Soccer Sports News & Betting

Sheza Maneater wins at Hollywood Park. Sheza Maneater beat Nurture by 1 1/2 lengths Friday in the $40,240 allowance feature for fillies and mares at Hollywood Park.

Under Tyler Baze, Sheza Maneater ran 1 1-16 miles in 1:44 and returned $10, $3.60 and $2.10. She earned $24,000 to lift her career total to $82,920.

Nurture returned $3.80 and $2.20, and Life At Ten paid $2.10 to show.

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Lady On Holiday wins Churchill feature race.

Lady On Holiday beat favored Rustic Flame by a nose Friday in the $46,000 feature race for fillies and mares at Churchill Downs.
Ridden by Kent Desormeaux, Lady on Holiday ran 1 1-8 miles on the firm turf in 1:51.23, and paid $10, $4.40 and $3.20. Rustic Flame returned $3.80 and $3, and Silver Chest paid $5.40 to show.

A 3-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Harlans Holiday, Lady On Holiday is trained by Ken McPeek and owned by Russell West. She earned $28,796 to increase her career total to $143,812.

Botched start has echoes of void National.
Arc day opened to high farce and acute embarrassment for the organisers here when a malfunctioning stall caused havoc in the Qatar Prix de l’Abbaye. As high-ranking officials from the middle eastern state braced themselves for the first of their extravagantly sponsored races, the stall housing Fleeting Spirit failed to open at all.

Jeremy Noseda’s filly was thus trapped while her 19 opponents hurtled down the track in a blurred blaze of colour. One by one the jockeys realised something was amiss - with the exception of Andreas Suborics aboard the Hungarian-trained Overdose, who completed the five-furlong journey at racing pace and finished alone. However, Magyar elation quickly turned to anger on realisation that a false start had been called.

In scenes reminiscent of the void Grand National in 1993, very few jockeys noticed the recall man impotently waving his flag. I never saw him at all, said Frankie Dettori, who rode Dandy Man. I realised after 2 furlongs that something was wrong, but trying to stop a sprinter doing 60mph - it’s impossible. Most of the jockeys who completed the course were drawn on the stands’ side, some distance away from stall 18, where Fleeting Spirit clattered her head against a gate that failed to open. I have never seen anything like it in my life, a bemused Noseda said.

Sandor Ribarszki, who trains the unbeaten Overdose, was far less restrained. Amid sporadic booing from Hungarians waving national flags by the paddock, Ribarszki said: I am very angry. We have come 1,700km for this. What a bunch of idiots. It was hardly the way to inaugurate a Qatari sponsorship deal so substantial that it elevated the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe into second place among the world’s richest races. Qatar endorsed four other races on the card, among them the Abbaye.

As it was, damp, autumnal conditions greeted representatives of a desert state which is keen to make an international impact. They could hardly have expected scenes they would not tolerate within their fledgling racing set-up - never mind at a fixture the French like to describe as the finest in Europe.

Edouard de Rothschild, the president of France-Galop, which runs the sport in France, put a brave face on the controversy. It was a technical break-up, he lamented. It is very unfortunate, but these things happen in every sector of life. We felt the most equitable thing was to re-run the race at the end of the card. So it was that a reduced field of 17, missing Overdose and two others from the void race, went to post in the gathering gloom. While the record books will show that Marchand D’Or triumphed, the memory of a wretched episode will outlive the identity of the winner.

Nor was it a day to remember for the Coolmore syndicate. Much was expected of the Aidan O’Brien-trained Mastercraftsman in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere Grand Criterium, but the colt failed to feature behind Naaqoos, a seventh group one winner of the season for Freddie Head, a number quickly increased to eight by the success of Marchand D’Or.

Despite Halfway To Heaven’s Sun Chariot Stakes victory on Saturday, O’Brien’s weekend got off to a dispiriting start when Yeats ran disappointingly in the Prix du Cadran. Like Yeats, Mastercraftsman was sent off a long odds-on favourite and suffered a dent to his reputation.

David Wachman was next into the breach for Coolmore. Once more, however, the syndicate’s Again trailed throughout in a Prix Marcel Boussac won impressively by Proportional, this one trained by Freddie Head’s sister, Criquette Head-Maarek.

The eclipse of the Anglo-Irish challenge was complete when Lush Lashes was overhauled late on in the Prix de l’Opera. The Jim Bolger-trained filly looked tired when she struck the front nearing the final furlong and was duly collared by Germany’s Lady Marian.

Zarkava brilliance mirrored by total belief of Christophe Soumillon.
As rare as was Zarkava’s pulsating triumph in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the post-race admission of her brilliance is rarer still. Very few dissent from the belief that she is as good a filly as there has been since the Second World War.

That alone is reason to celebrate. Racehorses have not escaped the fad for compilations of all-time greats, a provocative exercise in controversy if ever there was one. Therein lies the beauty of Zarkava. To advance her cause is to deprive the chamber of debate. It triggers nothing more controversial than a phalanx of nodding heads.

Nevertheless, such a unified view has been reached through a myriad of interpretation. For some, it is in the bare bones of her two-length dismissal of Europe’s finest. Others cite the striking visual impression of the nose-banded bay slicing through traffic like a Parisian taxi driver.

More still point to an unblemished race record acquired without resort to the whip. To this eye, however, the most revealing detail about Zarkava is the way she was handled by her jockey, Christophe Soumillon. The onset of a crisis is no time for the fainthearted, and for Zarkava, crisis was definitely shaping in the wall of horses blocking her path halfway down the Longchamp straight.
Rewind, if you will, to exactly the same moment 22 years earlier. It was approaching the two-furlong pole that Pat Eddery considered his options aboard Dancing Brave. He, too, had plenty of ground to make up yet, having had a brief look down the outside, he decided to bide his time and tuck back inside. A truly outrageous manoeuvre was rendered all the more so when he flew home on a wing.

To Eddery, what had seemed like an act of impertinence was nothing of the sort. It was the cold, calculating move of man utterly confident in his equine partner. Likewise Soumillon. Where most would have reacted to the enveloping crisis, prodding for room where none existed, Soumillon desisted. He had absolute confidence that Zarkava would respond when the moment beckoned.

Perhaps the best way to communicate the strength of Soumillon’s nerve is to borrow from the advice Edward O’Grady once gave his jockey at Cheltenham. You must ride with balls of steel, he instructed. In truth, Soumillon had no choice. There could be no Eddery-like charge down the outer. His berth in stall 1 compelled him to hug the far rail and patiently await his destiny.

The way Soumillon handled that predicament, coupled with the certainty of his conviction, is the litmus of Zarkava’s brilliance. It was the defining moment. Not for one nanosecond did he believe that she would let him down.

Any fabled tale is enhanced by romance, and plenty of it surrounds Zarkava. She is a great, great granddaughter of Petite Etoile, who passed to the Aga Khan on the death of his father in 1960. However, despite her racing prowess, Petite Etoile delivered but one live filly who would advance a dynasty that culminated in Zarkava’s birth.

Much though we would love to see Zarkava race next season, the odds are against it. She has had an easy time of it, and unlike any colt, her value cannot diminish in defeat. Against that is the streak of wilfulness she has shown around the stalls of late. And that spells trouble.

As the trainer, Luca Cumani, once observed with his laconic Italian wit: The two things that surprise me most in life are women and horses. A woman horse is what I find the hardest of all to fathom out.

Sales season serves to undermine true values.
Two disturbing injustices were threatened by Newmarket’s card on Saturday, so racing should be thankful the damage was limited to one. It could have produced a champion trainer by nonsensical means. As it is, we have the absurdity of what is still known as the Cambridgeshire meeting boasting of being the most valuable raceday ever staged in this country.

The cause of these distortions - a legitimate but still dubious falsification of Flat racing’s accounts - is the latest extension of a troubling rash known as sales races.

While the disapproval of riches during a credit crunch may seem perverse, it is time to restrict the breed before it invites ridicule on racing in the very way that cricket is presently demeaned by staging exhibition games for Sir Allen Stanford’s millions.

The concept - initially paraded as an incentive for owners to maximise returns on their yearling purchases - has swollen, this year, to a point where the races now confuse the priorities of far too many elite cards.

This week, it was the Tattersalls Timeform Millions at Newmarket - one race for colts and another for fillies. Their values were huge, crazily dwarfing the Cambridgeshire and the group one Sun Chariot Stakes, but entirely funded by owners, who paid up to 10,000 to run and up to 7,000 to think about it.

Linked to individual auction houses, which get the publicity without the pain of outlay, such sales races offer rewards way beyond their stature and are coveted only by the winning owners and the bloodstock agents who swank around them.

While owners are prepared to pay, and racecourses are keen to puff out their chests about prize-money, some may consider it an innocent practice, yet it is meddling with the integrity of racing’s time-honoured values while doing nothing for the profile of the sport.

Had Richard Hannon, whose acumen with two-year-olds means he farms many such contests, won both the colts’ and fillies’ versions at Newmarket, he would have overhauled Aidan O’Brien in the trainers’ championship. And, while Hannon has been a marvel all season, that would be a regrettable way to take the title from a man who has won 12 group ones in Britain alone.

Sales races are shallow affairs, rightly scorned by a discerning public. The racing authorities should now perform their own censorship before this self-serving fashion brings the sport into disrepute.

Mike Maloney bets millions of dollars each year on horse races. But a small-dollar bet in which he tried to cheat the wagering system to prove it could be done has racing officials in Kentucky and elsewhere scrambling for solutions.

Maloney spoke Monday to a Kentucky panel that is looking into how best to beef up wagering security at the Kentucky Derby and other races in the state. He said ensuring the integrity of race wagering is so important to bettors, he suspects many would be willing to help pay for an electronic monitoring system through a small percentage of their winnings.

Our wagering system is flawed, Maloney said. I think any reasonable person that will take the time to take an honest look at it and find the facts would have to agree with that.

Although some of the proposed solutions to find cheaters are high-tech, requiring the same kind of sophistication Wall Street uses to detect insider traders, Maloney said many of the problems can be eliminated if racetracks simply monitor the exact time their races start. Most dont, he said, so its impossible to know if bets were placed after the horses had broken from the gate.

Maloney said this practice of past post betting was so persistent, he intentionally placed a small simulcast bet last spring at Keeneland for a race occurring in New Orleans. He immediately reported the snafu with the betting window and has become a leading spokesman in the industry for ramping up betting security.

While the practice of illegal betting cheats prominent horse players, Maloney said the appearance of wrongdoing is even worse for casual bettors, who are already intimidated by racing. Unlike identity theft, in which a customer can usually recoup a fraudulent loss that appears on a credit card, theres really no way for a horse bettor to get back a portion of winnings lost to illegal activity or a problem with the system, he said.

Some of it can be intended larceny, Maloney said. Some can be incompetence. Some can just be human error.

Past-post betting is one of several illegal wagering activities Kentucky officials plan to hunt through an electronic data firm it is considering hiring. The company, Advanced Monitoring Systems, is led by Isidore Sobkowski, who used similar procedures to find insider traders at Wall Street before being signed on to do some work for the racing industry.

Bad guys keep on getting smarter, said Sobkowski, who demonstrated the technology at Mondays meeting. Theres no limit to the amount of creativity people who game the system have to do that.

Among the unlawful betting practices Sobkowski says his company can find are large wagers placed early, then withdrawn shortly before post to muddy the odds and suspicious bets against favorites, which often can suggest insider information.

Lisa Underwood, executive director of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, said the fee to Kentucky for the service would be about $600,000 a year, paid through a small fee on betting activity.

The panel also discussed whether to implement a system allowing the same button to open the starting gate and close the betting windows.

But Gary Biszantz of Cobra Farm suggested a much easier solution would work. He said all betting should cease at least a minute before horses are loaded into the gate.

I just think the simple way to do it is the easy way to do it, Biszantz said.

Maloney said high-dollar bettors would have no problem with that but tracks might because it would reduce the number of bets placed on a given race.

Curlin ran a half-mile in 52,80 seconds Monday. In his first official workout on Santa Anitas synthetic surface under the watchful eye of trainer Steve Asmussen.

It was the first timed workout for the reigning Horse of the Year since he won the Jockey Club Gold Cup at New Yorks Belmont Park on Sept. 27 and became thoroughbred racings all-time money winning horse with more than $10 million.

He looked around quite a bit, Asmussen said. Itll be interesting the next time he gets on the track. We just wanted to put his mind at ease and let him do all the acclimating.

Curlin, who was shipped to the southern California track on Sept. 28, is under consideration to defend his title in the $5 million Breeders Cup Classic on Oct. 25 at Santa Anita, depending on how he adapts to the new Pro-Ride surface.

I dont think there was any decision to be made today, Asmussen said. Were going to show Curlin the patience he deserves and were going to do what we think is right.

This years Breeders Cup will be run for the first time on a synthetic surface, and the Classic would be Curlins first race on such a surface.

For those people that like synthetic surfaces, thats great, said Asmussen, who is not a fan of artificial surfaces. I dont care. I care what Curlin thinks of the surface.

Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown is set to run in the Classic, along with some of Europes top horses.

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This Week in Harness Racing History - October 6-12.

October 6, 1955 Scott Frost wins the Kentucky Futurity at the Red Mile to claim the inaugural Trotting Triple Crown series.

October 6, 2000 Moni Maker and Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone set the world record for trotting under saddle, speeding to a 1:54.1 mile at the Red Mile.

October 7, 1966 Bret Hanover lowers his own pacing world record to 1:53.3 at the Red Mile.

October 8, 1976 Keystone Pioneer sets the world record for female trotters on a five-eighths track by winning in 1:58.1 at Liberty Bell in Pennsylvania.

October 9, 1883 Johnston sets the pacing world record of 2:10 at Chicago.

October 9, 1964 Ayres wins the Kentucky Futurity in straight heats to complete a Trotting Triple Crown sweep.

October 10, 1980 Fan Hanover sets the world record for 2-year-old fillies pacing on a five-eighths track by winning in 1:56.4 at Liberty Bell.

October 11, 1980 Niatross wins the Messenger at Roosevelt Raceway to complete a sweep of the Pacing Triple Crown.

October 12, 1879 St. Julien trots a world record 2:12-3/4 at Oakland, California.

Peppers Pride is ready to try again.
The New Mexico thoroughbred mare is entered in a 6-furlong allowance race Saturday at Zia Park, bidding for what would be a North American record 17th career victory in as many starts.

Peppers Pride never has raced outside New Mexico and could break the mark of 16 straight wins she shares with Triple Crown winner Citation, two-time horse of the year Cigar, Mister Frisky and Hallowed Dreams.

Shes doing well, trainer Joel Marr said Monday.

Peppers Pride hasnt raced since winning the Foutz Distaff Handicap at SunRay Park on April 26. A scheduled attempt to break the record on July 27 was ruined by heavy rains and flooding at Ruidoso Downs, the remnants of Hurricane Dolly. She was slated to run at Ruidoso on Aug. 31, but Marr scratched her after more rains turned the track sloppy.

He agreed the long layoff was not an optimal training regimen.

It probably has had an effect, and well find out Saturday, Marr said. But she has been training well.

September 29, 1938 Greyhound sets the trotting world record. Of 1:55-1/4 in a time trial at the Red Mile in Lexington, Kentucky.

September 30, 1989 Goalie Jeff wins the Tattersalls Pace final for 3-year-olds in 1:51.3 at the Red Mile.

October 1, 1971 Steady Star sets the pacing world record of 1:52 in a time trial at the Red Mile.

October 1, 1980 Niatross sets the pacing world record of 1:49.1 in a time trial at the Red Mile.

October 2, 1982 Fan Hanover sets the world record for female pacers in 1:50.4 at the Red Mile.

October 3, 1986 Mack Lobell sets the world record for 2-year-old trotters of 1:55.3 at the Red Mile.

October 3, 1969 Lindys Pride wins the Kentucky Futurity in straight heats at the Red Mile to complete a sweep of the Trotting Triple Crown races.

October 4, 1960 Adios Butler sets the pacing world record of 1:54.3 in a time trial at the Red Mile.

October 5, 1980 Classical Way sets the world record for female trotters of 1:55.2 in a time trial at the Red Mile.

Survived won the $58,000 allowance feature at Belmont Park on Friday. A pacesetting run in which she beat Viva La Flag by a half length.

Ridden by Edgar Prado and trained by Tony Dutrow, Survived won for the sixth time in 22 starts. The 4-year-old completed the 1 1-16 miles in 1:44.47 on a firm turf course.

Survived paid $28.20, $11.40 and $5.40 in the race for fillies and mares. Viva La Flag returned $5.40 and $3.10. Namastes Wish, the 2-1 favorite, paid $3 to show.

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Shadow Play wins Little Brown Jug.

A half-hour before the second heat of the $551,225 Little Brown Jug, Shadow Play was hurting badly.

But the 3-year-old pacing colt overcame a hoof separation to win the $551,225 Little Brown Jug on Thursday at Delaware County Fairgrounds, pulling away for a 6 1/4-length victory in the second leg of the pacing Triple Crown.

The colt suffered the separation in winning the first elimination heat.

“He had shown no signs of lameness prior to the first heat of the race,” said trainer Dr. Ian Moore, a veterinarian from Prince Edward Island in Canada.

After his first heat, Shadow Play was noticeably lame and Moore found the problem in the heel of his right front foot. It was questionable if Shadow Play he would be sound enough to return for the second heat.

Moore and horseshoer Eric Wilt worked feverishly to get him ready for his biggest race. The colt was shod with a leather pad to alleviate the discomfort.

“Thirty minutes before the final heat, I wasn’t sure he was going to be able to race,” admitted driver David Miller.

Moore told Miller, “Take him out for the post parade for the second heat. If he’s lame, just bring him back and we’ll scratch him.”

Miller found that Shadow Play was sound as he loosened up in the final minutes before the second heat.

The black colt paced a mile in 1:50 1-5. He took the lead at start and set a slow pace and then pulled away in the final quarter.

He was driven to victory by Ohio native David Miller for trainer Dr. Ian Moore of Prince Edward Island. Shadow Play is owned in part by former National Hockey League star Serge Savard of Quebec along with trainer Moore and the R.G. McGroup of New Brunswick.

The two-heat win in the Jug gives Shadow Play 12 wins in 21 starts this season. After winning his elimination heat impressively, Shadow Play went off as the favorite and paid $3.20, $2.20, and $2.10 to win.

The other qualifying heats for the Jug final were won by Lonestar Legend and prerace favorite Art Official. The first three finishers in each qualifying heat returned for the final heat.

Shadow Play earned $255,768 in the Jug, bringing his 2008 earnings to $617,904.

After the race, Moore praised Shadow Play by saying, “Sometimes good athletes can play through pain.”

Shadow Play was favored by the crowd and a $2 wager on him paid $3.20, $2.20, and $2.10.

The Little Brown Jug is the second leg of the Triple Crown for pacers. Art Official won the Cane Pace, the first leg, at Freehold Raceway in New Jersey on September 1.

For Miller, it was his second driving victory in the Little Brown Jug, a race that is particularly dear to him since he grew up in nearby Columbus.

“It feels great to win the Jug,” said Miller. “It’s something you dream about all your life.”

The race was split into three elimination heats when 20 horses were entered. Some people expressed disappointment that Somebeachsomewhere, the top-rated 3-year-old pacer in harness racing, skipped the Jug because his trainer didn’t like the race format that could require a horse to race three one-mile heats in one day.

Shadow Play and driver Miller won the first elimination heat in 1:50, a time which matched the fastest mile in the Jug history. Miller also won the second elimination with Lonestar Legend in 1:49 3-5, which broke the Jug record.

That left driver David Miller with a choice of picking between Shadow Play or Lonestar Legend for the second heat.

“I came here to drive Shadow Play,” said Miller in announcing his decision from the winner’s circle after the second elimination heat. It proved to be the right choice.

Leading novice steeplechasers Be Certain and The Price Of Love face off for the third time this year. As jump racing returns to New Jersey’s Monmouth Park on Saturday. The $75,000 Monmouth County Hunt Stakes lured a field of eight, including the top two young steeplechasers in the country. The 2 1/4-mile, 10-fence race is the sixth of the day with an approximate post time of 3:10 p.m. ET.

Be Certain and The Price Of Love stand out in the race, restricted to first- and second-year steeplechasers, and are developing quite a rivalry.

On form, they carry nearly identical eight-start records over jumps. Each has won three times and finished second three times, with The Price Of Love carrying two thirds and Be Certain one (his lone off-the-board finish came when he was disqualified, from second, when the jockey failed to weigh in).

Against each other, they each own a win. A 4-year-old son of Thunder Gulch, Be Certain boasts youth and breeding on his side. A 5-year-old son of Prenup, The Price Of Love brings a slight maturity edge and was good enough to win once on the flat (Be Certain is a maiden in two starts without jumps).

Despite their youth, both horses appear to be on the fast track to steeplechase stardom.

“It’s amazing, he hadn’t even jumped a fence a year ago,” trainer Tom Voss said of Be Certain earlier this summer. “He’s more mature than most anything I’ve ever had.”

“When he won nicely this spring (a maiden in March) and then came back to run really well in a tough race (an allowance in May), I thought ‘let’s save some ammunition for Saratoga,’” trainer Jonathan Sheppard said of The Price Of Love this summer. “I thought he would like the flat track.”

In May, Be Certain rallied late to win the restricted National Hunt Cup at Radnor over Planets Aligned with The Price Of Love a distant third in soft turf. On July 31 at Saratoga, The Price Of Love got revenge with an inside trip and a determined stretch run to defeat Be Certain by a half-length. They diverged after that race, with The Price Of Love winning a restricted stakes at Saratoga on Aug. 21 and Be Certain placing second (again beaten a half-length) against open company in the Grade 1 New York Turf Writers Cup.

They step outside again in the Monmouth County, each looking to be the hero. Regular jockey Padge Whelan rides Be Certain at 150 pounds with Danielle Hodsdon aboard The Price of Love at 156.

Beyond the top pair, Saratoga winner Spy In The Sky rates a look. The 4-year-old son of Thunder Gulch broke his maiden by an emphatic 11 lengths in April and returned the next month to finish second in an open stakes. Beaten a head on the flat at Colonial Downs in June, Spy In The Sky placed fourth in open company at Saratoga and then got up in the final strides to win a Saratoga restricted stakes Aug. 27. Trained in Virginia by Jimmy Day, Spy In The Sky gets his toughest test to date. Liam McVicar rides at 147 pounds for owner Randleston Farm.

Swagger Stick made three Saratoga starts over jumps, turning in a record of two seconds and a third for Gil Johnston and trainer Jack Fisher. He lost by a head to Spy In The Sky in the Aug. 27 race — his third quality effort after several dismal jump tries. The 7-year-old son of Cozzene won six times on the flat and is a half-brother to former Horse of the Year Pleasantly Perfect.

Fisher also entered Seer, another well-bred 4-year-old. His Saratoga runs included a second July 30 and a third behind The Price Of Love on Aug. 21. Owned by Sheila Williams, the son of Pulpit gets 12 pounds from The Price Of Love on Saturday and attracts leading jockey Xavier Aizpuru.

Voss’ second-stringer, Fox Ridge Farm’s Fogcutter, could improve off his most recent start in soft turf at Saratoga, where he fell after tiring late in the race. Owned by Fox Ridge Far, the 5-year-old son of Woodman gets jockey Matt McCarron.

Sheppard brings two companions for The Price Of Love. Calvin Houghland’s Dr. Bloomer (Robbie Walsh) looks to find his spring form that saw him win an open Grade 3 stakes over Spy In The Sky. Timber Bay Farm’s Prep School (jockey to be announced) makes his third start off a year layoff, but was beaten double digits in both Saratoga tries.

Monmouth last hosted jump racing in 2004, but has a long history with the sport with longtime fixture the Midsummer Hurdle Handicap, counting Zaccio, Life’s Illusion, Gran Kan, Tuscalee and King Commander among its past winners … Saturday’s race is named for the Monmouth County Hunt, whose races in nearby Red Bank, N.J., were a fixture on the circuit for nearly 65 years … Amory Haskell, namesake of the Grade I Haskell Invitational, was a member of the hunt.