Autumn Warrior, winner of the Prelude Stakes last month at Louisiana Downs, will likely make his next start in the $100,000 Gold Cup at Delta Downs, trainer Al Stall Jr. said Tuesday The one-mile race for 3-year-olds and up bred in Louisiana is Oct. 20.
The Gold Cup often springboards runners into the Louisiana Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds.
Louisiana Downs, which was to close its meet Wednesday, will begin offering training center services – including published workouts – on Nov. 15, according to the track’s director of racing, David Heitzmann. The stall space will be available for Thoroughbreds for a per diem rate through March 19.
Heitzmann said the decision to open for training this winter and into the spring is to fill a void left by the recent closure of the Evangeline Downs Training Center near Lafayette, La.
Despite racing five fewer days, the all-sources mutuel handle of $74,149,864 at Emerald Downs this year was up 6.6 percent compared with the $69,581,303 wagered in 2017. The 67-day meet concluded Sunday.
The daily average of $1,106,714 was up by 14.5 percent over last year’s average of $966,406.
The daily ontrack average was up slightly, $159,223 compared to $157,246. The average attendance was virtually unchanged, 3,741 this year opposed to 3,748 in 2017.
The average field size of 7.04 starters per race was up marginally from 6.99 last year.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Cookie Dough figured to be a heavy favorite in Saturday’s $400,000 My Dear Girl Stakes coming off her one-sided victory four weeks earlier in the Susan’s Girl Stakes. But it remains to be seen how the betting public will treat the Arindel homebred after she drew post 12 in an overflow field of 13 juvenile fillies entered for the 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl, the final leg of the fillies’ division of the Florida Sire Series.
ELMONT, N.Y. – A 3-year-old hasn’t won the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic since Kitten’s Joy in 2004, the first year the race was renamed to honor the legendary Daily Racing Form columnist.
Trainer Tom Morley hopes to end that streak Saturday, when he sends out Carrick against seven older males in the $500,000 Hirsch at 1 1/2 miles over Belmont’s Widener turf course. Three-year-olds are 0 for 9 in the Hirsch starting in 2005, when English Channel finished second.
Sea Foam will be stepping outside of the New York-bred ranks Sunday when he attempts to win his third straight stakes race in the Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park.
“It’s much tougher, this race, but now is the right time to step him up,” trainer Christophe Clement said.
Sea Foam is coming off wins in the $158,000 New York Derby on July 21 at Finger Lakes and the $250,000 Albany on Aug. 24 at Saratoga. Earlier in his career, he won the $100,000 Notebook against New York-breds at Aqueduct.
ELMONT, N.Y. – While the connections of many U.S.-based horses have opted to train their horses up to the Breeders’ Cup in November at Churchill Downs, the Ireland-based Aidan O’Brien has taken a different approach.
On Tuesday, O’Brien shipped the 3-year-old Mendelssohn to New York, where on Saturday at Belmont Park he will take on fellow Euro shipper Thunder Snow and the speedy multiple Grade 1 winner Diversify in an intriguing 100th renewal of the Grade 1, $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup.
The Breeders’ Cup Mile lost two key players on Sept. 15 but gained another the same day.
In Ireland, the imposing filly Alpha Centauri, whose connections long had harbored designs on the Mile, suffered a career-ending injury finishing second to Laurens in the Matron Stakes. On the same program, Saxon Warrior raced for the final time finishing second to Roaring Lion in the Irish Champion Stakes. Both horses were retired the following day.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Old English Rancho and trainer Kenny Black recently parted ways, with the stable’s runners now based with trainers Dan Blacker, Hector Palma, and Phil D’Amato.
D’Amato said on Wednesday that he has three runners owned by Old English Rancho, including What a View, the multiple stakes winner who won the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in 2016. Trainer Dan Blacker said that three horses from Old English Rancho have joined his stable. Palma received two horses, according to Old English Rancho farm manager Jonny Hilvers.
