Tropical-at-Calder Notebook

TROPICAL-AT-CALDER NOTEBOOK

NOVEMBER 19, 2010

by Calder Publicity

Annual Change of Season in South Florida Racing

There is more than just the first cool fronts breezing in from the north at

this time of year in South Florida. Racing fans are beginning to see new names

in the entries almost daily in November with stables from New York, New Jersey,

Kentucky, Illinois and other major racing centers shipping into fall/winter

quarters at Gulfstream Park, Palm Meadows and Payson Park.

The first major contingent of fresh arrivals usually hits the entries most

years for the Florida Million Day races at Calder Casino & Race Course and were

prominent in last Saturday's renewal of the Florida-bred showcase, most notably

trainer Bill Mott with runners entered in three of the six-figure stakes coming

out of his Payson winter quarters.

Mott's first starter of this season was Peter Vegso's two-year-old Florida

homebred filly COME A CALLIN (Dixie Union), who set the pace early in the

$125,000 Joe O'Farrell Juvenile Fillies but tired to last of nine over the track

that often requires a young horse to have a trip over the surface.

Next up was Vegso's homebred two-year-old filly LITIGATING (Point Given) in

the $100,000 John Franks Juvenile Fillies Turf and she ran well to finish fourth

as 6-1 shot SALSA BULLET (Omega Code) was allowed to walk on the lead through

pokey fractions of :52 4/5 for the half-mile and 1:18 for three-quarters on the

way to score in the 1 1/16-mile test. Litigating was beaten only two lengths for

it all in a respectable performance.

The third starter for Mott was the charm as Art Preston's four-year-old colt

BIRDRUN (Birdstone) drew clear of JoAnn and Alex Lieblong and partners' 4-5

favorite DUKE OF MISCHIEF (Graeme Hall) in the stretch to capture the $150,000

Carl Rose Classic by 4 1/2 lengths under jockey Rajiv Maragh. Birdrun had been a

consistent performer throughout his previous 14 career starts, but appears

poised to take his game to a new level this winter at Gulfstream Park.

In addition to Mott, other recent arrivals or shippers in the Florida Million

entries included runners trained by Scott Lake, Tom Proctor, George Weaver and

Seth Benzel, the latter a former assistant to Todd Pletcher and sending out his

first ever starter at Calder.

Benzel made an auspicious debut sending out Commonwealth Stable's

two-year-old filly Salsa Bullet under jockey Eibar Coa in the John Franks and

promptly getting a trip to the winners' circle. Glen Hill Farm's favored

HOLIDAYSATTHEFARM (Smarty Jones) finished second for Proctor.

With the arrival of the northern stables, so, too, follow jockeys that have

spent most of the spring, summer and fall in other jurisdictions, but flock

south for the winter season. Former Calder champion Coa has come to rank among

the nation's leading riders based in New York in recent years, but showed up

early enough last fall to win the Tropical-at-Calder meet title for the first

time since 1998.

Coa came down early again this season, although he made the fortuitous trip

to Kentucky for Breeders' Cup weekend, November 5-6, where he drove Harold

Queen's four-year-old colt BIG DRAMA (Montbrook) to a wire-to-wire score in the

Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) for Calder-based trainer David Fawkes.

Coming out of the weekend, Daniel Centeno had jumped out to an early lead in

the Tropical session with 18 wins, three more than apprentice John Delgado, who

is the new 'bug' to watch. He will hope to follow the path of Luis Saez, the

18-year-old sensation from Panama that lost his allowance in midsummer but made

a smooth transition to journeyman, winning the Calder meet title with 182

victories.

Saez ranks third with 14 wins, closely followed by veteran Manoel Cruz in

fourth at 13 with Coa in a three-way tie for sixth with eight tallies and

expected to pick up momentum between a few more trips out of town for stakes

engagements at either Aqueduct or Churchill Downs, notably over the Thanksgiving

weekend.

HORSES TO WATCH

Saturday (11/13)

5TH -- Come a Callin showed sharp speed to lead into turn of Joe O'Farrell

Juvenile Fillies before tiring in the stretch, but looked like a classis case of

'needed one' over the Calder track after recently arriving from New York.

7TH -- HEAR YE HEAR YE (Hear No Evil) took a very big step forward in his

second start back from a summer-long layoff, finishing second behind

much-the-best winner Tackleberry (Montbrook) in the Jack Dudley Sprint for the

same breeder and former owner of Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) heroine

Awesome Feather (Awesome of Course).

Sunday (11/14)

6TH -- SPIDAWOMAN (Macho Uno) ended up with a very wide trip despite breaking

from the one post as the first two ran one-two all the way in that order over

the course that appeared to favor speed. Spidawoman fits well at this level with

solid pace and better trip.