It's all about King Yeats and Queen's Plate preview

Well before I get to Yeats' history making proformance today at RA, here is Sunday's Queen's Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown. It's at a mile and a quarter (like the Derby) and is on Polytrack.

$1 Million Queen's Plate (Race 9, 5:36 p.m.), 3-Year-Olds Foaled in Canada, 1 1/4 Miles (All Weather)
PP. Horse, Jockey, Weight, Trainer, ML Odds
1. El Brujo (ON), E Wilson, 126, M Pierce, 15/1
2. Flip for the Coin (ON), E Ramsammy, 126, V Armata, 30/1
3. Active Duty (ON), C Fraser, 126, M E Casse, 20/1
4. Milwaukee Appeal (ON) (f), S Elliott, 121, S H Fairlie, 3/1
5. Mr. Foricos Two U (ON), M E Smith, 126, C Day Phillips, 15/1
6. Reservoir (ON), J McAleney, 126, J Carey, 20/1
7. Eye of the Leopard (ON), E R Da Silva, 126, M R Frostad, 7/2
8. Rapid Release (ON), J C Jones, 126, R L Attfield, 8/1
9. Bucephalus (ON), T Pizarro, 126, K Attard, 30/1
10. Stardust Ziggy (ON), J Baird, 126, L M Perkins, 20/1
11. Tasty Temptation (ON) (f), P Husbands, 121, M E Casse. 4/1
12. Shut It Down (ON), R A Baze, 126, L Richards, 20/1
13. Keino West (ON), G Olguin, 126, S Attard, 15/1
Equipment Changes: 9 - Bucephalus - Blinkers On (f): filly

Milwaukee Appeal will try to pull a Rachel Alexandra and sweep an Oaks/TC race double (of course Rach did hers in the KY Oaks and Preakness.), and she has a jockey who has won the Kentucky Derby (in matter of fact one of two in the race, the other being Mike Smith) on her in Stewart Elliott. She is also trying to become the first horse since Dancethruthedawn to sweep the Woodbine Oaks and Queen's Plate (in 2001). Other then her, only three other fillies have done it one of them being her mother Dance Smartly. But beware of the other filly Tasty Temptation, while she lost to Milwaukee Appeal, she was flying after a horrible break in the Woodbine Oaks, and actually had finished in front of Appeal in their race before that against Hooh Why. Plus her sire is red hot right now. Eye of the Leopard has the best chance to take it for the boys, the Plate winner hails from the same owner and trainer as Dancethruthedawn. He can also make for AP Indy who had a horrible TC with Friesan Fire and give his broodmare sire Smart Strike the sweep of taking North America's 2 most prestgious races as a broodmare sire. So my top three are Tasty Temptation, Milwaukee Appeal and Eye of the Leopard in that order.

Notebly missing is the 2 yo champions from last year and Square Eddie who would have been the favorite in the race. Well the 2yo champ filly is out for the year, Square Eddie is recovering from the injury that kept him out of the Derby and Preakness, and well Mine That Bird is ineligable due to him being a KY bred.

Now to our top story of the day, Yeats becoming a 4 time champion in the Ascot Gold Cup (Eng-G1). Instead of me telling you about it, I thought I would show it do you.



Congrats to all of his connections, especially to trainer Aidan O'Brian. While I doubt he'll come over for the BC Marathon (the lengthened this year, my guess is to entice more stayers like himself), it's nice to see an intact horse like himself, still in training at age 8 and at such a high level. The lone American in today's races did not due so well. Just two more days until the closing, and the big matchup of Australia vs US vs UAE/Europe/US (Takeover Target vs Cannonball vs Diabolical).

My little project

So orginally I was going to be doing some research on the Triple Crown winners and their relatives. Then I relised that in-breeding has happend and that would be a pain in the ***. So I went with plan B, and that is I'm doing a spreadsheet off one of my favorite horses offspring. Now a little bit of a background on this horse, he ran against the likes of Curlin, Street Sense and Rags to Riches, finishing 1st and 2nd (Street Sense), 2nd and 3rd (Curlin) and 4th (Rags to Riches) against them. He also defeated Teuflesburg, Sedgefield, First Defence and EZ Warrior. I'm talking about Hard Spun!

Here is what I've got so far:


It's still a work in progress and will take awhile to finish up. Also these are just the 2009 foals, I also have a section on the 2010 foals, but that won't become publically published until next year. If anyone knows of any Hard Spun foal that is not on this list as of right now, please leave a comment in this blog post. About every two weeks I'll post an updated spreadsheet, so stay tuned for details.

In other news:
Queen's Plate draw is on Thursday, Woodbine Oaks 1-2 Milwaukee Appeal and Tasty Temptation could go. MA will try to become the second filly from her sire Milwaukee Brew to run in the Queen's Plate (last year's runner up was also a MB filly, Ginger Brew), while TT will try to become her sire Medaglia d'Oro's second TC race winning filly in two months (Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness being the first). Three American based jockeys will come in for the Queen's Plate as California based Russell Baze (The World's Winningest Jockey) and Mike Smith (runner up in the Preakness on Mine That Bird), as well as New Jersey based Stewart Elliott (who will ride Milwaukee Appeal if she goes) are the invaders. I should note Baze and Elliott are orginally from Canada, however I believe Russell spent most of his life in Washington State.

Also Quality Road has been moved to Todd Pletcher's barn, link. While Rach is so ready for the Mother Goose, link.

Finally Lentantor (Dynaformer x La Ville Rouge by Carson City) had his first workout today, the younger brother of Barbaro and Nicanor went :38 for three furlongs at Fair Hill. My guess is we will see him in a 2yo race at Delaware (if he's ready) sometime later this year.