Derby Q&A, 10yo Ballen Isle and Resentless Wins The Fury

Ernie Munick posed a few questions in the comments of my Kentucky Derby recap.

1. How'd you play the race?
Well, my Kentucky Derby Future Pool 1 Wager went amazingly well.

$5 to win on Super Saver at 20-1 and I had the $176 Exacta of Super Saver over the field for a dollar. The Pool 1 field included Sidney's Candy, Line of David, Mission Impazible, Ice Box, Stately Victor, Devil May Care, Discreetly Mine, Dean's Kitten, Interactif, Awesome Act, Paddy O'Prado, Homeboykris, Backtalk.

On the day of the race I played several small-fry trifectas and superfectas keying Mission Impazible and Lookin At Lucky over a variety of horses. It was a losing scenario in more ways than one. For one, I didn't use Super Saver on top and there was no way I could reached deep enough to pluck out Paddy O'Prado or Make Music For Me.

I did hear the grapevine that Ernie partnered up with Geno of the Equispace blog to cash a sweet Oaks/Derby double. Nice work!

2. Ever been to the Derby?

I've never been to the Derby but it's on my bucket list. Last year I made the trip to Churchill Downs to see the Stephen Foster. Click on the link for my post entitled Photo Essay: Stephen Foster Day at Churchill Downs

3. Any Careless Jewel news?

The speedy Careless Jewel is back at Woodbine and worked a swift 5F in 58.80 over the poly for a near bullet work ranked second of 78 on the day. 78 works! It's getting busy here at Woodbine. Some mornings a bullet work is best of 90+.

I'll see if I can't find out something a little meatier for a future post.

Careless Jewel zooms along the backstretch


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While the Kentucky Derby took up a lot of the column inches over the weekend there was an excellent performance to mention at Woodbine. Two, actually.

Ten-year-old Ballen Isle romped to his third consecutive win at the age of ten! I made a point of visiting this spry fellow a couple weeks back while taking photos for a post entitled Photo Essay: Searching the backstretch for a Queen's Plate horse

Ballen Isle loves to have his picture taken


Ballen Isle raced on Saturday and I mentioned to track announcer Dan Loiselle that the warrior was on the verge of a hat trick. Although Ballen Isle barely hit the wire in front, Loiselle did an excellent job of creating a little drama in the racecall.

Ballen Isle notches the hat trick at the age of ten


The big race of the weekend was the Fury Stakes featuring two excellent local fillies Resentless and Roan Inish.

An animmated Chantal Sutherland guides Resentless


Resentless trained up a storm heading into this event and was a generous even money favourite in the seven furlong sprint. Second choice Roan Inish is a horse that will likely relish a longer distance going forward as the fillies race towards the $500K Woodbine Oaks.

Roan Inish in the post parade with jockey David Moran


Resentless would lead the field at every call burning through fractions of 22.83 and :45.24, easily disposing of Jenny's So Great by the top of the stretch. Roan Inish was seventh in the field of eight early on and slowly picked off runners around the far turn while making a run along the rail. Patrick Husbands made a similar back-of-the-pack run with Oil Painting.

Resentless wins going away


Roan Inish, on the rail, won the battle for place


However, as the field turned for home Resentless was romping away for fun and would cross the wire first some five lengths in front never really asked for much by jockey Chantal Sutherland.

The connections were all smiles following the race


Following the race the jockey was very happy with her filly.

"She feels stronger, more coordinated and more athletic this year,” said Sutherland. “She’s hitting the ground a little lighter than she did last year. I just like her intensity. She’s developed nicely.”

Owner Donald Ross was very happy with the relentless performance of Resentless.


Resentless will be a major factor in the preps leading up to the Woodbine Oaks. Whether or not the filly will like two turns remains to be seen but based off her effort in the Fury, she'll be short odds in her next few starts.

Resentless wins the Fury Stakes over Roan Inish


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A couple links worth noting. Thoroughblog wrote a heartfelt piece this morning regarding the sudden death of 8-year-old gelding Verne's Baby. Clink the link above to read the piece.

And finally, one of my favourite horse racing blogs is Jessica Chapel's Railbird blog. One of Jessica's recurring features is the "Links" post which points her readers to interesting and relevant news regarding horse racing and the surrounding world. Her most recent LINKS POST pointed us in the direction of an essay by film critic Roger Ebert. Chapel's introuduction, with a lead from Ebert's essay, is as follows:

"Never before have more critics written more or better words for more readers about more films. But already you are ahead of me, and know this is because of the internet…. Film criticism is still a profession, but it’s no longer an occupation. You can’t make any money at it." A Roger Ebert essay as relevant to modern turf writing as to film criticism.

It is interesting, and refreshing, to read a "proper" writer extoll the virtues of blogging. To read Ebert's essay, please CLICK HERE.

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A bit of a busy week here for TripleDeadHeat but I will be posting additional photos from the weekend in an upcoming post. As well, I will be updating my 2010 Queen's Plate Contender page, adjusting the rankings and dropping some horses from the list. Nominations for the Queenston and Wando Stakes are posted and there will be plenty of timely workouts to report on as well as more profiles of local contenders. Stay tuned!