(visualkaos)

Those of who have become fans of Chantal Sutherland by watching the show Jockeys no doubt will be pulling for her to improve her place in the jockey standings at her home track of Woodbine in Canada.

The most recent episode featured Sutherland pulling out all the stops to get Smith to propose, and therefore give her a reason to stay in SoCal. Smith didn’t take the bait and advised her to do whatever it is that she needed to do (i.e., go back to Woodbine where she can get better mounts and make more money). After toiling on claimers to be with her beloved she decided to back to whence she came in search of the big bucks. But how has it worked out?

Currently Chantal Sutherland is 2nd in the Woodbine jockey standings behind Patrick Husbands. As of September 12th she’s had 608 mounts, won 88 times, placed 89 times and showed 89 times. Her earning so far are $5,028,992.

Compare this to how Sutherland did at Santa Anita where she ended up 11th (not 10th!). She made just 155 starts, won 18 times, placed 21 times and showed 19 times. Her win percentage was 12% compared to her current 14% but no earnings were available.

Obviously it’s not an apples to apples comparison if you look at the number of starts the top riders at Woodbine have compared to the number of starts for the top riders at Santa Anita but I think it’s safe to say that things have worked out for her!

You can keep track of Chantal’s current place in the Woodbine standings here and keep track of her race results here by scrolling down to Woodbine.

Posted by dana on Sep 13 2009    
Filed Under: Mike Smith, Jockeys TV Show, 2009, Santa Anita, Chantal Sutherland, Woodbine, Racing

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(raymond)

I’ve noticed several comments, tweets and at least one post about Calvin’s use of the whip on Rachel. My only question is, what took you so long? Did people just now notice that American jocks whip horses too much?

Check out Calvin’s ride of Lady Joanne in the 2007 Alabama (not on YouTube, sorry!) or Mike Smith on Tiago in the Santa Anita Derby:

(partymanners)

And these are just two that came to mind immediately. AND how about all those horses who aren’t Rachel Alexandra, Lady Joanne or Tiago?

If Rachel can get some meaningful discussion going about use of the whip it will be one more stellar accomplishment for her to add to her impressive resume. It’s easy to blame the jocks, lord knows I’ve done it, but the issue is bigger than that. We have vague rules that are hard to enforce which makes it that much harder for stewards to actually do something about it.

I’m a huge fan of whip reform. Sadly as regular fans and players we’re all used to it but commenter ljk summed it up nicely on a post last year when he said:

I’ll say it again: to newcomers our sport looks like people with sticks beating horses to make them run

Word.

Posted by dana on Sep 08 2009    
Filed Under: Stewards, The Whip, 2009, Mike Smith, Rachel Alexandra, Twitter, Raymond Haddad, Internet, Grrrr, Fans, Tiago, Race Replay, YouTube, Calvin Borel, Racing

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Chantal Sutherland and Mine That Bird in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (Hen Bros)

Mike Smith is going to honor his commitment to the Shirreffs and the Mosses (cough *Zenyatta* cough) and stick with Madeo in the Whittingham at Hollywood Park on Belmont weekend. This could leave Mine That Bird without a mount (again!) if Rachel Alexandra is entered.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to see Chantal Sutherland reunited with Mine That Bird! If you were buying “Blinkers Off’s” Animal Planet conspiracy theory, you’ve gotta think that there’s at least 7-2 shot at a reunion if Rachel Alexandra. Stranger things have happened!

And speaking of Zenyatta, who makes her debut in the Milady this coming weekend, now that Rachel Alexandra has beaten the colts and a gelding in a classic race, she’s probably gonna have to beat BOTH Rachel Alexandra and some males (BC Classic, no?) if she wants HOY this year. Jerry Moss, do you read GbG? I hope so!

Posted by dana on May 18 2009    
Filed Under: Zenyatta, Geldings, 2009, Mike Smith, Mine That Bird, Rachel Alexandra, :), John Shirreffs, Calvin Borel, Belmont, Chantal Sutherland, Hollywood Park, Belmont Stakes, Racing

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The Derby party is over for Stardom Bound as her connections decide to point her to the Ashland and then the Oaks. I’m no trainer but doesn’t that seem like a quick decision? I’m also a little sad that they seem to have lost confidence in her. Plenty of folks have pointed out that her colleagues are just now catching up to her, she certainly didn’t take a step backwards but it seems like they’ve interpreted it that way.

Not that I want to turn in to the Gawker of racing but the internets uncovered some interesting speculation this afternoon… “look for Gomez to replace Smith” on Stardom Bound. But if we’re gonna speculate, you would think that any switch would be to Prado as Dutrow’s go to rider, although Iavarone was vague about when the transfer would happen. This just feels a little bit too much like the Hard Spun/Pino knee jerk reaction moment, that is, if it happens!

And because you knew it wouldn’t be long before this argument got trotted out:

Stardom Bound doing right thing staying w/ fillies. After Eight Belles, why would any owner consider taking the boys on? What’s the point?

The tweet-o-sphere immediately responded with:

It worked for Zarkava in the Arc and Goldikova in the BC Mile… both races less than 6 months after Eight Belles

And Ventura just finished a nose behind Gio Ponti in the Kilroe Mile. Sex isn’t a safety issue.

PETA has a worse rep than horse racing. Fs beat colts at ALL levels of the game. A filly won a classic not 2 years ago. There is no argument

R2R beat what people call ‘the greatest horse of this generation’. That’s ‘game over’ right there. Educate the peeps, don’t let PETA do it.

Educate is right + keep pressure on industry re: horse safety, welfare. Pandering to ignorance, anthropomorphism not the answer.

Fingers crossed that we can move on quickly from that argument, and I’m ready for the “Sex is not a Safety Issue” T-shirt!

In light of Einstein’s Big Cap win, Jessica and o_crunk have been trying to come up with a list of horses to win graded stakes on all three surfaces. So far they have Lava Man and Panty Raid. I just noticed Monterey Jazz has also has the 3 surface sweep. That’s a pretty short list, but then again it’s not an easy accomplishment. There have to be at least a few more, no?

Update: yes, there are quite a few more in fact. And doesn’t that sentiment re: “staying with the fillies” seem laughable now.

Posted by dana on Mar 09 2009    
Filed Under: 2009, Impressive, Stardom Bound, Mike Smith, Omnisurface Stars, Twitter, Einstein, Internet, Lava Man, Hard Spun, Derby Trail, Mario Pino, Garrett Gomez, Racing

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I’m a little perturbed with all the spin about Stardom Bound being “barely best” beating an “unheralded” field and that her connections should face the “sobering reality”.

I couldn’t sum it up any better than Alan at LATG when he says:

Expecting to read the praises of the gritty win by Stardom Bound in the SA Oaks, I was surprised, and rather disappointed, to instead see it being framed in disappointment.

As Frankel put it, “She only ran 10 lengths farther than anybody else in the race”. Call me crazy, but I think having to overcome a wide, hideous, bumpy trip and still gutting it out to win is a plus, not a minus. But when one gets away on an easy lead with no challenge and wins by several lengths, well that’s impressive.

She’s staying put in my top 10 list for the PDI Index, I liked what I saw. (update: I removed her from my list after they announced she was off the trail. If she were still on the trail she would have remained at #2). Would I rather she had an effortless 6 length win? Sure, but what would she get out of that? The Oaks was probably the kind of race she needed if she wants to step up in to open company, and I hope she does!

But what do you think? Do you agree with Iavarone’s oversimplified (whoops, sorry!) assessment that she could “barely beat the girls” or do think she’s shown she can still get the job done even under adverse circumstances?

As for the last poll, it should come as no surprise that Chantal Sutherland was your favorite jock on Jockeys, Win or Die Trying. But, just like Stardom Bound in the Oaks, it wasn’t a runaway and she had to gut it out for the win! In the beginning it was a battle between Talamo & Gryder, but it didn’t take long for Sutherland & Smith to take over and battle for the lead. All the while Kayla Stra was in the mix and for several days she was on top!

There were a whopping 191 votes, that’s almost double the last most voted on poll (your biggest issue with the Breeders’ Cup) and I didn’t even promote this one! The final tally was 45 for Sutherland, 43 for Smith, 42 for Stra, 27 for Talamo, 26 for Gryder and 8 for Court.

As always, thanks for voting, even if you did you show up from a Google search for “pictures of Chantal Sutherland”!

Posted by dana on Mar 08 2009    
Filed Under: Kayla Stra, Jockeys TV Show, Iavarone, Aaron Gryder, Joe Talamo, I Want Revenge, Jon Court, Mike Smith, Stardom Bound, Chantal Sutherland, Derby Trail, Grrrr, Bobby Frankel, Poll, 2009, Impressive, Racing

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