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Joe Clancy 
American trainer Graham Motion spoke at the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities conference this week in France, as part of a speaker lineup that also included Dinny Phipps and Jim Gagliano from The Jockey Club, racetrack researcher Mick Peterson and others from around the world. Motion’s presentation was on American racing/training surfaces, the text of which follows:
Nine? Nine. Saturday’s Virginia Fall Races go nine races deep with hurdle, timber and flat races slated for stately Glenwood Park in Middleburg, Va. Former race chairman Gary Baker, whose memorial race drew a deep field of 10, would be proud.
When Main Sequence charged down the stretch to win the Sword Dancer at Saratoga in mid-August, everybody present saw his chestnut tail flying up and down as he edged past Imagining in the final strides. Well, everybody except Rajiv Maragh
It rained. And steeplechase trainers breathed. The annual question about turf conditions came up again last week and horsemen made their September plans and a short dry spell had some wondering whether racing this weekend was the right decision.
Jimmy Barnes, Kaleem Shah and Martin Garcia sat at a table in the Parx East Room and talked about the 2014 Pennsylvania Derby Saturday evening. Moments earlier, their horse Bayern set a track record in winning the $1 million Grade 2 stakes for 3-year-olds.
When Demonstrative runs the way he did Thursday, you almost have to ask – What’s going to beat him?
You going racing this weekend? Good stuff all over, especially at Parx Racing (which is still difficult to type – had to delete Philadelphia Park) which features the return of California Chrome in the Pennsylvania Derby and a scary good rendition of the Grade 1 Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies.
The horses go jumping at Belmont Park today with two races to kick off the card at 1 p.m. The big menu item is the $150,000 Lonesome Glory for open stakes horses. The Grade 1 lured title contenders Demonstrative and Divine Fortune, plus the in-form Barnstorming in a field of eight.
Two years ago, Demonstrative was in the paddock for the Grade 1 Lonesome Glory steeplechase stakes at Belmont Park. Coming off two wins at Saratoga, the 5-year-old was odds-on to run his winning streak to three and take a stranglehold on the Eclipse Award.
Lagniappe. It’s a Creole word used frequently in Louisiana to mean “a little something extra.” Mark Twain wrote about it in the 1800s. Eric Guillot talked about it Thursday morning.
