Can Casino Drive derail Big Brown's 'Crown' bid?
Nobutaka Tada was asked if there is a Japanese expression for trash- talking, and he smiled and said, "What is this - trash, trash ... trash what?"
Perhaps 150 yards away from where his boss' Japan-based mystery horse, Casino Drive, is stabled at Belmont, Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow soon would emerge from Barn 2 and laugh happily when asked how he rates Casino Drive's chances of spoiling Big Brown's quest to become the 12th Triple Crown winner in history.
Big Brown has been so dominant in his five career races against many of the same horses he'll face again in the June 7 Belmont that his looming showdown against the relatively unknown but highly touted Casino Drive already is starting to take on the feel of a match race. Everyone else is supposed to fight to merely stay in the TV frame by the end of the 1 1/2-mile race.
Casino Drive has been cast as Ali's Frazier, Borg's McEnroe, Russell's Celtics versus Wilt's 76ers. The new colt has run only two career races, both wins, but he turned in the same sort of scintillating performances that announced Big Brown's greatness at Saratoga last September and the Florida Derby this spring.
That explains why Casino Drive is seen as the only threat to stop Big Brown's sprint into immortality. But Dutrow doesn't see it.
"He has no chance of beating our horse. None," Dutrow said Wednesday. "I'll be running to the winner's circle when [Big Brown] hits the quarter pole."
For Dutrow, the boast was a step even further out on the limb than the one he took last Saturday after Big Brown's pullaway win in the Preakness. Back then, Dutrow was so flush with happiness that he giddily predicted that Casino Drive's Japanese fans who thought Godzilla was dead would find out at the Belmont, "He's not dead. He's here!"
Crowed Dutrow, "We've got a monster!"
"Godzilla?" Tada repeats now with a spark of recognition. He starts laughing and says, "He really said Godzilla? That's funny, that's very funny.
"It sounds like he likes talk, so let him talk. It's OK. We will see the result."
Tada is the racing manager for Global Equine Management Ltd., the group that bought Casino Drive in Kentucky and moved him to Tokyo to race. But he is too unstintingly polite to say anything as bold or as colorful as Dutrow. "It is not Japanese way," Tada explained.
He and the horse's owner, Hidetoshi Yamamoto, a gaming, slot machine and entertainment entrepreneur, are confident. They began pointing Casino Drive to the Belmont last summer because they believe there's magic in his bloodlines.
Casino Drive is out of the same mare as the last two Belmont winners, Jazil and Rags to Riches. He was born and bought in Kentucky but moved to Tokyo to race under leading trainer Kazuo Fujisawa. After numerous delays in getting him to the racetrack because of a knee injury as a 2-year-old, then some influenza outbreaks and quarantine issues, Casino Drive finally picked up his maiden win in his first career start in Kyoto earlier this year, routing the field by nearly 12 lengths.
Because it's not uncommon in Japan for horses to have fan clubs that number in the thousands, Casino Drive's potential was known even before he made his first start.
"It was a very strange thing, and I was not there, but people told me that a long time before the post, people were clapping, giving him a standing ovation," Tada said. "That was a really nice thing. The people knew if he was good, he's going to America. So it was like an encouragement to run fast."
Japanese racing is a big-time, sophisticated, lucrative business. But if Casino Drive were to win the Belmont, Tada says, "It would be like a Japanese team winning the major-league baseball championship."
There has been so much travel for Casino Drive and interruptions in his training that his connections were thrilled when he won the Peter Pan Stakes by 5 1/3 lengths at Belmont on May 10. The way he shot out of the final turn, splitting two horses, made them feel he has all the necessary traits: speed, stamina, a keen intelligence and self-assuredness in traffic. "So much speed," Tada emphasizes.
Late-coming speed, wire-to-wire speed, what?
"Everything," he shoots back.
Tada doesn't think Casino Drive's inexperience will be a problem in the Belmont, either, explaining, "[In Japan] training is much different from here. Here, more likely, horses work by themselves. But our trainer, Mr. Fujisawa, when it's serious work, they always work two or three horses together to fight each other. Then the horse knows how to fight when a horse is inside or outside him in the race."
Will it be enough? Will Casino Drive's bloodlines prevail in a race he seems born for? Or will Dutrow, who has risen from being homeless and sleeping in a tack barn at Aqueduct before he got his first horse to train there years ago, see his horse of a lifetime refuse to be stopped?
Will it matter that Big Brown's jockey, Kent Desormeaux, is familiar with Casino Drive after guiding him to that Peter Pan Stakes win for his old friends Tada and Fujisawa, for whom Desormeaux used to ride in Japan before moving to New York?
Will the intrigue ratchet up even more if Casino Drive's jockey for the Preakness turns out to be Edgar Prado? Dutrow unsuccessfully championed Prado to ride Big Brown earlier this year but criticized him this week for allegedly trying to box in Big Brown in the Preakness aboard eventual last-place finisher Riley Tucker.
Dutrow counters, "Well, I asked Kent how [Casino Drive] matches up with us. He said he doesn't."
"Big Brown is a great horse," Tada says, smiling serenely. "But every starter has a chance."
Copyright (c) 2008, Newsday Inc.
Preakness field grows to nine horses with two more additions
BALTIMORE - Recapturetheglory, fifth in the Kentucky Derby behind winner Big Brown, will run in the Preakness on May 17.
That should make the colt the only horse from the Derby that will challenge Big Brown.
"We're there to win," co-owner Ronnie Lamarque said Wednesday from New Orleans. "Big Brown is a bear but we're not going to run in it to run second.
"I'll look at all the other entrants. They don't scare me at all and I believe our horse definitely belongs and we feel like the Preakness is our kind of race."
Recapturethelglory jogged a mile and then galloped a mile Wednesday at Churchill Downs, where Big Brown also is training before leaving for Baltimore next week.
Lamarque and Louie Roussel II, Recapturetheglory's co-owner and trainer, won the 1988 Preakness with Risen Star, who finished third in the Derby.
Recapturetheglory will leave Louisville on Friday and arrive at Pimlico on Saturday. The Illinois Derby winner will be ridden by E.T. Baird in the Preakness.
Also headed to the Preakness is Racecar Rhapsody, fourth in the Lexington Stakes for trainer Ken McPeek. He'll be ridden by Robby Albarado, who won last year's Preakness aboard Curlin.
"We kind of feel like we might be running for second money with Big Brown being as impressive as he's been but you never know," McPeek said.
The Preakness field now stands at nine. Others still considering the race are Harlem Rocker, Riley Tucker and Macho Again.
Copyright (c) 2008 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Kentucky Derby Odds, Post Positions Announced
The pole positions for the Kentucky Derby 134 were selected Wednesday. The 2008 Kentucky Derby will take place Saturday at 5pm at Churchill Downs in Louisville.
The odds for the Derby has also been announced. Track linemaker Mike Battaglia pegged Big Brown as the 3-1 odds favorite, followed by Colonel John at 4-1 odds and Pyro the third choice at 6-1 odds. Big Brown, the odds-on favorite, has been placed at Post 20.
No horse has ever won the Derby from as far outside as Post 20.
The Kentucky Derby is the first of horse racing's famed Triple Crown, followed by the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes. The Preakness Stakes will take place on May 17 at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, while the Belmont Stakes will be on June 7 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.
The Kentucky Derby horse race caps the two-week Kentucky Derby Festival, which includes the Great Balloon Race, the Great Steamboat Race, the Pegasus Parade, the Derby Marathon and mini-Marathon.
For the full list of post positions, please look below:
Post Positions for Kentucky Derby 134
Post Horse Jockey
Trainer
1 Cool Coal Man Julian Leparoux
Nick Zito
2 Tale of Ekati Eibar Coa
Barclay Tagg
3 Anak Nakal Rafael Bejarano
Nick Zito
4 Court Vision Garrett Gomez
Bill Mott
5 Eight Belles Gabriel Saez
Larry Jones
6 Z Fortune Robby Albarado
Steve Asmussen
7 Big Truck Javier Castellano
Barclay Tagg
8 Visionaire Jose Lezcano
Micahel Matz
9 Pyro Shawn Bridgmohan
Steve Asmussen
10 Colonel John Corey Nakatani
Eoin Harty
11 Z Humor Rene Douglas
Bill Mott
12 Smooth Air Manoel Cruz
Bennie Stutts, Jr.
13 Bob Black Jack Richard Migliorie
James Kasparoff
14 Monba Ramon Dominguez
Todd Pletcher
15 Adriano Edgar Prado
Graham Motion
16 Denis of Cork Calvin Borel
David Carol
17 Cowboy Cal John Velazquez
Todd Pletcher
18 Recapturetheglory E.T. Baird
Louie Roussel III
19 Gayego Mike Smith
Paulo Lobo
20 Big Brown Kent Desormeaux
Rick Dutrow
Copyright 2008, TransWorldNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved
War Pass injured and out of Kentucky Derby
One-time Kentucky Derby favorite War Pass will miss next month's Run for the Roses because of a leg injury likely to sideline the colt for a few months. Nick Zito often trains by instinct, and his instincts had been on high alert for the past week with War Pass. X-rays revealed a small fracture in the left front ankle. Zito said he believed the injury occurred in the April 5 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct. War Pass finished second behind Tale of Ekati after setting torrid early fractions.
War Pass, owned by Robert LaPenta will not make any of the Triple Crown races, but he could return for major horse races in the fall. War Pass had a smooth 2-year-old campaign, with four wins in four starts, including a victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile that brought him the Eclipse Award as champion 2-year-old male. Zito said LaPenta was disappointed but took the bad news as great as any owner could take it. Zito still has two candidates for the Kentucky Derby in Anak Nakal and Cool Coal Man. Julien Leparoux has picked up the mount on Cool Coal Man, replacing Kent Desormeaux, who has opted to ride Big Brown, the current 2008 Kentucky Derby favorite.
War Pass is my favorite three-year-old, and it's a sad day. However, the good news is that the colt has nothing life threatening and with time to heal, I hope and pray he'll be just fine. As far as his horse racing future, that's secondary now. If they want to go ahead and retire War Pass to stud, it wouldn't bother me as long as the horse has a good life. If the horse can return and race, that's fine to, but I'm not holding my breath.
(c) 2008 Sports Handicapping
THE JORDAN OF ... HORSE RACING
Horse racing is the sport of kings, its principles largely unchanged from its prehistoric origins. Over the years, a number of horses have made history (or disappeared into it) by a nose. But when it comes to crowning the greatest jockey of all time, it's Jerry Bailey by a furlong.
"I wanted to be a football player," Bailey says. "But my size [5'5'', 112 lbs.] kept me from doing that. I tried basketball and track and eventually wrestled, but I didn't have a passion for it."
Instead, he fell in love with thoroughbred racing while growing up on his family's farm in west Texas. When he wasn't riding at home, he would be at Sunland Park in New Mexico with his father James. It was here where he became enamored with the jockey life, which is much more glamorous than one would expect.
"I loved seeing the jockeys in their silks break from the gate at 40 miles an hour," Bailey says. "And when I saw them leaving the track with a blonde and a big car I thought, 'This is for me.'"
He got the girl. He got the car. He also got a whole lot more.
Bailey began riding professionally in 1974 at the age of 17 at Sunland Park, where he would quickly pick up the first of his 5,893 career wins. He would go on to win two races at each triple-crown track, and become the all-time Breeders' Cup wins leader with 15 victories. Add that to a record seven Eclipse Awards (given to the most outstanding jockey every season since 1971) and a trip to the Hall of Fame in 1995, and you've got quite the resume.
"It's kind of addictive to be on top," Bailey says. "Once I was there, I didn't want to let it go. The longer I was at the top, the harder I'd work."
This work ethic and drive set Bailey apart from his competition. When he wasn't scouring racing forms to learn the tendencies of every frontrunner and longshot, he was studying film to learn -and exploit- the weaknesses of his fellow jockeys and their mounts.
"I tried to go above and beyond," he says. "I would study their habits -whether a horse is known to suddenly stop, whether a certain jockey rode the rail. Just little things that make a difference."
Then there's the schmoozing. One can't have a 32-year career racing thoroughbreds without the ability to sell himself.
"There's a lot of salesmanship involved in the sport," Bailey says. "Even though we have agents, it's not like we're signed to a team. It's still very much a freelance type of deal."
Horse owners know the value of a good jockey. In a sport that's defined by the photo finish, every advantage counts, a fact Bailey, one-half of the closest finish in Kentucky Derby history ("about 1/4 of an inch"), knows all too well. And while many spectators contend that the true athlete of this sport is the horse, the 50-year-old maintains that's not the case -entirely.
"It's probably about 90% the horse and 10% the jockey," Bailey says in defense of his craft. "A good jockey can't get a bad horse to the finish line first, but a bad jockey can get a good horse beat pretty quickly."
Now, two years retired, Bailey makes his home in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. with his wife Suzee and 15-year old son Justin. But he still remains close to the sport he fell in love with as a child, serving as a race analyst for ESPN and ABC throughout the year.
Copyright (c)2008 ESPN Internet Ventures
Curlin and Big Brown: Two Fabulous Performances
The $6 million Dubai World Cup, the world's richest race, was won by the great Curlin in the best performance by an American horse in that race's 13-ear history. Curlin demolished his 11 rivals, winning by 7 3/4 lengths and completed the 2000-meter race distance (about 1 1/4-miles) in the excellent time of 2:00.15 minutes.
It's hard to imagine Curlin being stronger and faster than he was last November when he won the Breeders' Cup. He looked every bit the "super horse" in the post parade; long, wide, muscular & confident. He ran like "a monster," the name the International Press now affectionately calls him. His victory margin could just as easily been 20 lengths. I'm sure Robby Albarado, his jockey, had strict instructions not to exert him if he had a comfortable lead at the 200 meter mark (approx the 1/8 pole in America). and he didn't.
Curlin was made the 2-5 favorite here in the States and treated the Fans at Dubai's Nad Al Sheba racecourse to a performance worthy of the world's best horse in training. I loved the understated quote by Albarado when asked to comment on Curlin's sensational performance... "He's an amazing horse. I was just a passenger."
Curlin is trained by Steve Asmussen who flew into Dubai on Friday to saddle the big chestnut colt. In winning the Dubai World Cup, Curlin became the fourth horse to win that race and the Breeders' Cup Classic the previous year. The others were Cigar, Pleasantly Perfect, and Invasor. His victory pushed his lifetime earnings to $8.8 million and into third place on the all time North American money list behind Cigar ($9.9M) and Skip Away ($9.6).
The other impressive performance on Saturday was Big Brown winning the Florida Derby. Although he is a lightly raced 3-year-old and has run "greenly" in two of three lifetime starts, his raw talent has overwhelmed the competition. He won his first race by 11 lengths, his second by almost 13 and the Florida Derby by a widening five lengths. He has yet to be seriously tested.
Richard Dutrow, Big Brown's trainer, instructed Kent Desormeaux to go for the lead in the Florida Derby despite his number 12 post. This strategy was quite surprising, considering the 1 1/8-mile distance at Gulfstream Park requires the starting gate to be positioned very close to the first turn causing the outside horses to run wide and seriously compromising their chances to win. In fact, no horse with a post greater than 8 has won at Gulfstream this year going a mile and an eighth Yet Big Brown and Desormeaux easily made the lead from the outside and effortlessly set blistering fractions of 22 3/5, 45 4/5, 1:10 and finished off in an eye popping 1:48 flat.
His Beyer speed figure earned for this race will probably be 106 or 107 which will make him one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby. Although I'm still an Elysium Fields fan because he did get bumped hard in the Florida Derby, no 3-year-old appears to be as fast as Big Brown at this point in the Kentucky Derby chase. Big Brown will definitely be fun to watch.
Thoroughbred horse racing is fortunate to have these two superb runners. Curlin is a superstar; he didn't have to go to Dubai to prove anything. The fact that he traveled 8,000 miles to compete on a strange track yet won so impressively, proves he is one of the best older horses in the world. Big Brown's career is just beginning. His Florida Derby score proves he is a very talented 3-year-old. Can he win at the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby distance? Who knows, but I wish him well in the Triple Crown races.
Please remember to always gamble responsibly.
Copyright (c) 2008 TriCitiesSports.com. All rights reserved
Triple Crown facts: Yastrzemski's '67 feat remains unmatched
Carl Yastrzemski didn't know he made history until he read about it in the newspaper the next day.
The son of a Long Island potato farmer was too wrapped up in the tight 1967 pennant race, strange territory for a Red Sox team that finished ninth in the AL the previous two seasons.
So when he turned to an inside page of his Monday paper - the headline about Boston's first pennant in 21 years was on Page 1 - he saw the news: Yaz wins Triple Crown.
"I had no reaction," he says now, 40 years later. "I was ecstatic about the World Series and the pennant."
With each passing season, the scope of his accomplishment grows. Through those 40 years not one player has combined the power and productivity to match his feat - leading the league in homers, RBIs and batting average.
Alex Rodriguez has topped the AL in all three categories, but never in the same year. The same with Barry Bonds in the NL. David Ortiz was first in the AL in homers and RBIs two seasons ago, but hit just .287.
"The combination of all three, it's hard to do," Rodriguez said. "Usually, guys that are thumpers for power hit .260, .270. Usually guys that are .330, .340, those guys hit 10 or 12 home runs."
Last season, A-Rod won the AL home run and RBI titles but had no shot at the batting title, won by Magglio Ordonez.
Only 10 players have won the Triple Crown. Ted Williams and Rogers Hornsby did it twice. Mickey Mantle won it in 1956 and Frank Robinson in 1966.
Willie Mays? Hank Aaron? Never.
Babe Ruth? Close. He led the AL in batting average and homers in 1924 but was second in RBIs with 121, eight behind Goose Goslin.
How about the minor league infielder who switched to left field to replace Williams but who hit only .266 as a rookie in 1961 before making the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1989?
That's Yaz.
And he's proud of what he did.
"Oh, without a doubt. Forty years is a long time," he said. "If we didn't have that intense pennant race and I thought about winning the Triple Crown, I probably wouldn't have won it. When you think about hitting a home run, you usually don't do it."
Over the last 44 games, the Red Sox were never more than 1 1/2 games ahead or behind.
Baseball is a different game today from the one in 1967. There are 30 teams instead of 20. The designated hitter adds a batter to the lineup, often a slugger. Strike zones were larger, favoring batters like Yastrzemski, who could hit a variety of pitches.
The mound was higher, making pitchers more dominant but not affecting Yastrzemski as much because he was a good hitter of fastballs thrown over the top.
"I could hit the high fastball," he said.
And he could do so much more. Besides the Triple Crown, he led the AL in runs, hits and total bases. He won a Gold Glove and made the Red Sox winners after eight straight seasons with losing records and poor attendance.
"He's still the best left fielder I've ever seen," said Ken Harrelson, a teammate in 1967 and now a Chicago White Sox broadcaster. "I call him 'The Renaissance Man' because he was definitely the renaissance of baseball in New England."
Yastrzemski hit .326 for his second batting crown, tied Harmon Killebrew of Minnesota with 44 homers - each connected in the next- to-last game but Killebrew walked 40 more times that season - and drove in 121 runs.
"I had no awareness whatsoever" of the Triple Crown, he said. "I was so focused on beating Minnesota those two games."
The Red Sox achieved "The Impossible Dream," the name given to their pennant quest, but lost the World Series in seven games to St. Louis.
That summer, Tom Werner arrived in Cambridge around Labor Day for his freshman year at Harvard. Now a Red Sox owner, he listened to the last two regular-season games on radio.
The Red Sox began that Saturday a game behind Minnesota then beat the Twins twice. But there was still a chance they would face a one- game playoff with Detroit. But the Tigers lost the second game of a doubleheader later that Sunday in Anaheim.
Yastrzemski went 7-for-8 in those two games.
"If there was one situation that you could pick anyone at anytime to bat for you, I would pick Yaz in '67," said Werner, who sneaked into one of the World Series games with his college roommate.
Harrelson had a much better view of the two games against Minnesota - from the on-deck circle as the cleanup hitter. Ten days after Tony Conigliaro was beaned on Aug. 18, Boston signed him following his release by the Kansas City Athletics.
"I played nine years in the big leagues," Harrelson said. "I've broadcast over 4,000 games. The best clutch hitter I've ever seen in my life is Yastrzemski. He was just phenomenal."
Rico Petrocelli played shortstop on the team that finished 40 games out of first place in 1965 and drew fewer than the 5,933 announced fans for its last game - and 100th loss. He was still there when 35,770 watched Yastrzemski in the finale two years later.
"His attitude every game was just like a football linebacker trying to knock the quarterback down," Petrocelli said. "That's the type of aggressiveness he had. He swung hard and he ran the bases hard, just incredible all year long."
"Actually, for him that year it ought to be a quadruple crown," said Mike Andrews, a rookie second baseman in 1967. "His defense should have been rated in there somehow."
In the final game, Boston trailed 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth. Then Yastrzemski came to the plate with the bases loaded and tied the game with a single to center. The Red Sox won 5-2.
The game ended when shortstop Rico Petrocelli caught Rich Rollins popup to clinch the pennant.
"Without Yaz," Petrocelli said, "there's no way we could have won it."
Yet it was Jim Lonborg, who had pitched a complete game, whom the fans surrounded and lifted off the Fenway Park turf - a burial ground of Red Sox hopes for so many seasons.
Yastrzemski left the field with a Triple Crown he didn't know he'd won.
"We would play bridge together during road trips that summer. I never even talked about hitting with Yaz," Lonborg said.
Yastrzemski seemed immune to pressure.
"He won the Triple Crown when the heat was on," Harrelson said. "He did it in the midst of probably the greatest pennant race in the history of the game. That'll tell you everything you have to know about him."
Yastrzemski had hit just .278 with 16 homers in 1966, but the following winter he worked out daily under Gene Berde, "a tough Hungarian," he said. "The first time I worked out with him he said, "You call yourself an athlete?"
But what could Yaz do? He had spent previous offseasons finishing up his degree work at Salem State and working out when he could.
"Now it's different. Players don't need jobs," Yastrzemski said. "When I won my first batting title in '63, I had to hold out in '64. Mike Higgins was the general manager. He said, 'Frank Malzone is the highest paid player. You can't get more than him.' I said, 'Well, give him a raise,"'
Copyright ©2008 ...
|
