Justify Wins Kentucky Derby; Saxon Warrior Wins English 2,000 Guineas

The first races in both the American and British Triple Crowns were run today.  At Newmarket, in England, the 2,000 Guineas, contested at a mile on the turf, saw trainer Aidan O'Brien take his ninth victory, with Saxon Warrior.  Saxon Warrior is a bay colt by Deep Impact, and out of the Galileo mare Maybe.  Aidan O'Brien's 19-year-old son Donnacha was the jockey, while O'Brien himself was at Churchill Downs with Mendelssohn for the Kentucky Derby.  Saxon Warrior set off at odds of  3 to 1, and ran the mile over a course rated "good" in 1:36.55.  Tip To Win, a 50 to 1 long-shot, was second with Masar in third.

  In Kentucky, three inches of rain fell before the Derby and fell throughout the race.  A full starting gate of 20 colts broke nicely while a crowd of 157,813 watched. The 5 to 2 betting favorite was Justify, a chestnut son of Scat Daddy out of the mare Stage Magic.  Justify is trained by Bob Baffert, and was under the guidance of veteran jockey Mike Smith.  Justify had never raced on a sloppy track, but several other colts in the race had, and those boys had won by impressive margins.  Smith rode Justify out of the gate in a hurry, and settled about 8 paths out from the rail, with Promises Fulfilled in the lead close to the rail.  The first quarter and half-miles were run in jaw-dropping times for a sloppy track - 22.24 seconds for the first quarter, and 45.77 for the half-mile.   
   But Justify just cruised on.  He won the race in 2:04.20 - and without a speck of mud on his face or chest.  This made the fifth Kentucky Derby win for Bob Baffert, and the second for Mike Smith.  Good Magic tried to press Justify at the top of the stretch, under the whip, while Smith just sat still on Justify and pulled away.  Good Magic finished second, with Audible third, Instilled Regard fourth and My Boy Jack in fifth.  And Justify broke to so-called "Apollo curse" when he won the Derby today, becoming the first horse that did not race as a two-year-old in 136 years to win the first leg of America's Triple Crown.
   For a $2 win ticket on Justify, the return was $7.80; for a $2 place bet on Good Magic, one received $9.20; for a $2 show wager on Audible, the payout was $5.80.  Return on a $2 exacta bet was $69.60; on a $1 trifecta it was $141.40; and on a $1 superfecta, the return was $19,618.20.

The full order of finish follows:

1.     Justify     by 2 1/2 lengths

2.     Good Magic  by a nose

3.     Audible   by 2 lengths

4.     Instilled Regard

5.     My Boy Jack

6.     Bravazo

7.     Hofburg

8.     Lone Sailor

9.     Vino Rosso

10.   Solomini

11.   Firenze Fire

12.   Bolt d'Oro

13.   Flameaway

14.   Enticed

15.   Promises Fulfilled

16.   Free Drop Billy

17.   Noble Indy

18.   Combatant

19.   Magnum Moon

20.   Mendelssohn    (Aidan O'Brien's entry)

Spring 2018 - Triple Crown Racing Time - Photos

Scat Daddy (2004-2015) has four sons in this year's Kentucky Derby

Curlin has three sons in the Derby

Medaglia d'Oro has two sons in the Derby

Trainer D. Wayne Lukas  has an entry this year

Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby

Pimlico, home of the Preakness Stakes

The ivy covered clubhouse at Belmont Park, where the last leg

of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes, is held

Cloud Computing Wins Preakness Stakes

The seven-to-five betting favorite, and winner of the Kentucky Derby, Always Dreaming, jumped out of the gate beside Classic Empire and the two colts led the field to the top of the stretch.  Then Always Dreaming began to fade drastically, even though the time for the early Preakness furlongs was slower than the Derby.  It looked like Classic Empire, the second betting choice, and last year's two-year-old champion, would win the race.  Then Cloud Computing, who last raced six weeks ago, came charging up beside Classic Empire.  The two colts battled the last sixteenth of a mile, but Cloud Computing managed to win by a head.  Classic Empire was four and 3/4 lengths ahead of Senior Investment, who was a half-length ahead of Lookin At Lee.  Always Dreaming faded to finish in eighth place.
   A $2 win ticket on Cloud Computing paid $28.80; a $2 place ticket on Classic Empire paid $4.40; and a $2 show ticket on Senior Investment paid $10.20.  A $2 exacta bet paid $98.40; a $2 trifecta bet paid $2,194.60; and a $2 superfecta bet paid $16,325.60.
   The race was completed in 1 minute, 55.98 seconds.  Here is the order of finish, with their Derby finish spots in parenthesis, if applicable:
1     Cloud Computing
2     Classic Empire  (4)
3     Senior Investment
4     Lookin At Lee  (2)
5     Gunnevera   (7)
6     Multiplier
7     Conquest Mo Money
8     Always Dreaming   (1)
9     Hence   (11)
10   Term of Art

  No Triple Crown Champion in 2017....

Creator Wins Belmont Stakes

Creator, the son of Tapit and winner of the Arkansas Derby, won the 148th running of the Belmont Stakes yesterday by a nostril.  Nyquist, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, did not run, after becoming ill after the Preakness.  Exaggerator, who won the Preakness, looked good and trained well for the Belmont, and was the betting choice.  He certainly looked regal and cool.  Had  Exaggerator won yesterday's race, he would have been the first horse since Nashua - 58 years ago - who ran second in the Derby and then won the final two legs of the Triple Crown.  There were thirteen runners in the Belmont yesterday; Exaggerator finished eleventh.  The only other horse to run in all three legs of the TC races finished third.
  I laughingly noted there were five greys, one chestnut, and seven bay/browns running in the race.  Grey (or roan) horses finished in the first, second and third places, with the chestnut in fourth.  The other two greys finished in seventh and eighth places.  Sons of Tapit finished in first aand third places; sons of Giant's Causeway finished in second and sixth places; sons of Medaglia d'Oro finished in the fifth and thirteenth places.
   Kent Desormeoux, jockey of Exaggerator, said the colt had no excuses for his eleventh place finish; that he was just tired and it wasn't his day to win.  It looked to me as if Exaggerator wanted to blast to the front of the pack with Gettysburg, but that Kent held him back, and that Exaggerator didn't like it.  Then, when Kent asked the big bay to run, he just didn't have anything left.
   The full order of finish, with Creator defeating Destin by a nostril, follows:
1.    Creator
2.    Destin
3.    Lani
4.    Governor Malibu
5.    Stradivari
6.    Brody's Cause
7.    Cherry Wine
8.    Gettysburg
9.    Suddenbreakingnews
10.  Trojan Nation
11.  Exaggerator
12.  Seeking the Soul
13.  Forever d'Oro

Lots of Things

There were 8 tornadoes reported in the Denver area yesterday afternoon and evening, not just 5; and there was a lot of wind and hail damage in the metropolitan area.  We had rain and hail fall in Boulder multiple times during the evening and over night.  It started a little after 5 p.m. and lasted until about 3 this morning - thunder, lightning, wind, rain, and hail.  Luckily, the hail I saw here was the size of, and smaller than, green peas, so it didn't do too much damage.  - In some areas of Denver, between the wind and the hail, some of the soft sidings of buildings looked as though they'd been subjected to gunfire. - I had to close my patio window and door, because the wind was blowing from the east, and the hail was hitting the concrete patio pad, and then ricocheting up to the door and window.  It was an interesting experience.
   There was a slight to-do after the Preakness was won by California Chrome, before he shipped up to Elmont, New York for the Belmont Stakes.  Having won the first two races of the Triple Crown, Art Sherman, the trainer made a comment about racing in the NYRA area.  -  Humans have been wearing "Breathe Right" nasal strips for many years now.  They keep your nasal passages open, so you aren't deprived of oxygen while sleeping or exercising.  Human athletes have been wearing nasal strips almost since the day they were introduced... - The New York Racing Association did not approve of the use of nasal strips on racing thoroughbreds when they were first introduced, saying that there had not been enough study to decide whether the nasal strips were an assistance "offering unfair advantage" to the wearer or not.  Up until Monday, NYRA had declared nasal strips illegal in racing in their state.  California Chrome wears a nasal strip.  He has used a nasal strip in his last six races, and has been undefeated in all of those races.  He has also been ridden in each of those six races by Victor Espinoza.  Any horse, at any race track in the US can (now, with the NYRA's ruling) wear a nasal strip.  Some trainers like them, some don't. In a Sports Illustrated article, a writer stated that since the NYRA has allowed nasal strips, "all of thoroughbred racing suffers from the decision."  He never wrote why, or how, thoroughbred racing suffers from the decision; nasal strips were allowed at all US tracks except in the state of New York prior to the ruling.  Is he stating that New York racing is better than any other states?  Yes, Art Sherman did hint that one of the horse's owners wouldn't be happy if they couldn't use the nasal strip.  But I don't think that would have actually stopped California Chrome's connections from trying to be the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 (Florida-bred Affirmed).  Another way to look at the nasal strip "controversy" is to realize that while the nasal strip may help hold the upper nostril passages stay wide open, all the air the horse breathes must then pass through the 'bottle neck' of the horse's trachea, leading to the lungs...  I do not believe that a nasal strip gives a horse an unusual advantage.
   We are heading for Memorial Day Weekend here in Boulder (and, yes, everywhere else in the United States)... In Boulder that means it is time for the Boulder Creek Festival and the running of the Bolder Boulder 10K road race.  Information about the Boulder Creek Festival may be found at:  http://www.bceproductions.com/boulder-creek-festival/    Festivities begin at 6 p.m. on Friday night, 24 May, with a free concert at the Central Park band shell, and will continue until after dark on Monday, 26 May.  On Monday, the Boulder street system, and a lot of the mass transit system, will be shut down for the 10K Bolder Boulder for the morning and part of the early afternoon - beware!  A map of the race course may be found at:  http://media.bolderboulder.com/BBCourseMap.pdf

 

Will California Chrome Be a Triple Crown Champion?

California Chrome won the Preakness Stakes yesterday, and has now won two of the three races that constitute America's Triple Crown.  The gleaming chestnut colt avoided trouble in the Kentucky Derby, and won by more than four lengths.  Yesterday, he faced nine other horses, and six of them hadn't raced two weeks ago.  Ride On Curlin and General a Rod had raced in the Derby, and the filly Ria Antonia had raced the day before the Derby in the Kentucky Oaks.  Race track buffs were not impressed with California Chrome's speed figures in the Derby, and felt that the fresher horses, many of them with early speed, had a good chance to defeat the Derby winner.
  California Chrome won the Preakness by one-and-a-half lengths, with Ride On Curlin in second place, six-and-a-half lengths in front of Social Invasion, who was only a head in front of General a Rod.  Ride On Curlin seemed to be making up ground, but even if the race had been the same length as the Derby, I don't think he'd have been able to pass California Chrome.  Considering the fact that the Preakness is only two weeks after the Derby, I think that the Derby contenders did very well.    California Chrome paid $3 to win; Ride On Curlin paid $5.60 to place; and Social Invasion paid $3.40 to show.  The $2 exacta pay out was $18.20; and the $2 trifecta pay out was $76.  The rest of the field finished in this order: (5th) Ring Weekend, Pablo Del Monte, Dynamic Impact, Kid Cruz, Bayern, and Ria Antonia. Reports this morning say that all of the horses are fine and have no physical problems.
  In three weeks time, the third race of the Triple Crown will be run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.  This race is one-and-a-half miles, which will probably be the longest race any of these horses will ever run in their lives.  The Triple Crown is difficult to win - precisely because of the 5 week spread and the distances the horses have to run.  The horses who win the Triple Crown have to be adaptable to different dirt courses in three states; they run 1 and 1/4 miles the first weekend of May, 1 and 3/16 miles the third weekend of May, and 1 and 1/2 miles on the three weeks later, in June.  The differences in humidity, the consistency of the track surface, the length of the races, and the travelling between states, are all very telling on each horse.
At the moment, it looks as if ten horses will run in the Belmont Stakes - and there is, again, the possibility of a Triple Crown Champion, the first since Affirmed in 1978.

Triple Crown Races - American and British

Today arrived warm and overcast with clouds.  We're supposed to reach a high of 84 degrees today - which will be a good test to see if I can stand to continue to grow my hair out - and, so far, it's been a quiet day.  I've done my grocery shopping and have plenty of kitty litter, cat food and crunchies for the kits; I have nuts for the squirrels; and plenty of food and drink for me.  My neighbor had his Flemish Giant outside feeding on dandelions, earlier, so I was introduced to Harvey, and was informed that after one week, he was already housebroken.
  Here in the USA, Kentucky Oaks favorite Untapable won on Friday, and California Chrome, the Kentucky Derby favorite, won yesterday.  Yesterday was also the running of the first race of the English Triple Crown, the 2,000 Guineas Stakes.  The betting favorite for the race was Kingman, with the seond betting choice was Australia.  The 2,000 Guineas is run on a one-mile straight course - the Rowley Mile - and it seemed that two races were being run at the same time - Kingman was running on one side of the track, along with six others, and Australia was running down the other side of the track, with six others.  But a 40 to 1 long shot, Night of Thunder made a huge drive and ran past Kingman - and then he slowed, so the jockey hit him three times with the whip.  The colt went sideways, and almost ran into Australia, on the other side of the track, before the jockey could straighten the colt out.  Night of Thunder, at 40 to 1 odds, defeated Kingmaker (3 to 2), and Australia (5 to 2) ran third; Shifting Power (Night of Thunder's stablemate, and ridden by Frankie Dettori) ran fourth at 50 to 1 odds.
   What are the differences between the two countries' Triple Crown races?  In England, the "Triple Crown" races began in 1809 (and earlier); they are run on turf (or a grass surface); and, they run in a clockwise direction, if the course is oval, round, or triangular.   The United States races are run on a dirt surface (though it varies from track to track); the three races began running in 1875 (and earlier); and US horses run races in a counter-clockwise direction.  (The United States Thoroughbred and Jockey Clubs wanted to do everything different from our mother country, to show our independence.)  The races are for 3-year-old horses only, and can be colts or fillies, even though there is a series specifically for the females only.  Bristish Triple Crown races are run in May, June, and September.  The American Triple Crown races are run over a short period of 6 weeks, with two weeks between the Derby and the Preakness, and three weeks between the Preakness and the Belmont.
  In the 140 years of the American Triple Crown Races (that's counting this year), only eleven horses have been able to win all three races.  Here, the Triple Crown includes the Kentucky Derby, run over 1 and 1/4 miles;  the Preakness Stakes, run at 1 and 3/16 miles; and the Belmont Stakes, run at 1 and 1/2 miles.  The race tracks are in three different states - the Derby in Kentucky at Churchill Downs; the Preakness in Maryland at Pimlico Racetrack; the Belmont at Belmont Park in New York.  California Chrome is the only horse that could become a Triple Crown winner this year.  The previous Triple Crown winners were:
1978    Affirmed
1977    Seattle Slew
1973    Secretariat
1948    Citation
1946    Assault
1943    Count Fleet
1941    Whirlaway
1937    War Admiral
1935    Omaha
1930    Gallant Fox
1919    Sir Barton
   In the 206 years of the British Triple Crown (counting this year), only fifteen horses have won the three Triple Crown races.  Their Triple Crown races consist of the 2,000 Guineas, run at 1 mile;  the Epsom Derby, run at 1 and 1/2 miles plus 10 yards; and the St. Leger Stakes, run at 1 and 3/4 miles plus 127 yards.  The 2,000 Guineas is run at Newmarket in May, over the course named for King Charles II's famous stallion.  The Derby is run at Epsom Downs in Surrey, in June; while the St. Leger is run at Doncaster Race Course in September.  This year, Night of Thunder is the only possible winner of the Triple Crown.  Past winners were:
1970    Nijinsky
1935    Bahram
1918    Gainsborough
1917    Gay Crusader
1915    Pommern
1903    Rock Sand
1900    Diamond Jubilee
1899    Flying Fox
1897    Galtee More
1893    Isinglass
1891    Common
1886    Ormonde
1866    Lord Lyon
1865    Gladiateur
1853    West Australian

Gentildonna and Sunday Silence

There are beautiful blue skies outside with a light breeze stirring the wind chimes on my patio.  It's 50 degrees outside, I have the patio door open, and am sitting at the desk wearing jeans and a T-shirt.  Lovey is perched on the top of the cat tree, and Nedi is waving his plume between the monitor and my face - with his feet between my arms as I type.  Bob is outside, talking to my kits, while his Mom calls him from two doors down.  I just had lunch with Nancy, Bob's Mom, so I can smile at him easily when he comes in for a mouthful of "stolen" food ...
   I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Gentildonna and her racing exploits last year, and this year.  I think she brings me as much pleasure as I received watching her grandsire, Sunday Silence, defeat Easy Goer in the Breeders Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park.  I always preferred Sunday Silence to Easy Goer, and was disappointed when the bright chestnut colt beat the black one in the Belmont Stakes.  Easy Goer never lost on a race track in New York, but Sunday Silence bested him at Churchill Downs, Pimlico, and Gulfstream Park.  When Sunday Silence was retired from racing, and was purchased by a Japanese syndicate and moved to the Far East for his stud career, I was devastated.  No more.
  Gentildonna, and other grandsons and granddaughters, are making things much brighter. This past weekend, Gentildonna won the Grade I Japan Cup, becoming the first horse in history to do so.  Last year, as a three-year-old, Gentildonna won Japan's Triple Crown for fillies, and followed up with last year's Japan Cup.  The Japan Cup is raced over turf, at 2400 meters (or just about 1.5 miles), and the weight the horse carries in the race is based on the horse's age.  This year, Deep Impact, a son of Sunday Silence was the sire of both Gentildonna, the winner, and of Denim and Ruby, the filly who finished second.  The Japan Cup was worth $5.7 million in prize money, and was open to males and females.  .....   Yeah!!!  Way to go, Sunday Silence!  Way to go, Gentildonna!  ....   Thank you for making dreams come true.

Dr. Larry Bramlage Speaks Out About I'll Have Another

This is taken from today's e-edition ofThe Blood Horse Magazine.  The article is written by Erica Larson.

In the wake of a New York Times article and an NBC Nightly News segment focused on injuries to I'll Have Another and the medications used to treat the winner of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and the Preakness Stakes (gr. I), Dr. Larry Bramlage, who served as the American Association of Equine Practitioners' on-call veterinarian for this year's Triple Crown races, has issued a response.
Bramlage released his statement through Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, where he serves as the chief orthopedic surgeon.
According to the statement's introduction, released July 13, "The Times alleges that 'powerful painkillers' were given to the horse, and that X rays taken of the colt's joints prior to his withdrawal indicate a much more severe problem. The author also alleges that the practice of running horses with high doses of drugs to overcome painful injuries is common practice in Thoroughbred racing."
Bramlage–a member of the Jockey Club, and past president of the AAEP and the American College of Veterinary Surgeons–subsequently provided an interview to NBC news anchor Brian Williams "in an attempt to more accurately inform the public about health and safety practices in racing."
"Dr. Bramlage became concerned following the release of that segment that the public did not have all the facts regarding the issues presented by the Times and NBC," the statement's introduction read.
"In my opinion, the New York Times piece published on July 11 titled, 'I'll Have Another had history of ailments, records show' was closer to tabloid journalism than in-depth reporting, as was the selective editing demonstrated on the July 11 edition of NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams," Bramlage said in his statement.
"The misinterpretation of the medical terminology 'osteoarthritis' and the substitution of 'major painkillers' for anti-inflammatory medications is unfair to the uninformed general public. It's useful only to sell newspapers, not to allow the public to understand what actually happened for the horse. The phenylbutazone given to I'll Have Another is from the same drug group as aspirin and ibuprofen in humans, can't be given to a horse within 24 hours of a race, and is tested for with blood and urine samples at all levels of the sport. Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid used as an anti-inflammatory as well.
"There have been 11 horses that have won two of the three legs of the Triple Crown in the last 33 years. I would guess that almost all of those horses had X rays after winning the second leg as a monitoring, precautionary measure. That's routine veterinary care, and would be akin to the kind of examinations that human Olympic athletes who just qualified in the U.S. championships will undergo prior to competing in the Olympics at the end of July.
"While veterinary ethics preclude us from speculating on I'll Have Another's case specifically as we were not the attending veterinarian, the records provided to New York State Racing and Wagering Board do not indicate anything inappropriate," Bramlage concluded. "No illegal, unprofessional, or medically unwarranted medication was given to this horse. We totally agree with the approach that Dr. Jim Hunt, attending veterinarian, took to get this horse ready for a possible Triple Crown run."