Ebor Festival: Baaeed seeks 10th straight win in Juddmonte International at York
Baaeed will enter uncharted territory as the world's top-rated racehorse bids to extend his unbeaten record to 10 at York's Ebor Festival on Wednesday.
Month: August 2022
Speaking Poker
When I first started playing poker it wasn’t the rules that freaked me out; I’m pretty smart, how hard can they be, I figured. Neither was it the strategy; I reckoned that I’d loose a bit, and before I knew it I’d be up to speed and on the ball. No, it was the terminology that got me; I had images of coming to the table and everyone immediately knowing that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, and feeling like an absolute idiot. For that reason, I want to briefly explain some of the most common terminology used in the game; so that no-one else will have to feel the way I did and won’t be held back by it.
Antes: An ante is used in all table games and is the money that each player must put into the pot in order to buy into the game. The ante is a set amount for the table and this will not change. The money is paid before the first cards are dealt; anyone who does not pay the ante will not be dealt in.
Big blinds and little blinds: Tournaments don’t have antes per se because everyone has already bought into the hand, so to speak, by buying into the tournament. The buy in of a tournament negates the need for an ante as the pot is already set. The big blind and little blind therefore is an alternative to the ante and involves one player on the table paying a sum equal to the minimum bet and another paying a smaller sum equal to half the minimum bet. The big blind is paid by the person in the second seats to the left of the dealer and the little blind is paid by the person sat directly to the left of the dealer. When there are 2 players left the dealer is the little blind.
Board: This refers to the community cards, the cards that all can see and use. There will not be a board in all games, only in Hold’em games such as
Flop: This is the name given to the first three community cards. These cards are turned all at one go.
Turn: This is the fourth community card. The Turn is flipped by itself and is followed by a betting round. This card is sometimes also referred to as the ‘fourth street’.
River: The River is the fifth, and final of the community cards to be flipped over. Once the River is flipped there is only one more betting round.
Showdown: This is the show and tell of the Caribbean Hold’em game. Following the final betting round after the River, all active players must show their hands; the best hand out of the 5 community cards and the 2 personal cards takes the pot.
These are just the very basics of Caribbean Hold’em terminology; you will find that once you are familiar with a few terms you will see them cropping up in other games too. One step at a time and you will be speaking the lingo before you know it.
Havnameltdown Proves Too Fast For Best Pal Foes
The 2-year-old colt Havnameltdown was just too quick for his nine rivals Sunday at Del Mar in the 52nd running of the $202,500 Best Pal Stakes, outfooting them in stakes record time of 1:10.22 for the six-furlong headliner at the seaside track north of San Diego, Calif.
A $200,000 purchase at a 2-year-old sale in Florida earlier in the year, the bay by the Lion Heart stallion Uncaptured made every pole a winner and finished up 2 1/2 lengths to the good in the Grade 3 test that is seen as the major prep for Del Mar's top juvenile race, the Grade 1, $300,000 Runhappy Del Mar Futurity on Sept. 11, the track's closing day.
Leading rider Juan Hernandez was aboard Havnameltdown – it was one of four scores on the day for the track's leading rider – and was met in the winner's circle afterwards by trainer Bob Baffert, who was capturing the Best Pal for the ninth time. Five of the conditioner's previous Best Pal winners have gone on to take the Del Mar Futurity, including 2-year-old champion Lookin At Lucky in 2009, who was owned by the same trio of owners who race Havnameltdown. The stakes win was Baffert's second of the current meet and his 149th overall at the seaside oval, the most (by far) of any trainer in track history.
Havnameltdown is now two-for-two in his brief career and with the $120,000 winner's share of the purse he's moved his current bankroll to $168,000.
Finishing second in the stakes was Muir Hut Stables' Agency, who had nearly six lengths on third finisher Man Child, owned by California Racing Partners, Ciaglia Racing or Pearson, et al.
As the 1-2 favorite in the Best Pal, Havnameltdown returned $3.00, $2.40 and $2.40 across the board. Agency paid $5.00 and $4.00, while Man Child returned $6.00 to show.
Havnameltdown's final time of 1:10.22 was just a shade better than the stakes record of 1:10.27 set by Instagrand in winning the 2018 edition of the race.
The track's Pick 6 Ticket Jackpot wager carried over for the fifth day in a row and fans coming out on Thursday for the next day of racing will start with a pool of $336,355 in the exotic bet. First post that day is 2 p.m.
JUAN HERNANDEZ (Havnameltdown, winner) – “I was outside and my plan was to stay second or third but he was real aggressive out of the gate. He wanted to go to the front so I just let him run and do his thing. At the quarter pole he was getting kind of lazy so I woke him up a bit and he picked it up really well and got to the wire.”
BOB BAFFERT (Havnameltdown, winner) — “He is built for speed if you look at him. He is very precocious looking; his sire was very fast. That will be his kind of distance; he has been solid and that was a good group of horses. He looked great in the paddock and has been training well… Happy we got the W.”
FRACTIONS: :21.74 :44.87 :57.35 1:10.22
The stakes win is the seventh of the meet for rider Hernandez, but his first in the Best Pal. He now has 22 stakes wins at Del Mar.
The stakes win is the second of the meet for trainer Baffert and his ninth in the Best Pal. He now has 149 stakes wins at Del Mar, the most by any trainer.
The winning owners are Mike Pegram of Scottsdale, AZ, Mr. Vernon, WA and Del Mar, CA; and Karl Watson and Paul Weitman, both of Tucson, AZ.
The post Havnameltdown Proves Too Fast For Best Pal Foes appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
Washington-Bred Slew’s Tiz Whiz Takes Longacres Mile
Slew's Tiz Whiz collared Papa's Golden Boy in the final strides and scored a 2 ¾-length victory in Sunday's 87th running of the $150,000 Longacres Mile at Emerald Downs in Auburn, Wash.
In winning the Northwest's most historic race, Slew's Tiz Whiz ran a mile in 1:34.46 and paid $8.80, $5, and $3.40. Jose Zunino authored a picture-perfect ride on the winner, saving ground virtually every step of the way to record his first Longacres Mile victory. Tom Wenzel, saddling his second Mile winner, is the winning trainer for owner K D Thoroughbreds, nom de course for Darlyne Krieg of Oak Harbor, Wash.
Slew's Tiz Whiz is the first Washington-bred since Stryker Phd in 2015 to win the Mile. The 4-year-old bay gelding by Slew's Tiznow–Ros's Girl was bred by Karl Krieg, Darlyne's husband, who passed from cancer in 2019.
Breaking from the No. 1 post-position, Slew's Tiz raced in mid-pack as Papa's Golden Boy led through fractions of :22.70, :45.17, and 1:08.97. Papa's Golden Boy led by three past mid-stretch, running seven furlongs in 1:21.56, but Slew's Tiz Whiz had begun inhaling horses into the stretch, sweeping past Top Executive in mid-stretch and then collaring Papa's Golden Boy for the track's top prize.
“We were a little lucky going into the first turn, but everything worked out great,” Zunino said. “He wanted to go at the quarter-pole, so I let him go, and he was the best.”
Slew's Tiz Whiz has now won three straight, scoring in a six-furlong allowance and the 6 ½-furlong Governor's Stakes, in which he also caught Papa's Golden Boy late to prevail.
“The allowance race was good and the last two races have been superb,” Wenzel said. “This horse is such an overachiever.”
Slew's Tiz Whiz earned $82,500 and is 6-1-1 in 13 career starts with earnings of $170,707.
Papa's Golden Boy, breaking from the No. 12 post under Kevin Radke, nearly carried his tremendous speed over a distance of ground for trainer Vince Gibson and owner Lusk Racing. The 6-year-old Washington-bred son of Harbor the Gold earned $30,000 and is 7-5-0 from 22 career starts with earnings of $201,096. Off at odds of 11 to 1, Papa's Golden Boy paid $11.20 and $7.80.
Five Star General, ridden by Leslie Mawing, rallied to finish third, 1 ½ lengths back of Papa's Golden Boy, and paid $7 to show. The 6-year-old full horse by Distorted Humor also made Longacres Mile history by joining Stryker Phd as the only horses to finish in the top three in three consecutive Miles.
Five Star General ran second to Anothertwistafate in 2020, third to Background in 2021, and third to Slew's Tiz Whiz in 2022.
Top Executive, a slight 3 to 1 betting favorite over Slew's Tiz Whiz, finished fourth under Evin Roman. The 2021 Emerald Downs Horse of the Meeting chased Papa's Golden Boy from second most of the way before weakening slightly in the stretch.
Background, bidding to become only the fourth back-to-back Mile winner, finished fifth, a neck back of Top Executive, while Southern California shipper Majestic Eagle finished sixth. Torpedo Away, Spittin Image, Unmachable, Kingmeister, Hard to Deny, and Huge Bigly completed the order of finish.
The Mile restored some sense of normalcy after wild upsets in the Washington Oaks, Emerald Distaff, and Muckleshoot Derby in which the $2 win prices were $45, $49, and $115.60. The $0.50 all stakes Pick 4 paid a track record $67,847.05 to one winning ticket.
NOTES: Total mutuel handle was $3,205,784 on a 10-race card–second largest in track history exceeded only by $3,250,016 on the 2011 Longacres Mile card. The largest handle in state history is $3,339,087 on Sept. 21, 1992, the final day in Longacres history. . .You're the Cause at $115.60 in the Muckleshoot Derby produced the second biggest $2 win price in Emerald Downs stakes history, topped only by No Giveaway's $122 windfall in the 2005 Longacres Mile. . .The $1 daily double from Zippin Sevenz ($49) to You're the Cause paid a track record $3,268.90. . .Complicate ($13.20) scored in the $40,000 John Parker Racing Purse, which pretty much was a Longacres Mile consolation race for 3-year-olds and up. Ridden by Jose Zunino, 4-year-old Complicate ran a mile in 1:35.77 for trainer Ken Person and owner Missed the Boat Stable. . . Red Noon Rising ($4.60) won the Mark Kaufman Memorial Purse honoring the longtime publicity director at Longacres who passed away in 1995 and whom the Emerald Downs' media center was named after. . .Alex Cruz, Kevin Radke, and Zunino rode two winners each Sunday. . .Tom Wenzel and Jeff Metz led trainers with two wins apiece. . .Live racing resumes Friday with first post 7 p.m. and features a $28,927 carryover in the $0.50 Pick 5.
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