ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Queen’s Plate winner One Bad Boy will remain in Canada and run in the $400,000 Prince of Wales Stakes at Fort Erie on July 23, according to trainer Richard Baltas.
The Prince of Wales Stakes, run over 1 3/16 miles on Fort Erie’s dirt track, is the second jewel of the Canadian Triple Crown.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – All-sources handle at the Churchill Downs spring meet that ended Saturday averaged more than $13.1 million per card, up 10.2 percent over the corresponding 2018 meet, according to figures released Monday by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.
Gross all-sources handle at the 38-day meet, which began April 27, was $499,766,224, up by the same 10.2 percent over the spring meet last year, when 38 dates also were run. Ontrack handle figures were not immediately available.
Louisiana Downs and its sister track Indiana Grand will combine for a new pick four on Tuesdays through Sept. 24. The wager was approved last week by the Louisiana Racing Commission.
The Super Tuesday Pick 4 comprises two races from each track – the sixth and seventh from Indiana Grand and the second and third from Louisiana Downs. It is a 50-cent minimum and will have a reduced takeout of 15 percent. The normal takeout is 25 percent, according to the commission.
It’s My Money, winner of the $65,000 Pan Zareta division of the Texas Stallion Stakes last month at Lone Star Park, is being pointed to the $100,000 fillies division of the Texas Thoroughbred Futurity, trainer George R. Bryant said. The 5 1/2-furlong race is July 14 at Lone Star.
It’s My Money broke from the rail in the Pan Zareta, set the pace, and prevailed by a half-length in the five-furlong race June 23.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Will Call, a graded stakes winner who earned $354,911 in 17 starts, all for owner-breeder Richard Klein, died of an apparent heart attack shortly after finishing 11th in the ninth race at Churchill on Saturday, closing day of the 38-day spring meet.
“He was our first winner, first stakes winner, and first graded winner for our sire Country Day,” said Klein. “I co-bred him with my dad. His death had nothing to do with the racetrack or anything like that. Just one of those things that happens.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress will make her next start in the Grade 1 Test on Aug. 3 at Saratoga, further adding to an already loaded race expected to get two other standout 3-year-old fillies also based at Churchill Downs, Covfefe and Break Even, as well as the California-based star Bellafina.
Trainer Tom Amoss had seriously considered the Indiana Oaks, to be run July 13 at 1 1/16 miles, for Serengeti Empress before consulting Sunday with owner Joel Politi.
Trainer Ralph Irwin has been notably absent from the entries this year, beginning with the Oaklawn Park meet that wrapped in May and now at Louisiana Downs. It’s the first time the 69-year-old has ever been away from the track as he grew up in a racing family.
Irwin’s father, R.L. “Bob” Irwin, was a former assistant to the late Hall of Fame trainer Marion Van Berg and a winner of three training titles at Oaklawn. Ralph Irwin worked for his father and later the late Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg before taking out his trainer’s license in 1975 at Oaklawn.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Gift Box, the winner of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in April, will have his next start in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar on Aug. 17, trainer John Sadler said over the weekend.
Gift Box, who is owned by Pete and Kosta Hronis, was fourth as the 2-1 favorite in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster Stakes at Churchill Downs on June 15, finishing 7 3/4 lengths behind winner Seeking the Soul.
CYPRESS, Calif.– High expectations were met when the 2-year-old colt Schrodinger won his career debut in a maiden special weight race at five furlongs at Los Alamitos on Sunday.
For owner Kaleem Shah and trainer Simon Callaghan, this was progress compared to a similar situation last year when their highly regarded filly Bellafina finished second in her debut at 1-2. Bellafina has since won six stakes and earned $1,102,125.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Omaha Beach, scratched as the morning-line favorite for the Kentucky Derby because of an entrapped epiglottis, could have his comeback in the $100,000 Shared Belief Stakes at Del Mar on Aug. 25.
Trainer Richard Mandella said on Sunday that the Shared Belief Stakes, run for 3-year-olds at a mile, is being considered along with the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs at Saratoga on Aug. 24.
“I’d probably just stay home and get a race in him,” Mandella said.
