Contact Information:
Bob Roberts (216-662-8600)
October 2, 2008
www.thistledown.com
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS AND TITLE CONTENDERS VIE IN 22nd "BEST OF OHIO" AT THISTLEDOWN
In what could develop into a showdown for 2008 Ohio Horse of the Year honors, Catlaunch and Pay The Man --- the only Buckeye-breds to win three stakes races this season --- are among 48 horses entered for Saturday's 22nd running of the Best of Ohio at Thistledown.
The five-race series, worth $425,000 in purse money, is restricted to state-breds and has attracted three defending champions. The top events are a pair of $100,000 races, the Best of Ohio Endurance at 1 1/4 miles, with 2007 winner, Blazing Meadows Farm's Smarmy, back to face 10 rivals, and the Best of Ohio Distaff at 1 1/8 miles, that numbers defending champion Cryptoquip, a 5-year-old mare that races for Elisabeth Alexander, among its 10 entrants.
A trio of $75,000 races, the Best of Ohio Sprint at six furlongs, and the John Galbreath Memorial and Juvenile, both to be contested at 1 1/16 miles for two-year-olds, complete the lineup. Shazam and Leemington Stable's Dooze, a wire-to-wire 3 3/4-length winner of last year's Sprint, is the dash's top gun. Also entered is Kathleen Lowry's Ben's Reflection, winner of the Sprint in both 2004 and 2005. In its 18-year history, no horse has won the Sprint three times, although four have won it twice. But the Best of Ohio spotlight will focus mainly on Pyrite Stable's Pay The Man and Scioto Farm's Catlaunch as they both seek their fourth added-money scores of the season in different races.
Catlaunch, trained by Ivan Vasquez, is the 4-1 morning line second choice behind the 7-2 Smarmy in the Endurance. The seven-year-old son of Noble Cat has won the Babst Memorial, Rowland Memorial, and George Lewis Memorial this season and lost to Smarmy by a mere three-quarters of a length in the Governor's Buckeye Cup.
"He has actually gotten better with age," Vasquez said of Catlaunch, a winner of 24 of 61 career starts and $535,263.
Smarmy figures to be a difficult foe. The four-year-old gelding does his best running in the fall, having won last year's Endurance and tuned for this year's renewal with a score in the Labor Day renewal of the Governor's Buckeye Cup.
"He's a real competitive horse," said trainer Tim Hamm. "Add in that he loves a distance of ground, that should make him doubly tough."
Hamm will also be represented in the Galbreath with the unbeaten Slides Choice, and in the Juvenile with Raise the Reward and Astronaut.
"Slides Choice has done all right by us by winning two stakes," said Hamm. "I look forward to stretching her out. Raise the Reward has been training tremendously well and is by the same sire as Smarmy, Parents' Reward."
Pay The Man's, the 5-2 morning line favorite in the Distaff, has registered all three of her stakes scores this year at Thistledown --- the Angenora in May, the Petro in June, and the DeBartolo Memorial in August.
"She's doing great," said trainer Angel Feliciano. "Yes, she likes Thistledown, but she likes all the tracks she runs over."
Feliciano is the only trainer who will have starters in all five of the Best of Ohio feature races. In addition to Pay The Man, he'll send out Pyrite Score and Pyrite Ore in the Galbreath, Bold Captain in the Juvenile, D's Dessert in the Sprint, and Pyrite Personal in the Endurance. In addition to Pay The Man, he'll also saddle Pyrite Gem in the Distaff.
While Slides Choice has won the Tah Dah at River Downs and the Miss Ohio at Thistledown in her only career starts, she's the 5-2 second choice in the Galbreath behind 2-1 Yankee Cruz, who she dueled to the line in the Miss Ohio, winning by a half-length. Dooze is 6-1 to successfully defend his Sprint title. Morning line honors of 7-2 go to Pforperfectspistol, a winner of four straight starts, including a half-length verdict in the Aug. 31 Honey Jay at Thistledown. The 7-2 morning line choice in the Juvenile is Brother Terry, whose entire seven-race career has unfolded at Calder Race Course in Miami. The Forest Gazelle colt has won twice but has never competed in a stakes race.
RADOSEVICH NEARING MILESTONE: HIS 1,000th TRIUMPH AS A TRAINER
Jeff Radosevich, the only horsemen in Thistledown history to win both riding and training championships, is closing in on yet another milestone. Radosevich, well on his way to his third consecutive title as Thistledown's leading trainer (he has 62 winners in 107 days) and the North Randall oval's winningest rider in 1988, began the week needing just eight winners to reach the 1,000 winners' plateau as a trainer. Radosevich, 46 and a native of Joliet, Ill., began his conditioning career in 1993 after being a jockey for 16 years. Never one to dwell on records or milestones, Radosevich said, "It's nice, but I go on and look forward to winning the next race."
TOUGH AS NAILS --- Sherry Kirk, a journeyman jockey from Arizona, made quite an industrious debut at Thistledown on Monday. Kirk was scheduled to ride His Aim Is True in the seventh race, but the sophomore gelding ran off and was scratched. Moments later, jockey Olaf Hernandez was injured at the starting gate when his mount, Exclusive Royal, acted up. Kirk, already on the track and with nothing better to do, asked for the mount on Exclusive Royal and was given it. The horse was an also-ran, but Kirk was unmoved. "I told them to load the other horse (His Aim Is True) and I would ride both of them," she said.
OHIO DERBY REVISTED --- Delightful Kiss, winner of last year's Ohio Derby, is on a roll. He rallied from last to win Saturday's $211,800 All American Stakes at Golden Gate Fields near San Francisco. The victory comes on the heels of his score in the Turfway Park Fall Championship, a triumph that automatically qualified him for the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita on Oct. 25 . . . Magna Graduate, runner-up in the 2005 Ohio Derby, finished second in Saturday's $500,000 Hawthorne Gold Cup in Chicago.
A CHAMP IS RETIRED --- King of the Roxy, voted Ohio Horse of the Year in 2007, is through racing. His retirement was announced this week by Team Valor International, which raced the four-year-old son of Littleexpectations 12 times and collected $536,734. King of the Roxy, bred by Debbie Kopatz at her 11-acre farm in North Canton, Ohio, won the Grade II Futurity at Saratoga and Grade II Hutcheson at Gulfstream Park. He also finished second in the Grade I Santa Anita Derby. Team Valor said leg problems prompted King of the Roxy's retirement.
THE COMEBACK REVEREND --- Thistledown's Rev. Vincent Harris, believed to be the first and only African-American chaplain at an American thoroughbred racetrack, is featured in the current issue (Sept. 27) of The Blood-Horse. Harris, who has a master's degree in divinity and is currently pursuing his PhD at Ashland University, grew up in New York City where he was homeless and addicted to drugs. Harris, 58, turned his life around and is now helping others. He's been at Thistledown for 12 years.
FEED BAG --- Thistledown will offer Pick 5 wagering on the five stakes races that make up Saturday's Best of Ohio program. The Pick 5 starts with the fourth race, the $75,000 John Galbreath . . . There will be just four "seven and seven" cards with Beulah Park this fall. Thistledown will team with the Grove City oval for 14-race programs on Oct. 17 & 18 and Oct. 24 & 25 . . . A sure sign that the days are growing shorter in northern Ohio is the reduction in training hours. Horses now go to the track at 7 a.m. . . . Gayle Babst, executive director of the Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners, announced this week that the OTBO's annual awards banquet will be held Jan. 17 of next year at Darby House in suburban Columbus