PERFECT ENDING IN REACH GELDING'S AWARD BID ON THE LINE.Byline: Kevin Modesti Staff Writer ARCADIA - When a 4-year-old gelding gelding castrated male horse. named Perfect Drift Perfect Drift, (foaled April 29, 1999 in Kentucky) is an American thoroughbred gelding racehorse. He is sired by the leading stud,Dynaformer, out of the Naskra mare, Nice Gal. This makes Perfect Drift a half-brother to 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro. pops out of the Santa Anita Santa Anita may refer to:
n. Sports 1. A series of stalls with interconnected doors that open simultaneously at the beginning of a race. 2. and charges into the $4 million Breeders' Cup Classic The Breeders' Cup Classic is a Grade 1 Weight for Age thoroughbred horse race for 3 years old and older run at a distance of 1¼ miles (2012 m) on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup. on Saturday, he'll have more riding on him than the 116-pound form of Hollywood's favorite jockey. If Perfect Drift wins America's richest thoroughbred race, he might beat out the retired Mineshaft mine·shaft n. A vertical or sloping passageway made in the earth for finding or mining ore and ventilating underground excavations. Noun 1. for the Horse of the Year title and validate the Classic's reputation as the sport's maker of champions. ``I think he'd have to be Horse of the Year,'' jockey Gary Stevens said Monday, a couple of hours after Breeders' Cup week dawned. ``He's the only horse who beat Mineshaft. And Mineshaft's not here. How can they give it to him?'' Perfect Drift and Stevens might get an argument from any Mineshaft fans among the Horse of the Year voters. They also might get an argument from Classic runners Funny Cide, Medaglia d'Oro, Congaree and Ten Most Wanted and Distaff favorite Sightseek. Each of them has at least a slim shot at Horse of the Year if the results of the eight Breeders' Cup races break just right. But only Perfect Drift - perfect in four dirt-track starts this season, the last opponent to defeat Mineshaft and Congaree, and No. 1 in racing's college-sports-style media poll - can make a perfectly logical case to be Horse of the Year if he finishes first Saturday. A win might make him and his handlers racing stars at long last. Stevens needs no introduction, not this late in a Hall of Fame career that includes three Kentucky Derby victories, and certainly not after his well-reviewed acting debut in ``Seabiscuit.'' Trainer Murray Johnson, though, is a 42-year-old from Australia who works with his horses ``under the radar'' at the Trackside track·side n. The area near a track, especially a racetrack. training center, a 10-minute drive from Churchill Downs racetrack in Louisville, Ky., and said he needed the cash from Perfect Drift's victory over Mineshaft in Churchill's $750,000 Stephen Foster Handicap The Stephen Foster Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run in mid June at the end of the Churchill Downs Spring Meet in Louisville, Kentucky. The Stephen Foster Handicap is run on the dirt at a distance of one and one-eighth miles. to keep his business going. Breeder and owner Dr. William A. Reed of Kansas City is a heart surgeon and longtime campaigner of lesser horses who wasn't planning to enter Perfect Drift in Saturday's event, complaining in recent weeks that the Breeders' Cup entry-fee increase from $80,000 to $120,000 for the Classic was pricing the non-megamillionaire out of the game. And Perfect Drift himself is the kind of horse who walks into a party without turning heads. The son of Dynaformer is a gelding, and no gelding has won the Breeders' Cup Classic in 19 previous runnings (much as no gelding since 1929 had won the Kentucky Derby until Funny Cide did it in May). He hasn't won one of the sport's transcendent events - though he and Eddie Delahoussaye had a shot at the 2002 Kentucky Derby before traffic trouble kept him third to War Emblem. He's neither brilliantly fast nor a dramatic stretch-runner - instead he has a versatile style that adapts to the pace. Ten to 12 horses are expected to be entered Wednesday for the Classic, the 1 1/4-mile race that has sent seven winners in 19 runnings on to the Horse of the Year title. Jockey Pat Day jumped from Perfect Drift to Ten Most Wanted while Reed and Johnson were dithering Simulating more colors and shades in a palette. In a monochrome system that displays or prints only black and white, shades of grays can be simulated by creating varying patterns of black dots. This is how halftones are created in a monochrome printer. on whether to run at the Breeders' Cup. Stevens will become the third Hall of Famer to ride Perfect Drift. Reed sent Stevens DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. videos of all 17 of the gelding's races (nine of them victories). ``Quite a pick-up mount,'' Stevens concluded. Along with a victory and two defeats on turf courses, Perfect Drift has main-track victories this year in the Foster, Washington Park Handicap The Washington Park Handicap is a race for Thoroughbred horses. The race is open to horses age three and up who are willing to race the one and three-sixteenths mile distance. The race is held each year at Arlington Park, the successor of Washington Park. at Arlington Park, Kentucky Cup Classic at Turfway Park and Hawthorne Gold Cup at Hawthorne Park, all while ridden by Day. The Foster is the biggest of those. But it comes with a tiny asterisk. In that handicap, Perfect Drift was assigned 115 pounds, Mineshaft a race-high 123. Perfect Drift beat Mineshaft by a head. Did the eight pounds swing the outcome? ``I didn't feel that way. (Day) didn't feel that way,'' said Johnson, who plans to arrive at Santa Anita with Perfect Drift on Thursday. ``And I think our races since then have shown that we're legitimate. Now we're starting to give weight to other horses, and it doesn't seem to be affecting us.'' Johnson said he and Reed decided to come to the Breeders' Cup, after all because Perfect Drift ran so well in the Kentucky Cup Classic (beating Congaree by a length) and Hawthorne Gold Cup (outrunning Tenpins tenpins: see bowling. by 1 3/4) and has trained so well since. How could they pass up a shot at Horse of the Year, anyway? ``He's for real,'' Johnson said, ``and hopefully we can show everybody (Saturday).'' Kevin Modesti, (818) 713-3616 kevin.modesti(at)dailynews.com BREEDERS' CUP When/Where: Saturday, Santa Anita Park Santa Anita Park is a thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, USA. It is known for offering some of the prominent racing events in the United States during the autumn and in winter. Racing at Santa Anita began in 1934. . TV: Ch. 4, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. CAPTION(S): 3 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) If Perfect Drift (3) wins the Breeders' Cup Classic, he might beat out Mineshaft for Horse of the Year. Al Behrman/Associated Press (2) STEVENS (3) Perfect Drift (8) has a new jockey, Gary Stevens, for the Breeders' Cup Classic on Saturday. David Kohl/Associated Press Box: CROWNING ACHIEVEMENTS |
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