The thoroughbred racing season of 2009 at Woodbine will end this Sunday, December 6, 2009. There are 154 horses and 21 also-eligible entered in the 13 races. The feature is the typical season finale, the Valedictory Stakes, run at 1 3/4m on Woodbine polytrack. Here is the field.
Woodbine - December 6, 2009
Race 9 - 5:01 PM Exactor / Triactor / Superfecta / Pick 3 (Races 9-10-11)
STAKES Valedictory S. One And Three Fourth Miles.
Purse $150,000. (Plus $22,500 ? State Bred). For Three-Year-Olds And Upward
PP Horse A/S Med Jockey Wgt Trainer
1 Red Leader (FL) 3/C L O Moreno 111 D J Vella
2 Cloudy's Knight (KY) 9/G L R B Homeister, Jr. 121 J E Sheppard
3 Auteur (KY) 3/G L E Wilson 111 B J Minshall
4 Cobotown Ron (ON) 5/G L E R Da Silva 115 A M Delmas
5 Pool Play (ON) 4/C L C Fraser 119 M E Casse
6 Solitaire (ON) 4/G L C Sutherland 115 H J Bond
7 Torquay (KY) 7/G L G Olguin 113 N De Toro
8 Guadalcanal (FL) 4/G R C Landry 113 F J Seitz
9 Find the Wire (KY) 4/C L E Ramsammy 113 B A Lynch
10 Eagle Poise (KY) 3/C L P Husbands 115 B A Lync
Eagle Poise, by Belmont Stakes winner Empire Maker, out of the Epsom Oaks winner Reams Of Verse, will be the likely favourite. The 3-year-old, who was formerly trained by the late Bobby Frankel, won the 1 5/8m Valedictory prep by 10 lengths handily.
It is also nice to see the return of the 9-year-old gelding Cloudy's Knight to Woodbine. He won the Canadian International-G1 2 years ago. He ran a very game second behind the regally-bred 3-year-old Man Of Iron (Giant's Causeway x Better Than Honour) in the Breeders' Cup Marathon at Santa Anita just a month ago.
The James Bond-trained Solitaire (son of another Belmont Stakes winner, Victory Gallop), who ran third in both the Queen's Plate and Prince Of Wales Stakes in 2008 as a maiden, will be ridden by Chantal Sutherland. His last start was a creditable 4th in the 1 1/4m Chief Bearhart Stakes on turf. He will tackle 14 furlongs for the few time in his career.
This is always one of my favourite races to watch every season. Three years back, the then 3-year-old Marsh Side won the Valedictory. He went on to be good enough to win the Canadian International-G1 in 2008 and the Northern Dancer-G1 this year (but was disqualified due to interference), and has traveled to Dubai and Tokyo to compete at Gr 1 level.
I like to see a series of Marathon races - maybe the San Juan Capistrano, Brooklyn (if they can increase the distance to 14 f at Belmont), Breeders' Cup Marathon and Valedictory, and somehow join forces with the Melbourne Cup, Sydney Cup, Adelaide Cup in Australia, the Ascot Gold Cup (or other Group 2/3 Cup races in the UK like the Goodwood Cup or Doncaster Cup), the Tenno Sho Spring, the Irish St. Leger, the Prix du Cadran and/or the Prix Royal-Oak in France or whatever else flat races over 14f to make this a world series for extreme stayers.
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