Red Rocks upsets Curlin in Man o' War
Elmont, NY (Sports Network) - Red Rocks, ridden by Javier Castellano, held off odds-on favorite Curlin down the stretch to win Saturday's $500,000 Man o' War Stakes at Belmont Park. The 1 3/8 mile turf race was the first start for Curlin on grass.
Curlin, the reigning Horse of the Year, made the switch to the turf with the eventual goal of running in the Prix de Larc de Triomphe on Sunday, October 5 at Longchamps Racecourse in Paris.
"Well, I just think the Arc is one of the greatest races in the world," stated trainer Steve Asmussen during a conference call earlier in the week, "and we're hoping to prove Curlin is one of the greatest horses in the world. This is a very unique situation. You know we're thinking about turf and the Arc. I think that that's pretty tall thinking in its own right, so let's not kid ourselves before we go."
Setting the pace in the Man o' War were Mission Approved and Sudan. The pair sprinted away from the rest of the seven-horse field into the clubhouse turn as they opened a lead of almost 10 lengths.
Running in second up the backstretch was Red Rocks with Curlin and jockey Robby Albarado in fourth. With a half-mile to run Red Rocks and Curlin both began to make their moves toward the leaders. Coming off the final turn Sudan had taken the lead as Red Rocks and Curlin drew within a couple of lengths.
At the top of the stretch Red Rocks went past Sudan with Curlin on the outside taking over second. In mid-stretch, Red Rocks valiantly held off the 2-5 favorite. Curlin could not cut into the leader's advantage as Red Rocks went on to post a two-length victory over the best racehorse in the world.
Better Talk Now, the 2004 Breeders' Cup Turf champ, finished third followed by Sudan, True Cause, Grand Couturier and Mission Approved.
The time for the 49th Man o' War Stakes was 2:12.60 on a firm turf course.
Red Rocks, in only his third race in the United States, is owned by J. Paul Reddam and trained by Brian Meehan. The five-year-old had not been to America since a third-place finish in last year's Breeders' Cup Turf. In 2006 he won the Breeders' Cup Turf over Better Talk Now.
Saturday's win was worth $300,000 to bring Red Rocks' career bankroll to more than $2.8 million. He has won six of 19 lifetime starts.
Red Rocks returned $14.40, $4.00 and $2.90. Curlin paid $2.50 and $2.10, and Better Talk Now paid 2.70 to show. The loss for Curlin snapped a five race win streak that included the Breeders' Cup Classic and Dubai World Cup.
The Man o' War was moved from Belmont Park's Fall Championship Meet to the spring this year to create better spacing among the Grade 1 turf races in New York through the summer and fall.
(c) 1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Derby, Preakness winner Big Brown works at Big A
NEW YORK (AP) - Big Brown returned to work Wednesday morning.
In his first workout since running last in the Belmont Stakes last month, Big Brown went five-eighths of a mile in a slow 1:06.71 at Aqueduct.
The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner hit the track about 5:45 a.m. with regular exercise rider Michelle Nevin aboard.
"It was no big deal, a nice easy breeze," trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. said. "I told Michelle not to go too fast. He looks like he's good."
Dutrow said the 3-year-old colt's feet, including the cracked hoof patched the day before the Belmont, are in fine shape.
"Everything looks good. The quarter crack is long gone," Dutrow said.
The next race for Big Brown will likely be the $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 3.
(c) 2008 The Associated Press
10 reasons why Big Brown bombed at Belmont
First it was the heat, then it was the shoes, now it's a nail ...
It has been more than two weeks since Big Brown bombed out at Belmont, but he refuses to fade from the headlines like he did from contention. Each day seems to bring another theory, another excuse, another over-reaching reason for Big Brown's turning in one of the most disappointing performances in the history of the Triple Crown.
I don't know if it really was the nail that did it, but I bet it won't be the last of the conspiracy theories. It's a long summer and there's still a lot of muck left in this stall. With that in mind, here's my top 10 reasons why Big Brown finished last in the Belmont Stakes:
1. Da'Tara told him it was opposite day.
2. Shaquille "I'm a horse" O'Neal took Big Brown out to party in Greenwich Village the night before, and darn it if they didn't a good time.
3. Convinced that if it worked for Tiger Woods it could work for him Big Brown decided to "tinker" with his gait between the Preakness and Belmont.
4. Da'Tara told him that Omar Minaya wanted to meet with him after the race.
5. As he came out of gate, Big Brown spotted Keith Hernandez getting ready to spit from the grandstand. What he didn't realize is that Roger McDowell was hiding behind Hernandez. Big Brown's people now have pictures that prove that it was McDowell, the second spitter, who fired the loogie that ricocheted off Da'Tara before loosening Big Brown's shoe!
6. Big Brown was preoccupied by a decision to announce after the race that he always knew, deep down, that he was a Tennessee Walking Horse.
7. A huge tortoise fan, Big Brown took the conventional racing wisdom that "slow and steady wins the race" a little too seriously.
8. Was still upset from discovering that horse racing is not a sport at the Summer Olympic Games while that sissy sport, dressage, is.
9. Worried that steroids from outer space would bring a cataclysmic end to the world as we know it, trainer Rick Dutrow prematurely took Big Brown off the sauce.
10. Headline "Big Brown wins Triple Crown" just too sing-songy.
(c) 2008, Newsday Inc.
Central body for horse racing mulled
Yesterday morning, Jan Schakowsky, chairwoman of a U.S. House subcommittee on commerce, trade and consumer protection, cut right to the chase.
"What is going on here?" Schakowsky, a former thoroughbred horse owner, asked a panel of horse racing luminaries. "What is happening to the Sport of Kings?"
Yesterday's congressional hearing was titled "Breeding, Drugs and Breakdowns: The State of Thoroughbred Horseracing and the Welfare of the Thoroughbred Racehorse." But the true topic quickly became apparent.
"Does horse racing need a central governing authority?" Schakowsky (D., Ill.) asked in her opening remarks. "Is the horse racing industry truly capable of making reforms on its own?"
The heads of the Jockey Club and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, while acknowledging the need for reforms, especially on drug issues, said the sport was equipped to clean itself up. However, several top horse owners, a Hall of Fame trainer, and the head of California's racing commission called for a national governing body to be formed.
"Our structure is dysfunctional," said Richard Shapiro, chairman of the California Horse Racing Board. "I submit we need a national racing commission."
The sport has never had such a central authority, with 38 states adopting their own rules. Congressmen continually stressed that horse racing is within their domain.
"Congress is already involved," Schakowsky said, pointing out that under the Interstate Horse Racing Act of 1978, the sport is granted "unique status. Unlike any other gambling operation in America, they are allowed to transmit their racing product across state lines and receive wagers from bettors outside a state."
Schakowsky said 90 percent of the $15.4 billion wagers on horse racing is from simulcast betting.
The death of Eight Belles, after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby, was a catalyst in this call for action, even though tests showed the filly from Delaware Park wasn't administered steroids. The death of Eight Belles came up only briefly, from Schakowsky, who talked of the horse's pedigree and said the horse was "a genetic disaster waiting to happen."
Yesterday's hearing took an overview look at the entire racing landscape, and the underbelly of it, with witnesses testifying about claiming horses running with drugs injected in their joints, souped-up racing surfaces on big race days, state racing commissions having very little transparency in their testing and procedures, trainers getting slaps on the wrist for drug offenses, and veterinarians who do more than treat maladies.
Shapiro talked of the conflict of interest of vets who "often examine horses for free and only charge for the medication."
Jess Jackson, the principal owner of Curlin, the world's top-ranked thoroughbred, called for owners to have a greater role in all decision-making. Jackson also said Curlin represents "a horse that can run without drugs" since he won March's Dubai World Cup drug-free, as the typical drugs used throughout American racing are banned there. "Not that he didn't in the past," Jackson commented about the 2007 Preakness and Breeders' Cup winner.
At this point, 11 of the 38 states with horse racing, including Pennsylvania and Delaware, have adopted rules against steroids, but trainers point out that penalties vary from state to state. And insiders say steroids are just one problem.
"It's like chemical warfare," testified Jack Van Berg, who won the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Alysheba, but said the integrity of the sport has been compromised. "It's gotten out of hand. . . . The horse can't tell you that he doesn't want to take them."
Van Berg wants to see several regional "sophisticated" testing centers established, paid for by simulcasting revenues. Otherwise, he said, some states won't devote enough resources for top-level testing.
In his testimony, Jackson called for anti-steroid policies to extend to "including everything that alters the appearance of a horse at a sale."
Alex Waldrop, president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association - "we serve the industry as a consensus builder," he said - cited the movement against steroids as a sign that the industry can police itself.
Arthur Hancock, co-owner of Kentucky Derby winners Gato Del Sol and Sunday Silence, had another view. He talked of a "rudderless ship" with "Nero-like" leaders of separate fiefdoms.
"Performance-enhancing drugs must be banned if we are going to survive as an industry," Hancock said.
Earlier this week, the Jockey Club's "thoroughbred safety" committee, featuring many of the industry's movers and shakers, announced that it was recommending the elimination of steroids in race training and racing, a ban on a type of horseshoe called a toe grab, and a series of whip-related reforms, all aimed at improving safety and integrity.
It was noted during the hearing by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R., Ky.) that there was rare bipartisan support in Congress for action on these issues. Another legislator predicted during the hearing that there would be at least one more hearing and an eventual bill written.
"I think we're going to see some movement," Rep. Joe Pitts (R., Pa.) said. "I don't know exactly what is going to come out of this. Perhaps we'll get a body like the NFL for horse racing, I don't know. That's very, very possible."
During the hearing, the gadflies had an easier time of it than the establishment figures.
Asked why he thought horse racing could clean itself up, Alan Marzelli, president of the Jockey Club, said: "For starters, I'm an optimist."
"Based on what?" Schakowsky immediately asked.
(c) The Philadelphia Inquirer
Big Brown will start from inside post in Belmont Stakes
NEW YORK -- Big Brown, who won the Kentucky Derby from the outside post, will be on the inside post in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday when he attempts to become the first horse in 30 years to win the Triple Crown.
Big Brown was given post position No. 1 in today's draw held at Belmont Park and was installed as the 2-5 favorite.
With three positions left in the draw -- 1, 3 and 5 -- track announcer Tom Durkin, who conducted the proceedings, asked trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. which one he preferred. Dutrow said No. 5.
But that position went to Casino Drive, the 7-2 second choice in a field of 10, on the next draw. Then No. 1 went to Big Brown, with Macho Again, a legitimate contender who will be ridden by Garrett Gomez, getting No. 3 on the last draw.
If Dutrow was disappointed, he didn't show it.
"I can't see the post getting him beat," he said. "We'll take it, we'll go with it."
Big Brown won the Preakness from post position No. 6, although he wore No. 7. Big Brown won the Florida Derby on March 8 from the outside No. 11 post.
Dutrow said this morning that Big Brown came out of his five-furlong workout Tuesday in fine shape.
"He couldn't be any better; I couldn't be any happier," the trainer said.
Saturday's race was expected to attract nine horses, but Guadalcanal, a surprise entrant, increased the field to 10. A 50-1 shot, Guadalcanal will start from post position No. 2, which could present a problem for Big Brown.
Guadalcanal is winless in four starts and has run only in maiden races. He finished second the last time out -- in a $39,000, 1 1/2 -mile race at Churchill Downs on May 8.
Having never run in a big race in front of a big crowd, Guadalcanal could bump Big Brown or impede him and cause him to get off to a bad start.
Jockey Kent Desormeaux said he would let Big Brown dictate the pace.
"He's not only the best horse I have ever ridden, he is also the smartest," he said.
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times
Big Brown primed for Belmont Stakes, says trainer
WASHINGTON, May 29 (Reuters) - Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown is happy, healthy and primed to run the race of his life in the Belmont Stakes, his trainer said Thursday.
"He looks like an absolute picture," trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. told reporters. "He is as happy a horse as there is in this world. He's been eating everything that you give him.
"Whatever you would want to see in a race horse, all you've got to do is look at Big Brown. Whatever you don't want to see, don't look at him because you're not going to see it."
Big Brown, unbeaten and untested in his five career races, including wins in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes -- the first two legs of the Triple Crown --will run in the Belmont Stakes on June 7 with hopes of becoming the first Triple Crown winner in 30 years.
"This horse looks better now than he did going into the Kentucky Derby," Dutrow said. "Right now he looks as good as he possibly can look. I cannot find any flaws whatsoever.
"I am just so confident now it's unbelievable."
The muscular son of Boundary galloped a mile and a half Thursday under exercise rider Michelle Nevin and showed no signs of stress from a quarter crack in his left front hoof.
Hoof specialist Ian McKinlay opened the slight quarter crack Monday and inserted stainless steel wire stitches to draw the crack together.
"Today was probably the best we've seen him, as far as what I'm looking for, the hoof," he told a teleconference with reporters. "I'm delighted with the way everything is going."
Dutrow did not believe the hoof injury would harm Big Brown's date with destiny at Belmont Park in New York.
"Basically, he only missed three days of galloping," he said. "I can't see that being an issue. The horse is as good as he's ever been. We've got him galloping the last couple of days and it could not have been better.
"It's even possible that these couple days he missed might work to our advantage."
Big Brown, with Kent Desormeaux in the saddle, won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness with ease and appears poised to become racing's 12th Triple Crown champion.
Dutrow is convinced his colt will join the ranks of Secretariat, War Admiral and Seattle Slew in claiming U.S. thoroughbred racing's top honor.
His confidence has not wavered despite knowing since 1979 10 horses have won the first two legs of the Triple Crown but failed to win the Belmont, the longest of the three races.
"I feel that he will do it," he said. "I feel actually, it's a foregone conclusion. I've seen the horses he's been with and I see our horse, so I expect him to win this race.
"These horses just cannot run with Big Brown. We're sitting in an unbelievable spot. We know we have the best horse in the race."
(c) Guardian News and Media Limited 2008
Northern Netti wins Belmont's Bouwerie Stakes
The Associated Press
Published: May 5, 2008
NEW YORK: Undefeated Northern Netti pulled away to a 9 1/4-length win in the $109,300 Bouwerie Stakes for New York-bred 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park on Sunday.
Racing for the first time outside Canada, Northern Netti blew past Dance Gal Dance, the 3-2 favorite, in the turn for home and easily drew off to her third victory.
"She's undefeated and she can run," trainer Reade Baker said. "There was nothing for her at home and we wanted to win a stakes race."
The time was 1:21.24 for seven furlongs on the fast track.
Eibar Coa was aboard as Northern Netti paid $22.80, $7.30 and $5.60. Dance Gal Dance, unbeaten in her four previous races, held second and returned $3.50 and $3. My Dinah paid $4 to show.
Copyright (c) 2008 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved
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