All-female team lifts U. S.

By SARA CAVANAGH

    The United States jumped up to third in the over-all standings of the Meydan (formerly Super) League after a dramatic win by an all-women team in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, on June 18.
    Lauren Hough on Quick Study, Candice King on Skara Glen's Davos and Laura Kraut on Cedric all jumped double clear rounds to win with zero faults over Great Britain with 7 and The Netherlands with 8.
    The fourth team member, Nicole Simpson on Tristan , contributed one round with four faults and the second with one time fault.
    That victory jumped the U.S. up from sixth place to third, and a new team in Falsterbo tied for fifth to keep the U.S. in third after five of the eight competitions.

An awakening for young U. S. riders

By SARA CAVANAGH

    A new USET-backed Young Riders Tour this spring was not only highly successful in its results but also opens a pathway for youngsters to the highest echelons of show jumping.
      In past years, a Developing Rider Tour was supposed to introduce young and upcoming riders to the rigors of competition in Europe, but, as selection was made from the Computer List, the riders on these tours were often older, second-rate riders, not the young elite.
    So USET chef d’equipe George Morris and Michelle Grubb, a top international competitor who is now a trainer, along with USET staff, devised a system guaranteed to bring along top young riders.
    There is a series of Nations Cup competitions for Young Riders (under 21) in Europe, and, with funding from the USET Foundation, five riders were selected to compete in three of them.
    Carl Cook of Woodside, Calif., with Uno de Laubry and Notories Utopia, Nick Dello Joio of Wellington, Fla., with Malcolm, Taylor Land of Alpharetta, Ga., with Karonda, Michael Murphy of Apopka, Fla., with Katina 12 and Jennifer Waxman of Chagrin Falls, Ohio with Venturo and Shakira were selected by their placings in classes of 1.45 Meters or higher.
    Their first competition was at CSIOY Moorsele, Belgium on May 13-16, with Ralph Caristo as chef d’equipe,
    “The competition was really hard,” said Caristo. “It was a nice awakening for our riders. The courses were quite difficult.”

     
Back-to-back Grand Prix wins at HITS for Ward

     SAUGERTIES, N.Y.– Two-time Olympic Gold Medalist McLain Ward and Goldika 559 proved once again that they are a golden combination as they captured the $25,000 HITS Grand Prix on Friday, June11 and the $125,000 Purina Mills Grand Prix on Sunday, June 13 to close out the three-week HITS-on-the-Hudson spring series.
    “I thought the course was tough, it should be difficult,” said Ward. “The footing held up well despite all the rain we had this morning. I thought six was just the right number to advance and there were some very good horses in the jump-off.”
    Ward, of Brewster, N.Y., and the 18 year-old mare Goldika 559, owned by McLain Ward & Blue Chip Bloodstock, were one of 25 horse-and-rider combinations, of which six advanced to the jump-off.
    “She’s been an incredible horse her entire life,” said Ward. “She never ceases to amaze us.”

Young guns threaten at Saratoga

By SARAH L. GREENHALGH

    Tack trunks are packed, last-minute stall assignments are being made. It’s time for the summer jump season at The Spa and this year the competition is fierce.
    In the past few seasons, certain top stakes horses were on schedule to take over the New York track in Saratoga Springs, but with titan Good Night Shirt now retired and last year’s Eclipse award winner Mixed Up uncertain, other horses and smaller trainers are poised to dominate this year.
    In any given year, it is a safe bet that Maryland trainers Jack Fisher and Tom Voss will have at least three or four top horses ready to run over the storied track in New York.
    Of course they will be up against Pennsylvania’s Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard.
    All three have very deep stables and are working hard for owners with fat wallets as Saratoga opens up on July 18 with The Saratoga Jump Start, but it is the smaller trainers that are going to make them work for the accolades this year.



Meister honored by peers

By MARTHA BARBONE

    COCKEYSVILLE, Md.–S. Bryce Wing was a towering giant in Maryland timber racing.
    A member of the Maryland Hunt Cup committee from 1939 until his death in 1975 at the age of 85, he served as its secretary and also served as president of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association, (now known as the NSA.)
    He was also a member of The Jockey Club and a Master of Foxhounds at the Elkridge-Harford Hunt Club.
    A charming and kind man and so well-respected and beloved by any who knew him, in 1976, the Maryland Hunt Cup Association determined to present an award in his name to recognize people who have made significant contributions to Maryland timber racing.
    It was agreed that the award would not be yearly but would only be given as warranted.
    Until this year, only 22 people have received it, the last was the late Peter Winants, ironically Wing’s stepson, who was the editor of The Chronicle of the Horse and whose contributions to Maryland racing are legendary.
    The committee felt that in 2010, there was another deserving recipient and so gave the S. Bryce Wing award to Billy Meister of Cockeysville, Md.
    Meister, now 46, first moved to Maryland in the fall of 1986 to work for another Maryland timber legend, Mikey Smithwick.

Pennsylvania BREEDING & RACING

After warning, some progress at Phila Park

By LINDA DOUGHERTY

    Earlier this year, Pennsylvania Racing Commission chairperson Dr. Corinne Sweeney issued some pointed remarks aimed at Greenwood Gaming & Entertainment, Inc., owner of Philadelphia Park and PARX Casino in Bensalem, Pa., as well as the other racetracks in the state that also operated slot machines.
    Sweeney’s remarks were made over concerns that she and the entire Commission had over the commitment of racetracks to live racing and breeding, since slot machines have proven to be a very lucrative and profitable business.
    “There should and will be a closer connection between live racing, slots and table games; one should be recognized as ‘part and parcel’ with the other,” stated Sweeney, who is also the associate dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square and the COO and executive director of the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals.
    Sweeney also stated that “the Category One license holders (racetracks) are to support the offering of a significant number of races restricting entry to Pennsylvania-bred horses, recommending one such race on every racing card.”
    Since those remarks and others were in March, there has been some progress made.  Philadelphia Park is now writing Pennsylvania-bred races and intends to expand the offerings to 2-year-olds beginning this fall.

Right place, right time for stakes winner

By LINDA DOUGHERTY

    Zoeling, a 7-year-old Pennsylvania-bred son of Favorite Trick, shipped in from Arlington Park after he won a starter allowance on the Polytrack and captured the $75,000 Leemat Stakes for state-breds at Presque Isle Downs on June 25 over its Tapeta surface, his first added-money victory in his 44-start career.
      “He loves this surface and we knew this would be the right spot for him,” said trainer Doug Matthews, after Zoeling covered the six furlongs in 1:10.24.
    Matthews said he knew the horse to beat in the Leemat was fan favorite and six time Presque Isle Downs winner and defending Leemat winner Whistle Pig, but was confident Zoeling was up to the challenge.

12th win for Informed  Decision

By LINDA DOUGHERTY

    Augustin Stable’s Informed Decision won for the 12th time in her stellar 17-race career on July 4 when she battled head-and-head down to the wire and captured the $100,000 Chicago Handicap (G3) at Arlington Park.
    Hammered down to 1-5 favortism by the holiday crowd, the 5-year-old gray daughter of Monarchos spotted her six rivals from six to nine pounds, including Rinterval (IRE), whom she defeated by a head in 1:24.34 for the six furlongs under regular jockey Julien Leparoux.
    Informed Decision, 2009’s champion female sprinter, won the Chicago Handicap last year en route to a victory in the Gr. 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Santa Anita.
    “I think it was a great effort,” said winning trainer Jonathan Sheppard, of her July 4 Chicago Handicap triumph.  “She did only win by a small margin but she was giving nine pounds to horses worth half a million dollars. It was a little too close for comfort but she got the job done. That's the name of the game. That's why you have handicaps to make everyone have an even chance.”


Allowance win for champion filly Listen In

By LINDA DOUGHERTY

    Last year’s Pennsylvania-bred champion 2-year-old filly Listen In recorded her first victory of 2010 in a $55,890 allowance race at Philadelphia Park on June 14.
    The daughter of Pennsylvania sire Wiseman’s Ferry, who stands at Dana Point Farm in Lenhartsville, took home the first-place prize of $35,280 to increase her lifetime earnings to $152,062.
     Trained by Joseph E. Kasperski for owner Lawrence M. Karp, Listen In covered the one mile, 70 yards in 1:42.06 under jockey Justin Shepherd, and she came from just off the pace to win by nearly four lengths over Almost Grecian and Miss Mockingbird.
    In 2009, Listen In had an outstanding juvenile campaign.  She captured half of her four starts, and was placed twice, with the highlight being a victory in the Blue Mountain Stakes at Penn National.  Her earnings for the year topped $90,000, and she was voted the state’s best 2-year-old filly by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association.
    Listen In was bred in the Keystone State by Harry L. Landry, who owns a bloodstock company based in Saratoga Springs, N. Y.  Landry, who lives in former New York governor John Alden Dix’s summer home on the Hudson River, owns a share in Wiseman’s Ferry.



Memorable 5 days in May for trainer

By LINDA DOUGHERTY

    It was a very good five-day stretch in the Mid-Atlantic region for Fair Hill Training Center-based trainer Tim Woolley beginning with the Memorial Day weekend.
    Woolley’s winning spree kicked off when he tightened the girth on Miguel Piedra’s Vicar’s Tune at Delaware Park in a $18,000 turf race at 7-1/2 furlongs on Memorial Day, May 31.  A 7-year-old son of Vicar, Vicar’s Tune covered the distance in 1:30.23 under jockey Joe Rocco, Jr.
     On June 1, Woolley saddled Vintage Thoroughbreds’ Pennsylvania-bred Abby Rules to her maiden-breaker at Penn National Race Course.  The 3-year-old daughter of Roman Ruler is a homebred for David Charlton, who heads Montgomery County-based Vintage.  Abby Rules won the one mile, 70 yards test by nearly seven lengths.
     On June 2, Woolley was back at Penn National saddling Five of Us Farm’s homebred Pogo, a Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Caller I. D., to her maiden win in a 5-1/2 furlong race.  She defeated seven rivals by the wide margin of 14 lengths under jockey Oscar Flores.
    And on June 4, Woolley sent Dr. John Chandler’s homebred Hlatikulu to win a $20,000 race at Penn National on turf, gamely hanging on to win by a neck in 1:37.64. The 4-year-old filly is a Pennsylvania-bred daughter of Cetewayo, a Grade 1-winning millionaire who raced for Chandler during his long and successful career.

   

World's Top female jockeys at Penn National

     GRANTVILLE, Pa. – Some of the world’s leading female amateur jockeys competed at Penn National the night of June 11 in a FEGENTRI (International Federation of Amateur Riders) event.
    The 1-1/16 mile claiming race on the grass draw a full field of 10 fillies and mares, and in the end it was Norway’s Cathrine Engebretsen who prevailed aboard the Ann Merryman-trained Subtle Strike, winning by a head over Langley Park, ridden by Penn National trainer and amateur rider Sandee Beattie.
    Seven countries including the United States were represented in the competition.



Flourishing WynOaks seeking 2nd stallion

By LINDA DOUGHERTY

    DELTA, Pa. - Though Chip and Barbara Wheeler’s WynOaks Farm is a relative newcomer to the Pennsylvania scene, it has quickly developed a reputation for excellence in the Mid-Atlantic region, on a par with some of the top thoroughbred facilities in the country.
    With several decades of experience under their belts in various aspects of the business – boarding, breeding, breaking, bloodstock management and sales prep – the Wheelers launched the Delta, Pa. farm in 2005 and hit the ground running.  The farm’s proximity to the Maryland border, located only six miles away, as well as to major stallion farms such as Northview-Pa., Ghost Ridge, Penn Ridge, Timber Ridge and Pin Oak Lane farms, have made it a convenient location for those breeders wishing to take advantage of the rich Pennsylvania program.
    In 2009, WynOaks’ beautiful and distinctive red-roofed barn, modeled after those found in Kentucky, became home to its first stallion, Weigelia, a sound and durable stakes-winning millionaire.  Retired during a difficult economic climate for the entire thoroughbred industry, Weigelia was able to serve nearly 30 mares in 2009, as well as again this year, and his first foals are outstanding.
    “Our plans going forward are to look for another stallion,” said Barbara Wheeler.  “Weigelia and Gouldings Green (who stood at WynOaks as the property of Ed Price’s Mohns Hill Farm) did well this season, and ideally we’d like to get a stallion with national appeal.”



Fasig-Tipton says Spa catalog best in memory

By LINDA DOUGHERTY

    One of the highlights of the Saratoga Springs, N. Y. season is the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings sale, and this year promises to be just as exciting as 202 of the finest young horses in the country will go under the hammer at the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion on Aug. 2 and 3.
    Hip numbers 1 through 100 will be offered on Aug. 2, and 101 through 202 on Aug. 3, beginning at 7 p.m. each night.
    “This year’s catalog is one of the finest collections of yearlings we have assembled in recent memory,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning, in a press release. “Last year’s sale saw an increase in international participation that enabled us to offer more diverse pedigrees. In addition to the leading sires of North America, European sires Cape Cross, Dubawi, and Oasis Dream will be represented.”
    Of the 202 yearlings catalogued, only two are Pennsylvania-breds, and one – Hip 156, a Hard Spun colt offered by Walnut Green, agent for Smart Angle – is expected be withdrawn, according to a Walnut Green spokesperson.
    The other Pennsylvania-bred, Hip 159, is a colt by top sire Medaglia d’Oro out of Runaway Royalty, by Runaway Groom, offered by Taylor Made Sales Agency.  The colt, a half-brother to graded stakes winner Air Rocket, was bred by Albert Coppola.