Contact Information:
Bob Roberts (216-662-8600)
June 4, 2009
www.thistledown.com
Ness' Record Win Streak Ends At Nine; He's Already At Work On Another One
The record run of trainer Jamie Ness at Thistledown ended at nine consecutive winners when his Touch Em All finished third in Thursday's (May 28) fourth race.
Touch Em All, the 9-5 favorite, rallied over a track turned sloppy by mid-day rains but finished a non-threatening third, beaten a little under two lengths.
Ness set the record on Wednesday (May 27) when he saddled Sailfin to win the third race. He previously shared the mark of eight consecutive winners with the late W.J. (Bill) Miller.
"We just got beat by two better horses today," said Ness. "But I'll take nine in a row anytime I can get them. I guess now I'll just start another streak."
On Monday, he did when he saddled Conner's Birthday for victory in the second race. Ness doesn't have horses entered on either Thursday or Friday of this week. Entries for Saturday are due Wednesday (June 3). Through the first 20 days of the 46-day Summit-Thistledown Meeting, Ness has 10 winners from 13 starters for a remarkable win rate of 77 percent.
DONN DOES IT AGAIN --- The 2009 Ohio racing season hasn't even hit the half-mile pole, yet veteran trainer Donn Rowe has defeated the defending Catlaunch, Ohio's 2008 Horse of the Year, three times with two different horses. Rowe sent out Charles Braden's Brother Terry to knock off the 4-5 favored Catlaunch in Saturday's $55,000 Michael Rowland Memorial Stakes at Thistledown.
Brother Terry used a middle of the track rally to get up in the final strides for a neck over Ramblin Mike. It was three-quarters of a length back to Catlaunch in third place.
Rowe defeated Catlaunch twice this spring at Beulah Park with Left On Base, the stable's handicap division star. The first time was in an allowance race on April 11 when Catlaunch failed to hold Left On Base safe by 1 1/4 lengths. The effort helped set up Left On Base's front-running score in the May 2 Babst Memorial Handicap at the Grove City oval.
"My horses have been training and running well," said Rowe. "Brother Terry is a three-year-old and Left On Base is five. Together, they are as old as Catlaunch, who has been a tough horse for a lot of years."
In the Rowland, Brother Terry and jockey Christian Pilares covered six furlongs in 1:12 1/5, earning Braden $34,100.
"He's matured quite a bit from his juvenile season," said Rowe of Brother Terry. "He's a big horse, a late foal, and he's filling out nicely. We'll point him for the (July 4) Cleveland Gold Cup."
Brother Terry is the first three-year-old to win the race that honors the memory of Rowland, Thistledown's seven-time champion jockey who died as a result of injuries suffered in a spill at Turfway Park in 2004.
Catlaunch had won the previous three renewals of the Rowland. He is winless in three starts this year, his first three-race losing streak in a span of 37 races that dates back to the winter of 2005.
Hector Rosario Jr., who rode Catlaunch in the Rowland said, "I had the best horse and the worse trip. He still wants to run, but he did take himself back (between) horses in the turn. But at the end, he was running again."
BELMONT DAY -- The final leg of the Triple Crown goes to the post Saturday on a special Belmont Stakes card. First post time is 11:35 a.m. and doors will open at Thistledown at 11 a.m. While Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra is passing on the Belmont, Mine That Bird, the Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up, is scheduled to compete. His jockey, Calvin Borel, who rode Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness, is attempting to become the first jockey to sweep the Triple Crown series on different horses.
THE LEADERBOARD --- Jamie Ness leads all trainers with 10 winners, but he has three horsemen breathing down his neck. Defending champion Jeff Radosevich and Jevon Crumley are second with nine winners. Randy Joe Faulkner is next at eight winners. His brother, Rodney Faulkner, is fifth with six winners . . . Ernesto Oro is dominating the riders' derby. He has 22 winners to current runner-up Weldon Cloninger Jr.'s 15 winners. Christian Pilares is third with 10 winners, followed by Jeffrey Skerrett and David Cardoso, tied at nine winners.
CENTURY MAN --- Thistledown track announcer Ayers Ratliff is a busy man. He is also the track announcer down the road at Northfield Park, and, when he has a Sunday afternoon off, he calls matinee harness cards at county fair tracks. Ratliff wrapped up a personal record six days of race calling Monday. By his count, he announced 100 races at Thistledown, Northfield, and at the Fayette County Fairgrounds in Washington Court House.
COMMISSION CALLING --- The Ohio State Racing Commission will hold its regularly scheduled monthly meeting at Thistledown this month. The June 16 session will begin at 10 a.m. in the track's sixth floor Bistro. The public is welcomed.
FEED BAG --- Louis Stokes, Thistledown's winningest jockey last year, raced from the North Randall oval and sped to Presque Isle Downs last Thursday night. He had an important riding engagement to fulfill in the sixth race at the Erie, Pa. track. Hot Case, the horse he rode to victory, is owned and trained by Jamie Stokes, his wife . . . Smooth Air, winner of last year's Ohio Derby, finished a game second (beaten a half-length) in the $600,000 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on May 25. He earned $120,000. Smooth Air has won six of 15 starts and a little over $1 million. He has run at eight different tracks . . . Slides Choice, Ohio's champion juvenile filly last year, took on graded stakes rivals in finishing fourth in Saturday's Grade III $100,000 Dogwood at Churchill Downs. Owned by Mary Crawford and Jerry Brown, she is trained by Tim Hamm.