DEL MAR, Calif. – The pick-six pool Wednesday at Del Mar is expected to soar well past $1 million when bettors take aim at a single-day carryover of $238,499.
While hitting the pick six never is easy, the degree of difficulty is increased Wednesday because of challenging circumstances facing two top horses in the sequence – Indy Point in race 7 and Sweet Lulu earlier in race 6.
DEL MAR, Calif. – Trainer Richard Mandella has high hopes for Station House, a colt by Rock Hard Ten who is set to make his debut in Wednesday’s third race, a one-mile grass test for 2-year-olds that kicks off a pick six that has a carryover of $238,499.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Micromanage was among the more impressive of the nearly two dozen 2-year-olds trainer Todd Pletcher unleashed here last summer.
However, in two subsequent stakes tries, he was unable to duplicate the performance he gave in winning his debut by five lengths Sept. 1. Thus, Micromanage spent about two months on the farm during the winter, eating grass and enjoying sunshine.
The Louisiana Racing Commission has begun an investigation into the ontrack euthanization of Grade 1 winner Monzante after the horse was apparently injured while running in a $4,000 claiming race Saturday night at Evangeline Downs.
Del Mar broke strongly from the gate, with across-the-board increases in ontrack handle, overall handle, and ontrack attendance through the first week of the meet, which ended Sunday.
The overall handle averaged $13,044,595 daily, a solid 5-percent jump from 2012. The ontrack handle averaged $2,736,147, an increase of 3.3 percent.
The handle increase likely was propelled by an increase in field size, an average of 8.8 runners per race compared with 8.2 during opening week last year.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – So Long George has come a long way since finishing last of eight in a maiden $32,000 claiming race here Nov. 18, 2011.
Last Sunday, the 4-year-old So Long George reached a new plateau when he rallied under Emma-Jayne Wilson to win the Grade 2, $216,000 Nijinsky Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on turf by three-quarters of a length.
STANTON, Del. – Long before the recently retired Ramon Dominguez left Delaware Park for New York and won three Eclipse Awards, observers who watched him ride here regularly for almost a decade often used the term “natural” to describe how he would sit motionless on a horse, with quiet hands, until just the right time, and then would elicit an instant response from his mount.
At the current Delaware Park meet, a 21-year-old apprentice from Puerto Rico named Victor Carrasco has fans and horsemen drawing comparisons between the young rider and Dominguez in his early days.
I Raffaella figures to be a short price when she runs in a first-level allowance race for fillies and mares that serves as Wednesday’s feature at Northlands Park. The 6 1/2-furlong sprint drew seven horses, but there are a lot of arrows pointing toward I Raffaella as the one to beat.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The once-beaten Langstaff gets some class relief Wednesday night at Woodbine in the $125,000 Deputy Minister Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint for Ontario-sired 3-year-olds.
Langstaff graduated from off the pace over five furlongs April 21, then doubled up a month later in a six-furlong allowance, for which he got a 78 Beyer Speed Figure.
Langstaff switched to the turf June 8 in the six-furlong Bold Ruckus Stakes. After lacking room at the back of the pack on the turn, he closed furiously through the long stretch to prevail by a neck over Click.
