Posts Tagged ‘Bravo’

By Ray Paulick

Click here to link to Kentucky Oaks day charts.

So many questions about today’s Kentucky Oaks program. Will Rachel Alexandra continue to dominate her division without breaking a sweat in the Oaks? Who will benefit from the scratch due to the wet track conditions of champion Zenyatta in the Louisville Stakes? How will the track (labeled sloppy early in the card) affect the day’s racing? And why on earth is HRTV’s Carolyn Conley wearing a potted plant on her head?

I hope to have those answers and more as I live blog the 12-race marathon Kentucky Oaks day program from Churchill Downs. I’ll be back shortly after 1 p.m. (Eastern) to cover the rich stakes program, culminating with the Kentucky Oaks.

1:10 p.m. … Well, we have a muddy, sealed racetrack for the Oaks card, which means the track superintendant rolled it tight to keep as much moisture from seeping in to the surface as possible. What often happens with a sealed track are speed biases early in the day and a more tiring track as the day wears on–provided there’s not a lot more rain that falls. Times can vary, but I’ve seen sealed racetracks rated sloppy that were faster than a dry and fast racing strip.

The early races yielded slow fractional times, with the winners either racing on the early lead or pressing the pace. The first race, a 1 1/16-mile allowance race, was won by Luna Vega and Shaun Bridgomohan, coming from just off the pace (fractions were creepy crawly :26.11, :51.23, :1:15.45, 1:39.30 and a final time of 1:45.64).Susies Gal, the early leader, finished second. 

The second race, a starter allowance, was won by pace-presser Multipass, who drew off from Lokomamma to win by four under Julien Leparoux (fractions were quicker, :23.93, :46.83, 1:24.65 and a final time for the mile of 1:38.12). The speed in the race, Lost Village fell back to last.

In the third, the A.P. Indy filly On a Roll broke her maiden under Rafael Bejarano going wire to wire to win by a half-length while setting moderate fractions of :24.11, :48.34, 1:13.60 and 1:40.29 en route to a final clocking for 1 1/16 miles of 1:47.27.

1:22 p.m. … Here’s a news flash. Friesan Fire is the early betting favorite for the Kentucky Derby at 4-1, with morning line favorite I Want Revenge second choice at 5-1, Pioneerof the Nile and (get this) General Quarters co-third choices at 8-1, and Dunkirk and Chocolate Candy next at 9-1 each. The Louisville bettors are obviously smitten by the Tom McCarthy saga, the story of the former hometown school teacher and principal with a horse stable and a Derby dream. I’m guessing the early play on Friesan Fire is based on his superior off-track form in the Louisiana Derby.

1:25 p.m. … Stlil catching up on the early part of the card. Senor Fuego charged from far off the pace to take the fourth race, a maiden sprint, but the fast  fractions set by Mighty Score (under that great judge of pace, Stewart Elliott) set it up for the John Velazquez ridden, Todd Pletcher-trained first-time starter by Speightstown. The fractions were :21.45, :44.96, and :57.76 en route to a six-furlong clocking of 1:11.03. 

1:35 p.m. … What happened to the racetrack after the third? All of a sudden, the fractions are ultra-fast.  Calvin Borel rallied up the rail from last place to win the fifth under Warrior’s Reward, closing fast under fractions of :21.93, :44.10 and 1:08.92 to beat the Grade 1-placed Munnings in 1:21.60 for seven furlongs, just 1 1/5 seconds off the track record. Fufty Too set the pace at 17-1 and beat just one horse.

1:55 p.m. … Apparently track superintendent Butch Lehr "opened up" the track after the third race, which allowed it to dry out and apparently quickened the track up almost immediately. As the day goes on, however, the track could become sticky and tiring, one horsemen told me. He also said the rail has been the ideal place to be so far, and that might not change.

One word of caution about track biases. Jockeys see horses winning on the lead, and all of sudden several of them will  gun for the front. That leads to faster fractions and completely different pace scenario, resulting in more winners coming from off the pace. Biases may not always  be what they seem.

2:00 p.m. … This isn’t Kentucky Oaks related, but until we get a chance to post it elsewhere, I thought I would pass on word that stewards at Delaware Park have decided to scratch the two horses formerly owned by Paraneck Stable, the operation run by Ernie Paragallo, that were entered to race on Monday in the name of Nob Hill Stable. Paraneck’s horses have been banned from racing in New York until a new authorized agent has been approved by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board to replace Paragallo.

2:02 p.m. … Is there a method to Butch Lehr’s madness? After opening the main track for races four and five (the sixth, the Aegeon Turf Sprint was on grass),  he’s  floated it again, sealing it back up. Should we look for a frontrunner to win this next race, the 1 1/6-mile Louisville Stakes (the race from which Zenyatta scratched)?

2:05 p.m. … Catching up on the sixth race, the Aegon Turf Sprint went to course specialst Chamberlain Bridge,  a War Chant gelding winning for the third time in as many starts on the Churchill Downs turf.  Garrett Gomez rode for trainer Bret Calhoun. Cannonball finished second, with Smart Enough third. 

2:10 p.m. … Are we going to have an inquiry after Miss Isella and Calvin Borel bulled their way through a narrow opening on the rail and past unbeaten One Caroline to win the Louisville Stakes? She clearly leaned out and into One Caroline and Edgar Prado near the eighth pole. The two fillies appeared to bump solidly,  then Miss Isella drew off to win by three-quarters of a length on the same track on which she won the Fall City Handicap last fall. Ian Wilkes trains Miss Isella for Domino Stud of Lexington. One Caroline was losing for the first time in six starts for  G. Watts Humphrey Jr. and trainer Rusty Arnold.  Swift Temper finished third.

There was no inquiry.

"The other filly didn’t give me much of a fight. It looks like she fell to pieces," Borel said of One Caroline. "She hung in with me for six or seven strides  and  run out of horse. My filly loves this track, though, you couldn’t imagine. She just glides on it." The winner is a daughter of Silver Charm, who showed a lot of heart throughout his career, including the 1997 Kentucky Derby, which he won by a head. She was bred by her owners.

Borel, the regular rider of Oaks favorite Rachel Alexandra, said he thinks that filly will just love the track condition.

Miss Isella paid $19.40 after completing the mile in 1:36.68.  One Caroline went right to the front and set fractions of :23.96, :47.65 and 1:11.72 before being hooked first by Swift Temper on the turn for home and then by the winner.

3:10 p.m. … Last year’s 2-year-old filly champ Stardom Bound may be on the sidelines for now,  but IEAH Stables and their partners have another star filly on their hands in Laragh, who wired the field in the 1 1/16-mile Edgewood Stakes, the eighth race on the Oaks Day program. Ridden by Edgar Prado and trained by John Terranova, Laragh was never seriously threatened as she rolled to her fourth win in eight lifetime starts, winning by about 1 1/4 lengths over the fast-closing Magical Affair. Banker’s Choice was third. 

Laragh showed good early speed to get the lead, then relaxed beautifully, setting fractions of :23.57, :48.43, 1:13.04 and 1:37.32, with a final time of 1:43.88. Prado used the whip twice in deep stretch to keep Laragh’s mind on business. Laragh was coming off a fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 Comely at Aqueduct on a sloppy track, her worst career performance. She, along with Stardom Bound, is a gray daughter of Tapit, the Pulpit stallion standing at Gainesway Farm. Mike Ryan bred Laragh, who was produced from the El Prado mare, Rose of Summer.

3:30 p.m. … Scratch Justwhistledixie from the Kentucky Oaks…apparently a stone bruise that isn’t serious but enough to take her out of the race.

3:55 p.m. … Another rallying winner up the rail, as Bullsbay under Jeremy Rose got up in the final sixteenth of a mile to defeat Cool Coal Man in the Alysheba Stakes. The 5-year-old son of Tiznow was winning at Churchill Downs for the third time in as many starts for trainer Graham Motion. He covered the 1 1/16-miles in 1:44.29. Informed and Garrett Gomez set the early fractions (:24.55, :48.72, and 1:13.57) and was tackled by Cool Coal Man and John Velazquez on the turn for home. Cool Coal Man appeared headed to victory, but Rose shot up the rail after racing in mid-pack to the stretch and got the narrow victory. Cool Coal Man was second, with Star Guitar third and Informed fourth. The winner paid $8.40.

4:40 p.m. …. After a brief (if late)  lunch interlude, I realized that the 10th at Churchill Downs, the American Turf Handicap, may be the only good betting race left on the card. Rachel Alexandra will be 1-9 to win the Kentucky Oaks and the 12th race of the day, a maiden race scheduled on turf, has been scratched down to four horses as a main track event. Tough to make much money or "get out" under those conditions.

The American Turf has a field of nine 3-year-olds, with the rail horse, Stormalory, coming off a narrow win at Keeneland in the Transylvania Stakes, the 2-1 favorite. I think a better alternative in the race will be Battle of Hastings, trained by Jeff Mullins and going for his third win in a row after running poorly in his U.S. debut.  The Royal Applause gelding won two of five in England last year at 2. Skipadate, a Mark Casse-trained colt by Skip Away, took some early money in the wagering, perhaps because of the troubled trip he had in the Transylvania when lacking room at the three-eighths pole and going very wide into the stretch.

4:55 p.m. … The American Turf  was a "get out" race for whoever had the 45-1 shot Orthodox, who tracked the early pace of Turfiste, then grabbed the lead in the final furlong and held Battle of Hastings at bay to win by three-quarters of a length. Stormalory was pulled up on the backstretch of the 1 1/16-mile race.

The winner, a 3-year-old by Pulpit, was ridden by Jon Court and is trained by John Glenney. He was winning for the third time in nine starts and this was his first stakes victory. Jockey Tyler Baze had to fight to keep Battle of Hastings from lugging in down the stretch, compromising his chances after getting a good early trip in third position as Turfiste set fractions of :24.23, :48.86, and 1:13.86 for the opening six furlongs. Orthodox covered the distance in 1:44.17 after a mile split of 1:38.15. The turf course was rated good by Equibase.

We’ll try to get an update on Stormalory as soon as possible.

We’re going to see if we can the Bravo channel to watch the Kentucky Oaks, which it’s been rumored will be shown between features on lifestyles of the housewives of Jefferson County (Ky), reruns of Make Me a Supermodel, and the debut of I’m a Horseplayer: Get me Outta Here.

5:00 p.m. … Seems like a regular horse racing show for the first minute, with NBC’s Bob Costas setting the scene…then it’s on to the fashion….Nancy O’Dell wearing a silly hat and promising to tell us all about the fashion and food (hot dogs?) of Oaks Day. Then a quick shift to NBC’s Donna Brothers and Bethany Frankel (who seems like a perfectly awful person and is one of the Housewives of New York). Back to Nancy O’Dell again, this time with NBC’s Bob Neumier (nice pink tie, Bob!). Nancy O’Dell says she looks at the horse’s asses for her handicapping. Neumier seems rightly stunned.

I may have to switch back to HRTV.

5:05 p.m. … I’m a glutton for punishment. Bravo now has ex-footballer Tiki Barber (nice pink tie, Tiki!) interviewing a top chef (I guess that’s another Bravo show), who is explaining  how to make bread pudding…a racetrack staple if I ever heard of one. Goes down really well after a dog.

5:07 p.m. …  A serious note: the switch to Bravo was a good fit for this year’s Kentucky Oaks and the emphasis on breast cancer awareness by Churchill Downs. Many of the sporting world’s biggest events involve charities, and this year’s Oaks is a fund-raiser for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the leading breast cancer education and  research organization. (Click here to read Brad Cummings’ Paulick Report Good News Friday article sponsored by Liberation Farm on this issue.) A parade of cancer survivors around the track has the Churchill Downs crowd cheering, and Donna Barton does an interview on horseback with breast cancer survivor  and retired jockey Patti Cooksey, who now works for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. It’s all good.

5:15 p.m. … Bethany Frankel ("I don’t mind being judgmental," she says…so she really is trainer Bobby Frankel’s daughter!) picks the winner of a hat contest that is part of the show. HRTV’s Carolyn Conley didn’t make it to the finals with her potted plant hat. Haven’t seen a horse yet on the Bravo telecast, but I’m sure we will sooner or later.

5:20 p.m. … It’s the dynamic handicapping duo of Neumier and Mike  Battaglia (nice pink tie, Mike!), who’d have a hard time picking winners in a walkover. Battaglia tells people not to bet on the race…just watch it and enjoy. Let’s hope Bob Evans, the Churchill Downs chairman, isn’t watching. CDI doesn’t make money by having people just watch a race.

5:25 p.m. … Tom Hammond and retired Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens make their first appearance on the show and start talking about the horse race to come. (NIce pink ties, fellas!) And there are the horses in the paddock.

Another serious note: the Make a Wish Foundation has a young girl, Rachel Mattson, the filly’s namesake, brought next to Rachel Alexandra and she’s given a souvenir pink halter with the filly’s name on it, and jockey Calvin Borel goes out of his way to greet Miss Mattson.

5:35 p.m. … There’s a lot of talk about Rachel Alexandra being nearly unbeatable, but we’ve yet to see any of her dominating performances via videotape on the telecast….just lots of voiceovers by Stevens and Hammonds as they show the paddock scene. I’d love them to show the replay of the Fair Grounds Oaks, where Borel spent most of the final sixteenth of a mile celebrating, doing everything but flipping the bird to the jockeys who were racing behind him that day. He was told to tone it down a bit for the Medaglia d’Oro filly’s next winning start, the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Rachel Alexandra comes into the race off a four-race winning streak that began last November in the Golden Rod Stakes at Churchill Downs. Prior to that, she’d won 2-of-5 starts for trainer Hal Wiggins and her owners, L and M Partners. The Kentucky Oaks is Rachel Alexandra’s first Grade 1 race.

5:45 p.m. … I’d guess 18 lengths (it was 20 1/4, officially). Rachel Alexandra just destroyed her opposition in the Oaks. Calvin Borel actually gets paid for that ride? Other than a few looks back to his inside and outside, Borel sat chilly as a statue down the stretch after Rachel Alexandra took the lead from pacesetter Gabby’s Golden Gal inside the five-sixteenths pole. "It’s the greatest horse I’ve ever been on in my life," an emotional Borel said of the long-bodied filly in a post-race interview with Donna Brothers. of NBC.

"Tremendous," Hal Wiggins said to NBC’s Kenny Rice. "More than what I thought I had to tell you the truth." He was asked about running the filly in the Kentucky Derby and said it "never entered my mind," though added he might think about it as he soaks in the victory.

Rachel Alexandra covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48 4/5, following early fractions of :23 3/5, :47 2/5 and 1:11 4/5, but it wasn’t the time that she posted as much as the manner of this victory. I’ve only seen one filly win by a bigger margin, and that was Landaluce winning the six-furlong Hollywood Park Lassie Stakes  (since renamed the Landaluce) by 21 lengths. The quality of Landaluce’s competition in that Grade 2 race wasn’t that strong, and neither was this year’s Kentucky Oaks, but when you put that much daylight between yourself and your foes, it is spectacular, no matter who you beat. Only Secretariat’s 1973 Belmont Stakes victory by 31 lengths was more dominating, at least in my memory.

Stone Legacy, one of three fillies entries from the barn of D. Wayne Lukas (trainer of Landaluce), finished second, with Flying Spur third.

Dolphus Morrison, the breeder and co-owner of Rachel Alexandra, said he has no regrets not running his filly in the Kentucky Derby. "No sir," he told Bob Costas. "The Triple Crown races are a showcase for the future stallions of our industry and fillies should run with fillies and stallions with stallions."

I’ve got a feeling the connections of the 20 colts scheduled to run in the Derby aren’t regretting his decision, either.

That’s it from Ray Paulick

Postscript: Stormalory, who pulled up as the favorite in the American Turf, was euthanized because of multiple fractures to his left front leg.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
Can the cable network Bravo do for 3-year-old female Thoroughbreds what it’s done for countless wannabe runway models or packs of shallow housewives in New York City, Atlanta or Orange County, Calif.?

Come to think of it, I’m not sure I really want that to happen.

But with Bravo — the sister network to NBC Sports in the NBC Universal family of media companies – televising this year’s Kentucky Oaks for the first time on May 1, it’s anybody’s guess the type of programming we’ll see. A press release from Churchill Downs says the one-hour telecast (5-6 p.m. Eastern) will focus on the “food, fashion and celebrity experience” associated with the Kentucky Oaks. The NBC Sports production and on-air team televising the Derby on May 2, led by host Tom Hammond, will be available for the Bravo telecast, so here’s hoping they’ll be able to find time to show the horse race, too. With a possible field that includes Stardom Bound and Rachel Alexandra, it could be one of the most interesting and best Kentucky Oaks in recent history.

First, though, let’s give Churchill Downs management credit for hooking the Oaks with the Susan G. Komen for the Cure breast cancer organization. It’s a most worthy cause, and if Friday is still considered by some to be “ladies day,” there may be no better time for the horse racing industry to raise awareness and research money to help find a cure for breast cancer.

But let’s be real for a second. The Kentucky Oaks is one of the best and most important fixtures on the Thoroughbred calendar, and a perfect setup to the following day’s Kentucky Derby. It’s been part of ESPN’s Derby week coverage for many years. Moving the Oaks to Bravo – a network best known for shows like “Project Runway,”
“Top Chef,” “Real Housewives of …” and “Tabatha’s Salon Makeover” – is a sign that Churchill Downs is giving up on growing the Oaks as a sporting event and making it more about fashion and celebrity.

That apparent shift in philosophy (the Kentucky Derby web site is also putting a great deal of emphasis on fashion, parties and entertainment) coincides with business developments involving the longtime horse racing provider to ESPN, the Tulsa, Okla.-based Winnercomm. Winnercomm, for years known as Winner Communications, the company founded by Chris Lincoln and Jim Wilburn, was purchased earlier this year by the Outdoor Channel.

Winnercomm has traditionally been horse racing’s gateway to ESPN, but many of Wilburn’s close associates at ESPN are no longer at the network, so he doesn’t have the “juice” he once had. Winnercomm’s deal with Churchill to provide Derby week coverage ended, as did his agreement with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association to produce racing telecasts.

Churchill Downs opted to negotiate directly with ESPN for programming (without Winnercomm), and in this difficult economy they didn’t really want to be on the hook for the cost of the programming without having assurances they would be able to generate enough revenue through advertising to pay for it. ESPN apparently wasn’t interested in trying to sell the programming, and Churchill didn’t want to work through Winnercomm. Thus, there will be no “Breakfast at Churchill Downs” programming on ESPN or ESPN2, and no “Kentucky Derby Draw” or “Kentucky Oaks” telecasts. ESPN will televise some of the Derby Day undercard, which traditionally has attracted a relatively large audience. The Oaks and other Derby week programming has not done very well in the ratings, though Wilburn always managed to sell advertising for them.

Sources have said ESPN will not have live programming from Pimlico during the week of the Preakness, either, though there may be programming from Belmont Park leading up to the Triple Crown’s final jewel. The Derby and Preakness telecasts are shown on NBC, while the Belmont is on ABC, a sister network to ESPN.

Complicating all of this is the fact that Churchill Downs and Magna, which owns Pimlico, home of the Preakness, are partners in the racing cable network HRTV. If the Oaks and Pimlico’s Black-Eyed Susan (which, like the Oaks is on a Friday), were telecast on ESPN or ESPN2, that network most likely would have wanted exclusivity, which would have prevented HRTV from showing the races live.

Like many things in racing, there is no central leadership here. The NTRA, which has its own deals with ESPN for prep races leading up to the Kentucky Derby, has never been given the responsibility of negotiating TV time for the Triple Crown tracks, which have done so on their own or through Triple Crown Productions. The Triple Crown itself is now divided between NBC (Derby and Preakness) and ABC (Belmont). Bob Evans, the CEO of Churchill, is widely viewed as someone who is more interested in technology than television. Magna, of course, has its own problems with bankruptcy, Wilburn, horse racing’s former “go to” guy for getting the sport on ESPN, has lost his clout with the “worldwide leader in sports.”

Perhaps all of this might make a good reality show … on Bravo!