The Dark Report – July 20, 2014

 

This week’s DARK REPORT consists of a shake, a conspiracy, extreme racing, a show down, a surgery, a couple of impressive fillies, and a new couple!

Say what you want about exotics, but sometimes there's something to be said about just betting to win. Lots of lost opportunities sometimes in trying to get fancy.

And if horse racing were that easy, there wouldn't be any pick six carryovers and we all would just bet ice-cold verticals!! 

Anyway...Let’s go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

Earlier this last week, Maggie Wolfendale posted this Video on Facebook.

Yes folks, that was a 28-way shake for a horse called Revealing Moment at the low, low price of $25,000! I think the most pills I’ve heard about in one shake before might have been 8 or 9, but certainly nowhere near this one! Since the racing office couldn’t fit 28 pills into the bottle, some improvisation was needed… I wonder what the appeal was for claiming that horse?

 

Last Wednesday DRF’s Dick Jerardi wrote a brief article proposing that Shared Belief and California Chrome might be the same horse. Hmmm is that even possible? Don’t the paddock judges look at the tattoos to verify identity? I am not sure if this article was a parody, spoof, or joke, though I think it was…but it’s still funny to think about. Do you think he makes a case here?

 

Back in the 1980’s I remember some folks saying the same thing about Michael and Janet Jackson for a while (since neither had a hit song released at the same time) but of course we know that is nonsense. So maybe this is nonsense too, but it’s still funny and fun to think about. 

 

Leave it to Canterbury Park to come up with fun and innovative ideas. Yesterday they ran a race with 20 horses in the field. That doesn’t sound so extreme by itself, but what they did to spice that up is they ran some of the horses on the dirt and some of the horses on the grass! They set the race up so that, in theory, the horses on both courses would hit the finish line at the same time.

 

 

 

 

Whoa, that takes some kind of coordination! In what was called the “Battle of the Surfaces” the horses on the dirt beat the horses on the grass as the #15 horse Joshua’s Journey won by a head at almost 7-1. It seemed as the timing just wasn’t quite there at the end as most of the dirt horses beat the ones on the turf, but it was still very fun to watch! 

 

So this doesn’t happen too often where namesake horses of friends of mine square off in epic battles, but it did happen yesterday at Arlington in the 8^th race. The #3 horse Zipso Facto, namesake of our very own Brian Zipse and the #7 Penelope Perfect, namesake of ABR’s very own Penelope Miller, squared off in an 8 furlong turf race. You can check out the replay here, but in the end Zipso Facto won the race by ½ length at 9-1 while Penelope Perfect just missed second by a neck.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in some not so good news, long-time rider and hall of fame jockey Gary Stevens received some very bad news this week as he now requires full knee replacement surgery. Good luck Mr. Stevens and I hope you have a quick recovery!

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were a couple of very impressive runs by a couple of fillies yesterday!

 

First at Arlington Park, Wayne Catalano’s Aurelia’s Belle stalked the early pace and won the Grade 3 Arlington Oaks by ¾ of a length with jockey Channing Hill aboard! Aurelia’s Belle was the class of the field as she was the only horse in the field with a great amount of graded stakes experience. She had a powerful stretch run and won at 6/5.

 

 

 

 

(Aurelia's Belle - photo by Four Footed Fotos) 

 

Later in the day Arlington Classic winner Istanford made her first trip out to California and took the field of three-year-old fillies wire-to-wire in the Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap at Del Mar. Breaking well from the gate, jockey Rafael Bejarano angled Istanford to the rail and pulled away in the stretch, winning by 2 ½ lengths at 10-1!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Photos surfaced the other day of Palace Malice and Princess of Sylmar getting “friendly” with each other from neighboring stalls. This prompted Debbi Martin to draw the following cartoon. Enjoy!