Gierkink's Woodbine Horses to Watch for the week of May 18
Gierkink's Woodbine Horses to Watch for the week of May 18
Ron GierkinkMay 18, 2015
Gierkink's Woodbine Horses to Watch for the week of May 18
The first stakes of the Delaware Park meet, which opened Preakness Day, will be held Wednesday. The $50,000 Winter Melody Stakes is for fillies and mares, will be held at 1 1/16 miles, and has drawn a field of seven.
While betting on Saturday’s Preakness Stakes did not keep pace with record figures for this year’s Kentucky Derby, the significant decline in wagering may have been more a function of the circumstances surrounding the race then on any drop-off in attention to racing’s biggest events.
Sheer Drama worked five furlongs in 1:00.34 on Monday at Gulfstream Park in preparation for her next start, which is likely to come in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps on the Belmont Stakes undercard June 6.
If you want to be in the big leagues of harness racing you have to be ready to come to play. These days, for the top three-year-old pacing colts and geldings in North America, bringing your “A” game means being ready to pace in 1:50 the first time money is on the line. For two of the likely major players in this year’s coming wars, the make believe competition of qualifying races was instantly cast aside with impressive first go-rounds.
Pimlico decided not to delay the start of Saturday’s rain-deluged Preakness Stakes because the worst of the storm that hit shortly before the race had already passed the track, according to Sal Sinatra, the track’s general manager.
Group 1 winner Hampton Court has been retired from racing and is the first Australian native announced to stand at the newly formed Spendthrift Australia in Victoria.
A Smart Strike filly sold for a sale-record $1.25 million to agent Ben McElroy to set the bar high in the early going of the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale's first session Monday in Timonium, Md.
With the eyes of the racing world on Pimlico, young sire First Defence enjoyed a solid weekend, as he was represented by Grade 3 Miss Preakness winner Irish Jasper and Sir Barton Stakes winner Fame and Power. According to Daily Racing Form’s SirePowered Results, the Juddmonte Farms sire is represented by five individual stakes winners this year, in the U.S., Hong Kong, and Ireland.
Trip Notes for May 16: Preakness, Vagrancy, Dixie, Red Bank and more by Michael Hammersly.