Dreamin Big came from way off the pace in the $89,500 Florence Henderson and drew off to an 8 1/2-length win in course-record time Wednesday night at Indiana Downs. The Florence Henderson was one of four Indiana-bred races on Wednesday's card, and trainer Mike Lauer saddled the winners of three of them, including Dreamin Big.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Del Mar drew an opening-day ontrack crowd of 43,030 on Wednesday, a decline of 9 percent over the record 47,339 that attended opening day in 2012.
Wednesday’s program was the first time that ontrack attendance on opening day had fallen since 2004.
[DEL MAR 2013: Complete meet coverage, schedule, race replays]
In 2003, the track reported an ontrack crowd of 40,682 on opening day, a figure that dropped to 39,346 in 2004. The ontrack audience rose annually for eight years, beginning in 2005.
DEL MAR, Calif. – After losing a tough decision in the first division of the Oceanside Stakes on Wednesday at Del Mar, trainer John Sadler, owner Kosta Hronis, and jockey Julien Leparoux evened the ledger in the $112,500 second division when Rising Legend held off a furious late rally from Gabriel Charles to prevail by a head.
[DEL MAR 2013: Complete meet coverage, schedule, race replays]
Gabriel Charles was closing so quickly that Sadler admitted he thought Rising Legend was caught.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Essence Hit Man survived a claim of foul to win the Grade 3 Bold Venture Stakes for the second year in a row Wednesday night at Woodbine.
Essence Hit Man ($3.90) went right to the front under Jesse Campbell and set rapid splits of 22.21 seconds and 44.01 in the 6 1/2-furlong test. Dimension, a 28-1 outsider from Kentucky, stalked along the rail in third on the turn and then took dead aim at Essence Hit Man in the stretch.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Gervinho, who missed more than six months of racing over the winter because of a knee injury, won the second stakes of his abbreviated career in the first division of Wednesday’s $113,150 Oceanside Stakes on opening day at Del Mar.
Ridden by Rafael Bejarano, Gervinho closed from fifth in a field of 10 to win the one-mile turf race by a neck over 14-1 Greeley Awesome. Freakin Rocket finished third, his first loss in his third career start.
[DEL MAR 2013: Complete meet coverage, schedule, race replays]
DEL MAR, Calif. – Peter Miller hardly looks, or acts, like someone you’d expect to be channeling Pink, but when the trainer won the first race at Del Mar on Wednesday, he spoke for himself specifically, and Southern California racing generally, as he bounced into the winner’s circle.
“Let’s get this party started!” Miller, the defending training champ here, shouted after his horse Casa de Cambio won the first race on opening day as Del Mar started its 74th season before another overflow crowd.
On July 1, Christopher Kay began his job as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Racing Association. Kay, 60, had previously been COO and general counsel at Toys 'R' Us, managing director Universal Parks and Resorts, and COO at Trust for Public Land. Despite this limited background in racing, Kay was chosen to lead NYRA into the future, one that includes re-privatization by October 2015. On July 6, Kay sat down with Daily Racing Form's David Grening to discuss the challenges that lay ahead.
Not enough horses were entered to fill the three days of racing scheduled at Hastings this weekend, so the decision was made to cancel Saturday’s card. The combination of a shortage of horses and a virus going through the backstretch caused the cancellation.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer John Snow doesn’t usually bring his stakes horses back in two weeks but he said Wilo Kat is “jumping out of his skin,” so the 4-year-old will use Friday’s feature at Hastings as a prep for the $75,000 B.C. Cup Classic on Aug. 5.
Wilo Kat, second in the $50,000 Lieutenant Governors on July 1, heads a strong field of seven older horses running in a 1 1/16-mile money allowance.
Last year Wilo Kat was off for more than a month when he finished second in the B.C. Cup Stellar’s Jay as a 3-year-old.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – A meet that doesn’t really need any more pomp and pageantry will have its cup runneth over this summer as Saratoga celebrates its 150th anniversary beginning Friday.
Unlike the first race meet in 1863, which lasted only four days and had a total of eight races, the 144th Saratoga season is set for 40 days through Labor Day and likely will consist of approximately 400 races.
