Posts Tagged ‘saeed bin suroor’

The only North American Grade 1 action of the weekend takes place north of the border at Woodbine on Sunday when seasoned turf specialists compete in a pair of rich stakes: the $750,000 Northern Dancer Turf presented by VTECH, at 1 1/2 miles and the $1-million Woodbine Mile over eight furlongs.

Both races will be shown exclusively on TVG, the Northern Dancer scheduled at 4:34 p.m. Eastern and the Woodbine Mile at 5:42 p.m.

While the Woodbine Mile offers the richest purse, the Northern Dancer comes up as a more competitive field in my book. Each race has attracted a field of 10.

Champs Elysees, a 6-year-old son of Danehill, bids for a repeat in the Northern Dancer, but the competition is rich in talent and experience. Marchfield, a son of A.P. Indy, just defeated Champs Elysees in the Grade 2 Sky Classic Stakes at Woodbine going 1 3/8 miles on Aug. 23. Just as Well, another won of A.P. Indy, made a run at turf division leader Gio Ponti but could do no better than second in last month’s Grade 1 Arlington Million. Marsh Side won last year’s Grade 1 Canadian International at Woodbine at the same 12-furlong distance, and the globe-trotting 7-year-old German-bred Quijano was second, beaten a nose by Champs Elysees in last year’s Northern Dancer.

The Woodbine Mile features a rematch of last year’s one-two finishers, Rahy’s Attorney and Ventura, but Bribon, winner of this year’s Metropolitan Mile Handicap on the Belmont Park dirt, makes it interesting as he tries turf for the first time. Another horse that can’t be counted out is the 3-year-old Grand Slam colt, Grand Adventure, unbeaten in three starts on the Woodbine Turf but 10th in his only other race, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Santa Anita last fall.

Ventura, a 5-year-old mare by Chester House, has compiled a remarkable record of consistency for trainer Bobby Frankel and owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms. She has finished first or second in 15 of 18 lifetime starts, and while her best distance may be seven furlongs, she is a Grade 1 winner on turf going a mile.

The Woodbine stakes are far from being the only races worth watching. Saturday’s Futurity (4:43 p.m.) and Matron (5:15 p.m.) on HRTV and TVG are important 2-year-old races, and the same afternoon’s $750,000 Super Derby (6:12 p.m., HRTV) marks the return of UAE Derby winner Regal Ransom for the red-hot Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor.

 

By Ray Paulick
The leading trainer of American Graded Stakes winners through Aug. 9 is not last year’s Eclipse Award winner Steve Asmussen, the runaway leader in the earnings category that is typically used to rank trainers (Asmussen-trained horses have earned $13.7 million so far this year, $5.7 million more than his closest pursuer). Neither is it Todd Pletcher, the four-time Eclipse Award winner who dominated the trainer’s ranks from 2004-07 before Asmussen’s ascension to the top.

The leader of American Graded Stakes winners, with nine individual horses to win a graded stakes race, is Kiaran McLaughlin. McLaughlin has won graded stakes at six different tracks for six different sets of owners. Only one of his AGS winners has won more than one graded stakes race while in his care (one of them, Seventh Street, was moved to trainer Saeed bin Suroor, and went on to win the G1 Go for Wand at Saratoga).

McLaughlin’s winners are: Albertus Maximus (G1 Donn Handicap for Shadwell Stables); Seventh Street (G1 Apple Blossom Handicap for Darley Stable); Justwhistledixie (G2 Davona Dale and G2 Bonnie Miss for West Point Thoroughbreds, Lakland Farm, and R.D. Hubbard); Dream Play (G2 Comely Stakes for Stewart Armstrong); Charitable Man (G2 Peter Pan for Mr. and Mrs. William K Warren Jr.); Carolyn’s Cat (G2 Vagrancy Handicap for the Warrens); the Japanese-bred Florentino (G2 Jefferson Cup for Darley Stable); Justenuffhumor (G2 Fourstardave Handicap for Darley Stable); and Mr. Fantasy (G3 Withers for West Point Thoroughbreds, Brooks and Cammarano).

All but one of McLaughlin’s AGS winners were purchased at public auction, the exception being Albertus Maximus, who was bought privately by Shadwell and turned over to McLaughlin prior to the Donn Handicap. Those bought publicly weren’t found in the bottom of a barrel, ranging from a low price of $200,000 Charitable Man (bought by agent Mike Ryan from the Lane’s End consignment at the 2007 Keeneland September yearling sale) to a high of $1,226,120 at the Japan Racing Horse Association sale from Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm consignment.

His successes in American graded stakes races have helped elevate McLaughlin to third place in the national trainer standings, with earnings of $4.8 million. He’s won 76 races from 373 starts, according to Equibase’s trainer standings, meaning that roughly one of every seven winners is in a graded stakes race.

Asmussen and Pletcher, with far more starters than McLaughlin, are tied for second, with eight AGS winners apiece, and it figures to be only a matter of time before they surpass the soft-spoken Kentucky native as the leader in this category, given the greater overall firepower of their stables. Previous multiple Eclipse Award winners Bob Baffert and Bobby Frankel are next in AGS winners, with seven and six, respectively.

This final note: readers of the first few installments of the American Graded Stakes Standings brought to you by Keeneland might notice some minor changes in the numbers of AGS winners in certain categories. While reviewing our statistical summaries from earlier in the year, we noticed a handful of late December AGS races that were included in our 2009 statistics. They have since been deleted. We apologize for the error.

By Ray Paulick
Desert Party won Thursday night’s UAE 2000 Guineas at Nad Al Sheba racecourse in Dubai, rallying from just off the pace under Lanfranco Dettori to score an "under wraps"  victory over Regal Ransom and pacesetter Redding Colliery. Vineyard Haven, winner of the Hopeful and Champagne Stakes last year and runner-up to Midshipman in Eclipse Award voting, finished a distant fourth in his first start in Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin silks. The son of Lido Palace had previously been owned by a partnership that included trainer Robert Frankel and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre before a reported $12-million offer from the ruler of Dubai.

The winner was making his second start in Dubai for trainer Saeed bin Suroor, coming off a half-length win Jan. 22 in the Ford Flex Trophy, a prep for the Grade 3 UAE 2000 Guineas. A 3-year-old son of Street Cry out of Sage Cat, by Tabasco Cat, Desert Party began his career in the United States for trainer Eoin Harty,  breaking his maiden on Polytrack at Arlington Park in June, then beating three horses in the Grade 2 Sanford on a muddy Saratoga dirt track July 24. Desert Party finished a well beaten sixth behind Vineyard Haven in Saratoga’s Hopeful. Bred in Kentucky by David Smith and Steven Sinatra, Desert Party was a $2.1 million purchase at Fasig-Tipton’s February sale of 2-year-olds in training at Calder after Paul Pompa had purchased him for $425,000 at the 2007 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Runner-up Regal Ransom, a $675,000 purchase at the same Calder 2-year-old sale, broke his maiden at Saratoga in August but finished eighth in the Grade 1 Norfolk in his only other U.S. start. He also ran second to Desert Party in the Ford Flex, his first race in Dubai.

Vineyard Haven, purchased privately after  winning the Champagne Stakes by  5 3/4 lengths, appeared a bit rank in the early going while racing to the outside and just off the early lead of Redding Colliery. He failed to respond when asked by jockey T.E. Durcan and was never a threat down the stretch of the one-turn, one-mile contest.

VIDEO

By Ray Paulick
There are a number of ways to look at the just-released World Thoroughbred Rankings, which were compiled by racing officials/handicappers from around the globe and published by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. Which country had the highest representation? What about the stallions that produced the highest number of world-class runers and the trainers who developed them?

Taylan Karaer
Turkey
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For further details on the World Thoroughbred Rankings (WTR), please contact :

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