“RACING SHOCKED BY HARBINGER BLOW” plus 1 more |
| RACING SHOCKED BY HARBINGER BLOW Posted: 08 Aug 2010 09:35 AM PDT By Ashley Iveson, Press Association Sport Racing on the track was this weekend overshadowed by the news the world's highest-rated horse, Harbinger, suffered a potentially career-ending injury. For many, the four-year-old's spellbinding King George success had been the highlight of the season and potential trips to York for the Juddmonte International, and longer term to Paris for the Arc, had racing enthusiasts licking the lips. Unfortunately for connections, and any in may ways the sport as a whole, those dreams have now gone up in smoke after the colt fractured his near-fore cannon bone in a routine gallop in Newmarket on Saturday morning. Although subsequent surgery has been a success, his racing career remains in the balance. John Warren, director of Harbinger's owners, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, said: "The horse is very comfortable and the cast that was put on his leg to help him get up after surgery has been taken off. "He's eating up well and has a very good demeanour about him, so it is a very good report about his well-being, which is a great relief. "We plan to have a discussion with all the shareholders in the next 24 hours and then a decision about his future will be made tomorrow." The Strong Suit bubble was burst in the Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday as Aidan O'Brien's Zoffany struck Group One gold. The former was sent off at 4-9 to supplement his Coventry Stakes success but could only finish third as Zoffany swooped late to give O'Brien his 11th win from the last 13 runnings of the race. O'Brien said: "The plan was to get him relaxed and Johnny (Murtagh) was very cool on him and gave him a great ride. "We'll take it one step at a time but the National Stakes (Curragh, September 11) looks a likely option." Richard Hannon jnr said of vanquished favourite Strong Suit: "We'll bring him home and get him scoped but we're not making any excuses." O'Brien and jockey Johnny Murtagh also took the Keeneland Royal Whip Stakes as 1-12 favourite and Coronation Cup winner Fame And Glory produced a workmanlike display. "It's good to get him back on a good start again as we gave him a mid-season break," said the Ballydoyle handler. "His next run could be in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown or the Arc trial at Longchamp. "After that we'll have a look at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe." Laughing Lashes landed the Group Two Keeneland Debutante Stakes for Jessica Harrington. There was British Group One success in France as Dandy Nicholls' Regal Parade landed the Prix Maurice De Gheest at Deauville. Winning jockey Adrian Nicholls, the trainer's son, said: "I'm not sure if there's anything for him beforehand but he'll definitely go back to Haydock for the Sprint Cup (September 4) which he won last year." On a fairly low-key Saturday, many eyes were fixed on the annual Shergar Cup at Ascot, which went the way of team Ireland for the second successive year. While the Europe and Great Britain teams won two races each to Ireland's one, Ireland picked up more points from their placed efforts and amassed a total of 80, with Europe on 72, the Rest of the World 45 and Great Britain on 43. Fran Berry collected the Silver Saddle for the leading individual rider. White Moonstone preserved her unbeaten record with a convincing success in the German-Thoroughbred.com Sweet Solera Stakes at Newmarket. Godolphin racing manager Simon Crisford said: "The Fillies' Mile (at Ascot) would be big target for her. I think she will have one more run before then and we will step her up to a mile next." There was also decent fare to be enjoyed at Haydock, with Hot Prospect making the most of a drop in class to land the totescoop6 Heritage Handicap for Michael Jarvis. Poet, four times a winner in Ireland when trained by Aidan O'Brien, gained his first success for the Clive Cox stable in the Group Three totesport.com Rose of Lancaster Stakes.
Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. | |
| HORSE RACING: Mechanicville trainer Chad Brown at the top of his game Posted: 08 Aug 2010 02:12 AM PDT SARATOGA SPRINGS —With a couple of years as his own boss already under his belt, Chad Brown is beyond just trying to establish himself on the thoroughbred-racing scene. The trainer and Saratoga Springs resident (when he's not traveling for work) is one of the many enticing stories already unfolding at this year's young version of the historic racing meet at Saratoga Race Course. Brown, who grew up in Mechanicville, has come a long way since he was a boy spending time at the track with his family and friends, dreaming of one day taking part in the legendary races with a stable of his own. He's now living that dream. Through Friday, July 30, Brown was holding a slim lead over the powerful Todd Pletcher stable in the Saratoga trainer standings, Brown has built up his resume pretty quickly over the past few years, including a Breeders' Cup win in his rookie season when Maram edged out Heart Shaped in the Juvenile Fillies Turf at Oaklawn at Santa Anita in October 2008. Already with six victories through the first week of the Saratoga meet, Brown will be in the spotlight today when his flagship filly Maram starts in the Grade I Diana Handicap to take on a talented field of older females. "We're looking forward to it," Brown said of Maram's opportunity in the Diana. "It's a really tough field but she's 2-for-2 at the track — 2-for-2 at Saratoga — and everything's going good at the barn. It's time to give her a shot at a Grade I." Maram broke her maiden at Saratoga on Aug. 25, 2008 as a 2-year-old, then went on to win the Miss Grillo Stakes at Belmont before winning her Breeders' Cup race. She came back to Saratoga last year and won the one-mile John Hettinger overnight stakes on the turf, on Aug. 8, too. "She's a good horse," Brown said of the 4-year-old. Maram's most recent success came on the Fourth of July of this year, taking the Miss Liberty Stakes at Monmouth Park and giving her the proper preparation to face a strong field like today's — a field that includes multiple stakes winners, including champion Forever Together, going for an unprecedented third straight win in the Diana. Forever Together handled Brown's Quiet Meadow in last year's Diana for her second straight win. Brown, who worked as an understudy for Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey before transferring his duties to the late Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel, first made a splash in the Spa City when he won with his first entry at Saratoga Race Course in 2008 — the first race of the meet that year — with Star Player. He went on to post a solid winning percentage, going 6-for-18 with his charges throughout that Saratoga meet. His consitstent success has allowed his business to grow, with Brown improving each year and generating more horses and more opportunities for his stable. "The important thing is that the horses stay healthy and sound," he said. "If the horses stay healthy and sound, and the right races (are available) for the right horses, and the weather cooperates … that's what we need (to be successful)." So far, all the factors have aligned quite nicely and Brown's sitting pretty with six wins after seven days of the meet. "We're just going to focus on the spots that I've picked out, regardless if we're in front (of the standings), if we're behind, or whatever," Brown said. "We're just going to stay focused, entry-day to entry-day, on what I have planned on doing." Brown, who currently has horses stabled at Belmont Park and Saratoga — 50 of them spread among barns on the Oklahoma Training Track and select barns at Saratoga Gaming and Raceway — has not only been winning enough to be tops for trainers, but he's been winning at an incredible percentage rate. He's won with six of his 10 starters at the meet and has been in the money with eight. But it certainly doesn't come easy. "A lot of traveling and a lot of hours of work," Brown said of the demands of his chosen career." There are a lot of hours of work — thousands and thousands of hours." It has its payoffs, too, though. To be able to return to his favorite racetrack, for the meet he waited for every year until it made its annual return, and be able to compete against some of the best trainers in the game, all while working with some of the best jockeys, owners and horsemen in the sport, makes him realize just how lucky he is, though. "That's a big part of it," he said. "It makes it all worth while." And as much as Brown would love to win the Saratoga training title for himself, it would also be a proper tribute to Frankel, one of the trainers who helped Brown get where he is today, to keep doing what he has been doing throughout the first week of the meet. Frankel passed away in November 2009 following a long battle with illness. "It'll probably never really be the same," Brown said of working in the horse racing business without Frankel around. "We just kind of have to go on and do the best I can to make him proud." Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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