Sabastion Morales after being thrown by Kim Karakorum at Belmont (raymond)

If you’re interested in more than just pictures of Chantal Sutherland (something Google can’t tell me), you should check out Alex Brown’s interview of her. While I suspect that ALL that Google traffic isn’t about determining if she’s currently the leading rider at Woodbine, this is the sort of thing you can find out in the interview and frankly, we’re hoping you’re interested in that too.

Admittedly you’d be hard pressed to find out such information at her new web site and that splash screen is NSFW! Fans of more than how hot she is would love to see up to date news prominently placed on her homepage, perhaps with the ability of subscribe to an RSS feed so we could find out things like her upcoming big races, when she hits a milestone, has an appearance or even some new product coming out (as apparently she’s now also a brand… who can blame her?). Here’s hoping her team can steer her more towards a usable interactive experience vs. the equivalent of a magazine spread.

New York rider Maylan Studart seems to be on the mend after her recent accident in the shedrow, sending the following notes to her Facebook Followers:

Hello, my friends!!!! I got a hold of my laptop now, but am still in the hospital. I had an accident during morning workouts where a horse “liked me too much” and knocked me down!!!! LOL!!! I don’t like him that much after this, but he was just showing his love!!! LOL!!!! I broke my left femur Thursday morning and was taken to North Shore Hospital and was operated in the evening. I was walking the next day.

Thanks again for the support guys!!!!! I have great news!!!! I’m leaving the hospital today and going to Glenn Cove Rehab Center at 2p.m.!!!! I will be there from 1-2 weeks but will know exactly after I get there and talk to the physical therapists. I walked a lot today again!!! Much more!!! I went down out the room to the end of the hall to a window and came back to my room!!! It was about 150ft. my Phys.Ther. said

Best of luck for a speedy recovery!

On the riderless front, the previously mentioned Phone Jazz’s triumphant run at Belmont on Saturday did not go unnoticed. ESPN picked up on it, here’s the segment.

The chart doesn’t indicate that she continued on gamely after dumping Jean Luc-Samyn, but we’ll always know she was the best that day!

Over the weekend Val pointed out a disturbing trend in breakdown reportage, or lack of it. The good news is that All Smiles, the filly that was pulled up at the wire and dumped her rider in the Obeah, has come out of surgery at the New Bolton Center and is likely to go home soon! Thanks racing fans and twitter for supplying pertinent information!

Last, but not least and not at all related to the rider theme, I have to give a huge shout out to Woodbine for their exceptional parade camera work! Of the tracks I watch or play regularly I think NYRA has the best parade camera work. But what was so impressive about Woodbine’s was that not only did they label each horse as they followed them during the warm up, they followed them in numerical order! A super extra “well done” to the camera team at Woodbine and if you missed Queen’s Plate day, Keith has a great photo essay.

Posted by dana on Jun 23 2009    
Filed Under: Raymond Haddad, YouTube, Riderless Horse, 2009, Twitter, Woodbine, Maiden, Belmont, Jocks, Race Replay, Chantal Sutherland, Racing

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(superterrific)

The HANA Pool Party is back at Monmouth today! It’s the 7th race that goes off around 3:30pm ET, so you still have time to grab the free PP and get in on the action! Update, I had the winner at 11-1!

A few other notes of interest… there goes my Google traffic.

Not only did boozy 20 somethings enjoy Churchill’s historic foray in to night racing, the numbers show a notable increase in handle as well!

It was bona fide dance party at Belmont last night with Disco Diva in the 5th and Danceyoursocksoff in the 7th. In fact, Disco Diva over Gin Tango is quite possibly the best Friday night exacta ever!

Riderless horse Phone Jazz just crushed the field in the 5th at Belmont, good thing I had Hold the Cruiser, the official winner ($19.40) who finished about 3-4 lengths behind the riderless winner. Hopefully the game Phone Jazz was collected without incidence and the rider is ok.

And finally, it was nice to see Ocean Colors, the last foal out of 1988’s Santa Anita & Kentucky Derby winning Winning Colors put it together on turf at Churchill. For those of us who have been following her since Saratoga, it was great to see her show a little front running dazzle that her mother was so famous for.

Posted by dana on Jun 20 2009    
Filed Under: Riderless Horse, 2009, Twitter, HANA, Churchill Downs, Monmouth Park, Belmont, Chantal Sutherland, Turf, Racing

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Piazza Di Spagna sans Ramon Dominguez in the stretch at Belmont (Sarah K. Andrew)

Try catching a riderless horse on the streets of Paris!

Posted by dana on Feb 22 2009    
Filed Under: 2009, Riderless Horse, Sarah K. Andrew, YouTube

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Trainer Bill Mott back in the saddle after his first win at Saratoga (Hen Bros)

Bill Mott finally gets his first win of the meet in the 7th with 4-5 favorite Compromise. Numaany sat off the pace and looked perfectly positioned but didn’t fire. I’m sure there will be some excellent eye witness reports filed later.

I’m still wowed by Viscount in the 2nd, a classy baby race won by Precious Package. Viscount broke a la Evening Attire and was so far behind the field that he wasn’t even in the frame. He rallied with a nice inside trip to almost nip an unimpressive Spaniard on the wire for second, which hurt because I would have had the exacta.

Nonetheless, I’ll be keeping an eye on both Precious Package and Viscount. Zito’s Nowhere to Hide turned in a good first effort and seems to be worth watching on his next out. Good lord, I can’t believe all of a sudden I’ve become so interested in 2 year olds! What’s next, talented horses having 4 and 5 year old campaigns? Fingers crossed!

Hanginonaprayer, the filly who broke through the gate, dumped her rider and ran an excellent race all by herself to the delight of the crowd last Sunday just closed very well to show in the 8th. Well done Hanginonaprayer!

Congrats to Bill Mott, glad to see him back in action!

Posted by dana on Aug 02 2008    
Filed Under: Hennegan Brothers, 2008, Riderless Horse, Evening Attire, 2yo, Saratoga, Bill Mott, Maiden, Racing

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Runaway horse training at Saratoga, just another odd occurrence in an odd opening week. (Sarah K. Andrew)

Swifty and I returned from Saratoga late last night. Even though it rained almost everyday and long shots were not doing that well it was a great trip… even better than last year!

Today at Saratoga it was sunny and Tergesti & Wanderin’ Boy were the only favorites to win, with 4 of 10 winners having odds in the double digits. Now I know how Pyro feels.

It will probably take a me a couple of days to get back up to blogging speed but here are some highlights:

Papa Backstretch is my new handicapping idol, hitting 5 winners on Thursday!

As first reported at Raceday 360, there’s a roving band of pre-teen boys following Sam the Bugler around heckling “no shot” every time he talks to a woman.

I got to have dinner with these fine folks and a few others who don’t actually blog (yes, there are people who don’t blog… but not many!).

I cashed some tickets! Although I gave it all back and then some, but I did manage to make some good picks.

Swifty has now created the Adam R. Wiener patented Trifecta System, PayPal $9.99 here.

Swifty and I wore our best loud and nutty outfits on Saturday (me red plaid shorts, him bandanna pattern/madras-y pants w/elegant straw chapeau). At one point we were at the paddock and stone faced Edgar Prado rode by on his mount, looked at us and chuckled. I think this was this might have been non-betting highlight of the trip!

Swifty won the best 2 out of 3 ticket cashing contest (we had one every day starting on Friday). Congrats to Swifty!

I won the unofficial “Pastiest legs in Saratoga” contest 2 days in a row and Swifty won the “Nutty-est Male Outfit” on Saturday. We saw someone who may have had us both beat but it turned out my legs were pastier and he was a she.

There was an excellent riderless horse moment on Sunday in the 7th race when Hanginonaprayer broke through the gate and was a running the race all on her own, without a rider. A rider & pony (what are they called?) finally caught her right by the finish line and the crowd cheered her all the way!

All this and so much more, and I even took pictures this time (as requested by my mother)… stay tuned!

Posted by dana on Jul 28 2008    
Filed Under: Wanderin' Boy, 2008, Riderless Horse, Pyro, Sarah K. Andrew, Fans, Saratoga, Racing

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