2015 Racing Dates

Summer: July 16 - September 7

Fall: October 29 - November 29

Post Times

TBA

Handicapping Information

Ontrack mutuel handle on races at the Alameda County Fair dropped only 1  percent from its near-record 2011 totals for the 13-day 2012 meeting, but all-sources handle dipped 10 percent.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – This is the time of summer when some 3-year-olds who were tried and found wanting in Triple Crown races start to find their way back to spots that better suit their natural capabilities, and Daddy Nose Best could be just such a horse.

The last time that trainer Mick Channon won anything in the United States he was at Yankee Stadium in 1976.

Playing as the 27-year-old captain of the English national soccer team, Channon scored two goals in a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over Italy in an exhibition game before more than 40,000.

“That’s probably the last time I was in the States,” Channon said earlier this week. “I had hair in them days.”

Now 63, Channon gave up soccer in 1986 after a 20-year career. He began training Thoroughbreds in 1990.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Everyone is naturally looking ahead to Saratoga, but interest in an otherwise ordinary card on Thursday is heightened by a pick six carryover of $251,315 as a short final week at Belmont begins.

The skull-busting exercise includes four maiden races, and numbers 57 betting interests, assuming there is turf racing. It gets under way with race 4, a $35,000 beaten claimer scheduled for seven furlongs on turf, at 2:26 p.m. Eastern.

Here is the rundown:

Although entries for the first three days of racing at the California State Fair at Cal Expo in Sacramento are light, racing secretary Tom Doutrich has reason to be hopeful that the eight-day meeting will prove as successful as last year’s did. The Sacramento meeting begins Thursday and ends July 22, with racing Thursday through Sunday on both weeks.

“We actually have 75 more horses stabled on the grounds,” Doutrich said. “Having a few more horses on the grounds is good.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Trainer Malcolm Pierce returned from his annual sojourn in New Orleans this spring with a pair of potential candidates for the $1 million Queen’s Plate.

Dead On and Aldous Snow, both homebreds who race for Pierce’s major client, Sam-Son Farm, had shown enough in their 2-year-old campaigns to be considered as long-term candidates.

As it transpired, neither Dead On nor Aldous Snow was in the lineup for the June 24 Queen’s Plate over 1 1/4 miles on Polytrack.

Trainer Bill Kaplan reports that his two Summit of Speed winners Musical Romance and Another Romance both came out of their races well and that they, too, could be headed to Saratoga later this summer.

Musical Romance repulsed a strong bid from Nicole H in late stretch to register a half-length decision in the Grade 1 Princess Rooney. Another Romance rallied from far back to win the Grade 3 Azalea by 1 3/4 lengths over Citizen’s Advocate.

Kaplan described the Princess Rooney as a very typical race for Musical Romance.

ETOBICOKE, Ontario – The unbeaten It’s Gail will test her skills on the grass in Thursday’s seventh race at Woodbine, 1 1/16-mile allowance for Ontario-sired females.

It’s Gail came from 10th to land her debut in a seven-furlong maiden special on Polytrack June 2, for which she got a 55 Beyer Speed Figure. Three weeks later, she won a 1 1/16-mile Ontario-sired allowance on the main track with a solid 71 Beyer Figure.

It’s Gail is by emerging turf sire Niigon, but there’s very little turf breeding on the dam’s side of her pedigree.

[bc_video_id:256787:]INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A tricky pick six Thursday at Betfair Hollywood Park begins with a carryover of $111,858, and though most fields are small, the sequence is far from easy. It lacks an obvious single and is filled with potentially vulnerable favorites.

The lowest-level race in the pick six (races 3-8) may include the most probable winner – Three Buttons Down, a $20,000 maiden claimer in race 4. One race later, Antidote is favored in race 5, though he already has lost 10 straight at the first allowance condition.