Tlaq... er, Tlaqer... um, Tlaquepaque · 2 days ago

It’s deja-vu all over again in the juvenile division at Hastings this year.

Lara Racing Stables and trainer Juan Olmos have raced the top local two-year-old in each of the last two racing seasons: El Sinaloense (2008), and Huitzilopochtli (2009). Now Olmos has another impressive juvenile with an almost-impossible-to-pronounce name: Tlaquepaque, winner of the New Westminster Stakes last week.

The tail-male descendant of Seattle Slew gained the lead in deep stretch and won the New Westminster by 2 1/2 lengths, stopping the clock in 1:18.47 for 6 1/2 furlongs. In his only previous start, Tlaquepaque won a maiden special weight over the 3 1/2-furlong “nursery course” on June 18, scoring an easy 7 3/4-length win.

Unfortunately, Olmos has a poor record when it comes to getting his precocious two-year-olds to mature successfully. Both “El Sin” and “Huitzi” went into sharp decline late in their respective juvenile seasons, and were never the same afterwards. So forgive me if I cast a wary eye at Tlaquepaque as the Hastings racing season approaches its climax — while he is more lightly raced than his predecessors were, his connections’ ability to guide him to maturity must be held suspect.

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Say goodbye to Koffee · 4 days ago

This coming Labour Day, September 6, local favourite Krazy Koffee will be saluted in a special retirement ceremony. Owned by Butch Goertzen and trained by Cindy Krasner, “Koffee” enjoyed his best year in 2008 as a three-year-old, winning six races, including the B.C. Derby. Those six scores, plus a close second in the Premier’s Championship, were enough to earn Krazy Koffee Horse of the Year honours over top older horse Spaghetti Mouse.

He came back the following year with mixed success, the highlight being a score in the 2009 B.C. Cup Classic. As a confirmed closer, always subject to pace and traffic scenarios, Krazy Koffee was always at a disadvantage — but he almost always managed to get up for a share of the purse. This year saw him struggle with inconsistent form, and a maddening tendency to either drop back too far to be a factor or burn himself out in an early pace duel.

To their credit, Krazy Koffee’s human connections have seen the writing on the wall and are retiring him while his abilities are still respectable and his health is intact. To Hastings’ credit, the track is going to the effort of honouring him prior to the running of the Richmond Derby Trial, one of the races he won during his championship season. Enjoy your retitrement, “Koffee”!

Update (September 1): Nice write-up in the DRF by Randy Goulding provides more background. Krazy Koffee’s next career will be as a dressage horse.

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Hastings grapevine · 8 days ago

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2010 Unofficial Champion Stayers' Award -- current standings · 9 days ago

Two years ago, Left Coast Racing inaugurated the Unofficial Champion Stayers’ Award, to fill a void in the year-end series of North American racing awards and give due recognition to the distance specialists who best represent the qualities of stamina and durability in the Thoroughbred. The unofficial title of Champion Stayer is awarded to the horse whose performances in North America at distances of 1 1/2 miles and beyond, on dirt, turf, and synthetic surfaces, are deemed to be superior to its rivals.

The winner of the Champion Stayers’ Award is determined using a points system, similar to that used by the Breeders’ Cup for its divisional standings:

  GI GII GIII/ Ungr.
1st 10 6 4
2nd 6 4 2
3rd 4 2 1

Note that ungraded stakes are included, and are given the same value as Grade III’s. This permits consideration of ungraded races which are included in the Breeders’ Cup “Win and You’re In” series, and so logically deserve consideration for the purposes of the Champion Stayers’ award. They are given the same point value as GIII races for two reasons: first, for simplicity’s sake, this allows the existing Breeders’ Cup points system to be easily adapted without adjustment, and secondly because as Breeders’ Cup prep races they tend to attract higher-class horses than ungraded stakes normally would. This policy has been maintained even after the Cougar II Handicap became the first of these new marathon preps to be granted graded-stakes status.

Current standings (as of 25 August 2010):

Bourbon Bay — 18 points
1st: San Luis Obispo H. (IIT), San Luis Rey H. (IIT), San Juan Capistrano Invitational H. (IIT)

Bearpath — 12 points
1st: Pan American S. (IIIT); 2nd: Sword Dancer Invitational H. (IT), Louisville H. (IIIT)

Unusual Suspect — 12 points
2nd: San Luis Obispo H. (IIT), San Juan Capistrano Invitational H. (IIT), Cougar II H. (III); 3rd: Sunset H. (IIT)

Drosselmeyer — 10 points
1st: Belmont S. (I)

Telling — 10 points
1st: Sword Dancer Invitational H. (IT)

Alcomo — 8 points
1st: Brooklyn H. (II); 2nd: Greenwood Cup

Musketier — 6 points
1st: Fifth Third Elkhorn S. (IIT)

Marlang — 6 points
1st: Sunset H. (IIT)

Acclamation — 6 points
1st: Jim Murray Memorial H. (IIT)

Fly Down — 6 points
2nd: Belmont S. (I)

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Stayers' Watch: summer omnibus II · 13 days ago

Signature Stallion Waya Stakes (F&M 4yo&up) (Saratoga, 9 August)

  1. Changing Skies
  2. Casablanca Smile
  3. Liberally

Time: 2:27.46 (12f, firm turf)

Sword Dancer Invitational Handicap (gr. IT) (Saratoga, 14 August)

  1. Telling
  2. Bearpath
  3. Al Khali

Time: 2:25.29 (12f, firm turf)

Stars and Stripes Handicap (gr. IIIT) (Arlington Park, 21 August)

  1. Memorial Maniac
  2. Lemonade Kid
  3. Free Fighter

Time: 2:44.29 (13f, good turf)

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