Trainers Tom Amoss and Patrick Byrne are among the new faces on board for the Oaklawn Park meet that opens Jan. 16.
Amoss, who also will have a winter division at Fair Grounds, said it has been a number of years since he had a string based at Oaklawn. Byrne will stable at the track for the first time. He said he last raced at Oaklawn in 2003. He sent out Eugene’s Third Son to a runner-up finish in that year’s Arkansas Derby.
Oaklawn is projecting purses will average a record $475,000 a program.
Jockey Patrick Valenzuela’s first mounts in more than a year and a half are on the immediate horizon in Louisiana, among them Memories of Winter in the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot on Nov. 21.
Valenzuela, 53, plans to ride the Fair Grounds meet that opens next Thursday, said his agent, Rob Whitlock. But the earliest Valenzuela is expected to be in the saddle in New Orleans is Sunday, Nov. 22. Whitlock said a race for which Valenzuela was booked for Friday, Nov. 20, did not go, but Valenzuela will ride the Jackpot on a special afternoon card at Delta next Saturday.
The New York Racing Association will hold 49 stakes worth $7.48 million during the 2016 Aqueduct winter and spring meets, which run from Jan. 1 through April 24. The schedule is quite similar to last year, but a number of small adjustments have been made by Martin Panza, NYRA’s senior vice president of racing operations.
Last year, 47 stakes were held during the same period for purses of $7.06 million.
“We tweaked it a little,” Panza said. “We added a little money and a few more stakes. It’s a serviceable schedule; there’s something there for every division.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The new future wager that will be offered during the final week of the meet (Nov. 26-29) is proving a fun project for Darren Rogers, the Churchill Downs media relations director. Rogers is primarily responsible for choosing the 23 sires to be listed as separate wagering entities for the 2016 Kentucky Derby Sires Future Wager, which is modeled closely after the future wager Churchill has offered annually since 1999.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The only horse to defeat American Pharoah this year is a possible starter in the annual fall showcase at Churchill Downs, the Nov. 27 Clark Handicap, although whether or not Keen Ice runs in the Grade 1 race depends entirely on what transpires with the colt’s breeding rights.
Jerry Crawford, who heads the Donegal Racing partnership that owns Keen Ice, said Friday that negotiations are ongoing with various entities interested in acquiring the 3-year-old colt, which leaves his status for the Clark uncertain.
DEL MAR, Calif. – A pair of Bob Baffert-trained stakes winners are nearing returns to action. Midnight Hawk, who won the 2014 Sham Stakes, worked seven furlongs from the gate at Santa Anita in 1:27.40 on Thursday as he nears his first start since March, when he finished second in the Razorback at Oaklawn Park.
Baffert said Midnight Hawk is very close to running.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said that Shared Belief, idle since being injured in April in the Charles Town Classic, is being brought along slowly in his training at Golden Gate Fields, where the gelding recently returned after rehabbing at the Pegasus facility in Washington.
“He’s galloping, but he’s not ready to breeze yet,” Hollendorfer said.
Shared Belief was the champion 2-year-old male of 2013. He has won 10 of 12 starts, five Grade 1 races, and nearly $3 million.
DEL MAR, Calif. – There always have been high hopes for Seattle Serenade. It goes with the territory for horses who cost $1 million as yearlings. But until Thursday, Seattle Serenade had endured minor setbacks that prevented him from getting to the races.
The wait sure looked worth it, though, when Seattle Serenade finally debuted, as the 3-year-old colt scored a fast win against maidens at Del Mar while earning a Beyer Speed Figure of 88, prevailing by a half-length over the well-bred Statesman, who was 11 1/2 lengths clear of the next horse.
A boost in the purse of the Santa Margarita Stakes and the return of the San Juan Capistrano to its former April position are a couple of the tweaks made to the power-packed stakes schedule at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, which features eight Grade 1 races and runs from Dec. 26 through April 10.
