The Ohio State Racing Commission has approved funding to conduct studies on the effects of cobalt on a horse, a decision that likely will delay significantly any rule in the state regulating the administration of the substance.
Parx Racing has put together a nice Derby Day card of its own, which will feature four $75,000 stakes and a no-conditions allowance race with a $54,000 purse. The Parx Derby and Oaks, both at a mile and 70 yards, are new to the calendar this season under first-year Director of Racing Sam Elliott. They will be joined Saturday by two seven-furlong Pennsylvania-bred stakes, the Lyman Handicap and the Foxy J. G.
Forget becoming a Hall of Famer or a legend. All these folks want to do Saturday is emulate the likes of jockeys Ronnie Franklin and Stewart Elliott or trainers Barclay Tagg and Chip Woolley.
Derby Angles features DRF handicappers looking at individual handicapping factors and how they may play out in this year’s Kentucky Derby.
Five years removed from what appeared on the outside to be one of the most ignominious and rapid falls from grace in modern American racing history, Ahmed Zayat is back on top.
The older mares Startin Something and Derby Day Storm have combined to take the last three runnings of the Dr. T.F. Classen Memorial Stakes for Ohio-bred fillies and mares at ThistleDown. It may be time to pass the torch to a youngster.
Hammerstein will join the road to the July 5 Queen’s Plate on Saturday at Woodbine, when he makes his stakes debut in the $150,000 Queenston, a seven-furlong test for Canadian-bred 3-year-olds.
Lake Drive South, who roared from far back to upset the Hilton Garden Inn/Hampton Inn and Suites Sprint on Florida Cup Day, tops a tough group of eight sprinters in Saturday’s seven-furlong feature at Tampa Bay Downs, a second-level $32,000 claimer.
Purple Heaven, an easy winner in his initial start as a sophomore, could be ready for another big effort when he runs in a first-level allowance race that will serve as the feature race Saturday at Northlands Park. The six-furlong sprint drew six horses, with Purple Heaven the one to catch and beat.
It is hard to take a firm stand on any of the 10 fillies and mares running in a $35,000 optional-claiming race that will serve as the feature on Saturday at Hastings. The six-furlong dash is a mix of stakes winners making comebacks, and horses seeing if they are ready to move to the next level.
