ARCADIA, Calif. - The Magna 5 paid a record low of $1,130.40 for a $2 bet to 345 ticketholders Saturday.
Three of the five winners were favored, and the other two were second choices. The previous low payoff was $4,657.60 to 103 ticketholders on March 6.
The bet returned a record payoff of $205,703 on Feb. 28. The wager require bettors to select the winners of five races run throughout the country.
The Jockey Club, the three largest racetrack operators in the United States, and the racing industry's three tote companies have reached an agreement to identify problems in the sport's betting network and develop solutions.
The racing companies involved - Magna Entertainment, the New York Racing Association, and Churchill Downs - together account for approximately 60 percent of the national handle on horse racing.
Parimutuel wagering on Thoroughbred races in the United States rose more than one-half of 1 percent in the first quarter of 2004 compared with the first quarter of 2003, according to figures released by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Purses in the quarter declined slightly more than 1 percent from last year. . . . The Meadowlands on Saturday will hold the first qualifying event for the $1 million Horseplayer World Series, to be held in January in Las Vegas.
Derby prospect unfairly put in hard place
I would like to offer my sympathy to co-owner Mercedes Stable, co-owner and breeder Madeleine Paulson, and trainer Jason Orman on the unlikelihood of getting the Santa Anita Derby runner-up, Rock Hard Ten, (who was disqualified to third) into the 2004 Kentucky Derby field. You shouldn't have to go through this ("For a few dollars more: Derby spots," April 7).
Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is pushing for a state-owned $400 million racetrack and slot machine parlor in downtown Baltimore that would serve as the new home of the Preakness Stakes. The proposed project is part of Ehrlich's effort to break a political stalemate over legalized gambling.
The Ehrlich administration has completed a preliminary study on what it would cost to build the track, called Baltimore Gateway International, and where it would be located - on nearly 200 acres off Interstate 95 in downtown Baltimore, adjacent to the Baltimore Ravens' football stadium.
England's Doncaster 2-year-old sale enjoyed sharp upturns Wednesday at the first of two sessions, selling 108 of 111 lots for $3,729,533, a total which, in the local currency of guineas, was up 48 percent from last year's gross for 102 juveniles. Topped by a $173,880 Diesis-Polly's Link colt, the opening session also posted an average price of $34,533 (up 40 percent) and a median of $27,048 (up 33 percent). . . . Joe Colasacco has been named as racing secretary at Finger Lakes after serving 15 years as assistant racing secretary.
Paul Cooper, a former trainer whose clients included prominent Ontario owner Doug Banks, died Sunday at age 92. A service was scheduled for 1 p.m. Wednesday at Lynett Funeral Home on Dundas Street West in Toronto. . . . Bruce Davis, a longtime jockey agent in the Midwest, died Friday at age 72. Davis worked for a number of riders including Sam Siciliano, Joe Mcintosh, and Patti Cooksey. . . . Sarafan has been invited by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to run in the $1.8 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin on April 25.
Flawlessly, the champion grass mare of 1992 and 1993, was named a Hall of Fame finalist for the fifth year in a row on Monday.
Flawlessly's candidacy was announced by the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., along with 12 other candidates in four categories: male horse, female horse, jockey, and trainer. Although the Hall of Fame's rules are set up to present three finalists in a category each year, the Hall's nominating committee reached a four-way tie to name jockey finalists, according to officials of the Hall.
The finalists are:
Fred Winter, champion jump jockey four times and champion jump trainer eight times in Britain, died Monday at age 77 after a brief illness. Winter's most famous ride was his extraordinary ride in the 1962 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil, where he rode Mandarin to victory in the 4 1/16-mile race after his bridle broke jumping the third fence. . . . Stock in Youbet.com rose $1.04, or 23.4 percent, on Monday to $5.49, a 52-week high for the online wagering company.