The 2020 Maryland Jockey Club stakes schedule released Friday has a familiar look but includes several significant tweaks.
The Laurel Park fall meet, which runs from the beginning of the year through April, will have 21 stakes while the Preakness meet at Pimlico in May will have 17. The 38 races are the same number as a year ago and their total value of $6.325 million is a hair higher than in 2018.
The complexion of the $1 million Land of Enchantment card Wednesday at Zia Park changed dramatically on Friday, when it was confirmed by a track official that nine horses from the seven stakes would be scratched by stewards, including chief contenders in the $250,000 Zia Park Derby and $250,000 Zia Park Oaks. The move comes after three confirmed cases of equine herpesvirus at Remington Park in Oklahoma City.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Voodoo Song, second to Gucci Factor in the Mohawk and sixth most recently in the Artie Schiller on Nov. 9 at Aqueduct, has been sent west and is now with Richard Mandella, Mandella said Friday.
Voodoo Song was bred and is owned by Barry Schwartz, who has a home in the Santa Barbara area and in years past has had a runner or two based at Santa Anita during the winter.
Voodoo Song, a New York-bred, is winless in five starts this year but in 2018 won the Grade 1 Fourstardave at Saratoga for Linda Rice.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Mischiffie will seek her third win in her last four starts on Sunday when she goes in a five-furlong turf sprint – a second-level allowance that kicks off the card.
She won here during the summer meeting against maidens, and most recently was a first-level allowance winner at Santa Anita. That race was two months ago.
“I’ve been sitting waiting for this condition to go,” said her trainer, Phil D’Amato.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Flavien Prat, who rides United in the Hollywood Turf Cup on Friday for Richard Mandella, has landed mounts in all seven of the turf festival races next week, including a pair for fellow Frenchman Christophe Clement, who will use Prat aboard Candy Store in the Red Carpet on Thursday and Gucci Factor in the Seabiscuit on Saturday.
Gucci Factor has won four of his last five starts, most recently the Mohawk for New York-breds at Belmont Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Phil D’Amato will be taking aim at four of the seven turf festival stakes that highlight the final week of the Del Mar fall season next week, beginning with Tiny Tina in the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet on Thanksgiving Day and concluding with Storm the Hill in the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes on closing day, Dec. 1.
But it’s Saturday when he will take perhaps his best swing, with a trio of Andesh, Cleopatra’s Strike, and Prince Earl in the Grade 2, $200,000 Seabiscuit Handicap for 3-year-olds and up at 1 1/16 miles.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Churchill Downs fall meet once again will end with a flurry of terrific racing as six graded stakes with purses totaling almost $2 million will send horsemen and fans on their way into winter. Here’s a preview of the closing-week stakes:
DEL MAR, Calif. – The California Horse Racing Board on Thursday postponed a discussion and possible vote on a proposal to restrict the use of whips until its December meeting to allow wider national discussion.
Vice-chairman Oscar Gonzales requested the measure be tabled to allow the racing board an opportunity to inform the newly created Thoroughbred Safety Coalition about the rule changes and “let them know what is on the horizon and that California plans to lead the way.”
The New Jersey Racing Commission has approved 56 live race dates at Monmouth Park next year and up to 19 live Thoroughbred race dates at The Meadowlands, according to the head of the management company that operates Monmouth.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Santa Anita will race sparingly, if at all, in inclement conditions during its winter-spring meeting that begins on Dec. 26, and will not run claiming races for values of less than $10,000, according to terms announced at Thursday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting.
The racing board approved Santa Anita’s racing license by a 5-0 vote, contingent on several restrictions different from past seasons.
