PREPARE FOR THE N.Y. ... EMBRACE?Byline: KEVIN MODESTI HORSE RACING horse racing, trials of speed involving two or more horses. It includes races among harnessed horses with one of two particular gaits, among saddled Thoroughbreds (or, less frequently, quarterhorses) on a flat track, or among saddled horses over a turf course with ARCADIA - As Santa Anita Santa Anita may refer to:
n. 1. A plot subordinate to the main plot of a literary work or film. Also called counterplot, underplot. 2. A subdivision of a plot of land, especially a plot used for experimental purposes. . Wait a While, the leading grass-course specialist among the nation's 3-year-old fillies, will try touse the $400,000 Yellow Ribbon Stakes The Yellow Ribbon Stakes is a Grade I race for thoroughbred fillies and mares aged three-years-old and upwards. It is raced during the Oak Tree Racing Association meeting at Santa Anita Park in late September / early October. on Saturday as a springboard to the $2 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Nov. 4 at Churchill Downs Churchill Downs, Ky.: see Louisville. in Louisville, Ky. This is news: The decision by trainer Todd Pletcher Todd Pletcher (born June 26, 1967, Dallas, Texas) is a leading American thoroughbred horse trainer. He won three consecutive Eclipse Awards as outstanding Trainer of the Year, while topping the leader board in purse earnings in 2004, 2005, and 2006. to send Wait a While back to California, where she romped in the American Oaks at Hollywood Park in July, marks the first time in memory that a New York-based barn has shipped a horse West for a Breeders' Cup prep. And it appears to be only the front edge of a Pletcher assault on California, the top U.S. trainer having announced this month that he plans to have astring of about 30 horses at the winter Hollywood Park and Santa Anita meets. This, too, is big: It's at least a couple of decades since the good old days when New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of barns routinely wintered in California. Explaining the winter move in the Daily Racing Form The Daily Racing Form, LLC (DRF) is a broadsheet newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of race horses as a statistical service for bettors on horse racing in the United States. , Pletcher said he and prominent owner Michael Tabor want to try Hollywood Park's new synthetic main track, which is easing concerns about ``how safe the surfaces are out there.'' To Californians, who feel more and more isolated from the rest of the racing nation as the state's harder dirt tracks are shunned, Pletcher's arrival feels less like an invasion than an embrace. ``He's the most powerful trainer in the country right now. For him to send those kinds of horses out here, it's very good for racing in California,'' said Tom Knust, the former Santa Anita and Del Mar executive who is the agent for jockeys Corey Nakatani and Patrick Valenzuela. ``Maybe others will follow.'' Rooting for Pletcher, the reigning Eclipse Award trainer whose $20.1 million in purses this season are 2 1/2 times his closest pursuer, won't be easy for trainers here and for fans betting against him. But that may be exactly what Californians should do, because if Pletcher makes hay, other Easterners will notice. Which could mean more horses, bigger fields, better betting. On Saturday, the gray Wait a While and jockey Garrett Gomez will start from the far outside post in a field of nine fillies and mares in the Yellow Ribbon, the fourth race on a card that includes the $250,000 Clement L. Hirsch Memorial Turf Championship (a prep for the Breeders' Cup Turf The Breeders' Cup Turf is a Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race on turf for three-year-olds and up. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup. The race's current title sponsor is John Deere. ) as the fifth and the $250,000 Oak Leaf Stakes The Oak Leaf Stakes is a race for thoroughbred horses restricted to two-year-old fillies and thus is a major prep race for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies. The Grade I race is held at a distance of one and one-sixteenth miles on the dirt track at Santa Anita Park's Oak Tree (a prep for the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies The Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies is a 1 1/16-mile thoroughbred horse race on dirt (although the distance has varied, depending on the configuration of the host track) for two-year-old fillies run annually since 1984 at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part ) as the ninth. After winning the Lake Placid Stakes at Saratoga by 4 3/4 lengths last time out, Wait a While should be a heavy favorite over Dancing Edie, Live Life and Three Degrees. If Wait a While does well enough in Saturday's 1 1/4-mile Yellow Ribbon to go on to the 1 3/8 -mile Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, do we West Coast partisans count the New York horse who prepped in California as a New York horse or a California horse? Let's wait until after the Breeders' Cup race. If she won, she's a California horse. As with the Triple Crown, it's fun to speculate on whether the West or East holds the stronger hand going into the Breeders' Cup. This year, it's the typical pattern, with New York dominating the contender lists. For Left Coasters who have followed this Breeders' Cup trend, it has also been a source of pride to note how California-prepped horses have outperformed New York-prepped horses pound-for-pound. In the 22 Breeders' Cups, horses who ran their previous race in New York and adjacent states have won 55 races but have been beaten as tote-board favorites 60 times. Horses who ran their previous race in California have accounted for 39 wins and only 12 beaten favorites. (Horses from other North American North American named after North America. North American blastomycosis see North American blastomycosis. North American cattle tick see boophilusannulatus. circuits and Europe have totaled 68 wins and 28 beaten favorites.) The pattern has held in the fiveprevious Breeders' Cups held at Churchill Downs: New York horses have 12 wins and 15 beaten-favorites, California 5and 0, all others 17 and 9. Pletcher said he chose the Yellow Ribbon for Wait a While because it is five weeks before the Breeders' Cup and promises firm turf, whereas Keeneland's Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup for 3-year-old fillies offers only a three-week gap and dicey weather. Pletcher, who has Ashado's Distaff victory and Speightstown's Sprint win in 2004 to show for 24 Breeders' Cup starters, will have lots of horses prepping in the East this year. But Wait a While's westward move may be more significant. Even if part of Pletcher's California state of mind is the not-so-flattering judgment that the quality of racing here is down and some purses can be stolen, fans can take heart that his horses' arrival will raise the level of the sport here. If other Eastern trainers get the same itch, because of faith in the new synthetic tracks or whatever, they could shift the game's geography in a very positive way. heymodesti(AT_SIGN)aol.com (818) 713-3616 CAPTION(S): box Box: OUT OF THE GATE - Kevin Modesti |
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