Smarty Jones registers first winner
Once-beaten champion SMARTY JONES (Elusive Quality) got off the mark as a sire when his juvenile daughter La Equivocada romped as the even-money favorite in Friday's 5TH race at Camarero Race Track. Sprinting straight to the early lead, the Luis Adorno pupil steadily widened her margin while posting splits of :22 3/5 and :45 4/5 beneath Wilfredo Rohena. A chestnut like her sire, La Equivocada streaked across the wire a five-length winner in a final time of 1:04 3/5 for 5 1/2 fast-track furlongs.
Smarty Jones captured his first eight starts in commanding fashion, garnering a legion of fans as he traversed the Triple Crown trail. The John Servis trainee first burst upon the scene as a juvenile, when he triumphed by 7 3/4 lengths in his debut at Philadelphia Park and followed up with a 15-length demolition job in the state-bred Pennsylvania Nursery S.
In his sophomore bow in 2004, Smarty Jones stretched out to two turns for the Count Fleet S. at Aqueduct, and despite a stumble at the start, the dynamo still surged five lengths clear. Next he marched through Oaklawn Park's sophomore series, sweeping the Southwest S., Rebel S. and Arkansas Derby (G2). In the process, the term "Smarty party" was coined, soon to become a household word.
Smarty Jones lined up as the 4-1 favorite in the Kentucky Derby (G1), which was contested on a sloppy track in the wake of an afternoon deluge at Churchill Downs. Rocketing to the front turning into the stretch, Smarty Jones stormed home by 2 3/4 lengths to become the first undefeated horse to win the Run for the Roses since Seattle Slew in 1977. Also, for taking the Kentucky Derby, Rebel and Arkansas Derby, he earned a $5 million bonus presented by Oaklawn's owner Charles Cella.
Next time out in the Preakness S. (G1), Smarty Jones was even more impressive, galloping by a record 11 1/2-length margin in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. His ever-growing bandwagon hoped for a coronation in the Belmont S. (G1), but his fairy tale ended abruptly when he was caught in the waning yards by Birdstone and relegated to second. He retired with $7,613,155 in earnings from his sparkling eight-for-nine record, and was hailed as the champion three-year-old male.
Produced by the multiple stakes-winning I'll Get Along (Smile), Smarty Jones hails from the family of Grade 1 queen Basie (In Reality). His fifth dam is Striking (War Admiral), the 1961 Broodmare of the Year whose illustrious descendants include champion Numbered Account (Buckpasser), the dam of noted sire Private Account (Damascus); Irish champion and influential stallion Woodman (Mr. Prospector); and 2003 Broodmare of the Year Prospectors Delite (Mr. Prospector), the dam of Horse of the Year Mineshaft (A.P. Indy). Smarty Jones traces to that bluest of blue hens, La Troienne (Teddy).
The seven-year-old stallion stands for $100,000, live foal, at Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Kentucky.
(c) The Handicapper's Edge
Alta. woman's fancy hat on display at Kentucky Derby
CALGARY - Alberta may be best known for its cowboy hats, but a Calgary woman's straw hat, adorned with a pink bow and silk rose, will be on display at the Kentucky Derby.
One of Celina Petersen hats was selected by the Kentucky Derby for its hat museum at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. The honour comes within 1 1/2 years of launching her home hat making business, Little House of Hats.
"I'm ecstatic. It's a dream come true,'' said Petersen.
Petersen's winning hat, called Miss Bianca, is a frothy confection of chocolate and caramel coloured straw affixed with a dusty rose bow tarted up with fishnet, feathers and a silk rose.
Each year, the prestigious equine exhibit showcases "20-30 stunning hats that represent the spirit of the Kentucky Derby.'' The elaborate hats traditionally worn by spectators on race day have become a show of their own.
Petersen's hat will be on display for a year before it is returned to her.
In a city known more for its cowboy hats than the peony-adorned garden party variety, Petersen's Calgary business venture could be seen as risky.
But she's headstrong - every time she dons one of her own creations at a party or an outing, admirers dog her for the source.
"People always say 'where did you get that fabulous hat? Why can't I find a hat like that?' They're not easy to find,'' she says.
Petersen started taking millinery classes a few years ago and began wearing the finished product. She was astonished at the attention the hats attracted.
"I always wondered why in Calgary there wasn't a bigger custom-made millinery location.''
While Calgary's market may seem on the surface more chuckwagon race than Royal Ascot or Kentucky Derby, Petersen is confident.
The growth of Calgary's wealthy oil and gas socialites have a keen eye for the showcase pieces.
"I don't go anywhere without a hat. I think that it's a reflection of who you are deep down inside.''
Even in Cowtown, she says there's a big market for the exquisite hats, which she sells for between $150 and $500.
"I love hats that portray moments, emotions, history, romance and inner beauty,'' she said.
"I think hats really improve your confidence. To walk in to a room and be the only one who's wearing a hat, it takes guts.''
(c) CanWest News Service 2008
Prado a party pooper?
ELMONT, N.Y. - As Big Brown points toward making history Saturday, the biggest road block he might face is jockey Edgar Prado, a mild-mannered man who is recognized as racing's Triple Crown spoiler.
Prado just happens to be riding Casino Drive, the horse most handicappers believe has the best chance of ending Big Brown's Triple Crown chances in the Belmont Stakes. And Prado, who dominated the Maryland circuit in the 1990s and won his first Kentucky Derby in 2006 aboard the ill-fated Barbaro, has already ended the Triple Crown drives of two other thoroughbreds in the past six years.
"I got lucky the last two times," Prado said.
Lucky hardly covers it.
Prado rode Savara, the longest shot ever to win the Belmont Stakes, at 70-1, ending War Emblem's chance at Triple Crown greatness in 2002. And in 2004, he directed 36-1 Birdstone past the until-then undefeated Smarty Jones.
A victory Saturday would give him his own triple play.
Casino Drive has raced just twice and will be bucking history - a lot of history, given just two horses, Algerine in 1876 and Prince Eugene in 1913, have won with so little experience in the 1 1/2 -mile race. The Japanese-owned and -trained Casino Drive was made the 7-2 second choice at yesterday's draw and will break from the No. 5 post. Big Brown is the prohibitive favorite at 2-5 and drew the No. 1 post.
Of Prado's two upset victories, the one on Birdstone twisted his emotions the most.
War Emblem had pretty much beaten himself when he stumbled from the starting gate in 2002, but Smarty Jones appeared headed for victory down the stretch. A crowd of 120,000 was on its feet screaming for a historic finish, when Prado, the only rider with a chance to end the dream, surged five-wide and passed Smarty for a one-length victory in the final 70 yards.
"My heart was with Smarty," Prado said. "I was the last horse going by him. ... But I'm there to do my job the best way possible and achieve my goal of winning."
It will be the same Saturday.
"You definitely want to go into the race with the idea you can win," said Prado, who thinks he has a chance, given his horse is fresh and the 1 1/2 - mile course is a first for all the contenders, including Big Brown. "But definitely a Triple Crown would be great for the sport."
It's an intriguing matchup, this expected duel between two competitive horses and two equally competitive jockeys - Prado, who will celebrate his 41st birthday next Thursday, and Kent Desormeaux, 38.
Both horses have had precocious careers - Big Brown won the Kentucky Derby off three starts and from the No. 20 post and then the Preakness, and Casino Drive won his first two races, including an impressive victory in Belmont's Peter Pan, his only U.S. race.
To get to this point, the horses have trained completely differently. While Big Brown has jogged, galloped and had a final beautiful breeze Tuesday, allaying fears about his cracked hoof, Casino Drive has seemed to barely train at all.
He can be seen every morning touring the horse paths of the Belmont barn area between his two stable mates, Spark Candle and Champaign Squaw, his head down, his legs pumping for an hour. Then he goes to the track for a leisurely jog before another 45- to 60-minute power walk. His final work is scheduled for today.
Casino Drive's work was so slow last week, the Belmont clockers didn't even give it an official reading. Still, Nobutaka Tada, racing manager for Casino Drive's owner, said he is happy with the way Casino Drive is training. Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow also was happy with his horse's going five furlongs in a minute Tuesday.
The differences between the jockeys are less noticeable. Both learned to win at Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park. Desormeaux dominated Maryland from 1987 through 1989, winning two of his three Eclipse Awards there. When Desormeaux left, Prado emerged, dominating the scene from 1990 through 1999.
Prado, who will be inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame this summer, was the nation's leading rider in victories from 1997 through 1999, but didn't win his first Eclipse until 2006, after he and Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby.
But Prado downplays the idea of a rivalry with Desormeaux.
"When you're a competitive rider, you get satisfaction from winning," he said. "My goal is winning. When I win, the satisfaction is there no matter who is on the other horses."
Desormeaux, meanwhile, said there is a long-standing rivalry.
"It goes back to Maryland," Desormeaux said. "He was always my chief challenger, but at the end of the day, we have a shared deep respect for each other."
(c) 2008, The Baltimore Sun
Prado's big task is to ruin Big Brown's party
Pay attention to Edgar Prado tomorrow. He's the most intriguing human in the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes. He's the two-legged King of the Spoilers, a jockey who twice in this decade has climbed aboard worse horses than he'll ride in Saturday's race and nevertheless ruined someone else's Triple Crown hopes, same as he'll try to shatter heavily favored Big Brown's chances.
The difference for Prado this year? This race might be personal.
Prado wouldn't admit that the other day after he strode out of the winner's circle at Belmont after the second of a typically busy seven-race day for him at his home track. Nor will Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow and owner Michael Iavarone concede that Saturday's 1 1/2-mile test could darken into a grudge match, even if it was Iavarone who made the call to put Kent Desormeaux atop Big Brown this spring, against Dutrow's wishes and to Prado's surprise.
"Twice I had the opportunity to ride him," Prado said. "The first when I was in Saratoga [last year] and broke my ankle. Then the second time, I was supposed to ride him in Florida. The owner went to dinner with Kent and Kent picked him up, so . . . What can I do?"
Iavarone has countered that jockeys tend to forget they work for owners, not the other way around - a pull of rank that Prado could regard as yet another slight.
For guys who insist there are no hard feelings crackling between them, just normal racetrack business, Prado, Dutrow and Iavarone have talked quite a bit about each other in the three-week wait to see if Big Brown will become only the 12th Triple Crown winner in history, not the 11th to fail in the past 30 years.
What thickens the plot this time is Prado helped cause the last two failures by smartly riding 36-1 shot Birdstone to victory over Smarty Jones in 2004, and 70-1 longshot Sarava to a giant-killing win over War Emblem in 2002.
Dutrow and Iavarone point out they have employed Prado on other mounts this year. But immediately after the Preakness Stakes, both men charged that Prado had deliberately tried to ruin Big Brown's trip around the track though he knew their Kentucky Derby winner was chasing history.
"It looked like he was just trying to keep our horse [trapped] in a box," Dutrow added. "It didn't look like he was out to get the best finish out of his horse."
Iavarone added, "It was a suicide mission."
Prado heard the accusations. He denies them, even though replays show he already had his mount, Riley Tucker, race riding against Big Brown in the Preakness's first bend and eventually finished dead last, more than 17 lengths back.
"Well, you always want to beat the horse that's the favorite, no?" Prado said. "You won't want to look out for the horse that's 40-1, 50-1 going in the back of the pack."
"I race to win," he added. "I have a job to do. I do the best job for my horse and his connections."
It's a standard jockey defense. Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey said similar things when he and fellow jockey Alex Solis were sharply questioned after the 2004 Belmont for riding up on Smarty Jones and bracketing the Triple Crown hopeful on either side, then aggravating the heavy favorite into a scorching trip down the backstretch that was suicidal for their horses, not just Smarty Jones.
Critics said it was a set-up. Prado slipped by them all and won with Birdstone while a spent Smarty Jones faded in the stretch and finished second.
Until someone invents a machine that can X-ray the human conscience, there's no way to know how Prado will be seeking payback against Big Brown's handlers in Saturday's showdown.
Prado said he prepares for all big races similarly: "I have to study, not only the horses, the riders, too." And Desormeaux does the same. When asked if Prado has a distinct style, Desormeaux said, "Absolutely. All jockeys have styles. Some of them have antics just like horses."
So what are Prado's?
"Well . . . Edgar has been known to pop off, I'll say that," Desormeaux said. "He could do something purposely to help cause interference. He could try to adulterate my ride, create aggression in my horse. But I'll be aware of all of them, not just Edgar . . . That's race riding. That's their job."
(c) 2008, Newsday Inc.
Can Casino Drive (7/2) spoil Big Brown's Belmont Stakes party?
In the Belmont Stakes field Casino Drive stands out as most formidable contender to win the Belmont Stakes and spoil Big Brown's Triple Crown dreams.
Let's start with a quick update on Big Brown; hoof specialist Ian McKinlay said Monday he plans on attaching an acrylic and fiberglass patch to his hoof on Friday, allowing him to run at full speed when he races for the Belmont Stakes on Saturday.
On paper, Japanese-based Casino Drive is the best-bred Belmont contender in the world, being half-brother to Jazil, winner of the 2006 Belmont Stakes as well as three-quarter brother to Rags to Riches, the filly who upset Curlin in last year's Belmont.
Casino Drive raced only twice - the first was an 11 1/2-length victory in his first start in Japan, and the second was a 5 3/4-length victory in the Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont.
Casino Drive has a new rider, Edgar Prado. "We had many jockeys who wanted to ride him and that was encouraging to us," Nobutaka Tada, racing manager for owner Hidetoshi Yamamoto, told BloodHorse.com.
"There are so many good jockeys in America, but we decided we wanted a New York-based rider. (Prado) knows pace, has the experience, having won two Belmonts, and he's a patient rider."
Prado's victories came at the expense of two Triple Crown bids: 70-1 shot Sarava scored in '02 as War Emblem finished off the board and 36-1 Birdstone edged Smarty Jones in '04.
However, Casino Drive wouldn't pay nearly much if he whips Big Brown since he assuredly will go off as second choice.
Ironically, Big Brown's trainer employs Prado on a regular basis, The Daily Racing Form pointed out. According to Equibase statistics, he has ridden 268 of Rick Dutrow's career winners - 22 percent.
(c) 2004-2006 Web Game Consultants N.V.
Pimlico infield becomes Party Central
BALTIMORE - There are any number of things to do in the infield area at Pimlico in the hours before the Preakness.
For Bobby Muth, a University of Delaware student, it was using a hobby horse to crush a block of ice that was on dozens of beer cans that were floating in an inflatable wading pool Saturday.
"This is the best day of my life!" he shouted.
And Muth had weather to match. Temperatures in the mid-70s were accompanied by a slight breeze.
Last year in the Preakness infield, the portable-toilet sprint was introduced. The object? Run atop the green structures lined up one after the other.
On Saturday, maintenance crews placed daunting gaps between the succession of toilets. But some fans still tried their luck.
Compliments for winner
Macho Again finished second and Icabad Crane was third in the Preakness, which Big Brown won by 5-1/4 lengths.
"We got beat by a monster. He might be the Triple Crown winner," said Julien Leparoux, who rode Macho Again. "I don't like to be second, but it's not bad to be second to this horse."
Icabad Crane's rider, Jeremy Rose, said, "I went after Big Brown, but he just threw dirt on me."
PETA protests
Their cause fueled by the death of filly Eight Belles, who broke down shortly after finishing second in the Kentucky Derby and was euthanized on the track at Churchill Downs in Louisville, representatives from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested outside Pimlico.
Protesters handed out leaflets that said horses are "Racing to the Grave."
More than two dozen people participated, and one carried a hand-lettered sign that read, "Wanna bet another horse dies today?"
Big deal for Big Brown
Before the race, IEAH Stables co-owner Michael Iavarone signed a deal that will have Big Brown stand at stud at Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Ky., whenever the colt's racing career ends.
"Having won every race he's run with such ease, I don't think we've actually seen what he's truly capable of," Three Chimneys owner Robert Clay said of Big Brown.
According to a Daily Racing Form report, "The stud deal reportedly puts Big Brown's total value at about $50 million."
Desormeaux's double
Kent Desormeaux's victory aboard Big Brown was his second in the Preakness.
Ten years ago, Desormeaux won the race on Real Quiet, owned by then-Mount Vernon resident Mike Pegram.
Desormeaux, 38, said Big Brown is the best horse he has ridden.
(c) 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Celebrities horse around at Kentucky Derby party
The Associated Press
Published: May 3, 2008
LOUISVILLE, Ky.: Celebrities of all types came out to party on Kentucky Derby eve, putting the spotlight on Louisville the night before the world's best known horse race.
"I come for the food. I come for the parties. I come to meet people from all over, from sports to politics to Hollywood," said model-actress Molly Sims, from Murray, Ky. "The Derby is more than just a race."
Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and his three Playmate girlfriends - Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson - were expected to headline a cast of stars Friday night at the Barnstable Brown Gala, one of the biggest parties in a week filled with festivities.
Fans camped out early and were pinned behind metal barricades at the edge of the mansion's green, waiting through heavy rains and thunderstorms to get a glimpse of their favorite celebrities. About 100 people stood soaked as the celebrities began showing up around 8:30 p.m. EDT, bathed in the camera flashes that lit up the damp night.
"I like Big Brown," Hefner said, referring to the 3-1 morning line favorite. "I know a good thoroughbred when I see one."
Others on the guest list included Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton; actor Edward Norton; Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly; and Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens.
"It's definitely a different mix of people than we see in Hollywood," Marquardt said. "That's what makes the Derby unique."
Carson Daly, host of NBC's late-night show "Last Call With Carson Daly," brought his mother to the Derby as a gift to her - and to help with betting.
"I'll sit there and crunch the numbers on all the horses, and she'll be giving me advice," Daly said. "She picks them based on looks and stuff, but she wins."
Louisville native Larry Birkhead, ex-boyfriend of the late Anna Nicole Smith, also was at the party, the same event where he and Smith met in 2004.
Birkhead said he bought a new house in Louisville this week but didn't plan on picking a horse.
"I don't bet that much, and I really wouldn't know who I was betting on anyways," he said.
Patricia Barnstable Brown and sister Priscilla Barnstable - the former Doublemint Twins - were co-hosting the party for the 20th year to raise funds for diabetes research at the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky.
Brown's late husband, David E. Brown, was the inspiration behind the gala. After a long battle with diabetes, he died in July 2003.
Copyright (c) 2008 the International Herald Tribune All rights reserved
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