HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Oaklawn has announced its second purse increase of the meet after a strong Presidents Day weekend in which nearly 60,000 patrons attended the races and handle was up close to 30 percent from the corresponding holiday weekend a year ago.
Claiming races of $20,000 or less will be boosted $500 each, beginning Thursday, while all other overnight races will increase $3,000 each. The move will bring maiden special weight races to a record $60,000 at Oaklawn.
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Apparently, the millionaire mare Dixie Strike is not yet ready to be a mom.
The $100,000 Bayakoa at Oaklawn Park last week could have been the final start of her career. But her fast-closing second to Don’t Tell Sophia has pushed back the breeding card her owner, John Oxley, and her trainer, Mark Casse, had been debating.
“She got to choose her future,” Casse said. “About the five-eighths pole, I thought, ‘Well, she’s going to be a mom.’ At the half-mile pole, I thought, ‘Maybe not.’ And at the eighth pole, I said, ‘The girl’s still got it in her!’ ”
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sprint stakes on the grass are few and far between, especially for fillies and mares, so it came as a bit of a surprise when only 10 signed on for Sunday’s $75,000 Ladies Turf Sprint at Gulfstream Park.
CYPRESS, Calif. – The Ocean King is the fastest qualifier for Sunday’s $112,000 Los Alamitos Maiden Stakes for 3-year-olds. The race is restricted to horses that were maidens as of Dec. 1 and is designed for late-developing 2-year-olds or those who had training setbacks during that season.
The Ocean King would qualify on both counts.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - General a Rod’s appearance in the Fountain of Youth will be the understandable focus of trainer Mike Maker on Saturday, but well before that race he has a chance to win consecutive allowance races with horses returning from layoffs.
Honor the Kitten, idle since June, returns in race 3, a first-level optional claimer at 1 1/16 miles on turf. And then in race 4, a one-turn mile, graded stakes-placed Morgan’s Guerrilla makes his first start since October 2012 in a first-level allowance that is the comeback race for Normandy Invasion.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Sometimes the hardest part about owning and training racehorses is learning how to wait. Such has been the case for trainer Chad Brown and owner Rick Porter, who have had to wait nearly 10 months to finally get Normandy Invasion back to the races again.
Unraced since a fourth-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, Normandy Invasion will launch his comeback here Saturday going a mile in a first-level optional-claiming race that serves as one of the highlights on the undercard for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth.
NEW ORLEANS – Fair Grounds announced Thursday that it was cutting overnight purses by 10 percent for the rest of its race meet.
The cut comes about six weeks after the track eliminated four stakes and reduced the purses of 12 others, moves that saved the purse account $785,000. It was hoped then that the stakes cuts, necessitated by poor betting handle on Fair Grounds races in November and December, would allow Fair Grounds to maintain its overnight purse structure, but a press release from the track Thursday said sagging handle had led to the second round of cuts, too.
The $120,000 Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland Park on Saturday is the local stepping-stone to next month’s Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Derby. A field of 10 is set for the Mine That Bird, which will be run over 1 1/16 miles.
Rebranded, winner of the Riley Allison Futurity, should go favored from the rail, with Proceed, who is undefeated in two starts, the possible second choice for what will be his first start since December.
Louies Flower, who won the $250,000 Springboard Mile at Remington Park in December, finished an uncharacteristic 12th in the Grade 3, $300,000 Southwest Stakes at Oaklawn on Monday. He was seeking his fourth straight win and came into the race packing the field’s best last-out Beyer Speed Figure, a 91.
“He came back good,” said Bret Calhoun, who trains Louies Flower for Wesley Melcher. “It was kind of one of those races that nothing went right. He was over the top, too fresh. He was keyed up in the paddock. In hindsight, I wish I had run him in the Smarty Jones” in January.
