Trainer Mark Casse, jockey Javier Castellano, and owner Bryan Hawk topped their respective divisions in this year’s Penn Gaming Racing Challenge.
Points are awarded over the course of the year to the top finishers in select stakes at the Penn Gaming racetracks of Charles Town, Penn National, Mahoning Valley, Sam Houston, and Zia Park.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A gelding who won a $40,000 claiming race for maidens at Parx in 2015 and was 11th in a $20,000 claimer at Keeneland in April is a leading contender for Saturday’s Grade 1, $300,000 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar.
The rise of Free Rose from claimer to multiple stakes winner seemed impossible earlier this year, but a change in surface and a move to California has made a remarkable difference. Free Rose’s claiming days are behind him.
“It’s been an unbelievable ride for us,” said co-owner Bing Bush Jr. “He really couldn’t do anything on the dirt.”
Trainer Cal Lynch has had a terrific season with his 2-year-olds. He is 13 for 60 (22 percent), has a return on investment of $4.02, and has won with nine different juveniles in 2016.
Lynch, who is based at Laurel Park, won the Swynford Stakes at Woodbine last Sunday with Undulated. The weekend before, he sent out El Areeb for a five-length romp in the James F. Lewis III at Laurel. On Saturday, he plans to run Recoil in the $150,000 Display at Woodbine and has entered both Heat Dome and Windcries in the $100,000 Pennsylvania Nursery at Parx.
Alonso Quinonez is back where it all began.
Ten years ago this winter, Quinonez was a 23-year-old apprentice with a hot hand at Turfway Park. He rode 30 winners at the 2006 holiday meet, finishing second only to Miguel Mena (42), then rode 75 winners at the 2007 winter-spring meet, finishing just one win behind Julien Leparoux and accomplishing enough as the year unfolded to be named an Eclipse Award finalist for top apprentice.
Code West and Pass the Buck gave owner Bryan Hawk and trainer Boyd Caster a double to remember last Wednesday when they won the $150,000 Zia Park Distance Championship and the $200,000 Zia Park Derby in consecutive races.
It wasn’t the first time the runners had scored back-to-back wins. They did the same thing at Prairie Meadows on May 30, when Code West won the $65,000 Rasmussen Memorial and Pass the Buck won a maiden special weight sprint.
Fast forward six months, and the horses gave Hawk and Caster one of their most memorable days at the races.
Trainer Keith Bourgeois claimed Hesinfront because of the horse’s ability to come from off the pace. Well, that was one reason.
There were others, too, but it was indeed Hesinfront’s rally through the stretch that carried him to a head win in the $250,000 Delta Downs Mile on Nov. 19.
“He ran a good race,” said Bourgeois. “When I claimed him, I kind of had that race in mind.”
Eagle, who developed into one of the best older dirt-route horses in the Midwest last year, is back from a rest and shipped from trainer Neil Howard’s barn at Churchill Downs to Fair Grounds on Sunday night. Traveling with him was Guest Suite, a 2-year-old who impressed on Saturday, winning a Churchill allowance race.
Chocolate Ride, a minor Fair Grounds institution the last two race meetings, soon will ship to New Orleans from Churchill Downs and is set to start Dec. 17 in the $75,000 Buddy Diliberto Stakes.
He’s just one of many horses whose names could be prominently mentioned in the coming months for trainer Brad Cox, who has a stronger Fair Grounds presence this season than last, when his 28 wins ranked fourth in the trainers’ standings.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Miss Sky Warrior won her third straight race in the Grade 2 Demoiselle Saturday at Aqueduct, but the most impressive 2-year-old filly to run on the card was Elate, who won a one-mile maiden race by 12 1/2 lengths for trainer Bill Mott.
The win elicited memories of Royal Delta, a former Mott trainee who won her career debut going a mile by 12 lengths at Belmont in the fall of 2010. Royal Delta became a two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (now Distaff) and earned $4.8 million.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The final week of the Churchill Downs fall meet is an absolute whirlwind, with too many important happenings crammed into too short a period. On a lesser scale, it’s not unlike the Breeders’ Cup, or a typical week in the National Football League.
