Gross all-sources wagering at the Ellis Park meet that ended Monday was up 18 percent over 2018 despite the western Kentucky track hosting two fewer dates, according to figures released Wednesday.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission reported total wagering of $47,682,201 on the 27-day meet, up substantially over 2018, when 29 dates were run. The per-day average was $1,766,007, up nearly 24 percent.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario - Trainer Roger Attfield said the unbeaten 2-year-old Mr. Hustle will miss the Grade 1 Summer here Sept. 15 due a minor setback.
“Mr. Hustle is going to have some time off,” Attfield said. “He’s run three times. He’s a nice horse, and I’ve got to look after him.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Canadian Millions Sales Stakes Night, which included an array of stakes for graduates of local yearling sales here Aug. 28, featured another stellar effort from the incomparable Pink Lloyd, Canada’s 2017 Horse of the Year.
Pink Lloyd notched his fifth consecutive stakes while winning the six-furlong Kenora for the third year in a row, over stablemate Circle of Friends. His final time of 1:08.28 was just .23 of a second off his own synthetic-track record, and he got a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Improbable is possible for the Pennsylvania Derby, but no immediate starts are known for Game Winner nor Roadster, trainer Bob Baffert said in providing an update on his 3-year-olds who all earlier this year ran in the Kentucky Derby.
Improbable, in his first start since the Preakness, won the Shared Belief on Aug. 25 at Del Mar. Baffert said he was nominated to the Pennsylvania Derby, but no decision had been made on whether he would run there. He worked a half-mile in 48.40 seconds on Tuesday morning at Del Mar.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Catalina Cruiser was named Del Mar’s horse of the meet in a media poll, reflecting the outsized success this season for his connections – trainer John Sadler, owners Kosta and Pete Hronis, and jockey Flavien Prat.
Prat, who rode Catalina Cruiser to his second stakes win of the meet in the Pat O’Brien, led all jockeys with 10 stakes wins. Sadler led all trainers in stakes wins with nine. The Hronis brothers won nine races and more than $1.4 million in purses, the biggest being in concert with Sadler and Prat in the Pacific Classic with Higher Power.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Del Mar ended its 36-day meeting on Monday with not one fatality in a race, an unprecedented feat for which track management was rightly proud.
“It says we’re on the right path,” Joe Harper, the track’s chief executive officer, said following the final race on Monday. “I’ve got to thank the horsemen for putting up with the changes.”
Del Mar beginning two years ago enhanced its morning veterinary presence, and empowered outriders to flag problem horses. That level of scrutiny increased this year.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – War of Will and Got Stormy, two of the stars of trainer Mark Casse’s stable, went different directions when they left Saratoga.
Got Stormy, who provided Casse with two of his five stakes wins at Saratoga, on Monday shipped to Woodbine where she is going to make her next start in the Woodbine Mile on Sept. 14. On Saturday, Got Stormy worked a strong five furlongs in 1:00.34 over the Oklahoma turf course.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Neil Howard has started just one horse at Belmont Park since 2011. Saturday, he will be represented by Desert Ride in the inaugural $750,000 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational for 3-year-old fillies. The Jockey Club Oaks is the third leg of the Turf Tiara, which began two months ago with the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks and continued with the Saratoga Oaks on Aug. 2. Concrete Rose won those two races but was injured and is out for the year.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – On a rainy Monday morning in Saratoga, before he hoped to end the meet with a third Grade 1 victory, trainer Steve Asmussen was already looking forward to tackling one of the richest prizes of the Belmont Park fall meeting, which begins Friday.
Asmussen on Monday entered Tone Broke in Saturday’s inaugural running of the $1 million Jockey Club Derby, the last leg of NYRA’s Turf Trinity. The Jockey Club Derby is run at 1 1/2 miles and that is the distance at which Tone Broke won the Breeders’ Stakes at Woodbine on Aug. 17.
Leader of Men will be looking for his fifth consecutive win at the Louisiana Downs meet on Saturday, when he starts in the Grade 3, $300,000 Super Derby. He is part of a field of 10 for the track’s richest race, which also drew Grade 1 winner Knicks Go, New Mexico stakes winner Vangilder, and the promising Rescind.
The Super Derby will anchor a 13-race card that has a special first post of noon Central. There are seven stakes on the card worth a cumulative $660,000. It is the richest program of the meet.
