{"id":1015,"date":"2009-03-16T08:41:06","date_gmt":"2009-03-16T13:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=1015"},"modified":"2009-03-16T08:41:06","modified_gmt":"2009-03-16T13:41:06","slug":"weekend-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=1015","title":{"rendered":"Weekend update"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kentucky Derby trail
\n<\/strong>Friesan Fire (photo by Lou Hodges Jr<\/em>.) stoked his furnace for a 7 1\/2-length victory in the $600,000 G2 Louisiana Derby on Saturday, March 14. It was his fourth win in seven starts and one that qualifies him as a top contender for the Kentucky Derby.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his stablemate, Old Fashioned<\/a>, an early Derby favorite off of 4 consecutive wins, including the $250,000 Southwest Stakes on Feb.16, suffered defeat by 57 to 1 longshot Win Willy, in the $300,000 G2 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.<\/p>\n

“I thought he could have run much better if I was there,” quipped trainer Larry Jones, by phone from Oaklawn Park where he saddled Old Fashioned, after Friesan Fire’s victory. The A.P. Indy-sired colt is co-owned by Vinery Stables and Fox Hill Farms. Fox Hill owner, Richard Porter, also owns Old Fashioned.<\/p>\n

Ridden in the 1 1\/16-mile dirt race by Gabriel Saez, Friesan Fire became the first horse to win three graded stakes in a single Fair Grounds meet.<\/p>\n

“I got him right behind the leaders,” said Saez. “He was very relaxed. When I made my move, he just exploded. I think he keeps getting better and better.”<\/p>\n

Ray Hunt dies
\n<\/strong>Ray Hunt<\/a>,\u00a0famous horseman, clinician and advocate of “natural” horsemanship, passed away on Thursday, March 12, according to the Amercian Quarter Horse Association. He was 79.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kentucky Derby trail Friesan Fire (photo by Lou Hodges Jr.) stoked his furnace for a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1015\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}