Meet opens with across-the-board purse increases

Thursday is opening night of the 2018 race meet at Prairie Meadows, and this time of year meet openings are about a dime a dozen in the Midwest.

Hawthorne in Chicago started up in March, and Arlington begins its meet May 4. Indiana Grand just opened last week, and Ohio racing moves to Belterra this week. To the north, Canterbury Park is set for its own opening next week as the Kentucky circuit shifts from the Keeneland boutique to Churchill next week.

No wonder short fields have been the bane of Prairie Meadows, a track that races without a turf course, and that trend probably isn’t changing anytime soon. After the average number of starters per race fell from 7.37 in 2014 to 7.26 in 2015 and 7.05 in 2016, the number did tick slightly higher to 7.09 during 2017. The number of races per season has held about the same: 605 in 2014, 590 last year.

Good business at the Prairie Meadows casino, the engine that keeps racing going at the Des Moines-area track, has left racing secretary Pat Pope with an extra $600,000 to $700,000 in purse money this year. Purses are up across the board $500 per race, Pope said, and Prairie Meadows is attempting to bolster early-meet entries by adding $3,500 to the purse of any race during the meet’s first 12 programs for which eight betting interests leave the paddock.

Pope said the 1,350-stall backstretch housed about 800 horses as of early this week, and that another influx of stock arrives during the first couple weeks in May.

“I’d like to say we’ve been full, but if we get over 1,100 here, we’re doing well,” said Pope.

Pope also is the racing secretary at Oaklawn Park, and he has done well bringing a healthy number of Oaklawn horsemen into the Prairie Meadows fold. Trainers Karl Broberg and Federico Villafranco won 75 and 71 races, respectively, at Prairie last year, with Lynn Chleborad notching a third-best total of 39 and Kelly Von Hemel next at 37. Pope doesn’t see any major changes at the top of the training market, though he did mention that Robertino Diodoro has bumped his local string from 20 last year to 30.

Ramon Vazquez, leading rider with 118 wins last year, and David Cabrera, second in the standings with 92, return for the 2018 season.

The Thoroughbred meet runs through Aug. 10, after which the annual Quarter Horse season commences. Racing generally is conducted Thursday through Sunday, with first post Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. Central and at 1 p.m. on weekends.

Headlining a well-stocked stakes schedule is the Grade 3, $300,000 Prairie Meadows Cornhusker, scheduled for Friday, July 6, and capping the three-day Iowa Festival of Racing, which includes five more six-figure stakes.

Trainer Steve Asmussen rarely participates in the day-to-day Prairie proceedings but is a steady and successful shipper for stakes: during 2017 he went 5-2-1 from 10 such starters. For the opening night feature, the $50,000 Goldfinch for 3-year-old fillies over six furlongs, Asmussen entered Laudation, one of 10 in a race with a field richer in talent than purse. Laudation rates a chance, but so do several others, including rail-drawn speedster Shanghai Tariff, graded-stakes dropper Sunny Skies, Turf Paradise standout Gorgeous Ginny, and Shakopee Town, who was visually impressive and got an 83 Beyer Speed Figure winning a Louisiana-bred maiden race in her second start.