The nine-race card Friday at Laurel Park contains a 2-year-old maiden race, a third-level optional claimer, and a second-level optional claimer, which are slotted as races 6 through 8.
The races are part of the Rainbow 6, which has a carryover of $8,834; the 12 percent takeout pick five; the late pick four; and are connected by a pick three and rolling daily doubles.
Jockey Scott Spieth’s march toward career win 5,000 went extremely well this summer at Delaware Park and resulted in his first riding title in 10 years. He now has 4,628 victories, and at age 50 has been outperforming jockeys half his age.
“I’ll definitely get past 5,000,” Spieth said. “I’ve been fortunate to have had very few injuries and am in great shape. I feel good.”
Tuesday was a rainy morning at Delaware Park but, as usual, Spieth was out galloping horses.
It would be fair to call the 16 horses pre-entered in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 4 at Del Mar an eclectic group. The runners pointed to the five-furlong race range from a past Turf Sprint winner to a horse coming in off a claim.
Wonder Gadot, who is owned by film executive Gary Barber, is named for Wonder Woman and for the leading lady of the summer blockbuster, Gal Gadot.
The namesake filly will look to turn in her own blockbuster performance as she steps out of her genre, making her first start on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies on Nov. 4 at Del Mar. Wonder Gadot was third in the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes on the Woodbine turf, beaten less than a length, before rolling by six in the Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes on Tapeta.
A year after a stirring stretch run in which the British invader Queen’s Trust edged the American Lady Eli by a nose to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, they are set for a rematch as part of a full field expected for the Grade 1, $2 million Filly and Mare Turf on Nov. 4 at Del Mar. The two were among 18 pre-entries announced for the race Wednesday.
Stellar Wind will welcome a fair chance at the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, just this once, in her third and final attempt.
What will it take?
“Good break, good trip,” trainer John Sadler said.
Simple enough, but those elements were missing when Stellar Wind finished second with an eventful trip in the 2015 Distaff and fourth after breaking slowly in 2016.
Third time the charm?
:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2017: Pre-entries, odds, comments, and more
DEL MAR, Calif. – An epic showdown for Horse of the Year in a Breeders’ Cup Classic field that includes the two top-ranked dirt horses in the world highlights the 34th Breeders’ Cup, a two-day, 13-race extravaganza Nov. 3-4 at Del Mar that drew a total of 187 individual horses as pre-entries, the Breeders’ Cup announced Wednesday.
Arrogate and Gun Runner, the top two dirt horses in the world, were one-two in the Dubai World Cup in March, and they will take their rivalry from the desert to the sea in the first Breeders’ Cup ever held here at Del Mar.
Lady Ivanka, winner of the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga, will not run in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar on Nov. 4 due to a bruised right front foot, trainer Rudy Rodriguez said Tuesday.
Rodriguez said that Lady Ivanka was pre-entered on Monday, which was the deadline for pre-entries to be made.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Thanks in large part to fantastic weather, all-sources handle for last weekend’s New York Showcase Day card was $13,181,656, a 36.5 percent increase over last year’s figure of $9,654,389. Ontrack handle was $1,769,859, a 25.6 percent increase over the 2016 figure.
There were 11 races run each year, but in 2016 rain forced all the turf races – including the Mohawk and Ticonderoga stakes – to the main track. Thus, there were 78 betting interests, compared to 92 betting interests this year, with five races run on the turf.
