Page 10 - The Game July 2006

10 The Game, July 2006 Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper
Cashing on Cabbage: Kimchi Captures the Oaks
By Peter Gross
Four days before the running of the 51st Labatt Woodbine Oaks, the optimism was flowing freely at the draw for post positions. Woodbine CEO and President David Willmot certainly found himself in a positive circumstance. His filly Seductively was coming off a very impressive win in the Grade 3 Selene Stakes and Willmot gave me a candid response when I suggested Seductively was a prime candidate to bounce‚ after popping such a dynamically improved race.
“That’s a crock,” Willmot said, “The
race before, the Fury Stakes, the tack slipped as she came out of the gate and she was completely out of the race. So my view is she would have won the Fury, in which case the Selene would not have been viewed as such an aberration.”
Sufficiently subdued by Woodbine’s numero uno, I then asked trainer Mark Frostad about the chances of his lightly raced Strike Softly, who ran only once this year before the Oaks.
“We lost some time because she ran into a little virus,” said Frostad, “Your plan is always to come into these races at 100% and we’re here and hope we have a shot.
Hopefully we’re in a stalking position off the speed a little bit. She missed some works but I think there’s other horses in the same boat.”
The Stronach Stable was sending out Wedded Woman and trainer Brian Lynch was upbeat about the two-time winner.
“I certainly wouldn’t
enter if I wasn’t optimistic. I don’t need the practice,” he laughed.
Turned out that uber-boss Frank
Stronach wouldn’t be able to see the race live as he was in Austria over the weekend. Stronach, however, always likes to know
how his horses are doing. According to business manager Mike Rogers, Stronach gets his race results live.
“If he’s in Europe, he usually calls me on the phone,” said Rogers, “And I give him a play by play when the race is running. He’s very in tune when his horses are running.”
Race day came up sunny and bright and a large crowd funnelled into Woodbine. Perhaps the most mysterious thing was the odds on Strike Softly. The Sam-Son filly was the clear favourite at 2-1, right to post-time. This seemed to defy the information in the form; Seductively had the two best races, Sweet Breanna had two wins around two turns (Strike Softly had never run longer than seven furlongs) and seven other fillies in the race had earned more than Strike Softly.
After the race, that misguided wagering was still a question mark. Seductively, under Gerry Olguin, went immediately to the front and was pressed on the out- side by Sweet Breanna and Justin Stein into a spirited first half mile of 46.96. Patrick Husbands on Kimchi used his inside position perfectly around the first turn and midway down the backstretch, realizing he had the best horse, eased his filly off the rail. Kimchi cruised past the two front- runners with apparent ease and flew home the best by almost two lengths with Sweet Breanna outlasting Seductively for second. In spite of a past perfor- mance record easily as good as that of Strike Softly, Kimchi went off at more than 8-1.
The issue of weight might get tossed around about this one. Sweet Breanna had thumped Kimchi by five lengths on May 13. On that day, Sweet Breanna carried just 110 pounds, eight less than Kimchi. Under Stakes condition, apprentice Stein was denied his bug,.......
CONTINUED PAGE 11 - SEE KIMCHI
Kimchi - the winner of the $500,000 Labatt Woodbine Oaks on June 11.
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