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Oaks Entrants
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Trainer |
Jockey |
Owner |
Breeder |
Werner, 46, is a native Texan who currently resides in Louisville. A second generation horseman, Werner is cut from the same mold as racing's elite Thoroughbred trainers D. Wayne Lukas and Bob Baffert, as he hails from a rich heritage in Quarter Horse racing. After college, Werner began his career training that breed in 1981 before switching over to Thoroughbreds at the turn of the century. He initially teamed up with prominent Texas owner Tom Durant, and that duo enjoyed a lot of success in the early 2000s with such stakes performers as Touch Tone, Awesome Humor, Most Feared and Lunar Bounty. Werner, who is known for his finesse with juveniles, moved onto the major Kentucky circuit full time in 2003, and his early success attracted such high profile owners as Ken and Sarah Ramsey, whom Werner purchased Badge of Silver for. He conditioned that colt to an exciting 3-year-old campaign in 2003. |
A native of Lafayette, La., Albarado started riding at bush tracks at the age of 12 and scored his first career win at Evangeline Downs in 1990. He has earned riding titles at Fair Grounds, Arlington Park and Oaklawn Park. He fractured his pelvis in a two-horse spill at Keeneland on Oct. 13, 2000 and as a result, he had to sit out most of 2001. His 556 wins at Churchill currently rank him ninth all-time at the historic track. He was the winner of the 2004 George Woolf Memorial Award, given by piers. His best mounts include 2003 Horse of the Year Mineshaft, Joyeux Danseur, Quiet Resolve, Morluc, and Tijiyr (Ire). He and his wife, Kimber, reside in Louisville, Ky. and have two son, Kaden and Kash. Albarado has ridden in seven Derbys, with his best finish coming on Request for Parole, fifth in 2002. |
Bio Coming Soon |
A graduate of Skidmore college with a degree in Biochemistry, Amy Bondon-Peltz is a commercial breeder and near 30-year career horsewoman who splits residency between her condo in Ocala, Florida and residence in Barrington Hills, IL. Her clientele consists of racing and pinhooking entities mostly from the Chicago metropolitan area. Owner and principal of Estrorace Bloodstock LLC, Amy is also on the Executive Committee of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America and she has a longstanding relationship with the ministries at Churchill, Ocala, NYRA, and Turfway. Estrorace and Equirace.com - both founded by Bondon-Peltz in 1999 - was created with the idea of charitable giving as the driving force behind them. Ten percent of all income, race revenue, commission money, etc, is donated to the Race Track Chaplaincy and breast cancer support and research programs like the Friend for Life Cancer Support Center at Baptist hospital in Louisville, and the "Ride for a Cure" at Arlington Park in Chicago. In 2003, she was the first ever recipient of the Penny Chenery Distinguished Woman in Racing award, which was bestowed upon her at Arlington Park during the Arlington Million International Festival of Racing week. Bondon-Peltz has raced or bred such top performers as multiple graded stakes winners Personal Legend and millionaire Freefourinternet.
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04.27.06 :: Ermine Has Final Breeze For Oaks - Video Update 
04.27.06 - Ermine Works Well To Werner's Delight
04.26.06 - Ermine, Top Notch Lady Set To Put In Final Works For Oaks
04.18.06 - Oaks Contender Ermine Breezes Six Furlongs At Churchill
03.27.06 - Ermine Surprises In Honeybee
03.24.06 - Brownie Points Heads Oaklawn's Honeybee
03.05.06 - "All Others" Favored Over Wild Fit, Balance, Champion Folklore In Pool 2 Of Kentucky Oaks Future Wager
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DRF Past Performances
Next Race: 05.05 Kentucky Oaks (GI)
Future Wager Odds
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Pool # |
Date |
Horse # |
Final Odds |
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3 |
04.06-09 |
8 |
19-1 |
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2 |
03.02-05 |
24* |
9-2 |
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1 |
01.26-29 |
24* |
7-2 |
* = Part of the mutuel field
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Race History :: Graded Earnings: $0 (as of 03.25.06) - Race Record: 5-2-2-0
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Date |
Race |
Finish |
Chart |
Recap |
Video |
Comments |
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03.25.06 |
Honeybee |
1st |
Chart |
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Video |
Turned back Brownie Points and drew away impressively |
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02.16.06 |
Maiden special weight @ Oaklawn |
1st |
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Video |
Took over stretch, in hand late |
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01.22.06 |
Maiden special weight @ Oaklawn |
DNF |
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Video |
Well clear stretch, ducked in suddenly 16th and dropped rider |
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12.31.05 |
Maiden special weight @ Fair Grounds |
2nd |
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Video |
Solid runner-up effort to Sweet Sugaree |
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11.05.05 |
Maiden special weight @ Churchill Downs |
2nd |
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Video |
Five-wide much of the way, finished well in debut |
Recent Workouts
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Date |
Track |
Distance |
Time |
Rank |
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04.27 |
Churchill Downs (fast) |
5 furlongs |
1:01.20 B |
5/22 |
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04.18 |
Churchill Downs (fast) |
6 furlongs |
1:13.40 B |
2/5 |
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03.17 |
Oaklawn Park (fast) |
5 furlongs |
1:02.20 B |
14/31 |
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Ermine hails from the first crop of Florida's leading freshman stallion Exchange Rate. A son of the great Danzig out of the graded stakes-winning Seeking the Gold mare Sterling Pound, Exchange Rate was born with a stallion's pedigree and turned out to be a very useful horse on the race track. He was on the Triple Crown trail for a while in 2000 after capturing the Risen Star Stakes, and at four he displayed versatility by turning back to capture the Gr. II Tom Fool against some of the best sprinters in North America after placing in the Gr. II Kilroe Mile on the turf earlier in the season. While Ermine looks like his top performer, Exchange Rate has also sired stakes winners Blazing Rate, who was on the Derby trail earlier in the year, and Swap Fliparoo.
Red Mischief, Ermine's dam, was a hard-knocking racehorse, having won 10 starts from four years of racing with earnings of more then $187,000. She is by Thirty Six Red - a solid stamina source from the Seattle Slew stallion line. Thirty Six Red put Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito on the map in 1990 with a fine 3-year-old campaign that saw that colt capture the Wood Memorial before running ninth in the Derby. Thirty Six Red returned to New York to run second in the 1 1/2-mile Gr. I Belmont Stakes. Ermine also gets great stamina influence from Bold Ruler and Majestic Prince - both fourth generation stallions on the dam's side, and she is 5x5 to the legendary stallions Buckpasser and Raise a Native.
It appears as though Ermine possesses a nice mix of qualities from both sides of her family, acquiring her tactical speed from her sire Exchange Rate and her ability to get a route of ground from the Seattle Slew broodmare sire lineage. Although she is a filly that is slight in build, Ermine has relatively been unchallenged since stretching out around two turns, and there is nothing that suggests that she will not be able to handle the additional sixteenth of a mile in the Oaks.
Dosage Index: 2.33
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ERMINE is an extremely intriguing up-and-comer that figures to be sitting on a huge race. She faced a good group of maidens in both of her first two starts at CD and FG before stretching out around two turns and dominating everything she has faced at Oaklawn. The only glitch in her form was her bizarre maiden event on Jan. 22nd when she spooked and dumped her rider with yards to go after opening up a decisive lead in the stretch. Her maiden win in her next start could not have been any easier, and Ermine jumped straight into stakes company and crushed the likes of solid stakes winner Brownie Points, running fast in the process to earn a gaudy 93 Beyer speed figure. Trainer Ronnie Werner elected to ship the slight-built filly to Churchill Downs after that effort to train directly up to the Oaks, and she has responded well by putting on weight and working beautifully over the local strip. The additional sixteenth of a mile doesn't figure to present a problem, and Ermine has the tactical speed necessary for jockey Albarado to negotiate early position from that outside draw without losing too much ground. Outside of Balance, she is the fastest filly in the field by the speed figures, and there is reason to believe that there is still room in the tank to improve. If Albarado can settle into a nice outside stalking trip and get first jump on the pacesetters before Balance commences her rally, she may prove awfully tough to run down in mid stretch. Also, there is rain in the forecast Friday and Ermine is bred to handle an off track as good as any in the field, so she moves up even more in that scenario. Rain or shine, she figures to provide true value off of her 12-1 morning line, and while she realistically figures to go off in the range of 8-1 - 10-1, that is a solid price to be excited about from a filly that is truly good enough to win the Oaks. I'm buying.
- Joel Cunningham |
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Oaks Information
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