Timonium opens meet with added competition

Beginning Friday, horse racing in Maryland shifts from Laurel Park to the more informal confines of the state fair at Timonium. While the fair will offer its typical simple pleasures, Timonium racing will be up against increased competition for horses from Colonial Downs, which recently reopened after a five-year hiatus.

Timonium will race seven days, Friday to Sunday this weekend and Friday through Labor Day Monday next week. Laurel will reopen Friday, Sept. 6.

Georganne Hale, racing secretary at Timonium, hopes to card nine races per day, with 10 on Saturdays and Labor Day. She admits to being apprehensive about how well her races will fill.

The emphasis at Laurel is on turf racing, just as it is at Colonial, and there are a large number of grass horses in the region. Timonium has only a five-furlong dirt track.

“Colonial does hurt me,” Hale said. “They’ve written some cheap races on turf while we are running, and that may cost me some horses. We’re all trying to get to the same pool of horses.”

To encourage horsemen to support Timonium, a $20,000 trainers’ bonus will once again be up for grabs. The bonus will be divvied up among the five trainers who accumulate the most points during the meet based on their horses’ finish positions, and the trainer who has the highest purse earnings.

Field size on the opening-day card at Timonium, which was drawn Tuesday, is 7.89 horses per race.

Purses are forecast to average $185,000 per day, the same as in 2018. Maiden races will be worth $35,000, and optional-claiming races will have purses of $36,000.

There are two $75,000 stakes at the meet, the Timonium Distaff and the Coalition, both at 6 1/2 furlongs. They are switching spots on the calendar this year, with the Coalition, for 3-year-olds and up, scheduled for this Saturday and the Distaff to be run Aug. 31.

The Timonium Distaff was an open race for fillies and mares a year ago but will be restricted to Maryland-bred or -sired females this meet. The Maryland Horse Breeders Association is contributing $50,000 to the Distaff purse.

This Saturday is College Day at the fair. Scholarships of $1,000 will be awarded after each of the day’s races.

A $50 groom’s award for the best turned out horse will be presented after every race of the season.

Correa has three mounts

Julio Correa, the 25-year-old apprentice rider from Puerto Rico who won the Laurel Park summer title over Trevor McCarthy, is named on three opening-day mounts.

Other jockeys who will be active Friday include Wes Hamilton, J.D. Acosta, Xavier Perez, Arnaldo Bocachica, Kevin Gomez, and the apprentices Avery Whisman and Keimar Trotman.

Correa, who attended the famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica jockey school in Puerto Rico, won four races on closing day of the 43-day Laurel meet to defeat McCarthy, 35-30. McCarthy had won four consecutive Maryland titles coming into the summer stand.

Correa began riding in the Unites States last November at Parx Racing. He switched to Maryland in mid-March, and his business has taken off.

◗ McCarthy and fellow Maryland rider Katie Davis announced their engagement Monday.

McCarthy is the son of former rider Michael McCarthy, who won 2,907 races and many Mid-Atlantic titles. Davis is the daughter of former New York standout rider Robbie Davis, a winner of 3,382 races. Davis now trains in New York.