Woodbine maiden stakes standout
FORT ERIE, Ontario - Woodbine-based Wisdomisgold towers over her four opponents in the six-furlong $75,000 Juvenile Stakes here at Fort Erie on Saturday.
Although Wisdomisgold is still a maiden after three starts, her three Beyer Speed Figures (64, 48, 58) label her a standout, and all but one of her opponents also are maidens.
The best Beyer owned by the rest of the field belongs to Lady Actor, who earned a 46 for her win in her debut here Aug. 24. Lady Actor is the only winner in the race, which is restricted to 2-year-old fillies who were offered at either the open Woodbine yearling sale or mixed sale in 2003.
Owned and trained by Sean Hall, Wisdomisgold, at odds of 44-1, finished second in her debut June 12 in a maiden special weight at Woodbine. She was a beaten favorite, finishing fourth, in her next start, and Hall blamed Wisdomisgold's sub-par performance on an undetected virus.
"She didn't go under tack for two weeks after that race," said Hall.
As a result, Hall said, Wisdomisgold might have been a bit short in her last start, a third-place finish in Woodbine's $131,000 Nandi on Aug. 8.
Trainer Jim Woods pointed out that his filly, Lady Actor, won her race easily. "She came back with a little still in her tank," said Woods. "She's a nice filly. I expect her to go on. We have a decent shot."
Several races still close
Presentations will be made to the champions of the various divisions between races here on Monday, the final day of the meeting. Some of the categories are extremely close.
Going into the final four days, Mike Barkowski had a one-win lead in the owner standings. Bruno Schickedanz, who was second, has been the leading owner for the past seven years.
The trainer standings showed Tom Agosti on top with 26 wins. Ross Armata had 25, and Don MacRae 24.
Neil Poznansky, with 65 wins, topped the jockey standings, five ahead of last year's champ, Martin Ramirez, and Brian Bochinski.
Quaranta headed to Great Lakes
Trainer Ralph Quaranta saddled two winners on Monday - Passionforall ($26.10) and Palace Creek ($16.90). Both were for the Colebrook Farm stable, owned by John Brnjas.
They were wins number seven and eight for Quaranta, who had six victories at the meet last year. Quaranta, 53, will take a string of Colebrook Farm runners to Great Lakes Downs in Michigan next week.
"We'll stay at Great Lakes until the end of October," said Quaranta. "Then we will go to Philadelphia, where we have 20 stalls. [Brnjas] wants to winter race this year. He'll send me down some from Woodbine."
Brnjas is an owner-breeder who has an expanding operation in Uxbridge, Ontario. He has built a training center there and is adding to his stallion list.
* Apprentice jockey Chad Beckon entered August with just three wins on the year and came out of it with 15. He will be moving his tack to Woodbine next week.