Friday, May 14, 2010

“Victor the Predictor on the winning side with Vic-Tory Stables | Horse Racing” plus 3 more

“Victor the Predictor on the winning side with Vic-Tory Stables | Horse Racing” plus 3 more

Victor the Predictor on the winning side with Vic-Tory Stables | Horse Racing

Posted: 14 May 2010 09:11 AM PDT

It all started in 1975 with a group of 20 media members, who came together to form Media Stables. With Media Stables, Victor Cozzetti began his career as a syndicate manager in the horse racing industry.

As time went by, the horses changed, the tracks changed, and even the stable names changed, yet Cozzetti remained a loyal contributor to racing in the Northwest. Cozzetti admits that times haven't always been great. But racing, after all, is an industry that can produce unimaginable highs and lows.

Times are great so far in 2010. Vic-Tory Stables and its trainer, Larry Wolf, have sent out a stream of fit and ready runners. He's All Heart, who Cozzetti named after the heart-shaped pattern on the gelding's forehead, began his 4-year-old campaign with an impressive 1 ¾-length victory Friday in a six-furlong optional claimer. Known more as a router, the Washington-bred son of Private Gold might be another wild card to throw into an already talented deck of older horses in the stakes division.

"My theory and Larry's theory has always been to walk before you run," Cozzetti said. "We'll put him in an allowance-sprint and see how he comes out, and then we might run him long in a stakes."

Owned by Vic-Tory Stables IV, He's All Heart (13-4-3-2-$36,269) and regular rider Robert Burney have been a winning combination four out of their last nine tries and each victory has steadily moved him up the class ladder.

"It took him awhile, but he finally decided to become a racehorse," Wolf said.

Highdleburg (10-3-1-2-$16,783) decided that he didn't want his stablemate to have all the glory, so he and jockey Seth Martinez cruised to a 2 ¼-length victory Saturday in a 5 ½-furlong non-winners of three claiming race. The 4-year-old Washington-bred, owned by Vic-Tory Stables VI, has completed his conditions and now must look ahead to open claiming.

"He's going to be a nice claiming horse," Cozzetti said.

Cozzetti, also known as "Victor The Predictor," hosts a fifteen-minute results show on KLAY AM-1180. His segment airs from 8:45-9:00 a.m. Fridays and Mondays and from 8:30-8:45 a.m. on the weekend.

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WINNING POST TV: Horse racing preview programme MAY 14

Posted: 14 May 2010 06:44 AM PDT

Crowds show up as horse racing returns to CCF

Posted: 13 May 2010 10:18 PM PDT

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Thoroughbred and Quarter horse racing returned to the Cochise County Fairgrounds this past weekend and the size of the crowds seem to indicate the event was missed last year.

This Texas connection giving horse racing a lift

Posted: 14 May 2010 08:49 PM PDT

PHOTOS () —

By Gary West

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

BALTIMORE — Wearing an Open Road Stetson and lizard-skin cowboy boots, Bill Casner epitomized the long, tall Texan. For more than an hour Friday morning, he stood outside the stakes barn at Pimlico and spoke about racing and horses with friends and strangers alike. From time to time, at the drop of a request, he posed with passersby eager to have their picture taken with an owner of a Kentucky Derby winner.

These Texans are great for horse racing — Casner of Flower Mound and Kenny Troutt of Dallas, whose WinStar Farm owns Super Saver; and Todd Pletcher, the native Texan who is the colt's trainer. Together they're exactly what horse racing desperately needs: a face lift, an energy drink and a smart PR rep. That's why, at this very moment, the best thing that could happen for the sport would be Super Saver's winning today's Preakness Stakes, the second jewel in the Triple Crown.

"To me, there's nothing more exciting in the game," Pletcher said Friday morning to an audience of reporters, interlopers and tourists, bound together by the moment and their own curiosity, "than going to Belmont Park with a potential Triple Crown winner."

And, of course, that's precisely what Super Saver would become with a victory today: a potential Triple Crown winner, potentially the 12th in the history of the sport. But because the best thing that could happen seldom happens, especially in horse racing, many are skeptical about his chances.

Well, the skeptics are probably still lying in bed.

"He's not going to do us any favors," Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas said Friday morning about Super Saver. Lukas will send out Dublin in the Preakness. But shortly after 6 o'clock Friday morning, while perched atop his pony, who was standing along the outside rail at Pimlico, Lukas watched Super Saver gallop by and offered his complimentary assessment.

"He came out of the Derby good, and he's had a good couple weeks," said Lukas, one of the keenest observers in the game, about the Derby winner. No, Super Saver isn't going to do his 11 rivals today any favors; he's going to give another show-stopping performance.

He's training superbly, he has maintained his weight, he glistens like a basted turkey and he's bursting with energy. Exercise rider Kevin Willey, who regularly gallops Super Saver, even said the colt has improved since the Derby, an opinion shared by jockey Calvin Borel.

"I love his chances," said Super Saver's popular jockey, later adding, "I think this colt is starting to peak at the right time, and it's a big plus."

Borel said he doesn't expect much early speed to develop today. And if that's indeed the case, Borel said he and Super Saver will "take it to them." But if somebody springs from the gate eager to grab an advantage, that's fine, too, Borel said, because Super Saver can relax behind horses, as he did in the Derby, and wait until the second turn to make his move.

And that, Pletcher said, could be the horse's greatest asset, his versatility. Super Saver is so athletic, so naturally fast and yet so tractable, that he creates a good trip for himself; while others might struggle to avoid trouble or navigate through traffic, he puts himself in the right place at the right time.

This afternoon at Pimlico, Super Saver very well could put himself in the winner's circle to become a potential Triple Crown winner. And if he does so, he'll put the Texans there as well, which would be the best thing that could possibly happen for racing. The Open Road Stetson could become a symbol for the sport's resurgence.

JOCKEYS GO DOWN

Kent Desormeaux and Julien Leparoux, who both have mounts in Saturday's Preakness Stakes, were involved in a spill Friday at Pimlico during the running of the $175,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes.

As the field entered the second turn, Diva Delite apparently clipped the heels of C C's Pal and went down. Leparoux, who was on Diva Delite, hit the ground hard. And then Seeking The Title, while trying to avoid the fallen horse and rider, unseated Desormeaux. Neither horse appeared to be seriously injured.

Desormeaux, who is to ride Paddy O'Prado in the Preakness, also escaped injury. Leparoux, who has the mount on Pleasant Prince, was taken to nearby Sinai Hospital for further examination. He broke a tooth and was having neck and chest pains.

The spill didn't affect Acting Happy, who was on the lead at the time and held on to win by 1 ½ lengths over No Such Word. Tidal Pool finished third.

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(c) 2010, Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Visit the Star-Telegram on the World Wide Web at http://www.star-telegram.com.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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PHOTOS (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099):

PREAKNESS

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