Super Saturday and A Visit With Some Rare Friends

A fun slate of races today as the Blue Grass and Arkansas Derby will provide us with the final preps for the Kentucky Derby. I am hoping that Papa Clem steps up in Arkansas to add even more strength to the form of this year's Kentucky Derby. Papa Clem has now finished second to both Pioneerof The Nile (Robert Lewis at SA) and Friesan Fire (Louisiana Derby in the slop.) It seems that Papa Clem could be the measuring stick for talent in this edition of the Run For The Roses.

Pioneerof The Nile Defeats Papa Clem in the Robert Lewis


Papa Clem has travelled all over the U.S looking for his spot to win and maybe today is the day he gets his picture snapped with the entire racing world looking on!

Friesan Fire Wins In The Slop Over Papa Clem


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I had an awesome Friday going on a foster farm visit with my friend Sheri from the LongRun Thoroughbred Retirement Society. I took well over 200 photos during our trek across the province and I'll be putting together a fun photo essay highlighting some of the great OTTBs we visited. For now, I've posted one great photo of Sheri with Rare Friends, a horse so handsome his barn name is Beckham!

Rare Friends Tells Sheri The One Where The Bartender Asks, "Why The Long Face?"


I decided to try my luck taking one of those angular Myspace style profile photos with the character that is Clever Event. After suckering me in for a bit of a nuzzle, Clever Event planted a wet nose on my cheek and gave me a good shove just as i snapped the shot! The end result has the two of us looking like we just rode back in from the local pub.

Keith and Clever Event Mugging It For The Camera


More photos and fun from this day out to come in a new post soon.

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I cannot stress enough for Woodbine fans to get their picks in for the FREE Queen's Plate Fantasy Challenge. The first race in the points series, the Achievement Stakes, goes to post later this afternoon.

One horse to consider for this contest is Roger Attfield's Southdale who finished third in a troubled stretch run at Keeneland yesterday going 6 1/2 furlongs in the tenth race. Southdale was beaten less than three lengths and his stretch run was described as follows, "lacked room leaving the turn, and checked entering the stretch, but recovered quickly and kept on willingly to earn the show." You have to like a horse that fights through a bit of adversity first time out. I expect bigger and better from this one over the course of the coming campaign.

Another contender, Parabola, breezed 5F in 1:00.80 at Woodbine the other day and appears to be sharp. Flip For The Coin worked 5F in 1:02 this morning so expect both of the above to be on the Woodbine polytrack soon.

Enjoy your racing today, it's my birthday weekend so posting may be a bit sporadic till Monday!