BOSSIER CITY, La. – One of the main questions within the $100,000 guaranteed pick four sequence at Louisiana Downs on Saturday is whether Gantry can fire off the bench in the second leg, the $50,000 Temperence Hill Stakes. The six-furlong race for 3-year-olds and up is one of five stakes on the undercard supporting the Grade 2, $500,000 Super Derby. The pick four, which has a 50-cent minimum, will be on races 8 through 11.
Hard-core horseplayers should really enjoy these. Back-to-back-to-back stakes scheduled for Saturday at Kentucky Downs combine the elements they always say they want: big fields, turf, no heavy favorites, a melting-pot look, and classy horses trained and ridden by top-notch horsemen.
The opening-day card at the south-central Kentucky track begins at 1:35 p.m. Central with a $75,000 maiden race. Each of the 10 races attracted fields of 10 or more, with no fewer than 11 entries in the trio of co-featured filly and mare stakes.
Magical Moon faces older horses
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The Grade 3, $150,000 British Columbia Derby is clearly the highlight of the card at Hastings on Sunday, but there will be a lot of interest when Arabella’s Muse makes her second start, in the $100,000 Sadie Diamond Futurity, one of the five supporting stakes on the 10-race program.
ELMONT, N.Y. – As hard as it may seem to believe, not everybody enjoys Saratoga.
Based on two poor performances in the Sword Dancer Invitational sandwiched around a poor effort in last year’s Arlington Million after training in Saratoga, trainer Shug McGaughey has deduced that Boisterous is not a fan of the Spa.
DEL MAR, Calif. – If six furlongs was too short and seven furlongs better, might 1 1/16 miles be better still? That’s what trainer Jerry Hollendorfer and owner Larry Williams are going to find out with Tamarando, who won the seven-furlong Del Mar Futurity on Wednesday and will be pointed to the Grade 1, $250,000 Frontrunner Stakes at 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Sept. 28.
DEL MAR, Calif. – The champagne was flowing in the office of Joe Harper, Del Mar’s chief executive officer and president, after the races on closing day Wednesday, for there was much to celebrate following a 37-day meeting that was a roaring success from just about every measurement.
Ontrack handle was up, overall handle was up, field size was up, attendance was up, and catastrophic injuries were down.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Serendipity Grove looks like a major player, despite more than doubling his claiming price, when he runs in a $17,500 claiming race for 3-year-olds at Hastings on Saturday. The 6 1/2-furlong dash attracted seven horses and appears to be a wide-open event.
Kentucky Downs long has been known as quaint and unique, a country track where the lush and undulating turf course and an understated vibe have made a day trip to rural south-central Kentucky a memorable one for many.
Yet after some 20 years of abbreviated September meets, Kentucky Downs suddenly has become even more charming – at least to horsemen. Why? There’s gold in them thar hills on the Tennessee border.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. – Angela Hermann, Canterbury Park’s track handicapper and paddock analyst since 2011, has done just about every job on the front side of this track in the last nine years: Clubhouse usher, ticket sales, guest services, and even the dispatcher in the valet parking area. There was one job, however, she always wanted to try.
She wanted to call the races.
On Saturday, Hermann, 27, will become the first woman to announce an entire race card at a North American Thoroughbred track.
