Turfway Park: Tamarando expected to lead full field for Spiral Stakes

Turfway Park is expecting a full field of 12 3-year-olds for its marquee race, the Grade 3, $550,000 Spiral Stakes on March 22.

Tamarando, trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, looks like the probable favorite off his victory in the Grade 3 El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields on Feb. 15. Hollendorfer has won the Spiral twice, with Event of the Year in 1997 and Globalize in 2000.

The Spiral offers 85 qualifying points for the May 3 Kentucky Derby, with 50 points to the winner.

In alphabetical order, this is the prospective field for the 43rd Spiral, which is run at 1 1/8 miles on Polytrack: All Tied Up, Almost Famous, Asserting Bear, Big Bazinga, Coastline, Harry’s Holiday, Smart Cover, Solitary Ranger, Tamarando, Tourist, We Miss Artie, and Z Lucky.

Turfway officials initially listed East Hall as a prospect, but trainer Bill Kaplan said Wednesday from south Florida that he is very unlikely to run the colt following an eighth-place finish last weekend in the Tampa Bay Derby.

Spiral entries were to be drawn Wednesday at a media luncheon at Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati, which is sponsoring the race. The field is limited to 12.

The March 22 card also will include the Grade 3, $125,000 Bourbonette Oaks for 3-year-old fillies and the $50,000 Hansen Starter Handicap. Tickets for $175 each are still available for the VIP tent for Spiral Day through turfway.com.

Two Spiral winners (Lil E. Tee in 1992 and Animal Kingdom in 2011) have gone on to capture the Kentucky Derby. The 2013 Spiral winner, Black Onyx, was scratched from the Derby the day before the race with an ankle injury.

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Turfway Park boosts purses

Turfway announced this week that the Kentucky Thoroughbred Development Fund portions of maiden special weight and allowance races to be run during the remaining seven days of the winter-spring meet have been raised 50 percent. Tyler Picklesimer, director of racing at Turfway, said the additional KTDF funds were available because of the numerous weather-related cancellations at the meet.

As an example, a maiden race is now worth $26,500, with $18,000 of that restricted to horses eligible to the KTDF.

The decision not to disperse the additional funds retroactively was met with mild criticism on Twitter by at least one horseman.

Turfway “should have distributed funds retroactively to reward horsemen for winter-long support, not early southern returnees,” wrote John Langemeier of Spooky Hollow Farm. “[You] can’t have significant big-time racing without a strong minor-league system. Support your local horsemen and track!”

Meanwhile, Turfway announced that there will be racing on the final Sunday of the month, March 30. Turfway reserved the right to host racing on Sundays in March but opted only to do so on March 2 and 30.

◗ Keeneland has announced $100,000 purse increases for two graded turf stakes, the Elkhorn and Bourbon, due to new sponsorship from Dixiana Farm. Each race will be worth $250,000.

The Grade 2 Elkhorn, for older horses, is set for closing day of the 15-day spring meet, which runs April 4-25, while the Grade 3 Bourbon, for 2-year-olds, is run on the first Sunday of the fall meet, Oct. 5.

◗ Churchill and its Trackside training annex opened for training last weekend following the regular winter maintenance break, although as of Wednesday morning, only Donnie Habeeb and Phil Thomas had horses on the grounds at the main facility.

In the meantime, construction is progressing in the stable area on the huge Panasonic video board that will be situated just outside of the backstretch of the dirt track. The 170-foot-wide board is in the vicinity of the five-furlong pole.

◗ Albin Jimenez has wrapped up the meet riding title at Turfway. Heading into the final seven-day stretch starting Friday, Jimenez had ridden 46 winners at a meet that started Jan. 1, more than double his closest pursuer (Perry Ouzts, 20) in the standings. Jimenez, 22, also has been pulling some double duty at Mountaineer Park, where he was 7 for 18 through Tuesday night.

◗ Orlando Mojica, who has been riding regularly on the Southern California circuit since last fall, will return to this area in early April and have J.R. Pegram as his agent. Mojica won 51 races last year at Indiana Downs (now Indiana Grand Race Course), which will be his primary base, though he also will take mounts at Keeneland and Churchill Downs. He has ridden five winners at the current Santa Anita meet.

◗ Longtime Louisville sportscaster Paul Rogers was named this week to the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. Rogers has called the Kentucky Derby for WHAS radio for the last 30 years and until recently had called the daily feature at Churchill on a regular basis, even though he was not paid extra for it. He also has co-hosted the annual Derby trainers’ dinner on Tuesday of Derby Week every year since 1987.

Rogers said his streak of calling the Derby might end this year since there apparently is no place for him to work following major sixth- and seventh-floor renovations at Churchill.

◗ The promotional tour for the new racing movie “50-1” will make a stop in Kentucky from April 14-18, smack in the middle of the Keeneland meet. The movie is about the 2009 Kentucky Derby victory by Mine That Bird and stars Skeet Ulrich as trainer Chip Woolley.

◗ Equibase has decided that the new three-letter designation for the new Belterra Park will be “BtP.” Belterra is the former River Downs (RD) in Cincinnati.