Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., announced on Tuesday plans to give out American Pharoah “bobblehorses” on Jan. 18. It will be the same afternoon the track begins its 3-year-old series, with the running of the $150,000 Smarty Jones.
Fans will receive the bobblehead with a $2 donation to the Arkansas Racetrack Chaplaincy. The bobbleheads will be available while supplies last. There is no charge for general admission at Oaklawn.
Saturday’s Louisiana Champions Day card was drawn last weekend, and is headed by Louisiana-bred grass star String King, who will be favored in the Champions Day Turf. String King – bred, owned, and trained by Charlie Smith – drew post 1 in a 10-horse field and was installed as the 8-5 morning-line favorite under Richard Eramia.
The Champions Day Classic, at $150,000, is the richest race on the card, and it attracted nine entrants, headed by The Pickett Factor, Mobile Bay, and One King’s Man.
The 13-race card starts at 12:30 local time with three Quarter Horse races.
Mike Stidham is leading trainer at Fair Grounds after three racing weeks, and it’s not just that 10 of his 25 starters have won, but that 20 of them have finished third or better. Pretty much every horse Stidham has saddled at the meeting has at least run to expected form, if not beyond it. Horsplayers savvy enough to jump on the bandwagon from the start have been richly rewarded: Stidham’s $2 win return on investment stands at $3.07 entering this week’s racing.
STICKNEY, Ill. – When it rained before the Hawthorne card on Nov. 21, forcing that day’s grass races onto a wet main track, one had to think the Hawthorne turf course would be on winter holiday until sometime in April. Think again.
Turf racing – or, at least, the prospect of it – has returned to Hawthorne this week despite the fact the track sits on the edge of Chicago, and that this is December. Grass races are carded both Tuesday and Wednesday this week, and track officials hope to use the course through this weekend, if not longer.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The 2015-16 Championship meet is only two days old, but the trainer and jockey standings already have a familiar look about them, with trainer Todd Pletcher and jockey Javier Castellano quickly assuming command.
Pletcher opened the new meet by winning the early daily double on Saturday with the 2-year-olds Stradivari and Zulu, who each won a maiden race. Sunday, the Red Oak Stable homebred juvenile filly Daring Bride turned in one-sided victory for Pletcher in her debut.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It may not be the most wonderful time of year for New York racing, but here’s hoping this winter isn’t as bad as the previous one.
In a word, last winter at Aqueduct was brutal.
There were 17 weather-related cancellations and 15 equine fatalities during the four months (Dec. 3 through March 28) of racing over the inner track. The fatalities led to new safety initiatives being introduced, though one of them, a ban on running horses back within 14 days, was lifted after only a short time. There was only one fatality over the last two months of the meet.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Hall of Fame trainer LeRoy Jolley won with the first horse he ever ran at Tampa Bay Downs last Friday, when Marrakech ($7.20) scored by three-quarters of a length in a $30,000 maiden-claiming race for 2-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on turf.
Marrakech was making his fifth start and was dropping sharply in class after racing exclusively on the New York Racing Association circuit. The Eskendereya colt is owned by the Hot Scot Racing Stables of Bev Hendry and Christine Hosier and was ridden by Jose Ferrer.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It may not be as thrilling as winning his first Saratoga riding title, which he did earlier this summer, but jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. won his first Aqueduct fall meet riding crown with 30 winners at the 26-day meet, which ended Sunday.
Ortiz’s 30 winners, which included a pair of four-win afternoons, were five more than brother Jose, who won three races on Sunday’s card. Javier Castellano and Kendrick Carmouche tied for third with 20 wins apiece.
