Indiana Downs opens under the banner of Centaur Gaming for the first time Tuesday and will conduct a 120-day Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse meet. Centaur also owns Hoosier Park in Anderson, Ind., and received permission from the Indiana Racing Commission to run Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse races at Indiana Downs and to conduct Standardbred racing at Hoosier Park.
ARCADIA, Calif. - There was one winning ticket at Santa Anita in Friday’s pick six, worth $1,093,518, on a day when no winning favorites reached the winner’s circle in those races.
Track officials said the winning ticket was purchased through the Xpressbet.com account wagering service.
The winners of Friday’s pick six races were Cook Inlet ($7.40), Lord Kitra ($14.80), Summers Dignity ($44.80), Legal Separation ($32.80), Peppy Bolly ($9) and Copper Bay ($7.40).
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Ken and Sarah Ramsey tied the record for most wins by an owner at a Keeneland meet, either spring or fall, when Friday victories from Hollywood Talent in race 5 and Animal Style in race 7 pushed their meet-leading tally to 12 victories.
They had a chance in the featured Doubledogdare to get the outright record, but their runners, Sisterhood and Artemus Kitten, ran second and third, respectively.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Taking command after an alert start, Ice Cream Silence led virtually throughout to win Friday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Doubledogdare by a neck over Sisterhood before a crowd of 11,897 at Keeneland.
The race was largely won in the early stages of the 1 1/16-mile race, with Ice Cream Silence under Rosie Napravnik slowing the pace with fractions of 24.43 seconds and 49.20 for the opening half-mile while under only mild pressure from Sisterhood.
Paynter, who was seriously ill last fall with colitis and laminitis, moved closer to a comeback with a three-furlong workout in 36.20 seconds at Hollywood Park on Friday.
Paynter, 4, had not worked since March 29 at Santa Anita, a break that trainer Bob Baffert said was caused by tender feet. Baffert has not picked a comeback race for Paynter, who is owned by Zayat Stables.
A winner of 3 of 6 starts and $952,224, Paynter is best known for winning the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park last August and finishing second in the Belmont Stakes.
AUBURN, Wash. – You Me and Ema B is a friend of the people. She won her career debut by more than four lengths and returned $21.80 for a $2 win bet. She went gate to wire in her first stakes appearance and paid $23.20. And in her first attempt around two turns, in the Boeing Handicap in July 2011, she won by daylight and paid $16.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The longest race of the year adds style to closing day of the long winter meet at Santa Anita – a 1 3/4-mile turf spectacle that is pure majesty.
The San Juan Capistrano Handicap will be run for the 74th time on Sunday, final day of the 71-day season. Although trainer Richard Mandella has not won the race in 20 years, the San Juan still kindles passion.
Racing will move to a three-day week Friday, with post time for the first of 10 races set for 1 p.m. Eastern. Friday also will mark the second weekly podcast featuring Jennifer Morrison and Renee Kierans, a pilot project sponsored by the local Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association.
Morrison, the editor of Canadian Thoroughbred and a freelance contributor to Daily Racing Form, and Kierans, a trainer and former television host for Woodbine, will be handicapping selected races at Woodbine and Fort Erie and major features south of the border.
AUBURN, Wash. – It’s been said you can’t tell the players without a scorecard, and that old chestnut has seldom been more applicable than this week at Emerald Downs. The start of 75-day meeting on Friday has been accompanied by wholesale turnover in the jockey colony.
Leslie Mawing and William Antongeorgi, who combined to win 168 races last year – or 24 percent of all races run – have relocated to other circuits, and in the scramble to fill the void, at least eight new riders have been combing the Emerald backstretch trying to make a positive impression.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Trainer Troy Taylor set a record by winning 18 stakes at Hastings last year, and he is going to have strong chances in both the $50,000 Brighouse Belles for fillies and mares next Saturday and the $50,000 George Royal for 3-year-olds and up next Sunday. Both races are at 6 1/2 furlongs.
