The first program in the history of Mahoning Valley Race Course in Austintown, Ohio, went off without a hitch Monday, with all-sources handle reported at $508,189 for an eight-race card.
The winner of the first race in track history was Baby Time, a 7-year-old gelding who returned $6.40 as the favorite in a field of 12 after finishing a mile and 70 yards in 1:49.52 over a fast track. Luis Colon was aboard for trainer Hugh McMahon.
Bay of Biscay will be out to turn the tables on Tonito M. on Wednesday in the $200,000 Zia Park Derby, and the race is one Bay of Biscay has been under consideration for since August, according to trainer Robertino Diodoro.
“Actually, before we even bought the horse, before we did the final negotiations, we went through what options there were with him, and this race was on the map,” he said.
Shanon Nicole will attempt to win her third straight stakes race Wednesday in the $300,000 Zia Park Oaks, and her task became a bit easier this week when track officials said probable favorite Jojo Warrior had been declared from the 1 1/16-mile race. But the field of six remains a strong one, with the Grade 1-placed Taste Like Candy returning to racing with straight 3-year-olds and Cassatt stretching back out to the distance of her win in the Grade 3 Monmouth Park Oaks.
Maryland-based millionaire Ben’s Cat won the Fabulous Strike Handicap in each of the past two years and missed by a neck in a three-way photo when the sprint was known as the Six Bits in 2011. Despite his accomplishments, Ben’s Cat is no better than the third choice at 5-1 on the morning line among 12 sprinters lined up for the $200,000 Fabulous Strike on Thanksgiving Eve at Penn National.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Los Alamitos will conduct hair-follicle testing on qualifiers for all Quarter Horse futurities and derbies and will enact a zero-tolerance policy for the breathing medication clenbuterol beginning in May, track owner Ed Allred said Saturday.
Allred said the new policy, expected to be presented to owners and trainers in the coming days, will take full effect May 1 and is a result of concern throughout Quarter Horse racing about widespread abuse of the medication. In recent weeks, concern over clenbuterol has led to delays and the cancellation of major stakes.
Fox Rules, who went 3 for 3 locally during the season, including a stakes, was chosen Finger Lakes horse of the year for 2014 at the local Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association awards dinner Saturday.
Best known for his win in the 2012 New York Derby, the now 5-year-old New York-bred Fox Rules won the Gen. Van Buren Stakes and a pair of allowance races. He was also honored as the track’s best older male.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Don’t Tell Sophia was assigned post 7 as the 125-pound highweight and solid favorite when entries were drawn Sunday for the Grade 2, $200,000 Falls City Handicap, the first of four graded stakes on closing weekend of the Churchill Downs fall meet.
The 1 1/8-mile Falls City, to be run Thursday, drew a field of 10 fillies and mares, with Molly Morgan, Strut the Course, and Flashy American the top threats to Don’t Tell Sophia, a stretch-running 6-year-old mare coming off a runner-up finish to Untapable in the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.
A combination of cold temperatures and a lightning-fast track helped produce track records in back-to-back races at Mountaineer Racetrack on Wednesday night.
The 4-year-old colt Silver Antelope and 5-year-old gelding Present Course broke records that were both set during the 2000 season in a pair of allowance events, one at five furlongs and the other at a flat mile.
One hundred years ago, Belmont Park inaugurated the Autumn Highweight Handicap – the name was changed a decade later to the Fall Highweight.
Open to all ages, the six-furlong handicap on the original Belmont straightaway was won by the remarkable 2-year-old filly Comely, bred and owned by James Butler Sr., who also owned Empire City Racetrack in Yonkers, N.Y.
By the end of the 1914 season, Comely was almost universally recognized as the second-best juvenile filly of the year, behind only undefeated Regret.
