CYPRESS, Calif. – Handle for all California horse races rose 10 percent to $1.58 billion in the first six months of the year compared to last year, the California Horse Racing Board reported Thursday.
The figures were boosted by a strong June in which handle improved 19 percent, to $269.3 million, the board said.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Jockeys Tiago Pereira and Santiago Gonzalez escaped serious injury in a two-horse spill Thursday at Los Alamitos.
The accident occurred on the turn in the day’s second race, an $8,000 claimer, when Templar took an odd step and unseated Pereira. I’ll Wrap It Up was racing behind Templar and collided with his rival, unseating Gonzalez. Both horses ran away and were reported to be uninjured, stewards said.
Trainer Richard Baltas had a busy opening week last summer at Del Mar, where he won with 2 of 15 runners. He finished the seven-week season with 18 wins, tied for the trainer’s title with Phil D’Amato.
Baltas may be equally active in the first five days of the Del Mar summer meeting that begins Wednesday – and could have a stakes win in that span.
Baltas will run Desert Stone on Wednesday in the $100,000 Oceanside Stakes for 3-year-olds on turf. Desert Stone won consecutive races at Santa Anita in May and June and will have his California stakes debut in the Oceanside.
Sue Dowling and Craig Upham of Stoneview Farm were named the Texas Thoroughbred Association’s members of the year during a banquet in June. Mary Ruyle, the organization’s executive director, said they were recognized for the attention they have brought to the Texas breeding program.
Upham is the breeder of half-siblings Texas Chrome, honored as the 2017 Texas-bred of the Year, and Patrona Margarita, the 2017 champion Texas-bred 2-year-old filly for her win in last year’s Grade 2 Pocahontas at Churchill.
The multiple stakes winner Terra’s Angel was scheduled to return to her Lone Star Park base Thursday night after spending the past month racing at Prairie Meadows, according to co-owner and trainer Terry Eoff. Terra’s Angel won the $65,000 Panthers on June 7 at Prairie and most recently finished an uncharacteristic ninth in the Grade 3 Iowa Oaks on July 5.
“She got hit pretty hard coming out of the gate,” Eoff said. “She’s body sore pretty bad. We’re going to give her a little time off, get her back 100 percent.”
Texas Chrome might resume racing.
Owner Danny Keene said he is debating a comeback with the millionaire and multiple graded stakes winner, who was retired last fall and bred to about 25 mares this year in Arkansas while standing his first season at stud.
Texas Chrome, 5, has been galloping at Keene’s farm and training center in Hot Springs, Ark. He was retired last October with a hairline fracture in a knee. A few months prior, Texas Chrome became just the second Texas-bred to hit $1 million in earnings when he captured the Assault Stakes at Lone Star Park.
Gemonteer has come a long way in a short time.
Seven weeks after winning his career debut in game fashion April 29, Gemonteer became a stakes winner, and an impressive one at that, by drawing away to a 4 3/4-length victory over Shana Tova last Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the $100,000 Not Surprising Stakes. Gemonteer, a 3-year-old son of Distorted Humor trained by Jena Antonucci, earned a 92 Beyer Speed Figure.
Patience has proven a virtue with Gemonteer, who was sent to Antonucci by owner Gelfenstein Farm late last season.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – As the Kentucky Oaks approached, the connections of Red Ruby dearly wanted her to prove she was among the top 3-year-old fillies in North America.
It wasn’t to be.
A minor injury stemming from a freak barn accident in March kept Red Ruby in her Keeneland stall on Oaks Day, May 4, as the filly just wasn’t quite ready to resume racing.
“It was painful to sit there and watch the Oaks,” recalled trainer Kellyn Gorder. “But, things happen for a reason, I guess. When you do right by the horse, it pays off, I think.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Vickie Foley has been fielding inquiries from would-be buyers after Mine Inspector raced to a 7 3/4-length debut victory last Sunday at Ellis Park. The 2-year-old colt broke poorly, yet still proved tons the best.
Jimmy McNerney, the race-caller at Ellis in western Kentucky, was among those impressed.
“Mine Inspector is running a ginormous race here!” McNerney shouted as the colt drew off under James Graham.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – An excellent nine-race card highlighted by no fewer than four allowances (races 4, 5, 7, 9) is on tap for Sunday at Ellis as the first three-day week of the 30-day meet comes to an end.
Crosswalk, a promising 3-year-old trained by Neil Howard, is the most prominent name on the card. Even though he is facing older horses for the first time, the City Zip colt figures as a solid favorite in race 5, a $44,000 second-level allowance at six furlongs.
