{"id":5730,"date":"2008-04-04T18:54:14","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T18:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=5730"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"oldbtb_1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/?p=5730","title":{"rendered":"\u201cCreek\u201d Runs In \u201cGulch\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite protests of several horsemen based at Dunkrye Formi Downs just outside of Santiago del Estero, Saturday\u2019s Gulch Bro Challenge for older mares was redrawn after the original carding of the race omitted five-year-old, and now likely favorite, Cormorant Creek<\/B>.<\/P>

Racing officials at the recently constructed facility representing Argentina\u2019s lone recognized race meet were conflicted in their accounts of the mistake. Racing Secretary Juan Everlandez insisted it was just a simple oversight.<\/P>

\u201cThe card was in the printer; the stupid computer just took so long to print the entry that everyone forgot to grab the card and get it into the stack.\u201d<\/P>

Another official, wishing to remain anonymous, remembered to grab the card, but implies that it sat in the printer for minutes rather than hours.<\/P>

\u201cThis guy Lee Snyder or whatever; my God make up your mind. Are you coming? We can make a race card without sitting around wondering if the big mare is going to make it or not. I called him at nine (the morning of entries) and asked him if he\u2019s going to enter and he\u2019s not sure. I told these guys here at ten when we needed a couple of more for the race that she isn\u2019t in there.\u201d<\/P>

\u201cAt eleven, we\u2019re drawing the race and he\u2019s on the phone making sure that his mare was entered.\u201d<\/P>

\u201cIf Juan (Everlandez) wants to play along and say he took the entry and forgot about it, that\u2019s his business.\u201d<\/P>

Local trainers and owners expressed dismay at what was perceived as the racing office\u2019s intent to hand their purse fund out to \u2018foreign interests\u2019. Dan Dalvador viewed the conduct as \u201cborderline treason.\u201d<\/P>

\u201cWe spent six generations of hard work, focus, and resolve developing our lobbying interests and saving enough money to address government officials respectfully in the hopes of gaining approval for Video Lottery Terminals.\u201d<\/P>

\u201cIn two years, Rio De La Plata Pacers will become the second gaming facility, offering standardbred racing as evening entertainment.\u201d<\/P>

\u201cWhen we take the rent money from hard working citizens of Argentina bamboozled by bright lights and shiny things, we certainly don\u2019t want it going to some fancy United States, east coast horse.\u201d<\/P>

Carefully avoiding the spotlight of the controversy, Lee Snyder, trainer of Cormorant Creek for owner Dos Stables LLC, remained quiet on the matter until hearing the last comment.<\/P>

\u201cReal fancy, this mare. I ran her for maiden claim $4,000 in Puerto Rico the first time. We got real big time when we got trounced in an allowance in her second race so we went to Chicago to run for $30,000 claim. They were so scary terrified of this mare coming to their track that she was 38-1. This was a bunch of pokey mid-level claimers.\u201d<\/P>

\u201cThere must be American business behind this track. (Slot) machines built it and support it. They have no incentive to encourage a nice mare like mine to come to this new place and bring some press, I guess. At the end, the success of a meet or a day won\u2019t be based upon the enthusiasm of racing fans for a superior product, but rather, a final analysis of a \u2018per machine revenue\u2019 report. Sooner or later every soccer field in Argentina has a box full of these machines, nobody bothers to go all the way to the stuffy track with the high concession prices. Then there\u2019s no machines at the track. Then there\u2019s no track.\u201d<\/P>

For the record, Cormorant Creek did break her maiden on grass in her debut, the aforementioned $4,000 claimer. She did get beat in her second start, an allowance race on grass, but when she did go off at 38-1 in Chicago for a $30,000 tag, on dirt for the first time, she absolutely toyed with them. And, she started to get real good.<\/P>

A gray daughter of Strodes Creek, Cormorant Creek made the ascent to stardom that stories are written about. But forget all that relevant stuff that actually pertains to the horse and would have made a much more compelling, factual, albeit biographical bit of off-the-cuff literature. We\u2019re sticking with tales of racing office scandals in Argentina and low-grade stabs at \u2018slot mania\u2019. We take on steroids, slaughter, and Stronach in week 3553.<\/P>

Mr. Snyder\u2019s then four-year-old made winning on the main track a regular occurrence after debuting on the surface in the $30,000 claimer. Wins in consecutive allowance races, exiting both the \u2018other than\u2019 and \u2018two other than\u2019 conditions, spawned the logical transition to a minor stakes debut. Despite a string of three straight wins in tow, Cormorant Creek went to post June 9, 2007 for the Happy Project Stakes in Rhode Island as a 15-1 outsider in a field of nine.<\/P>

Confidently handled throughout by rider Dean Tyrrell, Cormorant Creek rallied from mid-pack to win convincingly.<\/P>

That effort, coupled with the ease and professionalism of the win itself, prompted an ambitious attack on the Grade II Delta Tau Chi Sprint at seven furlongs. Facing a full gate of fourteen, despite four straight now in tow, including a handy win in her stakes debut, Cormorant Creek went to the gate at 19-1.<\/P>

Head and head for last for most of the race, nearly ten behind, the eye-catching gray split a quarter-mile\u2019s worth of rivals before getting a clear path with 100 yards to the wire and nailed Mrs. Stark Reality<\/B>, earner of over $300,000, at the wire. In fact, she outran a solid cast, including Lucky\u2019s Brook Lynne<\/B>, a graded stakes winning earner of nearly $600,000 and Calculus Guru<\/B>, a graded winner of over $849,000. <\/P>

Predictably, it was on to New York for the Grade I Dancer Cap, where again, Cormorant Creek was overlooked as a viable competitor, heading away from the gate at 21-1. Why such a big price again on this mare? Among her rivals that day: Thnxmsslew<\/B>, a Grade I winner at ages two and three, and earner of over $1,487,000 – she ran ninth. Koko Taylor<\/B>, a rival on Saturday, has made almost a half million – she ran eighth. Explosive Storm<\/B> was there to defend her title. The winner of the 2006 edition of the race had won six stakes races, including three Grade II races since her victory a year earlier. She finished sixth, but ran just nine more times, winning one minor allowance before being retired with over $1,200,000 bankrolled and bred to Pulpit.<\/P>

Multiple graded stakes winner and earner of nearly $700,000, Stirling Form<\/B>, did not win. Nor did $644,000 earner Again With the Gold<\/B>, nor Suffragette City<\/B>, winner of well over a half million. Burning Voyage<\/B> ran last and she\u2019s a stakes winning earner of over $439,000. <\/P>

So it was Cormorant Creek that settled early, far behind in tenth, and began to contend with five-sixteenths to the wire. Again slicing and dicing through the maze of rivals past the eighth pole, it was Cormorant Creek that found running room once again in the final strides and with a rush, couldn\u2019t get to the wire soon enough. Defeated for the first time in six starts, it was Fleetwood Mia<\/B>, who had won nine races, including four minor stakes and the Grade III Flurry, as well as a second in the Grade I Exam Stakes just before the Dancer, that held on late to prevail.<\/P>

Still, from a debut in the bottom of the maiden ranks, through the allowance conditions, onto the minor stakes wins and a grade II win, the stoic, \u2018good enough to win\u2019 effort to be second in a Grade I was a tremendous closing chapter to a storybook career. Unfortunately, that may have been the case too literally.<\/P>

Since the crushing defeat in New York, Cormorant Creek has lost five straight. Granted, she has run second three times, all in minor stakes. However, efforts in the Grade III Blueberry and the Grade III Vermont Is 4 Lovers, eighth and twelfth, respectively, can be described only as dreadful. <\/P>

Did the story end the day the dream died twenty yards too soon? Can she round back into form? Why is Lee Snyder so reluctant to enter punctually? Is Pon-Ki really the mother of Curt Shinkle?<\/P>

The gray mare lands in the right race to gauge her current status as a win could in no way be belittled as a \u2018minor\u2019 win or a \u2018handpicked\u2019 victory. Standing firmly in her path is Desert Bagman<\/B>, a daughter of Miesque\u2019s Son with seventeen exacta finishes from twenty-three career starts.<\/P>

With over $200,000 in career earnings, Desert Bagman has won five of her last seven, with a second, and a third, epitomizing the word \u2018consistent\u2019. Having run twenty-three times, never twice consecutively at the same track, the brown mare has finished worse than third just five times, with the average margin of defeat in those five poor finishes just a half dozen lengths. <\/P>

Desert Bagman has good early speed in a race that isn\u2019t overwrought with pace and though she tends to live in the allowance ranks, she has been equally capable stepping up into minor stakes engagements. She\u2019ll need to fend off some early pressure from the local hopeful, Gold Ambition<\/B>, but barring a career best performance from that rival, Desert Bagman is likely to be a handy leader heading past the quarter-pole. <\/P>

The local hero, Gold Ambition has made fifteen starts since January 27, 2007. Fourteen of those starts are right here at Dunkrye Formi Downs, nine of them wins. A daughter of Storm Cat out of the Seeking the Gold mare Gold Saturn, Gold Ambition is a half-sister to Gold Jet<\/B>, a retired winner of nineteen races and multiple stakes as well as over $350,000 in earnings. She is also a full sister to Gold Squall<\/B>, winner of twenty-four from fifty-four starts, over $1,200,000, and fifteen stakes wins, including two graded stakes. Gold Passport<\/B>, also a full sibling, like Gold Squall, has made a career relishing the turf sprint division. Though not as accomplished as his older siblings, Gold Passport has assembled an excellent resume of twelve wins, twenty-two exacta finishes, in thirty-four starts and earnings over one-third of a million dollars.<\/P>

With remarkable consistency, good speed, a flair for the course, the only thing Gold Ambition is lacking is her regular pilot, a fact not lost on trainer Paseana Neintoo.<\/P>

\u201cFifteen races, fourteen of them right here, and fourteen times Elbert (Seifert) has been on this filly. Nothing against Noel (Kirk), but some guy rolls in and tells Elbert\u2019s agent that his filly won this and that and next thing I know, I\u2019m sold out for what?\u201d<\/P>

Needle In The Hay<\/B> is a four-year-old by Aptitude with a Grade III win at seven furlongs in the Sixty in a Thirty Special and she is for what Elbert Seifert has sold out Gold Ambition. <\/P>

A debut winner, the third of five foals out of Stud Cecil<\/B> struggled a bit to nail down her first score against winners despite a few strong efforts. When she did earn her second career win, her career seemed to elevate, winning five of her next nine with two second and a third place finish in that span, including wins in two minor stakes as well as the Sixty in a Thirty Special. Since that graded win, Needle in the Hay has been utterly disappointing, whether in graded races or weak minor stakes. She still runs decent races, but hasn\u2019t run anything resembling a winning race since taking the Sixty in a Thirty. <\/P>

Koko Taylor, previously mentioned as an also-ran as a testimony to the depth of talent that Cormorant Creek faced in the Dancer Cap in 2007, has seen better days in her career, but has far too much talent and decent enough current form to discredit her chances. <\/P>

The daughter of High Yield out of Barb\u2019s Capote hasn\u2019t won a race since taking the Off For Digger Challenge at seven furlongs in October of last year, but has been showing some sign of life facing older mares for the first time in her last few starts. Koko Taylor loves the distance, registering five of eight career wins at either seven or seven and a half furlongs. Though her most recent finish is downright dismal, poor performances usually do not become habitual with this filly and her three prior races are strong enough to make a solid case for her from a stalking position throughout.<\/P>

Like Koko Taylor, Mt. Fever<\/B> has been negotiating the transition from an excellent three-year-old season to a creditable four-year-old season, ascertaining where the daughter of Storming Fever belongs with the cast of older mares. Mt. Fever seems to have made the transition with increasing ease, winning for the first time this year in her most recent start, taking the Art in a Maze Stakes by a length and a half with a big figure of 112<\/B>. <\/P>

With less than $100,000 in career earnings despite six career victories, the argument that plagues Mt. Fever is that she is simply to \u2018cheap\u2019 to test the likes of those that have made several hundred thousand or won two dozen races. Unlike several of her \u2018less cheap\u2019 rivals, Mt. Fever may not have peaked. This race has the potential to be a \u2018coming out\u2019 for the filly, or at least, a defining moment in her career. If she backs up her huge effort from last time with something of that magnitude on Saturday, she may stamp herself a legitimate threat every time someone enters an older mare in a sprint. If she \u2018ho-hums\u2019 it to a uninspiring finish on Saturday, her negotiation of a transition will have become far less seamless.<\/P>

Mountain Project<\/B> makes just her second stakes appearance despite six wins and over $125,000 in earnings from twenty-one starts after a very protracted war with allowance conditions for the vast majority of her career. Other than her maiden win, the daughter of Mr. Greeley has won five races, allowances in the following sequence: \u2018non-other-than\u2019, \u2018non two-other-than\u2019, \u2018non four life\u2019, \u2018non four-other-than\u2019, and finally \u2018non three in nine months\u2019. <\/P>

Now that she has officially conquered the logical conditions in the traditional sequence, she gets to try stakes company. Unfortunately, my sarcasm (if you noticed) was ill-advised, as this minor stakes group points out why this mare was well spotted in allowance conditions. It is more than a little difficult to make a convincing case that this mare is liable to, or even somehow capable of, pulling off the win in this spot.<\/P>

Aptly named Prayer Seeker<\/B> will need divine intervention to tackle this field on Saturday. Is she horrendous or just completely victimized by a poor job entering? No, neither is true – Prayer Seeker is a solid little four-year-old capable of running big races. If she had continued to improve from her three-year-old to four-year-old seasons, the daughter of Sky Mesa would have been on track to be a major player in this race.<\/P>

As luck would have it, this race not only came up rather tough, but there isn\u2019t an overload of sprint speed to assist the late running style of Prayer Seeker. Almost exclusively a route filly over the last fourteen months, the connections turned her back to a sprint for an allowance in her most recent start. The move paid dividends as the hot sprint pace set up her big kick. The pace on Saturday doesn\u2019t seem like it will be nearly as scorching and the competition responsible for providing that pace isn\u2019t as likely to see Prayer Seeker approaching as quickly.<\/P><\/FONT><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Officials Flooded With Complaints<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":200,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/200"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}