Some Filly Racing At Some Track On Saturday

In case you haven't heard, Rachel Alexandra is racing at Saratoga on Saturday. All of this publicity can only be a good thing for horse racing and the coverage is staggering to say the least. A Google search on "Rachel Alexandra" this morning returned more than five million hits. Saratoga's gates will open at 7AM on Saturday and the first 25,000 fans will receive a Rachel Alexandra button. It is incredible to see this kind of publicity for horse racing outside of the Triple Crown.

There have been countless online debates regarding a match race between Rachel Alexandra and the polytrack princess Zenyatta. For what it's worth, I think racing fans should forget about that debate and just sit back and enjoy watching two great horses ply their trade. Rachel Alexandra is clearly a very special animal and racing fans have been lucky to see her romp to victory at Churchill Downs, Pimlico, Belmont, Monmouth and hopefully Saratoga.

The super-filly has defeated the ladies, the Triple Crown sophomore boys and is now set to take on older males in front of a capacity crowd. In terms of exposure, new challenges and flying a flag for the sport of racing, I cannot imagine what more Rachel Alexandra could do to raise the bar.

I will be one of the many thousands of racing fans making the pilgrimage to Saratoga this weekend hoping to witness something special. Granted, with the filly at odds of 1-2, the 12-1 Nick Zito entry sure does look enticing. (I kid.) There will be plenty for people to gamble on at Saratoga this Saturday, but for the good of the sport all racing fans should be cheering for the darling daughter of Medaglia d'Oro to romp once again in the Woodward Stakes.

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The weather was beautiful for last night's card at Woodbine. The grandstand was full as fans enjoyed sitting outside to watch two excellent turf races to open the card.

The Woodbine paddock was all aglow Wednesday evening


As detailed in yesterday's post, Peter Gross, Editor of Down The Stretch has been busy on a parimutuel project that sees him wager on nothing but doubles for 50 days. In a show of support, I took a shot at handicapping the early double and successfully provided a $92 double! Gross recounts his version of the event on the Down The Stretch message board.

An eerie orange sky over the Woodbine grandstand


Ian Black conditioned the cheekily named Fifty Proof, a son of Whiskey Whisdom, to a convincing victory in the opener at odds of 12-1. The second leg was won in controversial fashion when favoured Sans Sousi raced home in front, but it was later revealed that jockey Chantal Sutherland accidentally used the wrong whip.

Wrong whip, you say?

The Ontario Racing Commission recently implemented new whip rules that dictate jockeys must carry a more humane cushion crop stick which features a softer popper at the end of the whip. Unfortunately , Sutherland carried the wrong whip onto the track. Jennifer Morrison details the event on her Thorough-Blog.

Fortunately for Gross, punters will have cashed their tickets before the Stewards get around to making their ruling on Friday.

Other big winners on the evening include Scott Fairlie's Six Pack Sammy who pulled off his fourth victory in seven starts this meet. The four-year-old Yonaguska filly has finished second twice with her only off the ticket venture being a fifth place finish in the upper allowance ranks.

Six Pack Sammy looking fit to win


Jockeys Patrick Husbands, Todd Kabel and Sutherland each scored two wins on the eight-race card as Husbands continues to dominate the leader board. Out-of-town punters looking for an under the radar jockey should keep their eyes on Kabel and Luis Contreras.

Name Starts 1st 2nd 3rd Win% ITM%
Patrick Husbands 579 108 103 91 18.7 52.2
Chantal Sutherland 557 83 85 86 14.9 45.6
James McAleney 369 74 47 56 20.1 48.0
Eurico R. Da Silva 423 69 70 50 16.3 44.7
Emile Ramsammy 472 69 59 55 14.6 38.8
Tyler Pizarro 442 63 67 57 14.3 42.3
Emma-Jayne Wilson 537 60 82 68 11.2 39.1
Todd Kabel 242 43 25 17 17.8 35.1
Justin Stein 401 39 47 36 9.7 30.4
Luis Contreras 195 39 31 27 20.0 49.7
Gerry Olguin 285 23 27 35 8.1 29.8
Jono C. Jones 294 22 26 39 7.5 29.6
Constant Montpellier 211 21 23 22 10.0 31.3
Robert C. Landry 226 21 20 28 9.3 30.5
Richard A. Dos Ramos 176 20 14 26 11.4 34.1
Corey Fraser 203 19 31 19 9.4 34.0
Slade Callaghan 255 18 16 24 7.1 22.7
Steven R. Bahen 281 17 26 26 6.0 24.6
David Clark 124 14 8 12 11.3 27.4
David Garcia 207 10 13 16 4.8 18.8

Bright lights, big city racing


I leave for Saratoga early tomorrow morning and hope to return on Sunday evening with a camera full of photos and a wallet full of American cash. I will be Tweeting live from the paddock all day Saturday for anyone interested in a paddock-side look at the Woodward.

Happy long weekend everyone.