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Tom Law The 2013 Clark Handicap was one of its most exciting and anticipated editions to date, as two of racing’s biggest superstars, Game On Dude and eventual winner Will Take Charge, faced off with hopes of winning an Eclipse Award. No such race is taking place in this year’s Clark, the 140th running of Friday’s Grade 1 fixture at Churchill Downs still makes for a good race with a field of nine that includes eight graded stakes winners.
There were only 21 black-type stakes events in North America over the past week as the nation’s racing appetite braced for the Thanksgiving weekend feast, but it didn’t stop Ashford Stud’s Giant’s Causeway from siring a pair of stakes winners.
Only two years have passed since Ben Colebrook took out his trainer’s license after serving as Christophe Clement’s assistant at Keeneland and it hasn’t taken him long to climb some significant steps high up the ladder.
Irv Naylor’s stay away from the top of the National Steeplechase Association owners standings was a brief one – a year to be exact – and how he got the title back is a bit more complex than his straightforward explanation.
The weekend before Thanksgiving wasn’t overly busy in North America, with just seven graded stakes races, and one of the most eagerly anticipated moments of on-track action unfolded Sunday morning at Del Mar.
Norman Casse, assistant to his father Mark Casse, sat in his office at 7:45 a.m. Thursday at Churchill Downs with the heat on full blast and his iPad in hand keeping an eye on the upcoming weather forecast.
There were several more juvenile stakes events around the country last weekend and the progeny of some first-crop sires took full advantage.
Scan the Internet for the words “horse layover” and there are hundreds if not thousands of results all over North America. Big and small, commercial and mom and pop, they’re out there, ready to take your horse at almost a moments notice with a catch or two.
The initial crop of weanlings by some promising young stallions hit the market this month along with the first mares in foal to sires from the 2014 stallion crop.
Whether Zee Bros was fast enough to get the job done was rarely in doubt. Whether Zee Bros could put back-to-back good races together most certainly was.
