Month: April 2021

Watson Wins Trainers’ Championship

Doug Watson earned his seventh UAE trainers' championship at Al Ain Racecourse on Friday evening, claiming the victory with 40 wins-one more than three-time champion Ernst Oertel, despite his yard being compromised by a COVID outbreak early in the season. Watson now stands alone as the trainer to have won the most UAE training titles; he was previously tied with Satish Seemar on six.

“We have such a great team at home, both the owners and the staff,” Watson said. “They have been fantastic and everyone works seven days a week and we went through the COVID situation and thankfully everyone's okay from that and things have gone well [since]. It was tough right down to the wire.”

Highlights for Watson's Red Stables for the season included two wins on Super Saturday: Midnight Sands (Speightstown) in the G3 Burj Nahaar and Canvassed (Ire) (Shamardal) in the G3 Mahaab Al Shimaal.

“I just really want to thank our team and especially Dion McFadden and all of the people who helped saddle our horses when we couldn't. We missed two weeks with COVID and then weren't able to attend the races the third week when our horses could finally run. None of us could go, but we got a few wins there and one day we even had 19 horses running up the [Jebel Ali Racecourse] hill. It was a great team effort.”

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O’Neill: Everything Set For Hot Rod Charlie, Except Derby Jockey

Doug O'Neill has a Kentucky Derby itinerary all mapped out for Hot Rod Charlie, save for one detail: no jockey.

That will work itself after Joel Rosario, who rode Hot Rod Charlie to an impressive two-length victory in the Louisiana Derby on March 20, pilots San Vicente and Rebel winner Concert Tour for Bob Baffert in Saturday's Arkansas Derby.

“If all goes well, our horse will breeze at Santa Anita every Saturday until the final one (on May 1),” said O'Neill, who steadfastly maintains an upbeat countenance. “He's booked to fly to Kentucky the Sunday before (April 25).

“We have no jockey right now but Rosario is supposed to let us know after the Arkansas Derby.”

O'Neill will be seeking to capture the Run for the Roses for the third time, having won it in 2012 with I'll Have Another and 2016 with Nyquist, both of whom were based at Santa Anita. Baffert has won the world's most famous race six times and the Triple Crown twice, in 2015 with American Pharoah and in 2018 with Justify.

Both call Santa Anita home.

“I think it's the weather,” O'Neill said when asked why horses based at The Great Race Place have had so much success at Churchill Downs. “Being able to train daily is huge, and you have to have a great team, too.

“But the weather here gives us a huge edge.”

Team O'Neill got a welcome taste of live action at Santa Anita last weekend when a limited number of fans were permitted to attend the races for the first time in more than a year, with the pandemic hopefully on the wane.

“It was great,” he said, “just the energy in the air. There's nothing better than racing and winning when there's good energy coming from the fans.

“It's great to have people back, so let's keep it going.”

The post O’Neill: Everything Set For Hot Rod Charlie, Except Derby Jockey appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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New Dunlap Novel to Benefit Square Peg

Lifelong Thoroughbred Owner and Non-Profit Founder Joell Dunlap released her first novel “A Damn Fine Hand”–A Story of Women Riding for Their Lives–as an eBook on Gumroad. Dunlap is the co-founder and executive director of the Square Peg Foundation. All proceeds for book sales benefit Square Peg Foundation, a 501(c3) charity accredited by the Thoroughbred AfterCare Alliance.

“Riding a racehorse is a thrill that changed my life,” Dunlap said. “It's the stuff of dreams. I wanted to be able to take the reader along for that ride. What started as a short story swelled

into an examination how humans project our hopes and dreams onto horses–and how the animals bear that burden with breathtaking grace.”

For more information or to order a copy, click here.

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