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WILD RIDE ON THE KENTUCKY DERBY TRAIL

War of Will bobbles in La.; Canadian-owned ‘Fate’ finishes strong 2nd in N.M.

Four weeks from this Saturday and the current top 3-year-olds in America will compete for the most famous race of all, the Kentucky Derby (G1). As expected, this year’s crop continues to provide surprises with this past Saturday no exception.

Two major Derby stepping stone stakes, the $1 million Louisiana Derby (G2) and the $800,000 Sunland Derby (G3) both had surprising winners.

BY MY STANDARDS, who had just won his maiden race at Fair Grounds on the same day early Derby favourite WAR OF WILL romped in the Risen Star Stakes, left that rival in his wake with a 22 to 1 victory in the Louisiana Derby.

Curiously, By My Standards had a published 78 Beyer Figure from Daily Racing Form from his maiden win, which was only 3/5 of a second slower than War of Will’s Risen Star Stakes win in 1:44 2/5 and a 90 Beyer Figure. After By My Standards won the La. Derby, the DRF changed his maiden win Beyer Figure to 86.

Owned by Allied Racing (Chester Thomas) and trained by Bret Calhoun, BY MY STANDARDS is a son of GOLDENCENTS (Into Mischief) from the multiple stakes winning mare A JEALOUS WOMAN, by Muqtarib. A JEALOUS Woman’s 8 wins all came on the grass and her best distance was one mile.

By My Standards will give Calhoun, who hails from Texas, his first starter in the Kentucky Derby. Calhoun recently saddled his 3,000th career winner.

“We’ve never had anything that even we thought really deserved to discuss being on the Derby trail,” Calhoun said. “We think this is a legitimate horse. We didn’t want to get caught up in Derby fever unless we had a legitimate horse. We didn’t want to just be there to be there. We want to be there if we have a contender and we believe he is a contender.”

Calhoun likes the timing of the Louisiana Derby, which is six weeks out from the Kentucky Derby. He plans on breezing the horse in two weeks.

“Hopefully we’ll get an easy breeze in twelve, thirteen, fourteen days,” Calhoun said. “He worked a little quicker up to this race than he had previously so hopefully we can take it easy first work back, then give him another easy one after that. Then we’ll do a little bit more after that in the middle there. He’s ready. We have to maintain what we’ve got. The Derby is a whole different deal. It’s not just the race, it’s everything that goes into going up there. We’ll do a lot of stuff preparing him for that. He’s got a great mind, we’re lucky in that sense that he’ll handle everything.”

It was a bump on the road to the Derby for WAR OF WILL, the Gary Barber owned, Mark Casse trained colt who had waltzed to two stakes wins at Fair Grounds before a rocky start to the Louisiana Derby.

While the colt was reported to be lame after the race, Casse said the colt had rebounded by Sunday morning.

“It’s amazing how much better he was today,” Casse said. “I just feel fortunate that he’s okay first and foremost. We’re fairly certain that he probably caught his patella a little bit right at the start. So what we’ll do is we’ll do some exercising and probably laser treatment to strengthen the patella muscle. But we feel optimistic that we can still make the Derby.”

War of Will appeared to lose his action in his hind end shortly after breaking from post 6 in the Louisiana Derby. He did recover and looked very good in a stalking position halfway through the race but he slipped back despite being under hard pressure from jockey Tyler Gafflione.

“We’re going to change his exercise a bit for a while, just try to strengthen his patella ligaments,” Casse said. “It’s something that as a trainer for 40 years, I’ve been dealing with patella ligaments since the beginning of my career but I’ve never seen one catch like that one did. But the good news is he was happy this morning.”

Watch the La. Derby (War of Will starts from post 6):

SUNLAND DERBY

Vancouver’s PETER REDEKOP is no doubt happy with the way his colt ANOTHERTWISTAFATE performed in Sunday’s SUNLAND DERBY (G3) in New Mexico. His Scat Daddy colt was making his first start on the dirt since his sprinting debut last year, was coming off stakes wins on the synthetic dirt at Golden Gate but handled the dirt well in the Sunland Derby. Trained by Blaine Wright, Anothertwistafate powered through the stretch with long, smooth strides and just missed catching Cutting Humor, trained by Todd Pletcher.

PETER REDEKOP is featured in the latest issue of CANADIAN THOROUGHBRED magazine.

Cutting Humor is by First Samurai from the Pulpit mare Pun and he was a $400,000 purchase two years ago by Starlight Racing.

Watch the Sunland Derby:

The DERBY points board changed as BY MY STANDARDS zoomed to the top with 100 points from his victory.

One of the biggest stepping stones for the Derby comes this Saturday at Gulfstream – the Florida Derby.

Rank Horse Points Owner(s) Trainer Non-Restricted Stakes Earnings

1. By My Standards          100 Allied Racing Stable LLC (Chester Thomas) Bret Calhoun $600,000
2. War of Will                     60 Gary Barber Mark Casse $450,840
3. Code of Honor                54 William S. Farish Shug McGaughey III $338,070
4. Long Range Toddy        53.5 Willis Horton Racing LLC Steve Asmussen $830,000
5. Cutting Humor               50 Starlight Racing (Jack Wolf) Todd Pletcher $462,467
6. Haikal                               50 Shadwell Stable (Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum) Kiaran McLaughlin $247,500
7. Tacitus                             50 Juddmonte Farms Inc. (Prince Khalid Abdullah) Bill Mott $210,000
8. Game Winner                 45 Gary & Mary West Bob Baffert $1,610,000
9. Spinoff                            40 Wertheimer et Frere (Alain & Gerard Wertheimer) Todd Pletcher $224,000
10. Omaha Beach              37.5 Fox Hill Farm (Rick Porter) Richard Mandella $450,000
11. Mind Control                     30 Red Oak Stable (Stephen Brunetti) & Madaket Stables LLC (SolKumin)Gregg Sacco $355,000
12. Anothertwistafate    30 Peter Redekop B. C. Ltd. Blaine Wright $228,960
13. Country House                30 Mrs. J.V. Shields, E.J.M. McFadden Jr. & LNJ Foxwoods (Larry, Nanci & Jaime Roth) Bill Mott $120,000
14. Sueno                                28 Silverton Hill LLC (Bonnie & Tommy Hamilton) Keith Desormeaux $265,000
15. Improbable                      25 WinStar Farm LLC (Kenny Troutt), China Horse Club International Ltd. (Ah Khing Teo) & Starlight Racing (Jack Wolf et al) Bob Baffert $389,520
16. Mucho Gusto                  24 Michael Lund Petersen Bob Baffert $286,800
17. Gunmetal Gray 21.75 Hollendorfer LLC, Pearl Racing & West Point Thoroughbreds (Terry Finley)
18. Bourbon War                  21 Bourbon Lane Stable (Jamie Hill) & Lake Star Stable Mark Hennig $90,200
19. Somelikeithotbrown      20 Skychai Racing LLC (Jim Shircliff & Harvey Diamond) & Sand Dollar Stable LLC (David Koenig et al)
Mike Maker $321,665
20. Outshine                          20 Let’s Go Stable (Kevin Scatuorchio & Bryan Sullivan) & Richard D. Schibell   Todd Pletcher $74,500
21. Knicks Go                        18 KRA Stud Farm (Jin Woo Lee) Ben Colebrook $665,085
22. Signalman                       18 Tommie M. Lewis, Steve Crabtree, Dean Demaree, David Bernsen, Jim Chambers, & Magdalena Racing (Sherri McPeek) Kenny McPeek $396,840

Note: One spot in the Kentucky Derby starting gate is reserved for the top finisher in the The Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby. If the connections of that horse decline the invitation, their place is offered to the second-place finisher and so on through the top four finishers. If neither of the top four accept, this place in the starting gate reverts to the horses on the main road to the Derby. Another spot is reserved for the top finisher in the European Road to the Kentucky Derby. If the connections of that horse decline the invitation, their place is offered to the second-place finisher and so on. If neither of the top four accept, this place in the starting gate reverts to the horses on the main road to the Derby.

ESCAPE CLAUSE! TRACK RECORD AT SUNLAND

Grade 1 Apple Blossom, Apr. 14, next

Manitoba-bred superstar ESCAPE CLAUSE cantered to the wire with her ears pricked in Sunday’s Harry Henson Stakes at Sunland Park, New Mexico.

This was the 20th win in 30 races for Don Schnell’s iron mare, who has rolled from a dominating season in her home province to being a major player in the western US older mare category.

In the Harry Henson, Escape Clause (Going Commando – Danger Pay by Circulating) sped 1 mile in 1:34 over a fast surface, good for a track record and a career best 95 Beyer Speed Figure.

Now comes the dream race for Schnell, a Grade 1 event, and he has picked the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 14. In that 1 1/8 mile dirt race, Escape Clause will likely meet up with probably Canadian Horse of the Year for 2018 WONDER GADOT.

Four days following the Apple Blossom, Escape Clause is likely to be named Canada’s Champion Older Mare of 2018 at the Sovereign Awards.

RICHARD YATES

It is with great sadness that the Derby Bar and Grill reports the passing of H.B.P.A. of Canada and H.B.P.A. of B.C. Secretary Treasurer Richard Yates, who suddenly died of a massive heart attack yesterday, March 22^nd, 2019.

Richard was a true advocate, ambassador, and a friend to racing.

He was an integral and important part of the industry based initiative extending over the last eight years designed to stabilize and secure a productive future for Thoroughbred Horse Racing in British Columbia.

Richard was one of the group of individuals who created the outstandingly successful Hastings Racing Clubs I and II. Richard expertly managed the clubs’ 500 members through personal meetings, phone calls, and countless emails, introducing the new members to our spectacular sport of Thoroughbred Horse Racing.

In addition to many other talents, Richard was a writer extraordinaire, who produced the very popular and insightful “Richard’s Wrap Up” after each race day, giving a rundown of the winning horses and their connections, and important events of the day in a concise, descriptive and humorous fashion.

While Richard was obviously an important and respected member of our local racing scene, his influence and assistance went right across Canada through his role for years as an officer and Secretary Treasurer for the H.B.P.A. of Canada. He also served with distinction on numerous committees and assisted in executive matters for the National H.B.P.A. of America.

In conjunction to his professional responsibilities to the racing industry, Richard also, for 27 years, was an owner, breeder and trainer of many hard-running, decent race horses.

Richard was a well-liked and integral part of the backstretch community and gave freely of his time, trying his best to help anyone and everyone in need.

As well, Richard will be remembered for his quick wit and extraordinary ability to draw laughter from Club members, industry participants, colleagues, and friends, of which he had many.

In conclusion, we can think of no better way to end this writing than by leaving you with one of Richard’s favorite quotes:

IT’S DUBAI WORLD CUP WEEK

with some files from www.horse-races.net

On Sunday morning in Dubai, entrants for the $12 million Dubai World Cup (G1) and its rich undercard were at Meydan Racecourse on the main track. Conditions were typical for late March in the Emirates, with clear skies and temperatures in the low 80’s during training hours before climbing to the high 80’s during the day. The races will be run Saturday evening (Saturday morning in North America), with the World Cup going to post at 1:40pm ET. In North America the full card will be broadcast live on TVG in the U.S. and HPI-TV in Canada. In addition, NBC Sports Network’s show will start at 12:30pm.

Probable Dubai World Cup field:

THUNDER SNOW (IRE) UAE Saeed bin Suroor
AUDIBLE (USA) USA Todd Pletcher
YOSHIDA (JPN) USA William Mott
GUNNEVERA (USA) USA Antonio Sano
CAPEZZANO (USA) UAE Salem bin Ghadayer
NORTH AMERICA (GB) UAE Satish Seemar
K T BRAVE (JPN) Japan Haruki Sugiyama
PAVEL (USA) USA Doug O’Neill
SEEKING THE SOUL (USA) USA Dallas Stewart
GRONKOWSKI (USA) UAE Salem bin Ghadayer i
NEW TRAILS (USA) UAE Ahmad bin Harmash
AXELROD (USA) UAE Salem bin Ghadayer
DOLKONG (USA) South Korea Simon Foster

WOODBINE NEWS

• Trainers MIKE DEPAULO and SID ATTARD both picked up some shipping money on Saturday with wins at Gulfstream.
  DePaulo sent out Bear Stables’ OH DANNY BEAR to win his maiden in race 1 for $12,500 claiming and the Ontario bred by Yes It’s True was claimed.
  Attard sent out JANICE ATTARD’S new claim HIJACKER to win a maiden race at 1 mile on the grass for $20,000 at 5 to 1 and that Lemon Drop Kid fellow was claimed from the race. Woodbine rider Rafael Hernandez rode the winner.
• The worktab is slowly beginning to get filled up as the Tapeta surface on the main track opened last week. There were 124 horses with timed workouts on Sunday on the main and training tracks.
• Meanwhile at Palm Meadows, Queen’s Plate favourite AVIE’S FLATTER had his 9th workout of the winter, going 4 furlongs on the grass in 48 3/5 following his booming 1:09 3/5 turf work there in March 11.
• Last week’s announcement that the Ontario government and OLG was pledging $10 million to racing per year through the Horse Improvement Program (it was previously some $6 million) met with cheers and jeers (from mostly an uninformed public). Elizabeth Keith wrote this thoughtful article posted this weekend, “Doug Ford’s $10 Million investment in horse racing can actually be good for Ontario, here’s why“.