SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - At around 8:30 Sunday morning, some 15 hours after his victory in the Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy Stakes, Epicenter was at the front of his stall in trainer Steve Asmussen’s Saratoga barn seemingly looking for more action.
“He’s very alert, very happy with himself,” Asmussen said, sitting in a golf cart just outside the shed row.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Wagering on Saturday’s Cross-Country pick-5 was not stopped until after the first leg of the wager had been run.
The error resulted in a 90-minute delay of calculating the payoffs. But it was worth the wait for bettors who successfully selected all five winners as they received more bang for their buck after the pool was supplemented by $50,000 by the New York Racing Association and AmTote.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Flightline has done little wrong in his first four races, winning all and most recently the Met Mile, in dominating fashion. But there’s always room for improvement, and that was the point of his early morning drill Saturday at Del Mar.
Flightline’s trainer, John Sadler, elected to work Flightline from the gate, in company, as Flightline moves toward his next start, the $1 million Pacific Classic here Sept. 3.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Kent Desormeaux, the Hall of Fame jockey who has not ridden since Jan. 23 owing to various transgressions, met with Del Mar’s stewards on Friday in an attempt to get reinstated, stewards said Friday afternoon.
Desormeaux, 52, has been officially unable to ride since March 3, when he failed to appear before the Santa Anita stewards for a scheduled hearing; a suspension was issued March 4.
Breeders’ Cup will host two pari-mutuel pools this year offering future bets for this year’s Classic, which is scheduled for Nov. 5 at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Ky.
The first pool will open on Aug. 5 and close on Aug. 7. The second pool will open on Sept. 2 and close on Sept. 5. Both pools will offer 24 betting interests, with 23 individual horses and a bet on “all others.” The bet has a $2 minimum. Takeout for the bet will be 16 percent.
The Classic will have a maximum of 14 starters.
An investigation into a highly unusual ride by a jockey at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Canada, last week has concluded that the jockey “overcompensated” for the horse’s tendency to drift out, according to racing officials at the track and with the province’s regulatory commission.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago on Monday unveiled several multi-billion-dollar proposals aimed at keeping the Chicago Bears from leaving the city’s Soldier Field for a new stadium in Arlington Heights on the property currently occupied by Arlington Park.
Lightfoot’s proposals included constructing a dome at Soldier Field or rebuilding the stadium so that a dome could be constructed at the site. Another option would convert the facility to a multi-purpose, year-round venue. Lightfoot provided no mechanism to fund the proposals.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Sunday’s seventh race at Saratoga was declared a no-contest because several jockeys pulled their horses up on the backside at the direction of an outrider due to a malfunction with the starting gate tractor.
The field of 2-year-old maiden fillies in the two-turn, 1 1/16-mile turf race was on the backstretch when it became apparent there was an issue getting the starting gate off the course. The race starts in midstretch.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - The disappointment of Jack Christopher failing to see out the nine furlongs of Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park could not overshadow what was an otherwise terrific weekend for trainer Chad Brown.
Prior to the Haskell, Brown had swept the four graded stakes run on Saturday’s Monmouth card as well as an allowance race. At Saratoga on Saturday, Brown won an allowance race with Stage Raider, a half-brother to Triple Crown winner Justify.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Three men have won the last seven Eclipse awards as the outstanding trainer in North America, and three horses they train lined up across the Monmouth Park racing oval at the sixteenth pole of the $1 million Haskell Stakes on Saturday.
It was the horse on the rail, Cyberknife, who came out on top – barely. Trained by Brad Cox, who has won two straight Eclipse Awards, Cyberknife benefitted from his own adept actions and an excellent ride from Florent Geroux to best Taiba by a head.
