EYE ON LIVE: ASD’s 2021 stakes schedule has now been posted for horsemen on the ASD website. See stakes line-up here.

ESCAPE CLAUSE WATCH

It's a boy!
Manitoba's greatest race horse gives birth to her first foal in Japan Saturday

Colt was born at Northern Farm near the town of Abira on Hokkaido Island

Manitoba’s greatest race horse is now a mother. Escape Clause, who was bred in Russell, Man. and earned more than $1 million, gave birth on Hokkaido Island in northern Japan to a colt on Saturday.

The colt’s father is Duramente who won the Japanese Derby in record time in 2015 and never finished worse than second in nine races that included six graded stakes. He earned more than $5.57 million.

The 7-year-old Escape Clause has lots of company. She is one of about 800 broodmares at one of the largest breeding operations in the world, Northern Farm which is about 45 minutes southeast of Sapporo where the 1972 Winter Olympics were held. She was purchased from her Manitoba owners in November 2019 for $300,000. U.S. at the Fasig-Tipton “Night of the Stars” auction in Lexington, KY.

Escape Clause did Manitoba proud by racing against some of the best mares on the continent. She won stakes races at Santa Anita and Del Mar and her main claim to fame was losing by a mere nose in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn Park to Midnight Bisou who went on to finish second in the $20 million Saudi Cup a year ago. "Made our day"
Escape Clause's breeders celebrate birth of mare's first foal

Birth made the Ziprick family’s day: (Left to right) Cam, Keaton, Sherisse and Aiden with miniature horse Derby.

Horse racing is a very challenging game for everyone involved--breeders, owners, trainers, race-track operators, race-players, you name it. Which means special moments could rightly be shouted from the rooftops.

Such was the birth in Japan on the weekend of a foal by superstar mare Escape Clause the Zipricks had bred at their Russell, Man. farm. The family’s 15 years of birthing sessions in the wee hours of the morning, all those painstaking efforts to produce winning foals, faded into the background at least for awhile after Northern Farm’s Noriko Takahashi announced the birth of Escape Clause's son at the Japan farm.

Wrote Sherisse Ziprick in an email to Noriko: “We bred and raised Escape Clause and are just thrilled to be able to receive an update now that she is on the other side of the world, I know your operation is immense and your time is valuable, so please know that you have made the day for a family in small town Russell, Manitoba, Canada.”

Amen.

SIRE’S BIRTHDAY: Escape Clause’s sire, Going Commando, who now is retired from breeding, turns 21 next Friday. “Commando is spoiled and happy,” reports Sherisse Ziprick, from her farm in Russell, Man. “He’s blanketed and gets half a dozen carrots or more mixed in with his daily feed. He’s got my mini (horse) and the yearlings beside him for company. 

“He has a really bad hip but is still feisty when he wants to be. He had a really tough spring and had gone downhill, but as soon as the mosquitoes were gone this fall, he started to perk up and put on weight again. We had him blanketed, but the bugs were just rotten. I think next year we will put him in a spot where we can light a smudge (fire) for him. Makes such a difference.”

HANDICAPPING: Player's Choice tournament

A tennis champion in his youth . . .
. . . ASD tourney winner now sets his sights on Handicapper of the Year title

Kevin Palmer Eyes Handicapper of the Year title

Kevin Palmer hopes his competitive spirit in sports--that resulted in his winning the Manitoba High School Tennis Championship in his youth--will be the spark to reward him the 2021 Handicapper of the Year title. “That’s my objective,” he told The Insider after starting off on the right foot by winning the first Player’s Choice handicapping tournament of the year on Saturday. He bested 62 competitors.

Betting $2 win/place/show on 10 horses, he built up his bankroll to $132.10 which was more than $20 higher than his closest rival, Al Ilott. He was off to a fast start, catching longshots to place at Laurel with odds of 17-1 and 19-1 and a 35-1 place horse at Gulfstream. His biggest win, though, came in race 8 at Aqueduct when 19-1 Seven Lilies won going away in an allowance optional claiming race. “I thought he stood out. There was enough speed in the race (for him to run at) and two races back he was 5 or 6 wide when he closed to finish third.”

His strategy? “I looked for races with a lot of early speed and would bet a closer with odds of at least 5-1.” Also, “I tried to be patient. All the best races come later in the card.”

His Handicapper of the Year pursuit isn’t an idle fantasy. He won four tournaments since 2016, came second multiple times and, in 2019, finished third for the HOTY title. “It’s in my personality to be competitive,” he said, alluding to his tennis championship and success in baseball and sponge hockey.

Now 52, he recalls being bitten by the racing bug in his teens when he bet $2 across the board on Nifty that paid $84 to win. His best day? “Coming to the track with $10 and going home with $6,000.” He recalls having bet the $10 on a horse that paid $90 and turning that into $6,000 on the pick-4.

His worst? Instead of betting $60 on a five-horse triactor box at Santa Anita, he used some of that money for chips and a chocolate bar. That resulted in his spending $40 on a wheel with a horse keyed for first and second. The result? A $140 horse (which he would have had in his box) won and there wasn’t a single winning triactor ticket. His box would have paid many tens of thousands of dollars. “It was the most expensive chips and chocolate I’ve ever eaten,” he said.

The top five tournament finishers:
1. Kevin Palmer -- bankroll $132.10 -- $1,000 prize money
2. Al Ilott -- $111.40 -- $400
3. Darcy Backman -- $102.90 -- $200
4. Darrell Stephansson -- $90.40 -- $100
5. Greg Earl -- $88.50 -- $50      See full tournament results here.

RACE-CALL OF THE WEEK: “Your guess is good as mine with about a quarter mile to go. Up top it's somebody who just leads somebody there in second, and a couple lengths back somebody is coming after a quarter in 1:13 and four. They run to the top of the stretch, it's absolutely wide open!” -- Jimmy McNerney, calling race 4 at Turfway Park Monday during a snowstorm. Watch the stretch drive here.

CENTRE OF THE UNIVERSE

It's Festival Preview Day at Tampa Saturday . . .
. . . featuring four stakes worth $750,000 including the Sam F. Davis prep race

With millions of eyes trained on Tampa for Super Bowl weekend, Tampa Bay Downs will feature on Saturday a major event on its racing schedule--Festival Preview Day. Four stakes races worth $750,000 will be featured, headlined by the Sam F. Davis prep race for the Kentucky Derby.

With the special race card and thousands flocking to the city for the Super Bowl (while social-distancing), betting pools are expected to be huge. Which is why the “I won bigger” betting group will play the pick-5 there while also playing Santa Anita’s 20-cent pick-6 because it’s a mandatory payoff day. Here comes Super Bowl Sunday . . .
. . . with earlier post times so racing ends before the 5:30 p.m. CT kick-off

More than 100 million viewers around the world are expected to be watching Super Bowl LV from Tampa Sunday evening when legendary quarterback Tom Brady will attempt to put upstart Patrick Mahomes in his place and collect his seventh Super Bowl ring. Kick-off is 5:30 CT which means an early racing schedule as follows:

11:05 a.m. Miami Valley (H)
11:25 a.m. Laurel
11:35 a.m. Tampa
11:40 a.m. Gulfstream
12:00 p.m. Aqueduct
12:30 p.m. Oaklawn
1:00 p.m. Fair Grounds, Golden Gate, Louisiana, Santa Anita
6:20 p.m. Pompano (H)

READER POLL from the Paulick Report

Race fans rate Greatest Honour winning Holy Bull Stakes January’s most impressive (Coglianese photo)

Racing’s Paulick Report asked readers to rate the most impressive Kentucky Derby prep race in January. Even though Life Is Good had a giant 112 Equibase speed rating, his race was way down the list. Tops was Greatest Honour winning the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream. His E speed was 98 though he vanquished the field. (My fav was Medina Spirit’s tenacious effort in the Robert B. Lewis.)

• Capo Kane (Jerome) 3%.
• Life Is Good (Sham) 13%
• Midnight Bourbon (Lecomte) 5%
• Caddo River (Smarty Jones) 23%
• Greatest Honour (Holy Bull) 42%. Watch race here.
• Medina Spirit (Robert B. Lewis) 15%. My fav. Watch race here.
  

TravyFootball

Who's going to win the Super Bowl?
What are my favourite prop bets?