Sam Houston Race Park opens Friday night with the track’s biggest program of the season on the immediate horizon. The Houston Racing Festival card, led by the Grade 3, $400,000 Houston Ladies Classic – which is the richest Thoroughbred race in Texas – and the Grade 3, $200,000 John B. Connally Turf Cup, is on Jan. 28. Entries for the program will be out on Wednesday, Jan. 24.
Fear the Cowboy, a 6-year-old horse who won two Grade 3 stakes races at Gulfstream Park last year, is being pointed to the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup as a starter in the slot co-owned by Gulfstream owner Frank Stronach, the track announced on Wednesday.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bendable, a winner of two sprint stakes on dirt for fillies and mares, is scheduled to have her turf debut in Saturday’s Grade 3 Las Cienegas Handicap on the hillside course at Santa Anita.
The $100,000 Las Cienegas is run for fillies and mares at about 6 1/2 furlongs.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Benefiting from ideal weather and strong field size, Santa Anita has shown an increase in all-sources handle at its winter-spring meeting, according to data provided by track executive Tim Ritvo.
Combined handle from ontrack, satellite, and account-wagering sources rose 14.6 percent, from $109.7 million at the start of the 2016-17 season to $125.8 million this year. The figures reflect the first 13 days of racing at both meetings.
The Delaware Racing Commission on Wednesday approved the dates for Delaware Park's upcoming 81-day season.
The meet, which has the same number of days as in 2017, will open May 30 and continue through Oct. 20, with racing on Saturdays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. First post will be 1:15 p.m.
The meet will peak on July 14 when the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap is held. Songbird won last year's Del Cap by a hard-earned length over Martini Glass for owner Rick Porter, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, and jockey Mike Smith.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s hard not to root for Manchurian High in Saturday’s $150,000 Sunshine Millions Turf.
Not only is the 10-year-old Manchurian High the oldest horse in the field, he’s also a two-time winner of the event and seeks his third win in a unique manner – off a five-length maiden victory over the hurdles in Charleston, S.C., two months earlier.
The $100,000 Fire Plug, one of two six-furlong stakes at Laurel Park on Saturday, has drawn a deep field of 12.
The Fire Plug and $100,000 What a Summer, which is for fillies and mares, are the local prep races for next month’s Grade 3, $250,000 General George and Grade 2, $300,000 Barbara Fritchie.
Trainer Lupe Preciado has entered Dave’s Friend winner Favorite Tale in the Fire Plug. Originally, there was supposed to be three weeks between the races, but following two weather-related cancellations Favorite Tale will be coming back on 12 days’ rest.
After 40 years as a trainer, John Scanlan retired from the game in 2014, and his death on Jan. 8 in Philadelphia went largely unnoticed.
Scanlan, who was 68, battled health issues in recent years. He won won 766 races during his career but is best remembered as the trainer of Toccet, runner-up in the Eclipse Award voting for champion 2-year-old male in 2002, and for his long association with the brash, outspoken owner Daniel Borislow.
John Servis, who splits his stable between Parx and Florida in the winter, has won with 5 of 10 starters up north since Jan. 9. On Monday, he went 3 for 6.
On Jan. 9, Pop Keenan improved his record to 4 for 8 for Servis and owner Chuck Zacney with an impressive first-level allowance victory at Parx. The way he won suggests he may be stakes-bound.
Pop Keenan did not make his career debut until last July, halfway through his 3-year-old season.
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., has canceled its nine-race card for Thursday due to freezing temperatures, according to track spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyt.
A winter storm moved into Arkansas following Monday's card, and Oaklawn closed its track for training on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Temperatures have dipped into the teens the last two nights, and, in some ares of the state, single digits.
Oaklawn will remain open for simulcast and gaming Thursday. The track expects racing to resume Friday.
