Laurel Park will begin its premier meet Friday on an up note following an extended summer season during which average daily handle increased 25.5 percent to $2.72 million.
Expanded to 33 days this year, the summer season closed Aug. 20 to make way for the Maryland State Fair meet at Timonium, which concluded its seven-day run on Labor Day. The down time gave the Laurel turf course time to mend and allowed the track crew to resurface the dirt track.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Richard Baltas was beaming Tuesday morning over winning his first training title at Del Mar, one he had to share with Phil D’Amato, who won the final race of the meet to pull into a tie with Baltas at the top of the standings with 18 wins each.
“It’s not like it’s a little meet,” Baltas said. “The Del Mar summer meet – everybody’s watching. I’m happy. We work really hard. Congratulations go out to my staff. They work their butts off.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Jockey Sasha Risenhoover said she was “still taking it all in” Tuesday morning at Del Mar, the day after she rode Terra’s Angel to an emotional victory in the Del Mar Juvenile Fillies Turf, giving Risenhoover her first victory at Del Mar.
“It’s something I’ll never forget,” she said. “Go out to Cali and break your maiden on a horse so special in a stakes race at Del Mar. Amazing.”
DEL MAR, Calif. – Bolt d’Oro, winner of the Del Mar Futurity on Monday, was resting comfortably in his stall Tuesday morning, readying for a trip to Santa Anita later in the day before a return to Del Mar this fall in his bid to lock up a championship.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – The numbers were big for the New York Racing Association at Saratoga this summer in both good and bad ways.
On the positive side, Saratoga set a record for all-sources handle with $676,709,490 being wagered on the 40-day meet that concluded Monday. That surpassed the record of $648,272,805 wagered in 2015. This year’s handle was up 4.5 percent over last year’s figure of $647,322,503.
Ontrack handle was $157,014,965, just missing the record $157,647,599 wagered here in 2015, but up 3.4 percent from last year’s figure of $151,841,828.
Louisiana Downs racing secretary David Heitzmann had a working list of seven or eight possible starters for the $200,000 Super Derby as of Monday morning. The Super Derby, which will be run on the turf for the first time Saturday, anchors a card of seven stakes worth a total of $540,000.
Karl Broberg, who leads all trainers in wins in North America, said he plans to have a division of horses at Zia Park, the Hobbs, N.M., which opens its meet Saturday. Broberg also has divisions of his stable at Canterbury, Churchill, Louisiana Downs, Remington Park, and Retama.
Ivan Fallunovalot set quick fractions and rolled home by 5 3/4 lengths in a Saturday night allowance race at Remington Park that marked the Grade 3 winner’s first start since March. He covered six furlongs on a fast track in 1:08.28 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 99.
“He came back real good,” trainer Tom Howard said Monday. “He got a good, clean trip. He just got out there and did his thing.”
BENSALEM, Pa. - The first race at Parx on Sunday was ruled a dead heat after the photo-finish camera malfunctioned, according to track officials. The outcome of the race has since been appealed to the Pennsylvania Racing Commission by the connections of one of the horses involved.
Promise the Sky and Joywave battled the final five-sixteenths in the mile and 70-yard race for nonwinners-of-two $7,500 claimers, with Joywave on the inside. The two horses hit the wire in a head-bobbing finish.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer John Brocklebank has been fined $750 after one of his runners at Santa Anita in June tested in excess of the permitted level of the anti-inflammatory dexamethasone.
The test was taken from Spirit of Shanghai, who won a $40,000 claiming race for maiden 2-year-olds as the 6-5 favorite in the first race on June 18.
The post-race test found 149 picograms of dexamethasone, well above the permitted level of five picograms, according to California Horse Racing Board rules.
