Barbaro Updates: 213
updates are now here.
Update 1516: Back at the barn for feed time (and Hawty Creek's papaya juice). Gatornation and Red Aspen were back from Laurel. All looks well and Tim was pretty upbeat. Emily stopped by, she is a guest panelist on equidaily.com's topic of the week: This Week: Synthetic surfaces. The time is right, or are we moving too fast? ... or perhaps not fast enough ?
New Horse Slaughter legislation has been introduced in Illinois essentially looking to ban horse transportation into Illinois for the purpose of slaughter: Horse Slaughter Legislation Introduced in Illinois. Illinois is one of two states to have horse slaughter plants, the other being Texas.
Update 1515: English Channel, who finished his 2006 campaign with a third in the Breeders' Cup Turf, won his 2007 debut, an allowance at Gulfstream. He won handily, in a ridiculously fast time. I guess his next race will be in Dubai. Better Talk Now, second in the Breeders' Cup Turf is also in training in Florida, and will have his first work shortly, perhaps this weekend.
Update 1514: Gatornation ran second today in Laurel's first race. Tim had his jockey take Gator well off the pace so he could use his speed late in the race. Watching the race he did seem to drop back quite far, but sure enough he came charging down the lane. It looks like he only got beat about a half a length in the end. A nice return to the races by Gator. Tim also worked Red Aspen at Laurel this morning. She worked 3/8ths, her first work back this year. Tim was happy with the way she worked. A good visit to Laurel today.
More early news for this year's triple crown, this time from Jay Privman: Sanders has seen classic stock before. Jamie Sanders is the trainer of Teuflesberg, "upset" winner of the Southwest Stakes. She worked for many years for Nick Zito, whose wife we featured yesterday in update 1508.
Update 1513: With temperatures at about freezing point this morning there was plenty of ice about after the big thaw yesterday. The main concern at Fair Hill is to get the track back now as soon as possible. It seems people are hard at work on that. I spoke to Sally Goswell (Fair Hill manager) briefly this morning and she said the plan was to have the track tomorrow. I know people are frustrated, but I also remember how good the track was in the wicked cold temperatures of a couple of weeks ago. Lets hope this issue passes by the end of the week and we can all get back to regular training.
I rode six today, Hawty Creek, Drop Kick Murphy, Nopariel and Bandit (Lynda Fox trainer) jogged around the horsepaths (which had a little bit of ice on them in spots so you had to be careful). The final two I jogged around the shedrow.
Tim left for Laurel early this morning. Gator Nation is in the first race, he also took Red Aspen with him, I am guessing to gallop at Laurel this morning.
Update 1512: Steve Haskins writes about the Kentucky Derby and trainers' strategy for getting horses ready for the first saturday in May: Kentucky Derby Trail: Two for the Road. I am not sure why Barbaro's five week gap between the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby is considered a "layoff". I am sure he was in full training and likely more trainers may try the same this year.
Santa Anita has now officially committed to a synthetic surface, and will put it in place during the Del Mar meet, no decision has yet been made as to which surface: Santa Anita to go synthetic this year.
Penn National is still struggling to get its live racing program back: Penn National cancels Wednesday's live racing (its been about three weeks). I would be curious how they have managed their training hours in the morning.
Good Morning Alex, FOB & Sweet heavenly Barbaro.
Thanks for the updates... very sad to hear of the female jockey that passed.
Be safe and have a wonderful day!
Lynn G
East Stroudsburg, PA
Posted by: Lynn G at February 22, 2007 10:24 AM