Makors Finale Named 2012 Washington Horse of the Year

2012 Champion E Z Kitty Wins Fifth Stakes

   John Xitco, Dan Agnew and trainer Mike Chambers' talented E Z Kitty scored her fifth stakes win, and third at the current Turf Paradise meet, on February 16 when she took the $35,000 Sun City Handicap. Ridden by Gallyn Mitchell, the .90-to-one favorite defeated Vicky Baze-ridden Smart B, by Smarty Jones, by a nose in the mile turf event.

   A Washington-bred daughter of Woodstead Farm stallion He's Tops out of Envision the Cat, by Lost Code, E Z Kitty has won or placed in three stakes at the Arizona track in 2013. Bred by Jerry and Peggy Woods, E Z Kitty, who went through the WTBOA sales ring as a yearling in 2009, improved her lifetime record to 9-0-2 in 15 starts and has earned $144,313 of which $68,047 has been accumulated in her five starts for Xitco, Agnew and Chambers, who purchased her from the Tige Too Racing Stable of Homer and Nancy Gibson last fall.

   Dan Kenny's 2012 Washington juvenile filly champion and 2011 WTBOA sales graduate Finding More is next scheduled to start in the $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes (G3) at Fair Grounds on February 23.

Other WTBOA Sales Graduates in the News

Emerald Downs 2013 Meet Opens April 19

Sun Downs Gets Six Days

   At their February meeting, the Washington Horse Racing Commission granted Sun Downs racetrack in Kennewick six racing days over three weekends in 2013: April 20-21, April 27-28 and May 4-5.

Ben's Cat Named Maryland Horse of the Year for Second Straight Year

   2011-12 Washington leading sire Parker's Storm Cat's ultra-consistent son Ben's Cat repeated as Maryland horse of the year for the second straight year and also added his third champion turf runner plaque and second champion older male title after winning five 2012 stakes races. The now seven-year-old gelding out of Twofox, by Thirty Eight Paces, had previously won two Maryland sprint championships.

   Bred, owned and raced by King Leatherbury, Ben's Cat began his race career at four and has since recorded 14 stakes wins - including back-to-back year victories in the Grade 3 Turf Monster Handicap - and placed in four other stakes in a 29-race career of which $557,060 of his $1,357,290 total was earned in 2012.

A Sweet Little Story

   In 1994 Enumclaw bloodstock agent Dana Halvorson was commissioned by Gerry and Gail Schneider of Riverbend Farm to purchase a yearling for them at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Halvorson signed for a daughter of Horse of the Year Conquistador Cielo out of three-race winner Moment's Prayer for $49,000. Though only a half-sister to three minor stakes winners, Moment's Prayer was the dam of four-time stakes winner and $224,480 winner Miami Slick and $89,678 stakes-placed Another Moment. (Moment's Prayer's dam was out of stakes winner Prayer Cap, a half-sister to two-year-old champion and successful sire Silent Screen).

   Turned over to trainers Larry and Sharon Ross, the filly now named Cielo Otono (Autumn Sky) won a maiden special weight race at Yakima Meadows in her second start. Finishing second in that race was future multiple Washington champion Cocktails Anyone .Cielo Otono would next win the Mt. Rainier Stakes at the Yakima track and finish third in the Joan Alhadeff Lassie Stakes before heading south to Bay Meadows where she would win the $50,000 Debutante Breeders' Cup Stakes and earn a second place finish in the Burlingame Stakes before having her racing career cut short by EPM. Never out of the top three in her six starts at two, Cielo Otono earned $75,106.

   Cielo Otono was then sent to the court of Dehere and foaled a filly the following year. The Auburn couple sold future winner Sweetest Smile for $80,000 at the 1999 Keeneland September yearling Sale. Sweetest Smile's second (Union Course) and fifth (Star of David) foals would both place in graded stakes.

   Cielo Otono then returned to Washington where she produced seven named foals. Each of her four foals that made it to the races became good winners, including 2012 Belle Roberts Stakes winner Cielator and $80,335 earner Cielo Dulce, whose daughter Sweet Saga won the Barbara Shinpoch Stakes. Other good winners out of Cielo Otono were 17-race winner and $67,684 earner Mr. Melccap and 11-race winner Gavel, who has earned $62,448. Cielo Otono's final foal, a 2009 Matty G colt, unfortunately died of a virus as a yearling.

  On February 9, things got a little exciting for the Schneiders, Ron Crockett (who owns Cielator) and Stormy Hull and Ginger Samples (who own Cielo Dulce), as Sweetest Smile's four-year-old son Graydar was an impressive three-length winner of the $500,000 Donn Handicap (G1) run at Gulfstream Park in only his fourth start. Trained by Todd Pletcher, it was the third win for the son of Unbridled's Song who became his sire's 100th stakes winner with his victory in the nine-panel stakes which he won in 1:48 1/5 and earned 105 Breyer Speed Rating, the top speed figure for the week's stakes.

   Dana Claxton, Riverbend Farm manager, reports that four-year-old Sweet Saga is back in training at Emerald Downs for the Schneiders and that Cielo Otono is retired and living out her days at Riverbend in the company of Claxton's 30-year-old retired racehorse Endangered Spirit.

Bob Rondeau Honored with Keith Jackson Award

War Power to Stand at Gibson Thoroughbred Farm

   War Power, a son of top sire of sires Pulpit out of a stakes-producing half-sister to 2012 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Union Rags, will stand the 2013 breeding season at Gibson Thoroughbred Farm in Thorp.

   Bred and raced by Joseph Allen, War Power was sent to France to race where he made seven starts. After winning an about seven-furlong maiden race at Deauville "handily" by three lengths at two, War Power took two about nine-furlong allowance as a sophomore and ran fifth, beaten only 1 1/4 lengths, in the Prix Ridgway at Chantilly after being "hampered close 'to' home." He earned a total of $73,510 with a 3-1-0 record.

   Pulpit, who died early last December, was a Grade 2-winning son of Horse of the Year and leading sire A. P. Indy. Through October of 2012, Pulpit's offspring had included 63 stakes winners and the earners of over $55.6-million. Among Pulpit's Grade 1-winning sons who are also successful sires are Tapit, Corinthian, Purge, Stroll and Sky Mesa, as well as Grade 2 winners and sires Sightseeing and Essence of Dubai.

   War Power is the second foal out of Tempo West, a $104,458 earning daughter of leading sire and top broodmare sire Rahy. Among her other foals are 2012 Group 3 Irish stakes winner Declaration of War, by War Front; French stakes winner Vertiformer, by Dynaformer; and French stakes-placed War Pact, by War Front.

   His second dam, the winning Gone West mare Tempo, is also the dam of four-time stakes winner (with two Grade 1s and a pair of Grade 2 wins to his credit) Union Rags, one of the leading runners in 2011 and 2012. The son of Dixie Union earned nearly $1.8-million and is the highest priced first-year sire in 2013 at $35,000. Two other of Tempo's foals are $159,092 stakes-placed Geefour, by Dixie Union, and $207,867 earner Miss Pauline, by Cat Thief.

   The Nijinsky II mare Terpsichorist, a Grade 3 stakes winner and multiple stakes producer, is War Power's third dam. His fourth dam, Irish champion two-year-old filly *Glad Rags II, produced two graded stakes winners. Irish champion miler Prince of Birds and additional Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Colonial Affair stem from her daughters.

   War Power will stand for a $1,000 live foal, which includes a $200 booking fee, but for those who book early, a discounted introductory fee of $800, including a $200 booking fee, is available.

   War Power's first foals are yearlings of 2013.

Other News

   Theresa and Edward DeNike's Sweet Tess, by Afleet Alex, finished third, only beaten a half length and a nose, in the California Oaks run at Golden Gate Fields on February 9.

   Dan Agnew, John Xitco and trainer Mike Chambers's four-year-old Mon Coeur took his third win in six starts after he won a six-panel allowance race at Turf Paradise on February 11. The Kentucky-bred son of Lion Heart-Divina, by Elusive Quality, has won both of his 2013 starts and has earned a $29,381 total.

   Four-year-old stakes winner Summer Hit won for the fifth time in eight starts after the California-bred took an about 6 1 /2-furlong turf allowance at Santa Anita on February 10. Bred by Ken and Jan Heidt, the gelded son of Bertrando is out of four-race winner Mia F Eighteen, by Tough Knight, a full sister to stakes winner Miatough. Mia F Eighteen is also the dam of $198,697 stakes winner Starbird Road, who was the top sprinter and Washington-bred at the 2006 Emerald Downs meeting.

   Randall and Rossi LLC's Gallant Son took the $50,000 Albany Stakes run at Golden Gate on February 18 by 1 1/4 lengths. The now seven-time stakes winner, who was Emerald Downs champion two-year-old male in 2008, has earned $438,328. The seven-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Malabar Gold-Explicitly is trained by Frank Lucarelli. Finishing third in the six-furlong stakes was five-year-old Shrug, a son of Medaglia d'Oro out of stakes-placed Babeinthewoods, who is s daughter of Washington horse of the year Delicate Vine.

   Dr. George Todaro and trainer Jerry Hollendorfer's Grade 2 stakes winner Lady of Fifty finished third to winner Great Hot (Brz) in the $200,000 Grade 2 Santa Maria Stakes run at Santa Anita on February 16. A four-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of After Market, Lady of Fifty has earned $353,000.

   For the second year in a row, Karl Krieg's 2012 Washington champion handicap horse Absolutely Cool finished second in the Phoenix Gold Cup Handicap. His most recent runner-up finish came on February 16 when the six-year-old gelded son of Absolute Harmony out of 2012 Washington broodmare of the year Coup de Foudre was second to L.A. Weekend in the $75,000 stakes. Trained by Valorie Lund, Absolutely Cool has a record of 5-6-4 from 19 starts and has earned $115,328. Finishing third was Jim Garrett's Idaho stakes winner Memo to Mya, who had won at Emerald Downs last July.

   Three-year-old Revolutionary, the son of War Pass who won the Withers Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct on February 2, is out of a Grade 1-winning half-sister to Little King Ranch stallion Top Account (Runup the Colors, by AP Indy). A half-brother to graded stakes-place Tafaseel and Ice Road, the Todd Pletcher-trained Revolutionary improved his record to 2-1-2 from five starts and has earned $188,500.

   Grade 2 stakes winner Arena Elvira, who won nine of her 17 starts and earned $497,396, has been retired from racing and is booked to Tapit. The six-year-old daughter of Ghostzapper-Two Item Limit was bred by Northwest Farms LLC.

   Point of Entry, the five-year-old son of Dynaformer who won the $300,000 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (G1) on February 9 to go over the $2-million mark, stems from the same female line as Blue Ribbon Farm stallion Nationhood.

   Sweet On You, a three-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Candy Ride (Arg) who races for Dave Mowat's Ten Broeck Farm Inc., won her first race, a 1 1/16-mile maiden special weight race at Tampa Bay Downs on February 16 by 3 1/4 lengths.

   Three-time Longacres jockey champion Gary Boulanger, who became a trainer after a serious accident in the saddle eight years ago, returned to race riding aboard Spring a Latch in an allowance/$75,000 optional claiming race at Tampa Bay Downs on February 17, finishing ninth aboard the three-year-old daughter of Spring at Last.

   Three-year-old Super Ninety Nine was an 11 1/4 length-winner of the $300,000 Southwest Stakes (G3) run at 1 1/16-miles over a sloppy track at Oaklawn Park on February 18. It marked the first stakes victory for the Kentucky-bred son of Pulpit-Expogenetic, by Unbridled's Song, who was bred by Jerre Paxton's Northwest Farms LLC and is trained by Bob Baffert. Super Ninety Nine, who improved his record to 3-1-0 from five starts, is a half-brother to Paxton's 2009 Emerald Downs champion and $241,716 multiple stakes winner Elusive Horizon.

   The recently released book titled The Inventor and the Tycoon, by Edward Ball, tells the "riveting true-crime narrative" of California railroad mogul and Thoroughbred horseman Leland Stanford and the man whose pioneering photos - using multiple cameras - of a horse proved its actual gait. The photographer, English-born Eadweard Muybridge seems to have also caused a great sensation after confessing to his wife's lover's murder.

   The February 2013 issue of California Thoroughbred featured an article on former Washington trainer and Oregon native Mike Harrington titled "Mikel 'Mike' Harrington: An All-Around Winner."

Logan Garrison Memorial

Saturday, February 23, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Savario Farm, 40421 268^th Ave SE, Enumclaw, WA 98022.