(10/29) Capeside Lady finishes in top half of BC Distaff
As anticipated, So Madcapt Stable's New York-bred Capeside Lady used her excellent cruising speed to gain the lead and the rail despite breaking from the outside post among 13 starters in the $2-million Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Distaff, and though tiring in the stretch, she beat most of the field. The four-year-old filly went off as the 57-to-1 next-to-last choice in the one-turn mile and an eighth event at Belmont with jockey Christopher DeCarlo race-riding her for the 10th time, setting solid fractions of 23.33, 46.31, and 1:10.74. Turning for home, she still held a brief lead, but 2.25-to-1 favorite Ashado and 11.80-to-1 sixth choice Society Selection exchanged bumps on her outside in the upper stretch and came in on the New York-bred, preventing DeCarlo from urging his mount right-handed. The crowding forced Capeside Lady to check and lose momentum, possibly costing her fourth-place money (she finished sixth), as 30.75-to-1 Pleasant Home had a perfect winning trip, followed by Society Selection, Ashado, 4.50-to-1 co-second choice Stellar Jayne, and 9.20-to-1 fifth choice In the Gold. Finishing behind Capeside Lady were former unbeaten Grade 2 winner Nothing But Fun, Grade 1 winners Hollywood Story, Sweet Symphony, Island Fashion, and Happy Ticket, Grade 1-placed Yolanda B. Too, and recent Grade 2 winner Healthy Addiction.
Prior to Breeders' Cup Day, Capeside Lady's trainer, Todd Pletcher, had expressed concern about the Distaff being one turn: "My biggest concern with her is that I think unlike Ashado, who's equally adaptable to two turns versus one-turn...Capeside Lady's best races have been around two turns and specifically at Monmouth. But she's in good form, and she ran a very good race in the Spinster. On a given day, she's capable of running good with these fillies, and you only get one crack at it.
"Chris (DeCarlo) has done a great job for us all year," continued Pletcher, who gives DeCarlo first-call on his horses in New Jersey -- right behind John Velazquez on the stable's depth chart. "He has ridden this filly particularly well, and it's good that he's getting an opportunity to ride in a Breeders' Cup race."
The Breeders' Cup 2007 World Thoroughbred Championships are scheduled for Monmouth Park. Possibly Capeside Lady, whose record is 7 - 1 - 3 in 17 starts with earnings of $694,760 and two Grade 2 victories for So Madcapt Stable (a racing partnership managed by Michael Joseph Cascio), will also be blessed with a wet track if she remains in top form in two years.

New York breeders might have noticed something familiar about the pedigree of 2005 TVG Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Silver Train at Belmont on Saturday: His dam, multiple stakes-placed winner Ridden in Thestars, by pensioned New York stallion Cormorant, was bred in New York by Francis Paolangeli. Furthermore, the dam of Ridden in Thestars (Silver Train's maternal granddam), two-time winner Shelter Strait, by Far North, was bred in New York by Morton Rosenthal and produced other New York-bred stakes performers Pro Cove (winner of Finger Lakes' 1993 Aspirant Stakes) and North Flag (third in the Aspirant). Silver Train is the third offspring and third winner produced from Ridden in Thestars, who was sold for $90,000 to the breeders of Silver Train, Joe Sr., Joe Jr., and John Mulholland of Georgetown, Kentucky, at Keeneland's 1998 November sale when she was carrying her first foal.

(10/27) NY-bred J'ray captures Keeneland's Jessamine
As the only New York-bred in Keeneland's $112,000 Jessamine Stakes for eight two-year-old fillies going a mile and a sixteenth on turf and the only participant coming off a layoff, Lawrence Goichman's homebred J'RAY was a surprising winner to a wagering public that made her the 11.40-to-1 sixth choice. The compact filly broke last from the seventh post with jockey Brice Blanc race-riding her for the first time and was next-to-last following a rough-and-tumble half-mile, as 2-to-1 favorite Beau Dare roared off to a nine-length lead, but she quickly advanced five wide on the second turn. Swinging even wider into the stretch, J'ray overtook four rivals in the final furlong to prevail by three-quarters of a length over a re-rallying Beau Dare, who was coming off a 6-1/2-length victory in Turfway's $100,000 Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes and had won on turf at Arlington Park. It was J'ray's first effort against open company and first stakes outing, and the $69,440 winner's share of the purse increased her earnings to $97,245 in three starts, which includes a 2-1/4-length maiden-breaking effort on Saratoga turf 69 days earlier on August 19.
Jockey Blanc was unreserved in his praise of J'ray: "I had tremendous confidence in this filly today," emphasized Blanc. "This filly has so much class to her. She got a little roughed up on the turn, but when I asked her she gave me a great run."
J'ray is conditioned by New York Thoroughbred Breeders 1999 Trainer of the Year Todd Pletcher, who five days earlier had sent out two stakes winners on Belmont's New York Showcase Day: Cinderella's Dream (also a two-year-old filly) in the Maid of the Mist and Friendly Island in the Hudson. Pletcher, the Eclipse Award-winning trainer for 2004, had given the chestnut filly five workouts at Delaware Park (where Friendly Island also has been stabled) from September 18 to October 15 following her restricted maiden special win at Saratoga.
J'ray's owner-breeder, Goichman of Greenwich, Connecticut, has raced such previous New York homebred stakes winners as Beebe Lake, who in November of 2004 shipped down to Calder to become the 29th New York-bred open stakes winner for that year. Goichman, who also is the breeder of New York-bred multiple Grade 2 winner Read the Footnotes, makes a practice of acquiring broodmares with European bloodlines and breeding them to North American stallions, which is the pattern he followed in breeding both Read the Footnotes and J'ray.
Sired by 1994 English champion three-year-old male Distant View, who is by Mr. Prospector, J'ray is a half-sister to French stakes-placed three-time winner Dadeland. Her dam, French winner Bubbling Heights, by Darshaan, is a half-sister to the winning dam of Grade 3 turf winner Millennium Dragon ($492,505 through 2004), who won in England before coming to North America. Goichman brought Bubbling Heights to New York between the 2001 and 2002 breeding seasons.
J'ray is the 26th New York-bred winner of an open (to horses bred anywhere and not counting the New York Stallion Stakes series) stakes in 2005 and the 76th New York-bred open stakes performer (stakes winner or stakes-placed) during the current calendar year. The Jessamine was the 34th open stakes event of 2005 won by a New York-bred. Those 34 stakes victories have been scored in nine different U.S. states (Kentucky is the ninth state) and two foreign countries.

(10/27) State-bred maidens showcase at Belmont Park
Three state-bred maiden races for two year-olds were carded for the Thursday Belmont Park card. Two year-old colts and geldings raced at seven furlongs over the main track, listed "fast", and two divisions of state-bred juvenile fillies raced at six-furlongs. The 9th race was originally scheduled to be run over the turf but with the recent rain, which had pummeled the New York metropolitan area, the stewards moved all turf races to the main track in deference to the upcoming Breeder's Cup on Saturday.
Sheila Sherry's BENLAYLA, making his second career start, proved much the best with an easy six-length victory margin under jockey John Velazquez. Trained by Todd Pletcher, the bay colt was bred by Dr. Herb Sherry, who qualifies for a $2,460 breeder's award. Benlayla is by Aptitude (A. P. Indy) and is the first foal out of the stakes winning and multiple graded stakes-placed performing Cure the Blues mare, Pentatonic, who earned $601,860 in 29-career starts. A New York-bred, Pentatonic was campaigned by Dr. Herb Sherry and his wife Sheila.
Michael Dubb's OPRAH WINNEY cruised to victory in the first division of state-bred maiden two-year-old fillies going six furlongs under jockey Edgar Prado. After a third-place finish going seven-furlongs in her previous race, the stakes-placed gray filly was heavily backed at the windows going to the post as the 2-5 betting favorite. Trained by Richard Dutrow, Jr., Oprah Winney is by Royal Academy, and is first foal out of Mere Presence, by Woodman. The winner's share of the purse ($24,600) boosts the talented filly's earnings to $64,215 in four-career starts. Oprah Winney was bred by Gatsas Thoroughbreds, who qualify for a $2,460 breeder's award. Gatsas Thoroughbreds is comprised of brothers Michael and Theodore Gatsas, who raced New York-bred millionaire Gander (see Millionaire's Club), and are the founders of Sovereign Stables, a racing partnership based out of Manchester, New Hampshire.
The finale, which was moved to the main track, was won by a determined GIRL IN UNIFORM, who beat back the challenge of Fast and Furious at the top of the stretch to break her maiden. Trained by Linda Rice, Girl in Uniform made her only previous start in a mile and a sixteenth race over the turf at Saratoga Race Course in mid-August and was primed for today's race at Rice's Monmouth Park stable. Bred by Dr. Patricia Purdy at her Ivy League Farm in Ithaca, N.Y., the promising bay filly is by Cape Canaveral, and is out of the Royal Academy mare, Academy Life (GB), dam of multiple stakes-placed allowance winner Acceptable Venture, winner of $220,748 in 16-lifetime starts.

New York Showcase Day Recap, by Rab Hagin

$150,000 Ticonderoga Handicap: Also scoring her first wet track victory -- in her first outing over a track other than fast -- was Gallagher's Stud's homebred RAHYS' APPEAL in the mile and an eighth off-the-turf Ticonderoga Handicap for New York-bred fillies and mares, getting her first stakes victory by 8-1/2 lengths -- her biggest-ever winning margin. The quick-striding bay was one of only two three-year-old fillies among nine starters in the one-turn event along with main-track-only entrant Sweeping Glance, w