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    • What will racing look like in 10 years? We asked some of racing's best and brightest to give us their predictions. Want to submit an answer? Email suefinley@thetdn.com   Louisiana Downs Racing Secretary Stuart Slagle: My 2036 Racing Travelogue  DATE:  Jan 25, 2036 10:00 PM EST            CITY:  HAVANA    Wow, what a year! I kicked things off in Havana, where the legendary Oriental Park made its comeback with Hong Kong Jockey Club's assistance following the successful launch of Chongua Racecourse. The Gran Premio Laz Barrera Internacional was a huge draw, even luring recent Florida Derby champs. The Friday night post of 10 o'clock allowed for simulcasting at Sha Tin. The Friday night races were wild, and winning jockey Zac Purton partied so hard at the Havana Jazz Festival that he missed his flight the next morning.   DATE:  Jan 26, 2036 6:00?PM EST             CITY:  Hallandale Beach    FanDuel Sportsbook was relieved of its liability because Purton-Purton's jockey prop parlay wasn't going to bankrupt them. The Computer Assisted Wagering teams successfully crushed the winning payoff on Derek Ortiz's first stakes win, as Purton's pickup mount. His dad, Jose, was the favorite until the gates opened, but the real surprise was a China Horse Club runner from Royal St. Lucia that paid $3.80.   DATE:  Feb 23, 2036 6:00 PM MST            CITY:  PHOENIX    Phoenix was buzzing for the GI Luke Kruytbosch Derby. The city's grown huge (now the 3rd largest in the country), and the Rocky Mountain Breeders Cooperative has made Turf Paradise the place to be. Both purses and field sizes skyrocketed with the early adoption of the Equibase Ratings Handicaps. A full gate is now the norm for the Kruytbosch with the $1-million bonus for Rocky Mt.-breds that start in the Kentucky Derby. Trainers like Bob Baffert, Todd Fincher, and Steve Asmussen dominated, and Steve even posed with the WY-bred winner.   DATE:  Mar 15, 2036 6:00 PM EDT            CITY:  NEW KENT    Once the decade-old Delmarva Racing Consortium negotiated a Preakness entry of the best-finishing DE-, MD-, or VA-bred in the race, the Virginia Derby was on every sophomore's dance card. Capitalizing on the stakes' popularity among horse people in the entry box, CDI increased starters to 20 in Colonial Downs' premier dirt race five years ago,   DATE:  Apr 6, 2036 6:00 PM EDT               CITY:  OCALA    In its partnership's third year, the FTBOA and World Equestrian Center presented the Ocala Derby Spectacular, during which eventing, showjumping, and racing are interspersed throughout the day. The story of the week was Karl Cook winning a show jumping medal on the same day as scoring a surprise upset in The Ocala Oaks on a Michael Matz trainee.   DATE:  May 3, 2036 9:45 PM EDT CITY:  LOUISVILLE    After a decade of negotiating with the UFL, Churchill agreed to have the Kentucky Derby's post time during halftime of the championship game (Louisville Kings vs. Ocala Storm). A long post-time drag was necessitated following a controversial defensive pass interference call. Peacock7 boasted the largest Derby viewership ever. A $450-million Derby Day handle was reached despite bettors crashing ADWs, transferring funds between gaming wallets.    DATE:  May 26, 2036 9:00 PM EDT           CITY:  BALTIMORE    Under enormous pressure for another Triple Crown, last seen with Justify, The Maryland Jockey Club moved the Preakness Stakes to Memorial Day so that more Derby runners would run in the Preakness. To maximize the television audience, Pimlico paid the Baltimore Orioles to play a day game so the second leg of the Triple Crown would own the Monday prime time slot.  The Cygames-sponsored Umamusume: Pretty Preakness was a battle of the ages between granddaughters of Swiss Skydiver and Rachel Alexandra. DATE:  Jun 21, 2036 9:00 PM EDT CITY:  ELMONT    After 95% of the 2035 Belmont Stakes wagers arrived in the last seconds, NYRA booked all fixed odds win, double, and exacta wagers to address CAWs. On this Belmont Day alone, those wagers handled $300 million. Sponsored by the World Pool, several jockeys, including Belmont winner Katie Davis, traveled on the 'New Concorde' for same-day riding engagements at Royal Ascot and Belmont Park.   DATE:  Jul 1, 2036 8:30 PM PDT                 CITY: TORFINO    In cooperation with the Laytown Races, the British Columbia Teletheatre brings beach racing to the surfing and whale watching community of Torfino on Vancouver Island. Despite difficulty in obtaining Pacific Rim National Park accommodation, organizer Dawn Lupal expects that the Salish Stakes will be on everyone's bucket list. Donnacha O'Brien trained the winner and is pointing to Laytown to become the first condition to pull off the Torfino-Laytown Double. Late post time was to accommodate low tides.   DATE:  Jul 16, 2036 8:30 PM EDT               CITY:  NEW KENT    Using event planning Artificial Intelligence, Colonial Downs created the Cavalier Invitational the evening after MLB's All-Star Game. Wednesday's two-mile test was with the middle turf rails down for a field of twenty-four. Barring the FIFA World Cup, no Wednesday sporting event had as much wagering.   DATE:  Aug 2, 2036 8:30 PM MDT             CITY:  JACKSON HOLE    While the August standards of Saratoga and Del Mar are still popular, the Wyoming circuit is now the summer place to be. As a condition of Taylor Sheridan filming a documentary, the biggest fan of the Yellowstone series, Ben Huffman, was hired.  Jackson Hole is now the summer hotspot, with Hollywood stars flocking to The Grand Teton Stakes. The purse hit $2 million, and the racing scene is booming.   DATE:  Aug 18, 2036 84:30 PM MDT        CITY:  LEHI    California's population shift to Utah led to the demand for Sundance Downs, built near the American Fork train station in Lehi. The track's signature race, The Sting, is a period piece dress occasion for patrons on what would have been Robert Redford's 100th birthday.   DATE:  Sep 7, 2036 5:30 PM CDT               CITY:  BOSSIER CITY    The Super Derby thrives at Louisiana Downs, which is now the most popular stop on Amtrak's recently completed Atlanta- Dallas high-speed rail link. They thank Woodbine for the inspiration for the track adjacent depot. Winning owner/breeder of the Bullet Train (GB) descendant, Sean Feld, used the purse to fund the rebirth of the 'Kids To The Cup.'   DATE: Sep 10, 2036 5:30 PM EDT CITY:  FRANKLIN    Kentucky Downs got a makeover, with new barns and a backstretch grandstand over the old Interstate-65 rest stop, which was funded by the state. Historical Horse Racing keeps the excitement going.   DATE:  Oct 24-25, 2036                                CITY:  HOUSTON    The Breeders' Cup at Sam Houston Race Park was a trophy bonanza for Michael Maker, who won all seven turf championships. Thanks to Penn Entertainment and Tilman Fertitta for championing HHR and sports betting.   DATE:  Nov 13, 2036 1:30 PM EDT            CITY:  CHEROKEE    On Harrah's Cherokee Casino's 39th anniversary, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians expands with the addition of parimutuel racing to North Carolina. The fans from Knoxville, Chattanooga, Charlotte, and Atlanta packed the grandstand for a lively nine-day meet.   DATE:  Dec 11, 2036 5:30 PM HST            CITY:  HONOLULU    Honolulu hosted a pop-up racing festival at Kapi'olani Park, and ESPN revived the Diamond Head Classic. A Yoshito Yahagi-led investor group funded the King Kamehameha birthday celebration.  It was a treat to see Coaches Calipari and Pitino at the races before their big game. I am grateful to TQ for getting me tickets for both. There are now rumors that Hawai'i is a future Breeders' Cup host site.   DATE: Dec 26, 2036 12:30 PM PST            CITY:  ARCADIA    Finally, I wrapped up the year in Arcadia at Clocker's Corner, celebrating the Great RIP's 102nd birthday. The two-week holiday break between Honolulu and Arcadia was the perfect way to end the season with friends and family.   The post Racing in 2036: Stu Slagle appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • In terms of upcoming centenaries, the good news is that we should be favored with plenty of Marilyn Monroe movies. True, her most enduring contribution to equine sport was to exclaim, in Some Like It Hot: “Water polo! Isn't that terribly dangerous?” “I'll say,” replies Tony Curtis as the fake millionaire. “I had two ponies drowned under me.” In the Thoroughbred world, therefore, we will instead be honoring another immortal female born in 1926. Through the next year, in fact, it might be fun to make a specific note of every graded stakes winner tracing to La Troienne (Fr), just as a snapshot of her legacy. Because we had a pretty instructive sample last weekend, when horses as remote in origin as South American champion Obataye (Brz) (Courtier) and the Louisiana A.T.M., Touchuponastar (Star Guitar), could ultimately be entwined by the great matriarch. La Troienne's influence can hardly be condensed in a few paragraphs here; nor have we scope to reprise the encouragement she offers anyone who recently invested in a cull from a major program at the breeding stock sales. In short, the daughter of Teddy (Fr) never won a race (albeit highly tried, and placed a couple of times) and was discarded by Marcel Boussac for 1,250 guineas in December 1930. Though her dam was a steeplechaser, it was a Classic family overall and her purchase by Colonel E.R. Bradley duly consolidated his status as one of the principal architects of the modern American Thoroughbred. By now, of course, the direct genetic impact of La Troienne will be fairly infinitesimal. She's the 10th dam of Obataye, the ninth of Touchuponastar. But these two horses do legitimately measure the sheer range by which their ancestor has become such an icon. Each traces to a different daughter of La Troienne, among several to have established lasting lines; these latter having in turn proliferated to allow widespread access. Sure enough, both extend branches identified with relatively modern names-respectively those of The Garden Club (Herbager {Fr}) and La Mesa (Round Table)-but have since been diluted sufficiently to become perfectly affordable. Touchuponastar is out of a mare who cost $25,000 as a yearling and, while Star Guitar is a deserving legend in Louisiana, was conceived at no more than $7,500. But this tapering of values is pretty steep. The dam is out of a Deputy Minister mare who was in utero when Harbor View Farm decided that $450,000 was not enough for a half-sister (by Farma Way) to Bernstein and Sky Mesa's dam Caress (both by Storm Cat). Their dam was out of La Mesa, who was herself out of Buckpasser's half-sister-whose granddam was La Troienne's daughter Businesslike (Blue Larkspur). The line that leads to Obataye, meanwhile, was cultivated by Ogden Phipps, who acquired La Troienne's daughter Baby League (Bubbling Over) after Bradley's death in 1946. Her value had just been giddily elevated by her daughter Busher (War Admiral), Horse of the Year in 1945, but she was carrying a full sister who would repay Phipps every cent, in Striking. Striking's daughter by Nasrullah, So Chic, has become one of the principal thoroughfares to La Troienne, notably through her granddaughter The Garden Club. The latter's acquisition by William S. Farish III was pivotal to the development of Lane's End, with her daughter Up the Flagpole (Hoist the Flag) becoming dam of seven stakes winners and, eventually, granddam of Mineshaft (A.P. Indy). Obataye's profile on Pedigrees360 By that stage the farm had sold a Storm Cat filly out of The Garden Club's final foal, Hidden Garden (Mr. Prospector), for $360,000 as a yearling in 1998. The filly, named Hidden Storm, never made the starting gate but her latest owners were able to cash her out for $700,000 after Mineshaft refreshed the page in 2003. She redeemed that investment when the Danehill filly she was carrying was sold to Coolmore as a yearling for $1.45 million. But a single placing for that filly at Listed level proved the highlight of her dam's production record-albeit from only half-a-dozen named foals-and a later daughter by Unbridled's Song was discarded to Brazil, for just $28,000, as an unraced 2-year-old at the 2009 Keeneland November Sale. That has proved a moment of tremendous renewal for this strand of the La Troienne dynasty-even though neither this filly, Paris Commune, nor her daughter Surfi'n Usa (Crimson Tide {Sadler's Wells}) ever made the racetrack. For her son Gargalo's Hill (Brz) meanwhile won a couple of local Group races; and now Surfi'n Usa has become the dam of the Continent's outstanding racehorse. Obviously some credit is owed to Obataye's sire, Courtier, whose own maternal line extends to Almahmoud-a name that stands comparison with that of La Troienne herself-via the Coup De Folie (Halo) branch to Natalma. Courtier was a Juddmonte homebred, a half-brother by Pioneerof the Nile to multiple Grade I winner Emollient (Empire Maker), and was found a place at stud in Brazil after being beaten by a length in the GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes in 2015. Not many of us will remember him, on the racetrack, but he has sired three previous Group 1 winners in Brazil. Obataye may be a big fish in a relatively small pond. But nobody can belittle his genes as when a prize swordfish is described, in Some Like It Hot, as a member of the herring family. “Isn't it amazing how they get those big fish into those little glass jars?” remarks Marilyn. Curtis replies: “They shrink when they're marinated.”   Warrior a Folk Legend Spreading our wings a little, this week, with the build-up to the holiday rather quiet on the domestic front. From South America we proceed to Asia, to acclaim a truly outlandish animal in Romantic Warrior (Ire), now winner of a fourth G1 Hong Kong Cup. And “acclaim” is the word. It was a year ago this month that Rathbarry Stud mourned the loss of Romantic Warrior's remarkable sire Acclamation (GB), whose very first crop included a future champion sire in Dark Angel (Ire). Though sire of seven elite winners, Acclamation never stood at a higher fee than €40,000. Admittedly he could work with some quite some interesting material in Romantic Warrior's dam Folk Melody (Ire) (Street Cry {Ire}). She had been culled in 2016 by Godolphin for €82,000 after a regressive track career (impressed on debut) contributed to the rather disappointing production record of her dam, GI E.P. Taylor Stakes winner Folk Opera (Ire) (Singspiel {Ire}), herself discarded that same fall as a 12-year-old, for no more than 240,000gns. Of the various good opportunities granted to Folk Opera, however, it has turned out that her first two foals-both daughters of Street Cry-would draw most of her ability. The unraced Opera Lily is dam of Argentinian Group 1 winner Mr Bailetti (Arg) (Exchange Rate); and then came Folk Melody. Folk Opera had herself been the first foal of her dam Skiphall (GB) (Halling), who similarly faded thereafter. That was a disappointment, given that Skiphall had been bred by Juddmonte from Minskip (The Minstrel), who can be found over some pretty smart horses-which would have been no less than would have been hoped, when her dam Fabulous Native (Le Fabuleux {Fr}) was expensively recruited halfway through her breeding career. Fabulous Native's dam, by Raise A Native, was a granddaughter of Exclusive (Shut Out)-whose own date with Raise A Native had produced Exclusive Native.   Nyquist Passing the Test While the success of Litmus Test (Nyquist) in the GII Los Alamitos Futurity plainly consolidated the credentials of the crop champion, he is certainly coming along admirably in his own right and will stretch out next year with a nice, old-fashioned base of experience. Meanwhile he has completed a fine year for his sire, whose incoming juveniles will still only have been conceived-like Litmus Test-at $55,000. Now that he is trading at $175,000, the expectation will be that his upgraded mares will cycle through and keep up the momentum. As it is, his 10 Grade I performers this year represent 3.6 percent of starters, a match even for Not This Time, Gun Runner and his pensioned neighbor Medaglia d'Oro, the only others (among meaningful opposition) to bat three percent in 2025. It is certainly to Nyquist's credit that he was able to convert a relatively reachable fee into a $875,000 payday at Saratoga last year, much the best yet for Litmus Test's dam Study Hard (Malibu Moon). The latter was found by Machmer Hall as a yearling for $100,000 at the 2016 September Sale. Though she showed nothing in a light career, she was always going to be able to fall back on her genes, as full sister to triple graded stakes winner Sweet August Moon. The latter had an unusual distinction, by the way, in both starting and finishing her career in Grade I races! (Seventh when taking the Del Mar Debutante literally, and bowed out with third in the Santa Monica Stakes.) Study Hard duly contributes to the expanding distaff legacy of Malibu Moon, whose daughters have so far given us one excellent stallion in Girvin and now launch a couple of young “Guns” in Locked and Sierra Leone. The post Bloodstock Digest: La Troienne Jubilee Starts Early appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • The Australian Turf Club has launched Supreme Court action against Racing NSW's move to appoint an administrator to take over the club's affairs, claiming its board does not accept the regulator has the power to do so.View the full article
    • Jay Rooney LOVE TOGETHER - R8 (6) Improved second up to run a close second and can go one better tonight   Owen Goulding MIGHTY STEED - R9 (12) Will get a soft lead and can be away and gone when the closers loom   Trackwork Spy THUNDER PRINCE - R5 (6) Bursting to break through and gets a great chance from gate one   Phillip Woo TOP TIME - R4 (1) Has been racing well and deserves a win with Purton hopping on   Shannon (Vincent Wong) SKY SONG - R2 (2) Stormed home for second last start and looks a...View the full article
    • so what your saying seems to be methven will pay bigger stakes on the bigger days and underpay stakes on days like thursday. so how come  clubs like timaru and oamaru  pay good stakes all year around,yet don't have the assets ,cash in bank,investments within cooee of methven.. they too being run by volunteers.  Just pionting that out. You seem to be saying 2 things. 1)because methven can create greater returns to the industry, it in some way justifies the paying of poor stakes on some racedays. 2)that there is no relevance to how much cash and investments a club may have just sitting around,in methvens case millions,its all about what you are funded by hrnz. Well fair enough,at least your up front about why the club desn't pay owners more, its just ,isn't it reasonable to ask,aren't  other clubs who are also run by volunteers, trying harder to help out owners by returning more in stakes to the run of the mill horse owners,than methven. Just saying that appears to be the case as those clubs won't be getting anymore funding than the methven club for their low key meetings.. This post is nothing about personalities or how well a club is run on race day,its about the focus some clubs put on helping owners out through stakes compared to other clubs.
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