Wesley Ward's Strike the Tiger wins at 33-1
 

Strike the Tiger won the Windsor Castle Stakes at 33-1 at Ascot. Certainly an accomplishment few expected.

http://drf.com/news/article/104699.html

NT

Very suprising and very cool for Wesley/Johnny

Cal breds that win their debut for a tag have historically done well in European stakes races.

Some South African breeder must be counting his/her blessings. Strike that Tiger is from Tiger Ridge's last US crop before he was exported.

Let's not get too excited. It was a $70k listed Stake, not a Group 1.

It's a pretty amazing achievement.

Yes it was only a 70k stake but from what everyone has said, he was an idiot to go and all his horses would run up the track, so I think its nice he got a win even if it is a 70k stake.

He's already made more money than they'd have made sitting in his barn back in the US. He's right that there is nowhere here for winners to run at this point in the year and if he felt these were the sort of horses that would no longer be ahead of the curve come August then it was the right move.

You're right and Cannonball also didn't run poorly. He ran on late for sixth beaten just over 5 lengths after trailing early.

Ken Ramsey was supposedly seen eating a heaping helping of bangers and mash.

NT

Shouldn't Americans have the edge over Euro's in an early season 2yo 5f turf race?

I didn't look at the race at all on paper - and maybe the horse deserved to be his price .. but I'll be impressed when something goes over there and wins at a classic distance. Getting young 2yo's to run impressive burts over short distances is like our greatest strength in relation to elsewhere.

Were there any ADW's that were offering this 5 day meet on there menu. I looked at Youbet and Twin Spires and didn't see them.

Ward still has 3 horses running during this meet that may still offer value and I was trying to see if you could get a few bucks down

TVG I think

Obviously as an early 2yo race, it was short but two of the biggest races of the meeting are the Kings Stand (won today by Sonic Blast) and the Golden Jubilee. Both are sprints. Many of the horses from today will be back on Sat for the Jubilee. Sprinting is huge internationally.

The better 2yo's at Ascot went in the Coventry (G2) today but this was not a bad race. It's the equivalent of a nice allowance. It IS telling that the Coventry went with 14 and the Windsor Castle went with 22. None of these babies was a firster, meaning that all of them has at least a race and some had 2-3. The runner up to Wards horse had 7 prior starts and another had 6. Here in the US you can't fill and allowance for babies and trainers ar all waiting for Saratoga or Del Mar or later. Ward was right, there is no place for him to run all his maiden winners so he might as well ship.
They ran 36 2yo's today at one of the most prestigious meets in Europe. they have more tomorrow (fillies in the G2 Queen Mary) and in NY they have run 2 (maybe 3) baby races all season. What the...????

TVG only, I believe.

Mike Watchmaker wrote a semi-interesting piece about the lack of baby races in NY so far this year - came out on DRF plus yesterday. But he called Seattle Smooth a "dirt freak" in the same article, so take it with a grain of salt.

This story is pretty cool, but Shuback's final line in his DRF story is laughable:

"Given the humble beginnings of the California-bred Strike the Tiger, his Windsor Castle victory rates as one of the happiest surprises in the history of American racing."

His Eurocentricity is really out of hand.

"history of American racing"

see you have to see it from a Brit's point of view, to them we have little if no history.

What a stupid statement.

What about DiamondSports or some other "off-shore" account?

Ward sounded like a really cool guy in interviews. Fair play to him for coming over. His success today will hopefully bring a few more over in the next few years. I'm just disappointed I didnt have some cash on him today, and Im sure all the value will be gone for his other runners. Plus Cannonball ran a nice enough race and will be sure to improve for the step back up to 6f. If only JJ The Jet Plane and Sacred Kingdom werent running, I'd fancy him.