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Racing fanatic Antoine Hamelin spends suspension at the races: ‘it is my job, my passion’
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John Size ‘just trying to win a race’ as one-time Derby hopeful Beauty Legacy tackles dirt
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Karis Teetan on the secret to his all-weather success: ‘not many horses can win on the dirt’
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Douglas Whyte expects much Moore from Stronger: ‘when John says that you take it on board’
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Caspar Fownes chases back-to-back Purse success: ‘it’s the race he’s been set for all season’
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Joao Moreira still on the mend after hip treatment: ‘two weeks and I’ll be 100 per cent’
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Hong Kong Jockey Club wants to bet on Europe’s top races in off-season, seeks 14 more simulcasts
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Overseas stars among Hong Kong International Races entries, providing hope for a truly global event
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Zac Purton weighs in on International Jockeys’ Championship shake-up: ‘a step in the right direction’
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Chad Brown will have a pair of chancers, err, chances, to repeat in Saturday's GIII Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby. 'TDN Rising Star' Chancer McPatrick (McKinzie), a sensational, come-from-behind winner of last year's GI Hopeful Stakes and GI Champagne Stakes, will kick off his sophomore campaign in the 1 1/16-mile Tampa Bay Downs centerpiece, good for 105 points (50-25-15-10-5) on the road to the GI Kentucky Derby. The Flanagan Racing colorbearer suffered his first career defeat finishing a disappointing sixth at a well-backed 2-1 while making his two-turn debut in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Del Mar Nov. 1. He will race with first-time blinkers while facing six rivals this weekend. Regular rider Flavien Prat will be aboard the 8-5 morning-line favorite. “I was a little reluctant to make the change because he's got those two Grade I wins without them,” said Brown, who won last year's Tampa Bay Derby with subsequent GI H. Allen Jerkens Memorial winner and first-season Coolmore stallion Domestic Product (Practical Joke). “He's overcome a lot in his races and wasn't helping himself with his early position at all. He's been running in spots and has enough raw ability and heart to get up there in time. I kept an open mind this off season about any improvements I could make and we tried him with blinkers recently and I did see him go a little bit better. He was definitely there for the rider the whole way, so we're gonna try it.” Hailing from the first crop of McKinzie, Chancer McPatrick, a $260,000 FTKJUL yearling turned $725,000 OBSAPR breezer (:21), is out of the winning Bernardini mare Bernadreamy, a daughter of GI Darley Alcibiades Stakes heroine and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies runner-up Dream Empress (Bernstein). “He's done what you'd like to see from two to three, he filled out a bit and looks pretty good,” Brown said. “That said, he was always a pretty advanced horse mentally as a 2-year-old, which also contributed to him having so much early success. He always trained like an older horse.” Brown will also get fellow 'Rising Star' Hill Road (Quality Road)'s 3-year-old season underway in the Tampa Bay Derby. The Amo Racing USA representative was transferred to Brown after rallying smartly for a longshot third over a surface playing quite kindly to speed in the Juvenile. He finished up in a field-best :30.02 that day, reporting home 4 3/4 lengths adrift of the wire-to-wire winner, champion Citizen Bull (Into Mischief). “Him and Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) were really the only two horses that closed effectively all (Breeders' Cup) weekend,” said Brown, who, of course, saddled the latter to a powerful, off-the-pace win in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic as well as a near miss earlier in the year in the Kentucky Derby. “I was quite impressed with that given the track.” Hill Road | Horsephotos Hill Road, a $350,000 KEESEP yearling produced by a stakes-placed, Lemon Drop Kid half-sister to MGISW and promising young sire City of Light (Quality Road), made two prior starts for conditioner Adrian Murray on grass in Ireland, winning impressively on debut at Leopardstown and finishing seventh in the G1 Vincent O'Brien National Stakes at the Curragh. Drawn one to the outside of Chancer McPatrick in post three, Hill Road will also race with first-time blinkers in the Tampa Bay Derby. “(Hill Road) needed some time off as well after the Breeders' Cup,” Brown said. “He's a couple of weeks behind Chancer McPatrick as far as when I could get him on a work schedule, so he's not as fit. I elected to run him in here, because looking at the schedule, I'm not confident I'm gonna have the right kind of allowance or stakes race to serve as a good bridge. Whether he gets to the Derby or a different Triple Crown race, there needs to be some sort of bridge of development for me.” Chancer McPatrick has posted six workouts at Payson Park base since having a “tiny flake” removed from a front ankle, including a four-furlong breeze in :48.80 (4/68) Mar. 1. Hill Road has breezed five times for Brown, most recently covering four furlongs in :49.20 (10/68) Mar. 1. “Him and Chancer, neither of them have as many works that I would want given their 60-day breaks, which is more (time off) than you'd want to give a Derby horse in the off season,” Brown said. “But I want to give these horses a chance to make the Derby without going all in and potentially harming their development. This race at Tampa is a bit of a happy medium. It gives you enough time on paper to make the Derby and still have a chance for them to run really well in the race.” Brown added, “I'd rather go into a race less than 100% fit like this, especially with horses that don't run on the pace, and have the option to go to the Derby or not and still have a horse for the year than to really tighten the screws trying to go for points and make up for lost time. If you fail doing that, not only do you lose the Derby, you lose the year.” Chad Brown | Sarah Andrew The very promising Praetor (Into Mischief), meanwhile, will also make his 3-year-old bow for Brown in a first-level optional claimer going a one-turn mile at Gulfstream Park Sunday. Campaigned in partnership by William H. Lawrence, CHP Racing and Gainesway Stable, the $725,000 KEESEP graduate was featured in these pages following a sneaky good debut third after an eventful start sprinting in the Saratoga mud, then held on to graduate by a neck over Sovereignty (Into Mischief)–yes, the same Sovereignty that everyone is still talking about after his head-turning win in last Saturday's GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth Stakes–going a one-turn mile at Aqueduct. “He's another one, he looked like a very promising Derby prospect and I had to stop on him (last year),” Brown said. “No surgery, but he had an issue and wasn't right. He did beat Sovereignty and had the better of him with the way the track was playing at Aqueduct that day and being loose on the lead. To Sovereignty's credit, he was against everything and it was a close race. It's nice to see that he's coming out of a race with one of the favorites for the Derby right now. I think it's a good spot to start back at a one-turn mile, then go from there to see if he can get around two turns.” Brown added that last year's previously mentioned champion 3-year-old colt Sierra Leone remains on target to return in the GII Oaklawn Handicap Apr. 19. The post Led by Chancer McPatrick, Trio of Talented 3yos Returning for Chad Brown This Weekend appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
On the road to Oaklawn Park from his barn at Fair Grounds, Kenny McPeek seemed like a man without a care in the world when reached by phone in his car. And why should he? His Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) will begin her 4-year-old year in the GII Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn and since last seen in the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff she has not missed a step. “If she's every bit as good as she was as a 3-year-old I think we'd be satisfied,” McPeek said. “I don't know how much better you can get her from three to four. She's ultra special, as we all know. She's done everything right this winter. She's made an easy transition from three to four. We gave her a couple of months at our Magdalena Farm. Then she was able to train in Florida, some more in Louisiana and now she's going to run in Arkansas.” McPeek is known for taking chances with his horses and accepting challenges most trainers would not. But that won't be the case in the Azeri. Beyond Thorpedo Anna, it's a pretty weak field. Grade III winners Wild Bout Hilary (Midnight Lute) and Recharge (Gun Runner) are the only other higher level winners in the field. Thorpedo Anna is 2-5 in the morning line. “I thought it was a pretty conservative spot to bring her back in,” McPeek said. “She's only run against older horses one time. She's fond of the Oaklawn strip. We have a division there and, of course, the purse is a good one, $400,000. This race should propel her into the Apple Blossom, if all goes smoothly.” While McPeek is relatively certain that the Apr. 12 running of the GI Apple Blossom Handicap will be next, he hasn't totally ruled out an appearance in the G1 Dubai World Cup Apr. 5. “I haven't closed the door on going to the Dubai World Cup,” he said. “If she went out there and won by some silly amount and was ultra impressive, maybe I would be enticed. We've done all the vaccinations and checked in with the shipping companies. We haven't declined the invitation, but if you asked me today, we would probably go to the Apple Blossom.” Once the spring is in the books, McPeek will consider the GI La Troienne Stakes at Churchill along with the many stakes races for older fillies run in New York. “We'd like to stack her resume and her earnings,” he said. “You can't assume anything. You've got to hope she stays healthy. At this point everything we've asked her to do she done. That's been her modus operandi. She's just a lovely filly to be around.” Thorpedo Anna outside of Fierceness in the Travers | Sarha Andrew McPeek tried the GI DK Travers Stakes last year and Thorpedo Anna lost by a head to the top 3-year-old colt Fierceness (City of Light). Though she was beaten perhaps more so than in any other race, the Travers is what vaulted her to the Horse of the Year title. McPeek has made no decisions yet so far as whether or not she will try males again this year. “It's too far away to think about running against colts,” he said. “Maybe at the end of the year. Let's see how her season goes. I'm not going to rush her into running against colts. We've got a lovely filly on our hands. Let's get through the spring and we can start worrying about some of those things in the summer. In this business you can't count your chickens before they've hatched. If you do you will be humbled real quick.” After winning the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff and Horse of the Year, there's not a whole lot left for Thorpedo Anna to achieve. McPeek said the primary goal will be winning again at the Breeders' Cup. “I'd love to think she can win another Breeders Cup race, whether it's the Distaff or the Classic. That would be an ultimate year-end goal,” he said. And after the Breeders' Cup she may not be done. McPeek said the ownership group is seriously considering running Thorpedo Anna as a 5-year-old. “We have not ruled out running her next year,” he said. “If you think about it, she is by a modest stallion, Fast Anna. We assume people aren't going to throw money at that at the sales. The fact she was a modest yearling, it's hard to say what she would bring at auction, so we might be more inclined to keep her and race her next year. “I don't know in the long run if we would sell her,” McPeek said. “The partnership group has not had any notion to sell. We have had a lot of big offers. Its enticing, but at the same time this is the kind of horse where you really want to enjoy having her. We'll let her take us on this fantastic ride she has taken us on, and see how long it's going to last.” The post Thorpedo Anna Raring To Go For 4-year-old Debut In Azeri appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
There is an apparent bias to speed but the late Aga Khans grandad famously said regarding breeding nearly a century ago that "breeders must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water and that baby is speed". We have done very well with speed stallions, e.g. Pakistan, Sovereign Edition, Three Legs, Per Incanto. Windsor Park have done a wonderful job for the industry shuttling classic English blood as in High Chaparral and Montjeu who in turn left us Tavistock. Their latest to shuttle is the Siyouni top class 3yo miler Paddington however flying the flag high for them at the moment is the G1 sprinter Shamexpress who is by Waikato's champion sprinter and sire O'Reilly! -
By TheHorseman · Posted
Yes, appreciate the TAB policy of full payout, I was just confused and expected the same from Betcha, both being Entain. One of those little differences between TAB & Betcha that isn't obvious until you experience it yourself. Time to move on. Findings: TAB pays full divvy on fixed odds deadheat win bets Betcha divides the dividend by the number of horses in the deadheat. Happy punting. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Friday sees an unusual double-header with Westport getting underway at 1.56pm and an eight race card at Alexandra Park at 5.42pm. Sam Ottley returns to Patterson Park after her heroics there in December while Duchess Megxit, the 3YO Pacing Filly of the Year, starts a new campaign up north. Duchess Megxit returns after tough week for top trainer By Michael Guerin Training legend Barry Purdon is hoping this weekend goes better than last and he has two of his stable stars with opportunities to put a smile back on his face. The Hall of Famer had to watch his best horse Merlin miss making tomorrow’s Miracle Mile after a horror show of a prelude at Menangle last Saturday where he caused a false start and then paced a dazzling first 400m sectional before understandably fading out of the placings. The night wasn’t a total write off for Purdon and training partner Scott Phelan as their under-rated pacer Sooner The Bettor qualified for the Miracle Mile with a prelude third, putting him in the red hot thriller at 11.45pm (NZ time) tomorrow night. But while that gives him an opportunity to match or even go better than last year when Sooner The Bettor finished second to Leap To Fame, Purdon isn’t able to be at Menangle as he is in hospital. He is having complications after having a hip replaced so needed to go back in for another operation last week. “It hasn’t been a lot of fun but luckily we have good staff and of course Scott is over there (Sydney) with those horses,” says Purdon. The stable were going to back Merlin up in a 2300m free-for-all tomorrow night, a race he actually won last year, but they have pulled the pin and will instead bring him home to prepare for his defence of the Cambridge slot race now known as The Race by Betcha. “But we are still very happy to have Sooner The Bettor in the Miracle Mile. It is a great race that means a lot to us and he has a good draw so we think he will go well.” Closer to home the stable will also launch the new season for their outstanding mare Duchess Megxit when she returns in the main pace at Alexandra Park tonight, the Warren Mathieson 60th Birthday Mobile Pace. Duchess Megxit was our best three-year-old pacing filly last season and will be given her first shot at the superstars of pacing on April 4 as she too is being aimed at the Race by Betcha, taking on Merlin and Leap To Fame. That could ensure she draws the ace under the slot race conditions but while tonight’s field is much weaker than what she will face in a month she faces the tricky barrier in the 1700m mobile. Duchess Megxit (R5, No.7) wasn’t asked to show her best at the Pukekohe trials last week and while she opened the $1.90 favourite for tonight’s sprint she was quickly backed into $1.65. “It won’t be easy as she tends to be driven for speed and that will probably be the case this week,” said Purdon. “And she will improve with the run. “We also have Invisible in that race and he has been going well.” Ohoka Connor is a pivotal rival tonight as he was heavily backed last week even though his trainer warned he could be a run short. That proved to be the case but he will strip a lot fitter and his $6.50 opening price for tonight was an over-correction. Tonight’s black type trot named in honour of I Can Doosit sees Kyvalley Hotspur try to overcome a 30m handicap over 2200m, never easy at The Park, especially with plenty of good beginners in the race. If he can get the right drag into the race the backmarker can still win so the $2.50 the TAB bookies opened him at was fair and soon became $2.10. Ottley returns to Coast with new mission By Mike Love Sam Ottley returns to the track where she created history today, with a number of good each way chances on Westport’s 11 race card at Patterson Park. She had five winners on Boxing Day to claim a history-making 100 wins for 2024, the first time a female driver had done so in a 12 month season in this country. Today will see two $20,000 features as well as plenty of interest around the four Team Teal races. “It was great they got so many noms and were able to split the races. It’s great for the cause,” said Ottley. Team Teal, HRNZ’s annual campaign to raise funds for ovarian cancer research, started on February 1 and finishes in just over a week, on March 16. Ottley suggests Martha Stuart ($4.60FF) in Race 6, the TRT Builders Team Teal Trot over 2600m will be a leading chance. “She was good last start. She gets into the race well having won eight races. She should be a good top three show. There’s a couple there that go okay but she should be right in it.” Race 7, the Jennian Homes Team Teal Pace over 2000m will see Francent strive for her third win from just five starts. Ottley says the Vincent mare will notice the rise in class but should hold her own in what is a deep field. “She’s only had a few starts. But she goes alright. The grass shouldn’t worry her. She just needs to get a good run. Her last win at Methven was really good.” Tempo Warrior lines up in Race 9, the $20,000 Buller Chartered Accountants Kawatiri Handicap Pace over 2600m (6.28pm) and will offer more of the same for punters. “He’s got great manners to put himself in the right spots. The draw is a little bit tricky. Hopefully we get a good run through early. He should run a good race.” Nellie Doyle ($3.80FF) in Race 10, the $20,000 Happy Birthday Pauline Rogers and Murray Acklin Handicap Trot over 2600m (7.04pm) will be a stern test for the six-year-old mare. “She’s done everything right to date. It’s a bit of a step up. She’s racing really good and hopefully she can keep the good form up.” Ottley’s other drives are : Race two – Moa Mojito ($41.00FF) Race four – Amalfi ($20.00FF) Race five – Franco Hoffman ($26.00FF) Race eight – Art’s Mischief ($17.00FF) Race eleven – Rapid Response ($10.00FF) Race one gets underway at 1:56pm, while the two features will go at 6:28pm and 7:04pm. View the full article
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