Page 26 - August 2005 The Game

26 The Game, August 2005 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Yearling Sale Grads - Champions at Woodbine
By Chris Lomon
The Yearling sales season is on the horizon, beginning September 6, when the Ontario division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society's select sale starts at Woodbine. The preferred sessions of the sale take place on September 9 and 10.
The catalog for the 2005 sale is expected to be out by August 4, with 216 yearlings entered in the select session and another 227 set for the preferred session.
Some of the more notable sires in the select session include Smart Strike, Langfuhr, Holy Bull, Graeme Hall and Cat's at Home.
Below is a look at four of Woodbine's most prominent current stars, all of whom are associated with the Ontario Yearling sales.
A Bit O'Gold
Year-Old Male honours at the Sovereign Awards, after a campaign that included victories in the Plate Trial, Prince of Wales and Breeders' Stakes.
"Often we buy horses that are plain brown. When we brought Winter Whiskey and A Bit O'Gold home from the sale they looked like bookends; both chestnuts with big white faces and some white on their feet. From the minute we turned them out, they were athletic and lovely movers. They stood out."
One look at his record shows the son of Gold Fever is indeed a standout performer. "I feel like a curator looking after a fine piece of art when it comes to him)," said Day Phillips. "He's a special horse and
we're just along for the ride."
A Bit O'Gold's most recent win came in
the Chinese Cultural Centre Stakes, a brilliant two-length triumph in the Grade 2, 1 3/8-mile turf feature on July 24.
he tried to rip my shoulder off," Kabel continued. "But he can be gentle, too. He has two personalities. But he's just very professional and he never quits."
It's a far cry from his early days at the racetrack, times when Mobil was as green as they come.
"He wasn't sure what he was doing when he first started out," said Kabel. "But he's gotten bigger and stronger and filled out. He's more relaxed these days."
But that doesn't mean he's lost his fighting spirit.
"He's the type you'd love to have backing you up in a bar brawl," said Keogh, who watched Mobil finished a hard-fought second to A Bit O'Gold in last month's Chinese Cultural Centre Stakes. "He's as tough-as-nails."
And as his rivals have found out time and again, he's tough to beat, too.
One For Rose
Her claim to fame is the claiming game.
A two-time Sovereign Award winner, One For Rose, who took back-to-back Older Female honours in 2003 and 2004, has proven to be an incredible claim for Tucci Stables and trainer Sid Attard.
Haltered for $40,000 in her winning career debut as a three-year-old back on October 4, 2002, One For Rose has since won seven added-money events, two divisional titles and career earnings of $1.2-million.
Landing the Hill 'N' Dale Farms-bred star, who originally sold for just over $15,000 (Cdn.) in 2000, almost didn't happen.
When he first saw One For Rose, trainer Sid Attard initially scoffed at the idea of claiming the horse after her racing debut.
If it weren't for a last-second plea from his son, Paul, also a trainer at Woodbine, Attard might never have entered a claim on the rangy and robust mare.
He's certainly glad he did.
"The Tuccis (owners Carlo and Lou) called me and said, 'Sid, we like this horse. Go take a look and if you like her, claim her.' I'll tell you the truth, at first I didn't want her. Paul was with me before the race. He asked me who the claim was for and he said, 'Dad, do it. They're lucky.' I had a horse that was as big as her before and she was too clumsy."
"But we soon found out that she'll go all day long, the longer the better for her. She's a wonderful horse."
And still at the top of her game.
"I thought I made the right move at the three-eighths pole," said jockey Emile Ramsammy, of the six-year-old mare's most recent triumph in June's Ontario Matron Stakes. "She's the king of the queens. She got tired, but like the champi- on she is, she prevailed."
"This is a dream for my uncle and I," said co-owner Lou Tucci, after the Ontario Matron. "We didn't want it to end so soon. So we brought her back for another year and what can we say? 'Rose' is a champion and she proves it year after year."
Simply Lovely
Think of Simply Lovely, offered trainer Robert Tiller, as the "little freight train" that could...and did.
Having trained her dam, Belle Affair, Tiller had a good feeling when it came time to register a bid on the compact horse at the 2003 yearling sale.
"When I bought her (Simply Lovely), the only knock was that she was on the small side," said Tiller, one of Canada's most decorated conditioners. "Her mother was a great horse, but unfortunately, had a short career."
While she wasn't exactly a bargain, Simply Lovely certainly gave Tiller and Co. their money's worth in her first year at the races.
"We paid around $90,000 (Cdn.), so she wasn't cheap. But she had a great two-year- old campaign."
After a second-place finish as the mutuel favourite in her career bow on August 19, Simply Lovely took the seven- furlong Muskoka by 2 1/4-lengths, before trouncing her rivals by 7 1/2-lengths in the six-furlong Victorian Queen.
The Ontario-bred followed that effort up with a fourth-place finish, some 7 1/2- lengths back of Victorious Ami in the 1 1/16-mile Princess Elizabeth, but found herself quickly back on the winning track after her first two-turn test.
"That wasn't an easy thing to do," said Tiller, in reference to Simply Lovely's 2 3/4-length score in the six-furlong Fanfreluche on November 7. "For her to cut back in distance and race the way she did, it was impressive. She's a gutsy filly, who gets fit fast. She's all heart and she's a trier.
"But she fooled me," said the Brampton resident, when it came to his original assessment of Simply Lovely, bred by Garland Williamson. "She's not a morning glory horse by any means, but she showed her class last year."
Just one more reason, said Tiller, that the Rocco Marcello-owned filly found herself front-and-centre on December 17, the night of the 2004
Sovereigns.
"She definitely
deserved the Oscar," said Tiller, whose prized pupil picked up 200 votes in taking the Top Two-Year-Old Filly honour.
A Bit O’Gold winning the G2 Chinese Cultural Centre Stakes
Mobil
He's a well-oiled, mean machine that can handle dirt, turf or slop and can win on the front-end or rallying from off the pace.
Mobil was offered for sale by owner Gus Schickedanz at the 2001 Canadian Breeders' selected yearling sale, but was bought back for $30,000 (Cdn.) when
A Bit O'Gold has always shown he can walk the walk.
It was like love at first sight when conditioner Catherine Day Phillips first saw the yearling that would come to be known as A Bit O'Gold.
"The first time we saw him was at Glenn Sikura's Hill 'N' Dale Farm just before the yearling sales in 2002," recalled Day Phillips.
"When we saw him at the Select Sale, we liked him even more. He had a great walk. We thought that we were very lucky to be able to buy him (for $60,000 Canadian). He was definitely our pick of the colts."
Though many of the horses Day Phillips selects fall into the bay or dark bay description, this is one chestnut that has injected more than just a little colour to her stable of stars.
Last year, A Bit O'Gold took Top Three-
the reserve was not attained.
"I liked him the first time I saw him,"
said trainer Mike Keogh, of Mobil, the well-built son of Langfuhr (another champion also trained by Keogh). "I wanted to take him out of the sale.
"He's a versatile horse and he's shown he can win in different ways and on different surfaces. He's just a great horse to be around."
But a horse you have to keep an eye on when you happen to be within his personal space.
"He's like Muhammad Ali," said regular rider Todd Kabel, of the Gus Schickedanz- owned colt, out of the winning Naskra mare Kinetigal, whose dam, Kenergy, is a half sister to Grade 2 winner Between the Hedges and stakes winner Final Chapter. "He's as tough as they come.
"He's bitten me and kicked me over the years and once, when I walked by his stall,
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