Sunday Notes

- No surprises in the Shadwell, as the short distance and lack of pace did in Shakis and the stupidly named War Monger, ha ha, respectively. Bad enough that we'll have a Fatal Bullet at the Breeders' Cup. For heaven's sake...

"Folk Opera is a different class, really, than all the fillies in the race," said Godolphin trainer Saeed bin Suroor after his four-year old daughter of Singspiel wired the EP Taylor field. Check out the pace set by Frankie Dettori: 26.41, 25.14, 25.11, 24.14, and 22.90. Haha, fat chance the rest of them had. But certainly not necessarily excited about this one's prospects against a better field and a longer distance than this.

Easy to say now of course.....but how could Marsh Side pay $61.20 if he finished less than a length behind Champs Elysees and Quijano in the Northern Dancer, and those two were 7-2 in the Canadian International?? I imagine that some of those who had him were loudly asking the same question of anyone unfortunate to be within earshot. You know the type. "I TOLD YOU, WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE LOOKING AT?" Jockey Javier Castellano, who's had his share of longshot grass winners this year, said afterwards that he paid close attention to Dettori's ride in the preceding race.

"To me, I thought because nobody used it (inside part of the track) before that it was the best place....Frankie Dettori won the E.P. Taylor came through inside on the rail and she (Folk Opera) never got tired and kept going.

"Turning for home I kept dropping my horse inside on the rail and tried to keep riding and the horse responded very well." [Canadian Press]

Castellano had to get off the inside to get by the dueling Marlang and Lucarno with a three-wide move turning for home. But he did steer his horse back to the rail once he cleared; and I thought he did so pretty promptly, contrary to the impression left by the track announcer's call. It was a pretty neat ride having read exactly what the jockey was thinking.

Marsh Side seems the perfect type for Win And Yer In - a horse of extremely modest accomplishments getting good at the right time in winning its first graded stakes . Neil Drysdale might have thought twice about having taken over the training duties after two awful efforts earlier this year. He started to improve in the Cougar at Del Mar, and this win seems a natural progression after his close 4th, at this distance on this track, in the Northern Dancer. He's by Gone West, out of Colonial Play, a graded stakes winner on the grass by Pleasant Colony. The dam is a full sister to the juvie filly champ Pleasant Stage, and to Stage Colony, also a graded winner on the grass.

- Nice result for the Kasey K Racing Stable on Saturday, when Mr. W.B. won again, and again for a 5K tag.....and again, at a nice price ($11)! The purse was a mind boggling $21,000 for that level, putting him over $50K for the year. And Mr. W.B. was claimed, by Scott Lake. Add that money to the purse, and it was a pretty good day. Now we can look to use the money to trade up to a horse in the 15-17.5 range.