, would give owner and breeder Sam-Son Farm an unprecedented third win in the turf event. Red and gold colour-bearers captured the Mile in 1999 with Quiet Resolve and in 2004 with Soaring Free.
Even though his name may suggest an affinity for the rain, Shoal Water’s connections will be hoping for dry conditions, especially after watching his sub-par 10 ¾-length defeat in the Nijinsky. “It was terrible,” said Frostad. “We know 1 ½ miles is too far for him. He didn’t like the soft going so he didn’t run very well.”
Frostad said the six-year-old gelding bounced out of the effort well and has trained well in the interim. “He’s in good order. Hopefully, he’ll put in a better performance in the Mile.”
No doubt, Team Sam-Son will be pleased if Shoal Water produces an effort similar to his King Edward Breeders’ Cup comeback. Off almost two years, the rugged competitor dueled for six furlongs (1:10 3/5) and still stayed on for fourth, defeated just 1 ½ lengths. “I thought he would need a race. I didn’t think he would run nearly as well as he did. I didn’t think he was quite as far along as he was.”
Throughout his career, Shoal Water has answered the call, defining himself as a gritty performer that has performed with determination even in defeat. In his first career start, he finished second in the Cup & Saucer Stakes to Mobil. As a three-year-old, Shoal Water finished second in the 1 ½-mile Breeders’ Stakes to Wando and won the Grade 3, 1 3/16-mile Saranac Handicap at Saratoga. At four, the bay won a spirited stretch duel with Mobil to capture the Chinese Cultural Centre Stakes at 1 3/8 miles.
Shoal Water was sidelined after the Chinese Cultural Centre win due to injury. “He had a condylar fracture and it didn’t heal properly. It’s taken us this long to get him back. He’s a nice horse. He always has been.”
Now that he’s healthy, Frostad said finding the right race within Shoal Water’s optimal distance range will be the key to a winning result. “His best trip is probably 1 1/8 miles to 1 ¼ miles. All the big races here have been 1 ½ miles so that’s where we’ve gone.”
Frostad reasons that the turnback may allow Shoal Water to benefit from a less aggressive trip. “Cutting back to one mile is probably a little short for him. If there’s a good pace up front, he may be able to close.”
Shoal Water’s female family has already produced one Woodbine Mile champ. Aforementioned stablemate Soaring Free is out of Dancing With Wings, who also produced Shoal Water’s dam, Puffin Island.
Sweet Return
Triple Grade 1 winner Sweet Return invades Woodbine for Sunday’s Woodbine Mile presented by Bell from California where the six-year-old has been tackling some of the best grass horses in the world, in particular the streaking Aragorn, trained by Neil Drysdale.
“We feel he lost to the best grass horse in America in his last two races,” said Rick Sacco, manager for owner John Brunetti’s Red Oak Stable.
Indeed, the son of Elmaamul, who began his racing career as a two-year-old in Great Britain in 2002, has tried two different racing styles in an effort to topple that tough rival. In his fourth start of 2006, the naturally speedy horse set rapid fractions in the nine-furlong Eddie Read Handicap (Grade I) before winding up second. The time of 1:44.60 shattered Del Mar’s course record for the distance. “His race (in the Eddie Read) was very good, he set the pace and was second,” said Sacco.
In his most recent start, Sweet Return was taken off the pace in the Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap (Grade 2) and finished evenly to be fourth, just 2 ¾ lengths behind Aragorn. “He was stalking the pace in that race and he usually likes to have the lead to himself or come from way out of it so that race didn’t really go his way,” Sacco said. “But the Ragozin sheets (American-based speed figures) gave him a 4 which would make that his best effort of the year.”
Sweet Return, the field’s leading money winner with over $1.6 million, has not won in five starts in 2006, but in 2005, took consecutive Grade 1 events at Hollywood Park (Charlie Whittingham Handicap) and Del Mar (Eddie Read).
As a three-year-old Sweet Return won the Hollywood Derby at 10 furlongs, his ninth start since joining trainer Ron McAnally’s stable.
Sacco said Sweet Return has the right disposition for a racehorse. “He’s a real nice horse to be around; he does everything you ask him to. He doesn’t work all that fast, but we’ve kept him around a long time training him that way.”
Sweet Return is in good form, heading into the Mile. “He’s doing super. He came out of his last race in perfect shape. He’s a three-time Grade 1 winner and we’re going to come east and give the Mile a try. “He’s won at one-mile three times (two at a mile, one at 7 ½ furlongs) and he couldn’t be training any better.”
Therecomesatiger
For small-scale owner and breeder Charles Patton, a win in the $1 million Woodbine Mile, presented by Bell, would amount to a king-size dose of ‘Chicken Soup for the Thoroughbred Owner’s Soul.’ Like most farm managers, Patton spends most Sunday afternoons cheering for the runners competing in the colours of his boss, publisher Peter Vegso, the creator of the popular ‘Chicken Soup’ book series. The opposite is true this Sunday, when Vegso will be cheering on a Patton-owned ‘tiger.’
While vying for the $600,000 (C$) winner’s share, Therecomesatiger will attempt to add a graded stakes stripe to his already impressive resume. The son of Tiger Ridge sports an impressive 5-for-9 record since debuting last July in Illinois. Trainer Thomas Proctor said the best is yet to come. “His career is ahead of him. He’s actually done just about everything we’ve asked of him. Talent-wise he tries as hard as he can.”
Therecomesatiger enters the Mile off a determined win in the Sea O’ Erin Breeders’ Cup Handicap. The gelding clawed his way to victory over local stalwart Le Cinquieme Essai in the one-mile event. “He ran an awesome race, as slow as it went in the early going. He found a hole that wasn’t even there,” said Patton.
Therecomesatiger made his 2006 debut in the May 29 Mister Gus, a fifth-place result which Proctor attributes to an absence of nearly five months. He returned with a much improved effort against Miesque’s Approval in his first graded stakes event, the Grade 2 Firecracker Breeders’ Cup Handicap. “He ran well,” said Proctor. “He probably got beat by one of the best milers in the country that day.”
Even though Therecomesatiger was a tough youngster that required gelding, Patton believed from the very beginning that he had something special. “I really liked the horse from the time he was a yearling. It’s the first time I ever turned down $75,000 for a horse in my life. He was hard to break, but he had such a nice stride and such a nice way of going that I thought he was a racehorse. I told everybody that was my Derby horse.”
But the Kentucky Derby wasn’t in the cards for Therecomesatiger. As a juvenile, he contracted White Line disease, a deterioration of the inner part of the hoof wall. “It gets in the foot and works its way up. It takes a long time for that to grow back out,” explained Patton. “It was probably the best thing that could have happened because he really needed to grow up. He made a lot better three-year-old, as a racehorse.”
Proctor agrees that Therecomesatiger has improved his attitude. “His personality is a lot better than it used to be. He was very tough as a baby, hard to get along with. He’s matured. As long as you don’t upset him, he’s fine.”
The patience paid off because once Therecomesatiger left the den, his career began with a roar, reeling off three straight victories at Arlington Park. He finished third in his stakes debut, the Bryan Station at Keeneland. He won his first stakes race in the Commonwealth Turf, at Churchill Downs. Among the rivals he defeated in the November 13 tilt was fourth-place finisher Sky Conqueror, who is now a multiple stakes winner and Mile rival Rebel Rebel.
Three Valleys
Three trainers have won the Woodbine’s Mile twice since its inception in 1997. And all three (Neil Drysdale, Mark Frostad and Robert Frankel) have horses in this year’s renewal presented by Bell.
Five-time Eclipse Award winner Frankel won the Mile with Riviera in 2000 and heavily-favoured Leroidesanimaux last year.
This year, one of Frankel’s hopefuls (the other is Diamond Green) is Three Valleys, a Juddmonte Farms’ homebred five-year-old who has managed only five starts in North America in almost two years (and just 12 career outings overall). He has managed to find the winner’s circle on three of those occasions. He was also third to last year’s Eclipse Award winner Leroidesanimaux in his North American debut, November 27, 2004, the Grade 1, Citation Handicap at Hollywood Park, beaten just one and one-half lengths after closing from last in the 10-horse field.
“I thought he ran a great race that day,” recalled Frankel. “He was the only three-year-old in the race. He didn’t break too good, and then he got in trouble. He still finished third. I don’t know about (beating Leroidesanimaux), but he definitely could have been second.”
Unfortunately for Three Valleys, that was it for a while, as he didn’t resurface until the following July at Del Mar, when he won an optional claimer. Next up was the Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap, a race he won by a nose, putting himself squarely in the hunt for the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
Then came the Shadwell Mile when Three Valleys finished fifth to Host and (Mile rival) Vanderlin. “He didn’t come out of the race too good. I don’t think he liked that turf course,” continued Frankel.
Another lengthy layoff followed before he finally got his 2006 campaign underway in August. “He had some issues, but there was nothing we could put our finger on. He just wasn’t travelling right.”
It’s been a long road back to the races, but the five-year-old son of Diesis (sire of many good grassers, including Halling, Docksider, Ramruma, Diminuendo and Husband) is gearing up for a limited, but hopefully successful fall campaign.
His only outing came in the Grade 3 Oceanport Handicap at Monmouth Park on August 6, when he closed to nip Hotstufanthensome by a neck, with Mile rival Rebel Rebel third, in a blistering 1:40 for the mile and one-sixteenth turf affair, registering a 101 Beyer in the process. An explosive debut, to say the least, but not unexpected, since he did go postward a slight 2-1 favourite.
Did Frankel think he was tight enough to win first time out? “I thought he ran very well. He’s a pretty good horse and I thought he’d run a good race.” To put that effort in perspective, Rebel Rebel, who will also contest the Woodbine Mile, had previously won the Poker Handicap at Belmont Park, defeating, amongst others, Remarkable News, who is also in the Woodbine Mile.
Could Three Valleys be peaking for the Woodbine Mile? “Everything’s fine,” continued Frankel. “I don’t think he needs a really fast pace (to close). He’s pretty versatile. Hopefully, he can throw one of his better races and get a chance to win. He’s a nice horse, does everything right, easy to train.”
A Kentucky-bred, Three Valleys began his racing career in England. He won his first two starts as a juvenile, looking like a world-beater until finishing third, as the odds-on choice, to One Cool Cat in the Grade 1 Phoenix Stakes. He would rebound to win the Middle Park Stakes, another Group 1 event (however, he was subsequently disqualified), then wrapped up his season by finishing second in the Group 1 Dewhurst. He earned champion two-year-old colt honours in England.
Vanderlin
He’s back! Vanderlin is certainly no stranger to Woodbine. In fact, the British-bred seems to feel right at home here. Last year, the son of Halling contested three stakes at Canada’s Showplace of Racing, including a regal performance in the Play the King Stakes.
Sent off at nearly 12-1, Vanderlin, under Martin Dwyer, raced mid-pack along the rail in the seven furlong Play the King, angled out in upper stretch, wove his way through traffic and notched a head victory.
"I was very pleased with the way he knuckled down in the Play the King," said trainer Andrew Balding, of the lifetime winner of seven races and 27 top-three finishes from 48 starts. "It's a wonderful track and I think it suits him, but as in any case, you need luck on your side."
Luck is exactly what Vanderlin got in the Play the King, with a helping hand from Dwyer. "They went fast and I knew we'd come home good," said Dwyer, who also took the 2005 Wonder Where Stakes with Silver Highlight, also with Balding. "I was just waiting for the split. I thought if we pulled out wide, we might not make the ground up. He battled to win."
Then it was off to the Atto Mile, now known as the Woodbine Mile presented by Bell. After being blocked in the stretch, Vanderlin finished fourth, almost 10 lengths back of champion Leroidesanimaux. A sharp second-place finish in the Grade 1 Shadwell Mile at Keeneland, under his 2006 Mile pilot Richard Hughes, was followed by a return trip to the Toronto oval for the Grade 2 Nearctic on October 23, where Vanderlin finished fourth, 1 ¾ lengths back of Steel Light.
Balding, who won the 2003 (Grade 1) Pattison Canadian International with Phoenix Reach, is hoping for a more pleasing result and a less eventful journey for Vanderlin in the 10th running of the Mile. “I don’t think we would have been anywhere near to Leroidesanimaux, but we felt he could have been one place closer if he hadn’t been blocked.”
The gelding launched his career on May 30, 2001 at Newbury, tackling 5 ¼ furlongs over a good-to-firm turf. As far as career bows go, it was hardly a disappointing result, as the then two-year-old finished second under Kieren Fallon, five lengths in arrears of Peter Breughal.
After finishing seventh, second and second, respectively, Vanderlin, previously trained by Balding's famous father, Ian, (Andrew took over the yard upon his Dad's retirement four years ago) broke his maiden at Pontefract in May of 2002. "My Dad and I bought him as a yearling and he had a good two-year-old campaign. He’s had to contend with injury problems over the years, but he has significantly improved over time."
Vanderlin kicked off his seven-year-old season in style, dead-heating for first in the Doncaster Mile in March. In four starts in 2006, he has one win, a fifth, a second and most recently, a seventh at Goodwood.
“He came out of his last race a little sore,” said Balding, in reference to that seventh-place finish, nearly 26 lengths back of Court Masterpiece in the Grade 1 Sussex Stakes on August 2. “It was very unlike him. But we put some oil on his joints and he’s doing quite well. He had three terrific races prior to that, including a fifth in the (Grade 1) Champions Mile in Hong Kong where he wasn’t far back at all. He’s a very solid horse.”
The hard-knocking Vanderlin, half-brother to six winners, notably useful runners Mashoura, Monaiya and Miss Orah, is still plugging away. "We’ve had a lot of fun with him,” offered Balding. “He’s a wonderful horse to be around. The one thing we’re most proud of is that he’s improved with age. "
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