Tag: Zoe Cadman

Tamara Works At Santa Anita for BC Juvenile Fillies

Undefeated Tamara (Bolt d'Oro) worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 at Santa Anita Saturday morning in preparation for her next start in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies under Mike Smith, who has been aboard the two-year-old daughter of Beholder for each of her two wins.

In the work Tamara hooked up with some company, reportedly an unraced two-year-old colt, whom she outworked.

“I was actually kind of hoping to gain some company,” Smith told Zoe Cadman, “and it worked out great. If I hadn't, she's a pretty good work horse if you want her to be. But we were fortunate to catch a little company and she went really nice this morning. I gave them a five-length head start and she came up to them. I gave her a little breather around the turn and headed for home. I let her turn over to her right lead and I wanted to see if she was there, and boy she set me back in the seat, so all systems are go. She's not a tall horse, but she's long and she's very athletic and she really gets up under herself good. You could put a glass of water up on her back and turn her loose out there and she probably wouldn't spill half of it. She's just so smooth.”

Trainer Richard Mandella also pronounced himself pleased with the work.

“She can run,” said Mandella. “She's not a big horse, but when the time is needed, she rises to the occasion. She swells up. She's not tall, she's kind of stocky and stout and growing as we go along. She'll end up bigger than this, but she's big enough,” he concluded with a smile.

Mandella, of course, trained Beholder and Smith was the regular rider on Songbird, whom Beholder beat in her last-ever race in the 2016 Breeders' Cup Distaff. Smith was asked about the irony of that as Tamara's regular rider.

“I even rode her mother once,” said Smith, “but It's pretty cool. I guess it means I've been around for a little bit. It's kind of cool to see these young ones come up and look, she's got a long ways to go before she comes close to her mother, but she's certainly on the right track.”

As for the upcoming Breeders' Cup, Smith said, “I can't wait. I'm really looking forward to it, especially getting to ride a filly with the kind of talent she does. If all goes well, the sky's the limit for her.”

The post Tamara Works At Santa Anita for BC Juvenile Fillies appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Pat Day Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

Just a few days removed from his 70th birthday, Pat Day joined the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to talk his career, what he's been up to since retiring in 2005 and, most of all, the Breeders' Cup. Day rode Wild Again to victory in the inaugural GI Breeders' Cup Classic in 1984 and it was an historic win that helped turn the future Hall of Famer into one of the biggest stars in the sport. Day was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“What that race meant for my career was monumental,” Day said. “First of all, let me back up. In January of 84, that was when I came to Christ. I was a stone alcoholic and a drug addict and was still highly successful in the midst of that. On January 27th of 1984, I accepted Christ into my life and got set free from that addictive lifestyle. I recognized that God had blessed me with tremendous talent and ability and opportunities and I started treating that with the respect that it deserved. Subsequently, I had an incredible year capped by the victory with Wild Again in the inaugural Breeders' Cup. That helped secure my first of four Eclipse Awards. I don't know that you could put a price on just what that did for my career. It was tremendous and catapulted me to the next level. I started getting opportunities after that to participate in the major races all over the country and to ride some of the top choices in those races.

If the Wild Again win was Day's top Breeders' Cup moment, his loss to Sunday Silence aboard Easy Goer in the 1989 Classic was surely his worst.

“When they came off the turn, Easy Goer was slow to change leads,” Day said. “He finally did. When he did, he caught on and accelerated, but obviously it was too little, too late. There was just so much hanging in the balance. The Eclipse Award for top 3-year-old. Horse of the Year. There were some tremendous accolades that hung in the balance. That Breeders' Cup was hard and the second hardest pill to swallow with him would have been the Preakness. I think I rode a horrible race and I think that I cost him the race in the Preakness. Easy Goer was a great horse. The best I ever rode. I know the record doesn't reflect it but I still think he was better than Sunday Silence.”

Who was his toughest opponent?

“Day in and day out, the smartest, strongest rider I rode against on a regular basis was Jerry Bailey,” Day said. “He would draw up a game plan and he was able to implement that game plan just about every time.”

Who was the most competitive rider he ever went up against?

“With that subject, Angel Cordero's name always comes up,” he said. “We would laughingly say he could ride two or three horses in a race. Angel, I love you, man. He was an astute handicapper. And if he handicapped the race and he felt that you had the horse to beat, he was going to beat you. He felt like if he beat you he would win the race. He was very competitive.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by 1/ST Racing, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, WinStar Farm, the KTOB, XBTV and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley discussed Frankie Dettori's decision to postpone his retirement and focus on U.S. racing in 2024 and the GI Kentucky Derby. The team agreed that Dettori, who has been riding in top form this year, deserved at least one more year. Finley predicted he might decide to keep riding for two or three more years. They also reviewed last week's action which included a win by European shipper Mawj (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) in the GI Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup S. at Keeneland and the ultra-impressive win by City of Troy (Justify) in the G1 Dewhurst S. at Newmarket.

To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.

The post Pat Day Joins The TDN Writers’ Room Podcast appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Dr. Ryan Carpenter Gives Update on Echo Zulu Surgery

Veterinarian Ryan Carpenter told Zoe Cadman on this week's TDN Writers' Room that Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) continues to do well five days after surgery to repair broken sesamoids in her left front leg.

“The surgery went very well,” Carpenter told Cadman on her weekly segment, 1/ST Things 1/ST at Santa Anita. “We did a fetlock arthrodesis and we used a new plate called a distal femoral plate, which is an application from the human world to incorporate the pastern joint in our repair, because we were really worried about the integrity of the pastern joint and our biggest fear in these kinds of cases is that they subluxate their pastern in the weeks following surgery and that usually results in support-limb laminitis. So we're very proactive to address that problem in order to hedge our bets down the line.”

That said, Carpenter underscored that Echo Zulu still has a long way to go.

“We still have a long road ahead of us as. I've said before, these horses really aren't out of the woods for the next four to six weeks,” Dr. Carpenter said. “There's a lot that can go wrong. but we take each day by day and so far she's done really well, bearing equal weight, using her casted leg well so we're very encouraged initially in how things look and we'll keep our fingers crossed that we continue to have positive days. Every positive day is one day closer to a successful outcome.”

Cadman asked Carpenter what kind of patient Echo Zulu was.

“She has been awesome,” he said. “One of the things that I look for, honestly, is do they lie down and she has spent a lot of time lying down. Initially, she spent a lot of time lying down after surgery. She's up using her leg a lot more, so she's more comfortable, but she still lies down at night and sleeps and takes care of herself, and really when you're talking about these horses that develop laminitis, the best thing for a surgeon is a horse that lies down, because they unload their weight. They let the blood flow get to the feet and that's a real positive thing for us so hopefully she continues to do that in the coming weeks and that will bode well for us in the end.”

Cadman asked if there was any concern with her injuring herself trying to stand after lying down and Carpenter said that there was not.

“The accidents they have getting up are usually related to general anesthesia. So usually, these horses are asleep, and they're often uncoordinated when they get up. But if you look at a horse who stands up in the stall, it's actually a very slow, methodical process. They do it all the time. Horses lie down most of the time every day and they get up really well, and you watch them, and a lot of times, they'll protect a casted leg they'll do stuff to help themselves, and so the lying down in the stall, in the barn, is a good thing.”

The post Dr. Ryan Carpenter Gives Update on Echo Zulu Surgery appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Aron Wellman Joins the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast

 

It was a huge week for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and its President and Founder Aron Wellman. Over a 24-hour period, Eclipse swept the two Grade I stakes races run during Keeneland's Fall Stars Weekend. It began with a win by Candied (Candy Ride {Arg}) in the GI Alcibiades S. on Friday. Twenty-four hours later, 'TDN Rising Star' Locked (Gun Runner) came through with a determined win in the GI Breeders' Futurity. Both will now head to Santa Anita for the Breeders' Cup.

Eclipse couldn't quite pull off the trifecta when Anisette (GB) (Awtaad {Ire}) ran a game second in the GII Rodeo Drive S. at Santa Anita.

To talk about his Keeneland wins, his Breeders' Cup plans and the latest on Nest (Curlin), who did not run well in the GI Spinster S., Wellman was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland.

Wellman admitted that he wasn't overly confident with Candied. She was coming off a three-quarter length win in a maiden special weight race at Saratoga and would be facing the likes of 'TDN Rising Star' V V's Dream (Mitole), who won the GIII Pocahontas by 8 3/4 lengths, and the undefeated Grade I winner Brightwork (Outwork).

Aron Wellman Joins the TDN Writers' Room from Thoroughbred Daily News on Vimeo.

“I'll give (Trainer) Todd Pletcher, of course, the credit,” Wellman said. “Any time you train a filly to win her debut going six furlongs and then win a Grade I race after that with just that one start under her belt, well, that is just an epic achievement. I would say I was mildly surprised by the win. We were hoping to get valuable Grade One black type with her. We thought we would accomplish that, and anything beyond that would be cherry on top of the cake. She's a very gifted filly. She's done nothing wrong.”

While Candied was 4-1, Locked was sent off at 3-5, not surprising since he was coming out of a super maiden effort at Saratoga, where he got a 96 Beyer figure in a 7 1/4-length win. This time around, it wasn't easy. Locked was caught four to five wide on both turns and then he had to battle a determined The Wine Steward (Vino Rosso) in the stretch before edging clear to win by a half-length.

“In my handicapping, I didn't make him 3-5 by any stretch of the imagination,” Wellman said. “When the post positions came out, I didn't mind that he was drawn wide because he's such a big, long-striding, high-cruising speed type individual. I thought that if we could keep him in the clear, that would be okay. We just didn't want to be five wide going into the first turn and five or six wide around the far turn. But Jose (Ortiz) had to make some decisions during the course of this race. He was wide and chasing into a pretty soft pace and Jose pushed the button at the right time, which under normal circumstances probably would have been a little premature. But considering the slow fractions, knowing that it was the short stretch finish, I thought it was a really smart ride on Jose's part. It did concern me a little bit when he had so much momentum coming off the elbow of the turn and then didn't separate from The Wine Steward. I was very concerned inside the eighth-pole that The Wine Steward, who was an undefeated horse with three races, wasn't going to back down and he didn't. But you could tell that Locked was kind of reserving something in the tank.”

The one thing that didn't go right for Eclipse was Nest's race in the Spinster. She was fourth, beaten 11 1/4 lengths. In her prior start, the GI Personal Ensign, she finished third, losing by 4 1/4 lengths. Eclipse co-owns Nest with Mike Repole.

“Nest didn't have her best day on Sunday in the Spinster,” Wellman said. “So far as going to the Breeders' Cup, I think we're just going to have to evaluate her over the next 10 days to two weeks and see how she responds. Todd Pletcher is going to consolidate all of his Breeders Cup hopefuls at Keeneland, so she's already there, which is nice.”

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the 1/ST Racing, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, WinStar Farm, the KTOB, XBTV and West Point Thoroughbreds, the team of Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley took a look back at the dozens of major stakes races run over the weekend. Finley said that the win by Up to the Mark (Not This Time) in the GI Coolmore Turf Mile S. was the performance of the weekend. The team was also high on the win by 'TDN Rising Star' Muth (Good Magic) in the GI American Pharoah S. Repole's pronouncement that the owners need to take greater control of the sport was a major subject of discussion. The consensus was that it will be hard for Repole to pull this off, but that if anyone can do it it is him.

Click to either watch this podcast as a video or to listen to the audio.

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