Turfway Park closed its 16-day fall meet Sunday with major decreases in business, part of it attributable to the cancellation of its entire stakes program.
A Thursday release from the northern Kentucky track showed that all-sources handle totaled nearly $20.5 million, down nearly 26 percent from comparable dates in 2011, when a 12-race card including the five-stakes Kentucky Cup series was part of a 16-day meet.
[bc_video_id:264567:]ELMONT, N.Y. – Todd Pletcher told his owners there could be days like this, when he has multiple runners in a race, meaning he could be a winner but his clients could still lose.
Saturday could be one of those days, as Pletcher sends out three – possibly only two – horses in the Grade 1, $400,000 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.
The Champagne is a Win and You’re In race for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to be run Nov. 3 at Santa Anita.
STICKNEY, Ill. – Quietly and out of the spotlight, first at Remington Park and now at Hawthorne Race Course, trainer Donnie Von Hemel is guiding Alternation to what he hopes will be a start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Karakorum Racing, the partnership company whose horses have been a staple of the claiming ranks in New York for 15 years, ceased operation in late August, one of the company’s trainers said on Thursday.
Jeff Odintz, who was the partnership’s primary trainer over the past several years, said that all of the Karakorum horses were transferred to trainer Enrique Hernandez at Finger Lakes at the end of August.
“It was kind of quick,” Odintz said. “I don’t know exactly whether the horses were sold or what, but all of them went to Hernandez. He’s now the owner.”
Ellafitz will be looking for her third win of the year, all for trainer Bob Baffert, in the $100,000 Mari Hulman George at Hoosier Park on Saturday. The 1 1/16-mile George is for older fillies and mares and drew a field of nine. It is one of nine supporting stakes on Saturday’s Indiana Derby card.
ELMONT, N.Y. –The scary part about how good Dreaming of Julia has been in her first two starts was what jockey John Velazquez said after she won the Meadow Star Stakes by 16 1/4 lengths at Belmont Park on Sept. 9.
“She just goes through the motions like nothing’s happening,” Velazquez said.
Saturday, Dreaming of Julia gets her sternest test to date when she faces six rivals in the Grade 1, $400,000 Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – If Commander wins the Grade 3, $100,000 Premiers as expected at Hastings on Monday, he will be heading to Santa Anita to run in the Grade 2, $500,000 Breeders’ Cup Marathon Nov. 3.
It is hard to say just how good Commander really is. He is going into the Premiers off five straight stakes wins, and in his last three races – which he won by a combined total of 24 lengths – he really hasn’t been asked to run.
ARCADIA, Calif.– The stretch run between Obviously and Mr. Commons in the Del Mar Mile was one of the highlights of the summer meeting. There is every chance they can produce an encore in Saturday’s $150,000 Arroyo Seco Mile on turf at Santa Anita.
The two could not have more diverse running styles.
When the 4-year-old gelding Obviously gets rolling on the lead, he is impossible to stop. Mr. Commons is a closer whose late rallies sometimes work and sometimes do not. In the Del Mar Mile, Mr. Commons finished a nose behind Obviously, who set a course record of 1:32.10.
OCEANPORT, N.J. – Irish Politics and Visionary Ruler, two promising youngsters with similar profiles, top the field Saturday in the $60,000 New Jersey Juvenile as the season winds down at Monmouth Park.
This is the final racing weekend on the Jersey Shore as the meet concludes Sunday. And then we’re down to a precious few days in New Jersey.
The action shifts north next Friday for a brief return to the Meadowlands for eight all-turf cards through Nov. 3. The Meadowlands schedule will be Friday and Saturday afternoons with first post at 2:15 p.m. Eastern.
[bc_video_id:264551:]LEXINGTON, Ky. – Like sister, like brother. As wide open as the Darley Alcibiades shaped up for the opening-day card Friday at Keeneland, so, too, has the Dixiana Breeders’ Futurity come up a monumental head-scratcher for Saturday.
Just like the Alcibiades and its 2-year-old fillies, the Futurity was carded with a field of 14 2-year-old colts, along with two also-eligibles. The Futurity, which also is run at 1 1/16 miles on Polytrack, is a Win and You’re In race toward the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita.
