In a break from tradition, Prairie Meadows will open its 2013 stakes schedule Saturday evening with the $60,000 Golden Circle, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds which attracted five colts and geldings.
The Goldfinch, a six-furlong stakes for 3-year old-fillies, usually kicks off the stakes calendar. The stakes was moved this season to next Saturday, April 27.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The last time that Obviously raced, he finished third to Wise Dan and Animal Kingdom in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Santa Anita.
“He got beat by the Horse of the Year and the horse that won the [Dubai] World Cup,” said jockey Joe Talamo. “That’s pretty good when you look back. That’s as tough as it gets.”
Fortunately for Obviously, he does not face such world-famous runners in Saturday’s $100,000 San Simeon Stakes on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita. His six rivals have all won or placed in stakes in the last year, but not such major races.
There are 14 horses in the main body of the field for Saturday’s Henry Clark Stakes at Pimlico, but that’s only part of the reason why the last of three $75,000 stakes on the program is the toughest to handicap.
Among the group scheduled to race one mile on grass in the Clark, eight will be making their first start of the season, meaning players must guess who’s rusty and who’s ready. To compound matters, not a single runner shows a win within the past two seasons at the precise distance of the Clark.
Average all-sources handle during the recently concluded Oaklawn Park meet in Hot Springs, Ark., was $2.85 million, the track announced on Thursday, up 2.3 percent from the comparable figure last year.
Although average all-sources handle rose, average attendance for the 54-day meet declined 2.4 percent to 10,319, a figure that is still one of the highest for attendance among U.S. racetracks. The average benefited from attendance of 66,158 on the closing day of the meet, Arkansas Derby Day.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Everyone at Hastings knew Aaron Gryder could ride. After all, spanning a career that began in Tijuana, Mexico, in 1986, he has won 3,578 races and his mounts have earned close to $113 million. He displayed his excellent riding skills by winning two races opening weekend, but what really impressed everyone at Hastings was his attitude and class. He displayed both when picking up the mount on longshot See Eye to Eye in Sunday’s last race after Fernando Perez booked off with a sore shoulder.
Bill Mott doesn’t go into Saturday night’s matchup between his late-running Ron the Greek and trainer Bob Baffert’s front-running Game On Dude in the $1.5 million Charles Town Classic believing his horse is at a disadvantage over the six-furlong oval.
“Horses can close on a bullring,” Mott said. “I don’t think you have to be a speed horse to win on a bullring, and it’s not a bullring anyway, it’s three-quarters of a mile. Most bullrings I know are a half-mile.”
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Following a tumultuous winter, which saw the end of the racetrack slots program in Ontario, racing returns to Woodbine on Saturday with a 10-race card of mostly shorter sprints.
Overnight purses are slated to remain the same, but the 133-day meet is 23 days less than last year’s meet, which had an average daily purse distribution of $508,000. The 2012 meet was originally scheduled for 167 days, but was cut to 156 with the elimination of Thursday cards late in the season.
OLDSMAR, Fla. – Saturday’s first-level allowance feature at Tampa Bay Downs matches five horses coming off winning efforts. A field of 12 was entered for the 1 1/16-mile turf race, but only 10 will be allowed to start.
El Uno comes into the headliner off back-to-back winning efforts over the local turf course and looks to be in peak form for trainer Monte Thomas. A front-running winner here in his first local outing in December, El Uno was used up from post 11 when brought back in the Tampa Turf Test and wound up a tiring ninth.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Trainer Greg Tracy isn’t sure which of the four stakes winners he entered in a Saturday allowance race for 3-year-old fillies he prefers. The six-furlong sprint drew 11 horses and includes seven stakes winners. Silkworm, one of Tracy’s talented fillies, will need a scratch in order to run.
Undefeated Holy Reina and Ten Thirty will certainly receive a lot of support as a Riversedge Racing Stables Ltd.-owned entry. Tell Me Lies, owned by Darrell Landry, will run as a separate entity.
A pair of new stakes, a series of races for lower-level claiming horses, and an ongoing expansion project that will bring more amenities to patrons are among the changes for 2013 as Finger Lakes opens its 51st season Saturday.
