Santa Anita Handicap winner Einstein was sold on Monday to Frank Stronach. Mr. Stronach owns the bankrupted Magna, but also Adena Springs. This is where Einstein will be retired to my guess at the end of this year. The good news is he will stay with his trainer Helen Pitts-Blasi (sister in law to Scott Blasi, ass. to Steve Asmussen), and will be wearing Adena colors for the first time. This is also good news as his now former owners where recently sentenced to 20 years due to their part of not giving winnings to Phen Phen clients. Einstein and his former stablemate Curlin, I believe almost had liens put on them or they had liens put on them. I believe more Einstein then Curlin since he was co-owned with Jess Jackson.
Speaking of Jess, tomorrow a preview of Rachel's Woodward, the Pac Classic (featuring Einstein), the PA Derby, the Del Mar Derby and the Hopeful! Along with a mini preview of the Spinaway and Darley Debutante (formally the Del Mar Debutante), and a maiden race featuring Rule (who I've talked about before on the blog).
Showing posts with label horse sold. Show all posts
Showing posts with label horse sold. Show all posts
September 3, 2009
June 5, 2009
A time of reflection
As we are a little more then 24 hours away from the final leg of the Triple Crown, I thought I would look back on what has transpired in the past few months.
January: Midshipman is awarded the 2yo Champion Eclipse for the males and Stardom Bound is awarded the 2yo Champion Eclipse for the females. Old Fashioned is the early favorite to win the Derby, while Stardom Bound's new owners are thinking of running her in the Derby instead of the Oaks.
March: Old Fashioned makes his 3yo debut in the Southwest (In Febuary), where he fights it out tooth and nail with Silver City. He wins, but looked very vernurable in the race. Meanwhile his stablemate Friesan Fire is tearing up Louisana. Stardom Bound is having trouble in California winning two races, but they where not pretty. Meanwhile she has been overtaken by Justwhistledixie who is running in Florida and Rachel Alexandra in the Mid-West. By this time, Midshipman has been declared out of the Triple Crown due to injury. His two new stablemates Desert Party and Regal Ransom would end up repasenting Godolphin in the Derby. By the end of the month, Old Fashioned would no longer be undefted as Win Willy upset him in the Rebel.
April: After the AR Derby, Old Fashioned would be retired due to injury. General Quarters' magic carpet ride continued with a win in the G1 Blue Grass Stakes. Stardom Bound lost in the G1 Ashland, got a jockey change, but it ended up not being nessarry as she is out until at least the fall. For the second year in a row, niether of the Champion 2yo's would race in either the Derby or Oaks. Rachel Alexandra would solidfy herself as the one to beat in the Oaks by winning the Fantasy. Meanwhile, New Mexico racing gets some interest as Advice who ran in the Sunland Derby, won the Coolmore Lexington. Also all eyes would be on two horses Quality Road and I Want Revenge, as these two where going to be neck and neck as for favoritism in the Derby.
However, before the race would be run, both Quality Road and I Want Revenge would be out of the race.
May: After an amazing 20 length proformance in the Oaks, many wondered how Rachel Alexandra would have done in the Derby? It really wasn't a fair compersion as her biggest compition, Justwhistledixie, was scratched due to an injury. However, her owner Dolphus Morrison was percendant in saying that she would not have run in the Derby. "Stallions should run with Stallions and Fillies with fillies", is how he put it.
STALLION DERBY? Well Mr. Morrison's theroy was proven wrong when Mine That Bird shocked the world at 50-1 when he had a ground saving stretch run to win the Derby by about 6 1/2 lengths, and run the fastest final quarter since Secretariat. Why was this theroy wrong? That's because Mine That Bird is a gelding!
Many thorough that he was just a fluke (including this blogger), and that the Derby favorite Friesan Fire just ran a bad race. Fresh horses could beat him in the Preakness, I thought. But what happend next changed the complextion of this year's Triple Crown.
Rachel Alexandra was sold for approx. 10 million dollar (the exact price is not known), to Jess Jackson who campagined Curlin to two Horse of the Year titles. This ment a change in trainer, Hal Wiggins out, Steve Asmussen in. Many (including myself), where really not happy with the change in trainers. However, since Steve is Mr. Jackson's main man, it's not suprise that it did happen. However, this left a small problem, who was going to ride her in the Preakness. This was a problem as her jockey Calvin Borel, is not the regular riding for Asmussen. He was also the rider of Mine That Bird in the Derby.
In the end, Borel kept the mount on Rachel, and Mike Smith picked up the mount on Mine. The Preakness turned out to be just what horse racing needed. The filly winning and the Derby winner showing that he was not a fluke and being a game second. It was also great news for Mine's sire Birdstone and Rachel's sire Medaglia d'Oro, both of their first crops are currently 3yo's.
June: Rachel will sit out the Belmont and Mine That Bird, with Calvin Borel back on, will try to complete the Triple Crown in style. If he wins, Borel will become only the second person to win the TC with two horses in the same year. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas was the first when he won the 1995 Derby and Belmont with Thunder Gulch and that year's Preakness with Timber Country.
I hope that everyone enjoys tomarrow's Belmont, I will be back either Sunday or Monday with full recap of the Belmont.
Meanwhile Medaglia d'Oro is moving to Darley! Link
January: Midshipman is awarded the 2yo Champion Eclipse for the males and Stardom Bound is awarded the 2yo Champion Eclipse for the females. Old Fashioned is the early favorite to win the Derby, while Stardom Bound's new owners are thinking of running her in the Derby instead of the Oaks.
March: Old Fashioned makes his 3yo debut in the Southwest (In Febuary), where he fights it out tooth and nail with Silver City. He wins, but looked very vernurable in the race. Meanwhile his stablemate Friesan Fire is tearing up Louisana. Stardom Bound is having trouble in California winning two races, but they where not pretty. Meanwhile she has been overtaken by Justwhistledixie who is running in Florida and Rachel Alexandra in the Mid-West. By this time, Midshipman has been declared out of the Triple Crown due to injury. His two new stablemates Desert Party and Regal Ransom would end up repasenting Godolphin in the Derby. By the end of the month, Old Fashioned would no longer be undefted as Win Willy upset him in the Rebel.
April: After the AR Derby, Old Fashioned would be retired due to injury. General Quarters' magic carpet ride continued with a win in the G1 Blue Grass Stakes. Stardom Bound lost in the G1 Ashland, got a jockey change, but it ended up not being nessarry as she is out until at least the fall. For the second year in a row, niether of the Champion 2yo's would race in either the Derby or Oaks. Rachel Alexandra would solidfy herself as the one to beat in the Oaks by winning the Fantasy. Meanwhile, New Mexico racing gets some interest as Advice who ran in the Sunland Derby, won the Coolmore Lexington. Also all eyes would be on two horses Quality Road and I Want Revenge, as these two where going to be neck and neck as for favoritism in the Derby.
However, before the race would be run, both Quality Road and I Want Revenge would be out of the race.
May: After an amazing 20 length proformance in the Oaks, many wondered how Rachel Alexandra would have done in the Derby? It really wasn't a fair compersion as her biggest compition, Justwhistledixie, was scratched due to an injury. However, her owner Dolphus Morrison was percendant in saying that she would not have run in the Derby. "Stallions should run with Stallions and Fillies with fillies", is how he put it.
STALLION DERBY? Well Mr. Morrison's theroy was proven wrong when Mine That Bird shocked the world at 50-1 when he had a ground saving stretch run to win the Derby by about 6 1/2 lengths, and run the fastest final quarter since Secretariat. Why was this theroy wrong? That's because Mine That Bird is a gelding!
Many thorough that he was just a fluke (including this blogger), and that the Derby favorite Friesan Fire just ran a bad race. Fresh horses could beat him in the Preakness, I thought. But what happend next changed the complextion of this year's Triple Crown.
Rachel Alexandra was sold for approx. 10 million dollar (the exact price is not known), to Jess Jackson who campagined Curlin to two Horse of the Year titles. This ment a change in trainer, Hal Wiggins out, Steve Asmussen in. Many (including myself), where really not happy with the change in trainers. However, since Steve is Mr. Jackson's main man, it's not suprise that it did happen. However, this left a small problem, who was going to ride her in the Preakness. This was a problem as her jockey Calvin Borel, is not the regular riding for Asmussen. He was also the rider of Mine That Bird in the Derby.
In the end, Borel kept the mount on Rachel, and Mike Smith picked up the mount on Mine. The Preakness turned out to be just what horse racing needed. The filly winning and the Derby winner showing that he was not a fluke and being a game second. It was also great news for Mine's sire Birdstone and Rachel's sire Medaglia d'Oro, both of their first crops are currently 3yo's.
June: Rachel will sit out the Belmont and Mine That Bird, with Calvin Borel back on, will try to complete the Triple Crown in style. If he wins, Borel will become only the second person to win the TC with two horses in the same year. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas was the first when he won the 1995 Derby and Belmont with Thunder Gulch and that year's Preakness with Timber Country.
I hope that everyone enjoys tomarrow's Belmont, I will be back either Sunday or Monday with full recap of the Belmont.
Meanwhile Medaglia d'Oro is moving to Darley! Link
May 6, 2009
Looks like we have a very interesting Preakness
Rachel Alexandra has been sold to....
Not Darley
Not Coolmore
Not IEAH
Not Fox Hill Farm
Not Zayat Stable
She got sold to Jess Jackson and Harold T. McCormick (whose he?), link. I really like Jess Jackson who unlike his partners that are better known as Midnight Cry, he seems to be clean. Although her what appears to be new trainer Steve Asmussen has some drug positives, he has sucess with 3yo fillies winning the KY Oaks in 2005 with Summerly. I feel bad about Hal Wiggins if he does lose Rach.
And oh yeah, she could show up for the Preakness*, which would put Calvin Borel in a predictment. Does he stay on Mine That Bird, or does he jump to what he says, "the best horse I've ever been on". Lets see Derby winner, Oaks winner, Derby winner, Oaks winner. Well he has a little bit over a week to figure that out. If he does jump off Mine, look for Canadian Chantal Sutherland (Who has ridden him before and a star in Animal Planet's Jockeys) to ride him. She would try to become only the second female to win a TC race (after Julie Krone) and possibly pass Emma-Jayne Wilson as the top female jock in Canada. Although apprently other jockeys agents have conntacted Mine's connections, just in case Rach does go to Preakness and Cal rides her.
This will be a fun week and half leading up to the second leg of the Triple Crown.
* I should note that I rather see her in the Belmont then the Preakness. A. she's be a fresher horse, b. I might be going to the Belmont. But she's not my horse, but I do hope they make the best decideson for her.
Not Darley
Not Coolmore
Not IEAH
Not Fox Hill Farm
Not Zayat Stable
She got sold to Jess Jackson and Harold T. McCormick (whose he?), link. I really like Jess Jackson who unlike his partners that are better known as Midnight Cry, he seems to be clean. Although her what appears to be new trainer Steve Asmussen has some drug positives, he has sucess with 3yo fillies winning the KY Oaks in 2005 with Summerly. I feel bad about Hal Wiggins if he does lose Rach.
And oh yeah, she could show up for the Preakness*, which would put Calvin Borel in a predictment. Does he stay on Mine That Bird, or does he jump to what he says, "the best horse I've ever been on". Lets see Derby winner, Oaks winner, Derby winner, Oaks winner. Well he has a little bit over a week to figure that out. If he does jump off Mine, look for Canadian Chantal Sutherland (Who has ridden him before and a star in Animal Planet's Jockeys) to ride him. She would try to become only the second female to win a TC race (after Julie Krone) and possibly pass Emma-Jayne Wilson as the top female jock in Canada. Although apprently other jockeys agents have conntacted Mine's connections, just in case Rach does go to Preakness and Cal rides her.
This will be a fun week and half leading up to the second leg of the Triple Crown.
* I should note that I rather see her in the Belmont then the Preakness. A. she's be a fresher horse, b. I might be going to the Belmont. But she's not my horse, but I do hope they make the best decideson for her.
March 30, 2009
A DQ and an Quality Upset (Weekend Recap Part 2)
First off this part of the Weekend Recap will be different for the final time for a couple of weeks. Especially next week when you have the final Cal, NY and IL preps.
First off in the Swale S.: Big Drama crossed the line first, but was DQ'ed to second after bumping with This Ones For Phil. Custom of Carlos was third, and I had the trifecta in order yahoo!! No charts this week sorry!! By guess is that the Smile will be in Phil's future along with the King's Bishop. Look for Drama to make noice in the sprint divideson as well.
The FL Derby I also had the trifecta, but not in the right order. Quality Road upset Dunkirk to make himself one of the favorites for the Run for the Roses. What I liked about the race was that QR looked Dunkirk in the eye and ran by him. Do I think he'll win the Derby, no. But, this is an Elusive Quality foal we are talking about and they can defay everything. Nice job by Dunkirk for doing so well in his stakes debut, Theregoesjojo was third. Dunkirk will need help to get into the race, so I would look for him in the Preakness instead.
Next weekend is three major preps: Santa Anita Derby, Ill Derby and Wood Memorial. I also will have more races to preview.
One more thing before I leave for tonight, last week during the Lane's End S. it was announced that I Want Revenge was going to have half of his interest sold. Of course the first name to come to mind was IEAH. Well that rumor turned out to be true, he will stay with his current trainer though, which is a little suprising as one would think he would switch over to Rick Dutrow as he's based on the East Coast. Link
First off in the Swale S.: Big Drama crossed the line first, but was DQ'ed to second after bumping with This Ones For Phil. Custom of Carlos was third, and I had the trifecta in order yahoo!! No charts this week sorry!! By guess is that the Smile will be in Phil's future along with the King's Bishop. Look for Drama to make noice in the sprint divideson as well.
The FL Derby I also had the trifecta, but not in the right order. Quality Road upset Dunkirk to make himself one of the favorites for the Run for the Roses. What I liked about the race was that QR looked Dunkirk in the eye and ran by him. Do I think he'll win the Derby, no. But, this is an Elusive Quality foal we are talking about and they can defay everything. Nice job by Dunkirk for doing so well in his stakes debut, Theregoesjojo was third. Dunkirk will need help to get into the race, so I would look for him in the Preakness instead.
Next weekend is three major preps: Santa Anita Derby, Ill Derby and Wood Memorial. I also will have more races to preview.
One more thing before I leave for tonight, last week during the Lane's End S. it was announced that I Want Revenge was going to have half of his interest sold. Of course the first name to come to mind was IEAH. Well that rumor turned out to be true, he will stay with his current trainer though, which is a little suprising as one would think he would switch over to Rick Dutrow as he's based on the East Coast. Link
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