Notes - June 21

- Walter mentioned South of Broad, a son of Broad Brush who made a winning debut for Bobby Frankel at Hollywood on Saturday. He’s a Stonerside bred and owned colt with some stellar bloodlines who battled back after briefly surrendering the lead turning for home, and paid $12 to win. This colt is out of Fortyniner Fever, an unraced daughter of Forty Niner who is half-sister to none other than Fusaichi Pegasus, the Derby winner who continues to have an extremely quiet 2006 in North America; Bandini remains his only graded stakes winner (the G3 Skip Away), or, actually, stakes winner of any kind on the continent this year. What’s up with that?

South of Broad’s second dam is Angel Fever, a half to the Preakness winner Pine Bluff and his stakes winning brother Demons Begone.

- Brother Derek is back on the track and pointing to the Haskell.

- Showing Up, whose last start, just his 4th lifetime, was his sixth in the Derby, is one of 17 eager entrants for the $1 million Colonial Turf Cup at Colonial Downs on Saturday. Only 14 can start. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised given the rich purse that Lewis Michael is entered. He had shown improvement after switching to the dirt, most recently in the Peter Pan, in which he battled Sunriver to the finish, but will run for the green, on the green in Virginia.

- Richard Migliore was just along for the ride on Afrashad (Smoke Glacken) when the Godolphin colt blazed six furlongs in 1:08.38 on Belmont day.

“He didn’t break well and I just gave him his head and he was gone…..Looking at the break, he had to turn the first quarter in just over 21 seconds. He’s a freak talent wise; I really think he can accomplish anything if he learns to settle down a little.” [NYRA]

- Via Albany Law School’s Racing and Wagering Page comes this tale of a horseman being caught with needles in hand, literally.

Tioga Downs security officers observed [Larry] Futter parking his horse trailer at a rest stop on State Route 17, about five miles east of the racetrack, at about 6 p.m. Futter, along with trainer Joseph Sansone, were seen entering the trailer with several syringes in hand, then later exiting and discarding the syringes in a garbage can….

Futter admitted to security to using the syringes to inject homeopathic breather medication, lactanase and ACTH, and also told of purchasing the drugs easily through internet websites. [Harnessracing.com]

The track's owner Jeffrey Gural perhaps mispoke when he said, “Today’s unfortunate events and successful conclusion are what I envision not just for Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs, but for all horse racing.” So, he envisions assigning security officers to trail any horsemen making his/her way to the track? Doesn't sound too practical to me. Unfortunately, neither does the prospect of making the sport drug-free.

- And catching up a bit on my TBA reading, you just gotta check out this post from the Bug Boys. If you think Seek Gold’s rally was cool, check out this race from Japan. And the wider angle of the camera allows you to see almost the whole thing, instead of the usual sudden entry into the picture that we’re used to seeing here. (Another example of why U.S. racing TV producers should check out telecasts from overseas).