Dr. Daniel Frazier, the owner of leading Ohio racing and breeding operation Pyrite Stables, died March 16 in Tampa. He was 73.
Frazier was born in Pittsburgh and relocated with his family to Louisville, Ky. at a young age, eventually graduating from the University of Louisville’s medical school. He served as a medical officer aboard nuclear submarines during the Vietnam War and returned to become one of the Tampa Bay area’s largest primary-care physicians and executives.
1. What are DRF's race shape symbols?
2. What is race flow or race shape?
3. How can you make a pace product without using fractional times?
4. Why are extremes important in pace handicapping?
5. How do the race shape symbols work?
6. If a race does not get a symbol, does that mean it had a neutral race flow?
Jeff Lukas, the only child of Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas and the victim of a disabling accident that shook the racing world nearly a quarter-century ago, has died. Jeff Lukas was 58.
Lukas died Wednesday in Oklahoma, confirmed Bas Nicholl, a longtime assistant to D. Wayne Lukas, 80, who is based at Oaklawn Park. Nicholl did not know the cause of death and asked for privacy for Lukas.
Jeff Lukas’s son, Brady, is stationed overseas with the U.S. Air Force and was notified of his father’s death before word was released. Jeff Lukas also has a daughter, Kelly.
Oaklawn Park will increase purses for the third time this meet starting next Thursday, when all overnight purses will be boosted by $1,000 a race, the track announced Wednesday. Oaklawn also has kicked up the value of three of its stakes for 3-year-olds, the Bachelor, Instant Racing, and Northern Spur, to $150,000 each.
The increase will put the purse of maiden special weight races at $76,000 after starting the meet at $68,000. The purses for some allowances will now be worth more than $80,000, while the minimum offering for a $5,000 claiming race will be $23,500.
NEW ORLEANS – Florent Geroux showed up right on time at the Fair Grounds track kitchen for a scheduled interview Wednesday morning, just after working three horses, including the top filly I’m a Chatterbox, with another to work later after the renovation break. It’s been that kind of a meet for the jockey, making well-timed moves and getting on the best horses, and he’ll look to win the biggest of them all at this meet Saturday when he rides Gun Runner in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, but it was the Horse the Year before, the horse who finished fourth in his Triple Crown bid, California Chrome, who remains the rock star.
Racing journalists literally from around the globe say any old story on Chrome still bombards their websites with cascades of hits. Tweet his name plus a photo or news of the most mundane activity, and watch the “likes” and “re-Tweets” roll in.
WHO’S HOT
The Derby Watch top 20 remained intact from last week, but the odds on several runners changed, most notably Cupid, whose impressive victory in the Rebel Stakes caused Mike Watchmaker, Daily Racing Form’s national handicapper, to lower his odds to 12-1 from last week’s 30-1, making him the co-fourth choice on Watchmaker’s line for the May 7 Kentucky Derby. Whitmore, the Rebel runner-up, also saw his price lowered to 20-1 from last week’s 30-1.
NEW ORLEANS – Nine 3-year-olds, including stakes winners Abiding Star, Governor Malibu, and Surgical Strike, were made eligible to the Triple Crown with a payment of $6,000 that was due Monday, Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, announced Wednesday.
The other six are American Pioneer, Cards of Stone, Isofass, Lookin for a Kiss, My Man Sam, and Zapperini, who is entered in the Grade 2, $1 million Louisiana Derby here at Fair Grounds on Saturday.
A body found in the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pa., on Sunday has been identified as that of a missing employee of the Pennsylvania Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association who was under investigation for accounting fraud, state officials announced on Tuesday.
The body of Matthew Carter, 35, was found just after 2 p.m. on Sunday near a parking lot at City Island, the coroner said in a release. The coroner’s statement said that Carter’s death was caused by “freshwater drowning” and that there were “no suspicious circumstances” surrounding the death.
Under a plan approved Tuesday by Kentucky’s racing commission, Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., will split its pick six carryover pool this year at its spring meeting if the bet is not hit on Kentucky Derby Day, when the pool typically attracts more than $1 million in bets.
