Sports Horse Racing

The shackles are finally coming off Alan Kings mighty string and rival trainers should beware a flood of winners. This impression was emphasised at a drizzly Taunton yesterday, not just by the victory of Whistlejacquet but by the conspicuously positive mood of the trainer.

Such was his blue sky thinking, as he ran lucidly through his leading Cheltenham candidates, that King referred to Mill Reef, an amusing slip of the tongue that might just indicate his lofty opinion of the Triumph Hurdle favourite, Mille Chief.

Months of torment from mysteriously sick horses have given way only gradually to the normal, prolific business of Barbury Castle. Even last weekend, King had to withdraw Karabak from the Cleeve Hurdle after a dirty scope, though he insisted yesterday this was not connected to our problems before Christmas.

While Karabak heads straight to the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, King is finding final pre-Festival targets for his key novices. The Betchworth Kid, deprived a run at Doncaster last Saturday, is pencilled in for Kempton a week on Friday and Salden Licht for the same track a fortnight later.

Mille Chief, meanwhile, could make a surprise reappearance at Huntingdon in the Chatteris Fen Juvenile Hurdle tomorrow week. We were originally going to wait for the Adonis at the end of the month but if that was off wed be snookered, King explained. This gives me a clear month before Cheltenham.

King is still without Robert Thornton, his stable jockey, who sustained back injuries a week ago. Hes been having physio and seeing the doctor again today, the trainer said. While hes out, its good to be giving opportunities to Wayne Hutchinson, who is riding with a lot of confidence.

Hutchinson will be aboard Oh Crick in the featured Blue Square Handicap Chase at Doncaster on Saturday, provided the horse works satisfactorily today. He also survived the stumble of Whistlejacquet at the second-last to add another string to the yards enviable hand in Festival novice hurdles.

The same cannot be said of the days most impressive winner. Voramar Two travelled sweetly and outstayed such high-profile opponents as Valentine Vic and Cappa Bleu in the style of a progressive hurdler.

However, Philip Hobbs, his trainer, confessed: The Cheltenham novices closed this morning and I didnt put him in. His previous form didnt warrant it but he now looks a natural for the three-miler.

Cappa Bleu, reverting to hurdles after a heavy fall in the Hennessy Gold Cup, delighted Evan Williams, his trainer, by finishing second. It was a bad fall and this has got him back on track, he said.

The defeat of Valentine Vic added to a frustrating afternoon for the champion trainer, Paul Nicholls, until Ruby Walsh won the concluding bumper on Rock On Ruby, named in his honour. He also schooled Denman this morning and was delighted with him, Nicholls said. It might give him a decision to make.

It is a momentous double, even by the standards of an emirate that never does things by halves. Three weeks after the worlds tallest skyscraper comes the unveiling of the longest landscraper on the planet.

At 1.6 billion, it weighs in at nearly twice the cost of the tower that appears to pierce a hole in the sky. Yet Meydan racecourse, with its grandstand 1.6km long, is no tourist attraction with foreign investment attached. It is a monument to one mans passion for a sport sometimes described by its participants as the great triviality.

At least Meydan runs little risk of being rebranded. Five days into the new year and the Burj Dubai skyscraper had a new name. It was rechristened Burj Khalifa, after the emir of Abu Dhabi, which extended Dubai a 15 billion bond lifeline to service its spiralling debt.

There have certainly been better times to open a racecourse. Meydan stages its inaugural fixture today with Dubaians - both indigenous and assimilated - seething over the emirates abrasive treatment by a Western media they describe as envious and imperialist in tone.

Indeed, to read of Dubais apparent demise was to expect to encounter a ghost town. There is scant evidence of that. Lobbies of numerous swanky hotels hum with activity, while the Dubai Mall, the hub of tourism here, seems as densely populated as ever.

Against that, property values have fallen sharply and retail outlets can be rented for a fraction of their former cost. Dubai, in other words, has not proved immune from the global recession. That much was inevitable, given the loan-fuelled blueprint for its rapid expansion.

Not that evidence of a recession has permeated the Meydan fortress. The grandstand itself is due its official baptism on Dubai World Cup night in March, when the feature race will be worth $10 million (about 6.2m). And horsemen here for the preceding carnival speak only of facilities to die for.

Horse racing is akin to the favoured son of Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai who pursues it with a vigour to match his personal wealth. And Meydan is his favoured grandson now in need of a helping hand.

Its completion will plainly go down to the wire. The stewards room remains unfinished for todays fixture, a state that mirrors so much of a facility that is optimistically predicted to be in near-full use come March.

Even yesterday, it was hard to believe that racing would take place. Construction workers, on site by 6am, resembled a swarm of locusts within the giant framework of the grandstand. Progress was laboured: a man polished sheets of glass not 20 feet away from one wielding a saw to marble tiles.

That is not to belittle what has already been achieved in less than two years. The rest of the project will take a little longer. Meydan, replete with luxury hotel and IMAX cinemas, is but one of four elements within Meydan City, the model for which resembles the scarcely credible elements in a blockbuster sci-fi movie.

However, Dubais debt burden has seen the building of Meydan City stall. As it lies in mothballs less-developed emirates have the chance to catch up, notably Dubais oil-rich neighbour, Abu Dhabi. One project on the blocks just 80 kilometres from here is the creation of Saadiyat Island, a rich mans playground that will eventually house 180,000. In economic terms Sheikh Mohammed faces stiffer competition from his peers than he encounters from them on the racetrack.

The sheikhs people are irked that he has been directly linked to the tribulations of Dubai World, the property-based conglomerate whose debts triggered the western backlash in November. Yet any confusion is understandable. His buccaneering style has always suggested that Dubai is his personal fiefdom.

A badge of honour in the boom years, that umbilical synergy is now proving problematic. And the sheikh, who has strived hard to unite global racings disparate elements, faces a fresh challenge on that front.

The decision to lay a synthetic racetrack at Meydan was made in tandem with Americas embracing of such surfaces three years ago. Now, however, Santa Anita, the American standard-bearer of synthetics, is to return to racing on traditional dirt.

Two paths that might have converged now head in opposite directions. They take with them the sheikhs searing ambition to crown a truly representative global champion in the World Cup. Meydan was meant to be a conclusive step in that direction. As with so much in Dubai, however, that project is on ice.

Winslow Homer split horses down the stretch to win the $150,000 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park by three-quarters of a length on Saturday.

Winslow Homer drove away from eight others under jockey Ramon Dominguez to beat favored Jackson Bend. It was another 3 1/4 lengths back to Williams Kitten. Winslow Homer covered the mile in 1:35.97 and paid $9.60, $4.60 and $3.60.

Jackson Bend returned $3.40 and $2.60, while Williams Kitten paid $4.40.

Dominguez guided Winslow Homer just behind the leaders at the halfway point and was fourth by the time Homeboykris and Thank U Philippe entered the stretch on the lead.

With Jackson Bend closing from the outside and drawing even with the leaders, Dominguez drove Winslow Homer between Homeboykris and Thank U Philippe to take the lead at the eighth pole and hold off Jackson Bend to get a win that could help earn the gray colt a spot in the Kentucky Derby.

“Its awful early, but we kept our place in line, trainer Anthony Dutrow said. “One would have to feel good about todays performance. Hes bred to get a distance, he loves two turns.

Dutrow said Winslow Homer, who was purchased at auction two years ago by Rick Porters Fox Hill Farm for $310,000, would next run the Feb. 20 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream.

“We didnt think wed win, Porter said. “We just wanted to run a good race. A one-turn mile is not his best distance so we were just hoping to get a good race out of him.

After a steady diet of all-weather handicaps, jump racing emerged from winter hibernation at Kempton Park yesterday, though persistent rain made it a test of stamina for horse and punter. The select few who made the effort saw an eye-catching chase debut by Mad Max, another talented inmate of Nicky Hendersons stable, and the end of a long winnerless spell for Andy Turnell, who trained Micheal Flips to win the Lanzarote Hurdle Handicap, the feature race of the afternoon.

Heroic work on the Lambourn gallops has allowed Henderson and his fellow Berkshire trainers to keep their horses ticking over during the big freeze. But it was still a cause of concern for the trainer to be pitching a horse of Mad Maxs huge, but delicate, constitution into a novice chase on testing ground on a fast track. The trainer, though, could barely have flinched as the eight-year- old comfortably justified odds-on favouritism with a fine display of jumping, defying four operations that have restricted his progress and compromised his talent in recent seasons.

Henderson can get quite excited after victory, but his eulogy of Mad Maxs ability made the 20-1 widely offered for him at the Arkle Chase at the Cheltenham Festival seem worthy of a second look. He is a very, very classy horse with a lot of speed, said Henderson. Hes had four operations on his breathing so theres nothing more we can do. The good thing was that he didnt make a noise until he was coming in and yet the conditions were horrible.

With Riverside Theatre, a recent Kempton winner, and Long Run, winner of his past three races on both sides of the Channel, Henderson holds a strong hand for the Arkle, the two-mile novice championship in March, which is already shaping up to be one of the races of the Festival.

Once he had pulled his way to the front down the back straight, Barry Geraghty always seemed to have the race under control, though Ruby Walsh and Mahonia made a good race of it until Mad Maxs handsome leap at the last fence.

Rather further back down the road from Henderson in his racing career, Alex Hales is just beginning to emerge as a trainer to follow. Hales served his apprenticeship as assistant to Kim Bailey and Charlie Mann before setting up on his own. It will do no harm to his future progress if Iconoclast turns out to be as good on the track as he is easy on the eye.

Ive always thought the world of this horse, said Hales after the nine-year- old had taken the Novices Handicap Chase, sponsored by William Hill, under Paddy Brennan. But hes been frustrating to train. This is the first year Ive had a clear run with him. Hes a lot better than this.

Turnell was thankful for any winner after 78 days without one. On recent form, Micheal Flips did not seem to have the heart to end the barren spell in a competitive handicap on heavy ground. But, sent to the front by Nick Scholfield, the 9-1 shot came home to bring Turnell a change of fortune for the new year.

In contrast, no Saturday would be complete without a winner or two for Paul Nicholls and his jockey, Ruby Walsh. The champion trainer had to be satisfied with a mere double, through The Minack and Fistral Beach, both of whom are in the formative stages of their careers. The Minack, though, profited from a lapse of concentration or sheer bloody-mindedness by the favourite, Kennel Hill, who seemed to have the race under control before almost slowing to a standstill before the last, while Fistral Beach was produced to perfection by Walsh inside the last 100 yards to end a run of five consecutive seconds.

The focus was on Papa Clem at Santa Anita on Saturday, and the attention made trainer Gary Stute a little uncomfortable.

The colt was the 3-2 favorite in the $150,000 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita, only the second time in his career he was the public choice. When Papa Clem won the Grade 2 race for 4-year-olds, just his third career win, it provided a sense of relief to Stute, who said he wasnt used to saddling the favorite.

Its a lot more pressure, he said. You better win.

Making his 10th consecutive appearance in a stakes, Papa Clem moved to the fore of Californias 4-year-old male division with the win in the 1 1/16-mile race. Papa Clem will be pointed for the $200,000 Strub Stakes for 4-year-olds here on Feb. 6. The San Fernando was the colts first win since the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby last fall.

In the San Fernando, Papa Clem ($5) had an ideal trip under jockey Tyler Baze. Baze kept Papa Clem near the front, stalking Smart Bid through early fractions of 24.19 and 48.74 seconds. Baze guided Papa Clem closer to Smart Bid on the turn and they took the lead in early stretch. Papa Clem was vigorously ridden through the stretch to win by a half-length over Smart Bid, finishing 1 1/16 miles in 1:42.64. Smart Bid finished 1 1/4 lengths in front of Rendezvous, who raced just behind the leaders throughout.

Papa Clem has won 3 of 13 starts and $1,121,190 for owner-breeder Bo Hirsch. Last year, Papa Clem was fourth in the Kentucky Derby and fourth behind Rachel Alexandra in the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in August. The San Fernando was Papa Clems second start of the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting. He was third in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes over seven furlongs on Dec. 26.

He was starting to get the reputation as a horse that didnt win, Stute said.

Saturdays race put an end to that. Stute said earlier in the week that he was entertaining a trip to Dubai for the Dubai World Cup on March 27, but he was not thinking that far ahead on Saturday. Im hoping to get through the next one, he said.

Papa Clem is likely to be favored in the Strub, a role that will feel more comfortable to Stute after Saturdays success.

The Dubai Racing Club will tweak the usual format for a new international jockeys challenge at the new Meydan Racecourse on March 5. The Meydan Masters that night will feature the winning riders of 11 of the worlds most prestigious races from the previous year, with an additional invitation to go to another world-class rider to bring the total to an even dozen.

The event, to be held the night after Dubai World Cup Preview Night, will be consist of four support races on a card that will feature the recently upgraded Group 2 Zabeel Mile on turf. The riders to whom invitations will be sent are Aaron Gryder (Dubai World Cup), Ahmed Ajtebi (Dubai Sheema Classic), Calvin Borel (Kentucky Derby), Norihiro Yokoyama (Japanese Derby), Ryan Moore (King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes), Johnny Murtagh (Irish Derby), Corey Brown (Melbourne Cup), Mike Smith (Breeders Cup Classic) and Olivier Peslier (Hong Kong Cup).

The winning riders of the Epsom Derby and the Prix de lArc de Triomphe are also intended to be part of the program, but as Michael Kinane, who rode Sea the Stars to win both those races, has retired, invitations will be made to French Derby winner Christophe Lemaire and St. Leger Stakes winner Ted Durcan. The 12th rider has not yet been decided, but it is a safe bet the invitation will be made to Frankie Dettori, who spends every winter riding in Dubai.

Canadian Broodmare of the Year Amelia Bearhart, dam of champion Chief Bearhart, died Jan 7, owner Richard Maynard confirmed Monday.

Maynard said the 27-year-old Bold Hour mare has been buried at Maynard Farm near Lexington.

Amelia Bearhart made 13 starts, winning once and placing in the 1985 Burnsville Handicap. Her racing career ended prematurely when she kicked her stall wall and injured her foot.

Maynard, who acquired her from Spendthrift Farm and bred Chief Bearhart, said he never was tempted to sell Amelia Bearhart.

That was a once-in-a-lifetime mare, said Maynard, who owned Amelia Bearhart for 24 years. Most people never get one like her.

Chief Bearhart, by Chiefs Crown, was Canadas Horse of the Year twice, in 1997 and 1998; a four-time Canadian champion; and North Americas champion turf horse in 1997. He won the Breeders Cup Turf that season as well as the Grade 1 Manhattan Handicap in 1998 in addition to seven other stakes.

Amelia Bearhart also produced Grade 1 winner Explosive Red and three other stakes performers. Her last foal is the 2006 War Chant filly Here Comes Amelia, and Maynard has high hopes for her grandson Trackman, by Empire Maker out of Stormy Bear.

Desert Wheat has won 10 times and finished second 11 other times while making 48 career starts. He has earned purse money totaling $668,001, and - for whatever it is worth - is the reigning king of Louisiana-bred turf horses. But until Dec. 19, Desert Wheat had never won two races in a row. Is it possible that at age 7 Desert Wheat is better than ever?

That is a question Fair Grounds horseplayers will be asked to answer if they care to wager on the featured Dixie Poker Ace, the featured event on an 11-race Saturday program in New Orleans, where the theme of the week is goose down. As in, get you some, and wrap up in it. Low temps are dipping into the 20s on a nightly basis this week.

Desert Wheat has conquered wet turf and dry, has even won on dirt, so cold should not stop him. But what of this late-in-life win streak? Surely its more than mere coincidence that until late 2009, when he went back-to-back in the Nov. 14 Mr. Sulu and the Dec. 19 Louisiana Champions Day Turf, Desert Wheat never had strung together as many as two straight victories. But watching him batter seven rivals in a four-length win last month, one did not get the idea one was watching a horse on the verge of regressing.

Moreover, Desert Wheat, who has called the Bill Mott shed row home since the summer of 2006, basically is meeting the same bunch of horses Saturday that he has recently been beating up: Five of the other eight in the $60,000 Dixie Poker Ace also raced in the Champions Day Turf. The new players are Ide Like a Double, who would like a move to the main track; Willist, who hasnt won a turf race since at least 2008; and recent Louisiana-bred allowance-race winner Smoothcideup.

Morris Nicks-trained Smoothcideup is at least mildly interesting, if not as a Desert Wheat upsetter, then as a Desert Wheat exacta partner. At 4, he is younger than any of the other Dixie Poker Ace entrants, and Smoothcideup has raced only seven times on turf. And while Smoothcideups blowout grass win Dec. 20 came over suspect competition on a wet course, his form shows positive signs reaching back to last summer, and he posted a smart-looking half-mile work Jan. 4 for trainer Morris Nicks.

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission here on Tuesday voted unanimously to double a three-day suspension handed down to jockey Calvin Borel for careless riding in November.

The vote to double the suspension reflected the commissions desire to discourage jockeys and trainers from filing appeals to avoid serving days at certain times of the year, according to Lisa Underwood, the commisions executive director.

Were trying to put a stop to these frivolous appeals, Underwood said.

Borel was issued a three-day suspension on Nov. 21 by the Churchill stewards after his mount, Pulpits Secret, was disqualified from first to second in the 10th race on Nov. 20. Three days later, Borel appealed the suspension, which resulted in an automatic stay of the penalty. The stay allowed Borel to ride during the final weekend of racing at Churchills fall meet and secure the meets riding title.

According to the commission, Borel dropped his appeal on Dec. 12, indicating that the appeal was filed only to avoid serving the days because of where they landed on the calendar. The new suspension will run from Jan. 15-17 and Jan. 22-24, both three-day stretches from a Friday to a Sunday.

Earlier in 2009, the commission voted to double a 15-day suspension handed down to trainer Rick Dutrow in 2008 after the trainer appealed the suspension. In addition, the board approved a new rule late last year that codified the commissions intentions to add days to suspensions if the commission believes an appeal to be frivolous. The language of the new rule is in its public-comment phase and could be adopted later this year.

In other action at the meeting, the commission voted to fund six research projects recommended by the Equine Drug Research Council, an arm of the commission that reviews the states medication policies. The commission also attached a rider to the motion that funds the projects that will require the University of Kentucky to direct a portion of any profits derived from the projects back to equine research.

Dr. Jerry Yon, chairman of the Equine Drug Research Council and a commission member, said the language concerning potential profits for research would be contained in the funding contracts given to the university. He said similar protections would be written into contracts providing funding to other universities.

The jockeys room is a den of addictions, most of them harmful. We know some have turned to drugs, rather more to drink. Then there is chocolate, crisps, the usual cravings of the self-starved. Paddy Brennan suffers from none of these. His addiction is winning. Anything less drives him mad.

This is not just the will to win that every sportsman requires. It runs deep through Brennans slender frame and, by his own candid admission, messes with his mind. He used to throw saddles around the weighing-room and vent his anger offensively. Now, he bites his tongue and broods. Im not the nicest person when things go wrong, he said.

So just imagine the state of him, aboard Imperial Commander at Haydock last month, firmly believing he had conquered the great Kauto Star until that cruel photograph revealed that he had been beaten a nose. Or now, with two more days to while away before the chance of atonement at Kempton Park. Im trying to keep occupied, not to dwell on it. But I really cant wait.

This is no spoilt bully who cries when he doesnt get his way. Brennan, 28, is a jockey with rare gifts of touch and timing. He is also bright, witty, companionable and kind. He will talk for hours, engagingly and broadly. He did so this week, in the cottage near Stow-on-the-Wold where he has lived since bitter-sweet circumstances brought him the job as stable jockey to Nigel Twiston-Davies.

Around him was the detritus of the bachelor life he leads since the break-up of an engagement. This week, at least, he is not sorry to be alone with his thoughts and his dreams. They stretch years ahead, for there is nothing in racing that Brennan does not want to do. But he fears and loathes failure.

Probably, I brood at home more than I should, and thats sad. Racing is such a small thing in a massive world but it can take you away from the whole of life. Thats why I love it so much, I guess - theres so much to challenge you.

Brennan is laceratingly honest about his own failings, decorating a life story that began in CoGalway with tales against himself. My mother says the first day I went to school, I lay on the ground and cried for ten minutes, he began. A psychotherapist might make much of this but Brennan dismisses it as a snap judgment. I just hated school.

He was a promising hurler and did not ride until he was 12. Our neighbour kept horses. I sat next to his son at school and he was always on about them. When I first went there, it made me so happy, gave me a feeling Id never had. From that day on, horses took over from hurling.

His whole face radiates warmth when he reminisces but the expression becomes grave again discussing his racing education in the school of hard knocks - proprietor, Jim Bolger. Yet, like most who went through their apprenticeship at Coolcullen, Tony McCoy included, he says it was the making of him.

Ill never forget the first day. Dad dropped me off at half-past two in my best shirt and newly washed jeans. I got home at half five, totally black. That was Jim - the moment you were inside the gate, it didnt matter who you were, it was work. Id disobeyed lots of teachers and got away with it, but you werent going to disobey Jim.

He could be frightening to a young lad. Hed have you in tears and many was the time I tried to leave and get out of racing. But I have massive respect for him and honestly believe hes the best trainer in the world. Theres also a soft side to him that few see.

In my fifth year there, Tony McCoy came to visit. All wed ever hear about was McCoy. He was like a God. Even if you didnt sweep the yard right, Jim would say Tony wouldnt sweep it like that. So when he walked in the tackroom, it was like David Beckham turning up at your local football club. But it was A.P. who sussed out a job for me in England, suggested I went to Paul Nicholls.

On the face of it, this was a dream move. It was 2000, Nicholls was heading for the top. But I went there with the wrong attitude, Brennan said. I was expecting everything to happen yesterday and I thought I was better than I was. The turning point was breaking my leg in 2002 - I went home, watched all my rides on my Godfathers video and realised I was a very ordinary rider.

I was off for six months and I needed every bit of that to get my head right. I had to sort out not just my riding but how I spoke to people, how horrible I could be. I didnt listen to people who tried to help me and I had stupid habits like throwing my saddle across the weighing-room.

It was not an overnight conversion, but Brennan profited from a spell with Philip Hobbs. I felt part of something in a way Id not done before. We hit it off straight away and he was a brilliant man to work for. He had a totally different style to Jim Bolger but it had the same effect - you knew if youd done wrong.

A year with Howard Johnson brought him a World Hurdle and an acrimonious exit. I was angry when I found out he didnt want me to stay, it was hurtful. But I take the positives and the biggest was meeting Graham Wylie, a real gentleman who still sponsors me now.

The other positive was tumbling directly into the job at Naunton, where he is now in his third season. Nigel is the most positive man Ive ever worked for. Khyber Kim was 12-1 for the Boylesports Hurdle but he convinced me I was riding the odds-on favourite. Thats what he does. He believes anything is possible and sometimes it works. I get a real kick out of seeing Nigel second only to Paul Nicholls.

It would be stretching a point to say Brennan has mellowed. You can still sense the rage within but he has a mute button now. Ive learned the best thing is to say nothing and then its easily mended. Before, Id have said the wrong thing and offended people.

He tries to channel his life away from the day job - playing golf, watching football, absorbing his beloved TV soaps. Im learning to get away from it more. But racing and its dream factory still consumes him.

He wants to win a National, he wants to be champion jockey - though only after Richard Johnson, who deserves it more than anybody. Most of all, he wants to be known as the best. Im getting there but I still have to raise another level. Watching him try will never be dull.