It’s that sweltering time of year when horsemen and racing fans get their glaze on at Ellis Park, the western Kentucky track that kicks off a 29-day summer meet with an eight-race card Thursday.
Dan Bork, now in his eighth year as racing secretary at the track fondly known as “The Pea Patch,” said he expects the customary summer heat to be matched by the level of competition on the racetrack.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The plan was launched more than a year ago, long before Hollywood Park announced that it would close at the end of 2013.
Los Alamitos wanted to be part of the Thoroughbred game.
A multifaceted improvement project was planned, expanding the five-furlong track used by Quarter Horses and lower-level Thoroughbreds to a mile. Year-round stall space would be available for Thoroughbreds, parts of the grandstand would be refurbished, and racing dates were requested for July and December, replacing some of what Hollywood Park left behind.
Big Kick, who led throughout Sunday’s Grade 2 San Juan Capistrano Stakes over about 1 3/4 miles on turf at Santa Anita, will not race again until the $200,000 Del Mar Handicap over 1 3/8 miles on turf Aug. 23, trainer Mike Machowsky said.
“I think the key for him is distance,” Machowsky said.
CYPRESS, Calif. – Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith will ride Shared Belief, the champion 2-year-old male of 2013, in Saturday’s $500,000 Los Alamitos Derby, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said Tuesday.
The Grade 2 Los Alamitos Derby, run over 1 1/8 miles, will be the first time that Smith has ridden Shared Belief, who is unbeaten in four starts.
“He’s a guy that does well in the big races and a great money rider,” Hollendorfer said. “We wanted to give him a shot in the race.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The seeds planted at the Churchill Downs meet that ended Sunday are about to grow as tall as summer sunflowers for Juan Saez, the 17-year-old apprentice widely expected to be the leading rider at Ellis Park this summer.
Saez had five wins and seven seconds from 27 mounts during the final eight-day stretch at Churchill.
“This kid has lots of possibilities,” said his agent, former longtime jockey Julio Espinoza. “The way he looks on a horse has a lot of trainers talking good things about him. He sure doesn’t look like a bugboy.”
Golden Gate Fields showed a slight increase in all-sources handle for its 99-day meet in 2013-14 thanks to increases in both California and out-of-state advance-deposit wagering. All-sources handle for the meet was $302,828,453, up 0.8 percent from the 101-day meet in 2012-13.
California ADW was up 29.3 percent to $66,928,231. Out-of-state ADW was up 2.62 percent to $14,895,357.
There will a graded race on Saturday’s card at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meet, the $47,000, Grade 3 Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Arabian Cup. This is the third running of the race, which was the first graded stakes at Pleasanton last year, when the purse was $30,000. In 2012, the race was run with a $20,000 purse.
Seventeen 2-year-old fillies have been nominated for Saturday’s Juan Gonzalez Memorial Stakes at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meet, while 16 2-year-olds, including four of the fillies, have been nominated for the Everett Nevin Stakes on Sunday’s closing-day card.
Nine of the fillies and 10 of the Nevin nominees are coming off wins, although none of the nominees in either race has placed in a stakes.
Racing secretary Tom Doutrich is pleased with the way the meet has been going.
A hometown hero will try to win Friday’s Oak Tree Sprint at the Oak Tree at Pleasanton meeting.
“He’s back in town,” trainer Reina Gonzalez said of Coach Bob.
Coach Bob, a 5-year-old Bertrando horse out of the unraced Gentleman’s Hope, was a $5,000 yearling purchase at the 2010 Northern California sale at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.
“We’ve had him in Pleasanton since he was a yearling,” Gonzalez said of the solid sprinter, whose career-high Beyer Speed Figure was a 102 at Golden Gate Fields in 2013.
