Gulfstream Park will open its race week Thursday with a $509,084 carryover in the Rainbow 6 jackpot, and a mandatory payout looming on Monday. The jackpot has not been hit for the past 26 race days. The bet, which has a 20-cent minimum, will run on races 5-10 on Thursday.
The sequence Thursday includes three maiden-claiming races, one with a field of 12 and the other two with fields of 11. Below is a look at the chief contenders making up the Rainbow 6 races Thursday:
Churchill Downs will spend $18 million prior to next year’s Kentucky Derby on renovations to its premium seating areas, increasing the reserved seating capacity at the track by approximately 800, the track announced on Tuesday.
The renovations will be concentrated in the Turf Club areas of the track, according to Churchill. Although some of the renovations will begin in mid-September, most of the work will be started following the close of the track’s fall meet on Nov. 29.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Ironicus, a tough-luck second to Grand Arch in the Grade 2 Fourstardave here Aug. 15, worked a sharp half-mile in 48.86 seconds Tuesday morning over the Oklahoma training track in preparation for a start in Monday’s Grade 2, $250,000 Bernard Baruch Handicap.
The best part of the work was the gallop-out. Ironicus went five furlongs in 1:01.81 and six furlongs in 1:14.44.
“He went good,” trainer Shug McGaughey said. “He’s training really good. He had a real good breeze last week, too.”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Honor Code, the Metropolitan Handicap and Whitney Stakes winner, will “most likely” make his next start in the Grade 2, $400,000 Kelso Handicap, a one-mile race at Belmont Park on Oct. 3, trainer Shug McGaughey said Tuesday.
In the days following the Aug. 8 Whitney, McGaughey said he was torn between the Kelso and the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup, run the same day at 1 1/4 miles.
Nik Juarez, the fourth-leading rider at the Monmouth Park meeting with 36 wins, finished his apprenticeship on Aug. 26, but didn’t miss a beat, going 4 for 18 over the weekend.
Juarez, 22, won the first stakes of his career Sunday, guiding Valid to a 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 3 Philip H. Iselin Stakes at Monmouth.
“It’s the best feeling,” Juarez said. “It means a lot. It’s really a kick-start to the rest of my career.”
Jockey Carol Cedeno resumed riding Tuesday after getting thrown from her mount following the finish of the ninth race at Delaware Park on Aug. 26.
Cedeno had finished second in the $12,500 claiming sprint aboard Easy Ten, who was galloping out smoothly but suddenly stumbled badly, catapulting Cedeno high in the air. Cedeno appeared to be hit by Easy Ten’s head as she was thrown forward.
Cedeno had neck pain after the spill. The original MRI showed a vertebra problem, but that turned out to be an old, calcified injury.
Social Inclusion made an impressive return to the races at Parx last Saturday for his new trainer, Juan Carlos Guerrero, winning a second-level optional-claiming race by 11 3/4 lengths.
Social Inclusion, who finished third last year in the Wood Memorial, Preakness, and Woody Stephens, was making his third start of the year and his first since June 6. He moved up to take the early lead in the 1 1/16-mile race, was kept under a snug hold by jockey Roberto Alvarado Jr., and steadily drew away from his opposition to finish under a hand ride.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – For a very long time, trainer Jeremiah Englehart couldn’t win a race at Saratoga. Now, Englehart seems to hardly ever lose here.
When Prospero won Monday’s eighth race, it was Englehart’s ninth win from 34 starters at the meet. He is tied for eighth in the trainers standings, and his 26 percent win rate equals that of Chad Brown and Christophe Clement, first and third in terms of wins at Saratoga this meet.
Despite running two fewer days than in 2014 and despite racing its final three-day week without a fair, the Sonoma County Fair meet at Santa Rosa showed a 9 percent increase in all-sources handle for its 2015 meeting. The meet ran from July 30-Aug. 16.
Handle figures were buoyed by a 22 percent increase in California account wagering.
The California State Fair at Sacramento added a third week of racing this year, which resulted in dramatic increases in total handle for the meet. But average daily handle dipped from last year. The meet ran July 10-26.
Jockey Hugo Herrera followed instructions perfectly aboard Blues Blaster in the Humboldt County Marathon on Sunday at Ferndale, and the result was a wire-to-wire victory in the 1 5/8-mile race.
“I told him, ‘Don’t give up the rail,’ and he did exactly what I wanted,” owner-trainer Bruce Dillenbeck said.
Dillenbeck said the Bulldog on Oct. 18 at the Big Fresno Fair is Blues Blaster’s likely next start.
