[bc_video_id:322798:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The welcome mat was out here Tuesday morning for the three latest arrivals on the Kentucky Derby scene: the favored California Chrome, Dance With Fate, and Samraat. The one major piece of business to be completed Tuesday was a half-mile breeze by General a Rod, who made news of his own 24 hours earlier with the announcement that he’d been purchased by Skychai Racing and Starlight Stables.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Taptowne will be considered for the Lone Star Handicap at Lone Star Park, while another race prominent on his radar is the $200,000 Mountainview Handicap at Penn National on May 31, said trainer Tim Glyshaw. The horse returned to Kentucky on Sunday.
“There’s a couple possibilities for him,” Glyshaw said. “There’s the race back here, [but] we’re probably pointing for the race at Penn National, the Mountainview. We’ll just have to let him tell us, show us how he’s doing.”
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Isn’t He Clever ran arguably the best race of his career on April 13 when he won the $75,000 Sunland Park Handicap by 9 1/2 lengths and earned a 102 Beyer Speed Figure. His next move is to be determined, but he will be considered for the Lone Star Handicap at Lone Star Park, said trainer Henry Dominguez.
“He ran a superb race,” Dominguez said. “We were kind of sticking to the plan of keeping him in New Mexico. We might try the next leg [of the Global Triple]. He’s possible for the Lone Star Park Handicap.”
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Redgrass Cat and Thegirlinthatsong, both stakes winners on turf last year at Louisiana Downs, will meet in Thursday night’s fourth race at Lone Star Park, a one-mile turf allowance for 3-year-old fillies. Redgrass Cat will be returning to grass after wintering at Oaklawn, where in her last start she was third in an optional $50,000 claimer. Luis Quinonez has the mount for trainer Allen Milligan.
STICKNEY, Ill. – Hawthorne Race Course’s 37-day winter-spring meet that ended Sunday proved to be another season of decline, with betting off more than 13 percent compared to the 2013 winter-spring meet.
Average daily all-sources handle fell from $1,748,804 during a 40-day meet a year ago to $1,515,647 this year, a drop of 13.3 percent. Even more troubling is the drastic erosion of Hawthorne winter-spring handle since 2012, when the track averaged more than $2.2 million in daily handle, a figure more than 30 percent higher than this meet’s daily average.
GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – Grand Contender will be nominated to the Grade 3, $200,000 Lone Star Park Handicap following his win Saturday night in the track’s Texas Mile, but whether he starts in the second leg of the Global Gaming Triple hasn’t been determined, according to trainer Tom Amoss.
[bc_video_id:322803:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The first time Art Sherman came to the Kentucky Derby, in 1955, it was as a stable hand for trainer Mesh Tenney, and he traveled from California by railcar, sleeping on straw, next to the horse who brought him here, Swaps.
Sherman was a bit player in the story of Swaps, who won that Derby. But when he left California on Monday, Sherman did so as the trainer of the horse acknowledged as the favorite for Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, California Chrome.
The Manitoba Horse Racing Commission has confirmed a case of neurological equine herpesvirus (EHV-1) at Assiniboia Downs, where a quarantine is in effect.
Trainers of horses who have been on the grounds of the Winnipeg, Manitoba, track since April 15 must contact the Ontario Racing Commission vet at Woodbine or Fort Erie if they are considering shipping to either track.
Opening day of the 60-day Assiniboia meet is May 4.
Winning the Grade 3 San Francisco Mile last Saturday with Pepper Crown – a horse he bred, owns, and trains – would by itself have given Alex Paszkeicz an unforgettable week. But Paszkeicz wasn’t done.
On Sunday, Paszkeicz won a maiden race with Pepper Crown’s younger full brother, Pazmeifucan. Earlier in the week, He’s a Pepper, a 2-year-old full brother to Pepper Crown and Pazmeifucan, arrived at Paszkeicz’s barn in Pleasanton, where he will soon get his first official work.
[bc_video_id:322796:]LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In racing, the big fish often eat the small fish. That explains why Billy Gowan’s cellphone started blowing up just a few minutes after Ride On Curlin made his career debut last summer at Churchill Downs.
“We had a lot of tire-kickers but only two serious offers,” Gowan said. “They wanted to tell me everything that was wrong with the horse, and I wanted to tell them everything that was right with him.”
