Dubai Race Night » Tanino Gimlet

Vodka retired, no Dubai World Cup

PatCummings — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:51:38 +0000

After finishing a relatively close eighth in the Maktoum Challenge – R3 (G2), Japan’s super-mare Vodka has been retired following another bleeding incident. By Tanino Gimlet, Vodka retires the richest female to ever race, with seven wins in Group 1 company of her ten lifetime scores. Click HERE for more from El Caballista. Vodka twice failed to show her best in the Dubai Duty Free (G1).

Considered one of the choices for the Dubai World Cup, she is now expected to be matched with Sea The Stars in the breeding shed. As countrymate, and filly, Red Desire ran so well in winning the Maktoum Challenge, perhaps the daughter of Manhattan Cafe can take up the mantle as one of Japan’s top race horses. The lead up to Dubai World Cup week will tell us.

Will Vodka pour over Tapeta or grass? Confusing elements as super-mare stares toward Dubai

PatCummings — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:20:58 +0000

In the days following Vodka’s thrilling victory in the Japan Cup (G1), English media sources have indicated that trainer Katsuhiko Sumii will send his daughter of Tanino Gimlet to contest the $10,000,000 Dubai World Cup (G1) over the synthetic Tapeta at Meydan, a final race on the ledger of a magnificent career. No shortage of reports filed by sources on three continents reported the same.

Vodka has been to Dubai twice, competing in the 2008 and 2009 Dubai Duty Free (G1) and finishing fourth and seventh, respectively. She has accumulated a handsome sum of more than US$14,000,000, making her the world’s winningest mare based on lifetime earnings. Does it not seem odd that a mare who has landed 10 wins from 25 starts, not a single one of them over a non-grass course, would make her final lifetime start on Meydan’s new Tapeta course? Bill Murray’s performance in the feature film “Lost In Translation” was an amusing one, and I think he might agree that Sumii’s statements regarding Vodka could have been taken out of context, or simply lacking a complete explanation, concerning the final pre-retirement start for a legend of the Japanese turf.

Until there is additional clarification, my expectation is that before we offer a final “sayonara” to a gem of the turf, we will see Vodka at Meydan on 27 March 2010 – racing in the Dubai Duty Free.

Vodka stellar in Yasuda Kinen victory

PatCummings — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 22:09:21 +0000

The Japanese wonder mare Vodka (#3), under jockey Yutaka Take (yellow silks, single blue sash), showed a brilliant turn of foot after locating racing room with a microscope in a thrilling edition of the Yasuda Kinen (G1) at Tokyo. The daughter of Tanino Gimlet is now the winningest mare in Japanese racing and 2-for-2 following her winter in Dubai.

Click HERE to read the release from the Japanese Racing Association.