Mohawk: Friday 4/24 Analysis
Garnet Barnsdale's analysis of the Friday 4/24 card at Mohawk Racetrack.
Garnet BarnsdaleApr 22, 2015
Garnet Barnsdale's analysis of the Friday 4/24 card at Mohawk Racetrack.
Brewster Smith's analysis of the Friday 4/24 card at Yonkers Raceway.
Download DRF Plus handicapping reports for Thursday’s races, including DRF Bets GamePlan, the Positive ROI Report, and Key Race Report.
Camille has made more than a million dollars on the racetrack thanks to her tenaciousness, which trainer Ron Burke deems priceless. He hopes the mare passes that quality to her offspring -- and she will get the chance following her appearance in Saturday’s $261,000 Blue Chip Matchmaker championship at Yonkers Raceway.
Smuggler, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2005, died April 16 at Claiborne Farm due to complications from foaling. Her foal, by War Front, was also lost.
Gouyen took the lead in the stretch of an optional claimer on Santa Anita's hillside turf course March 26 and thought she had finished her job. Changes have been made to avoid a repeat in Friday’s fifth race, an optional claimer on the hillside turf course for California-bred fillies and mares. Gouyen will be fitted with blinkers for the first time.
Distance races have defined the career of Quick Casablanca, first in South America where the horse was bred, and in the United States in the last two years. Last year, during the Santa Anita spring-summer meeting, Quick Casablanca won the Grade 3 Last Tycoon Stakes, finished third in the Grade 2 Charles Whittingham Stakes, and was second in the Grade 2 San Juan Capistrano Stakes, all races at 1 1/8 miles on turf or farther. The same races are goals for Quick Casablanca this year, and the calendar better suits the 7-year-old.
Kellyn Gorder, a Kentucky-based trainer, has been suspended a total of 14 months by the Kentucky state stewards after a horse he trained tested positive for methamphetamine and a related barn search turned up syringes and unlabeled bottles of medication, according to the stewards’ rulings.
After being forced into playing “second fiddle” in terms of Sire Stake purse structures, the Standardbred Breeders and Owners association of New Jersey has instituted a rewards program that virtually eliminates service fees for Garden State pacing stallions to owners of resident mares throughout the state.
Monday morning headlines about a milestone victory by Joe Steiner and a frightening training spill involving Dennis Carr served as fitting background to the announcement that Chris Antley was among four new individuals entering the Thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame.