INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Before sporting interest turns to a particular win streak by a colt racing Saturday at Belmont Park, the wagering challenge Thursday is to win six straight races at Betfair Hollywood Park.
A one-day pick six carryover of $107,825 is up for grabs on races 3-8, and bettors are expected to add at least $500,000 while chasing the first Sunday-to-Thursday carryover of the spring meet.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Decision time is fast approaching for Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer.
Sunday, Hollendorfer won the Grade 3 Affirmed Handicap at Betfair Hollywood Park with Nonios, who was making his stakes debut and first start outside of Northern California.
The victory has led Hollendorfer to pore over the list of stakes for 3-year-olds around the nation, wondering what best suits Nonios, who has won 3 of 4 starts in his four-month career.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert is down to his last chance.
After disappointing losses by Bodemeister in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes last month, the lightly raced Paynter starts in Saturday's Belmont Stakes as Baffert's final opportunity to earn a victory in the series of races he covets the most.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – A decline in all-sources handle could lead to a purse cut at the current spring-summer meeting at Betfair Hollywood Park, according to the track’s president, Jack Liebau.
Liebau said last weekend that handle has declined 5 percent compared with the 2011 meeting, attributing much of the reduction to lower field sizes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Bob Tiller didn’t have a starter in the Woodbine Oaks, Plate Trial, or Nassau Stakes here last weekend.
But Tiller did manage to click with four of the five runners he sent to the post, with his three-bagger on Saturday including Anywhere in the $125,000 Ballade Stakes for Ontario-sired fillies and mares.
“It’s a streaky business,” said Tiller, who was second in the trainer standings with 18 winners heading into Wednesday night’s action.
Anywhere, a who races for Frank DiGiulio, was undefeated in her first three career outings last year.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Royal Delta, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2011, will try to get back to form when she returns to action June 16 in the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs in her first start since a disappointing effort in the March 31 Dubai World Cup.
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott confirmed Tuesday morning from Saratoga that he intends to send Royal Delta to Churchill from New York on the charter flight that will return horses here following the Belmont Stakes.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Where Oh Where should be favored in a small field of Ontario-sired females in Thursday’s Woodbine headliner, a six-furlong allowance for nonwinners-of-two.
Post time for the first Thursday card of the meet is 2:10 p.m.
Where Oh Where was bet down to 2-1 when she debuted in an Ontario-sired maiden special April 7, and she came through for her backers. After an outside-stalking trip, she mowed down the leaders early in the stretch en route to a two-length victory, which produced a solid 77 Beyer Figure.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Quite a few recent races at Churchill Downs have come down to Corey Lanerie aboard one favorite and Shaun Bridgmohan on the other. That seems to be the case with the $59,800 feature on Thursday, when Lanerie has the call on Uptown Bertie and Bridgmohan gets the ride on Tapit Dancer.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Multi-race exotic bettors will keep an eye to the sky Thursday, as five of six races in the pick-six sequence are scheduled for turf, including the entire late pick four.
All of the turf races attracted full to overflowing fields.
In the featured second-level optional $50,000 claiming race at seven furlongs, a dozen New York-bred fillies and mares will square off. Heading the lineup are Linda Rice’s uncoupled duo of horse for course Karakorum Elektra, and former Saratoga record-holder Lady Rizzi, who are the senior members of the group.
Saturday’s $100,000 Silky Sullivan at Golden Gate Fields, a one-mile turf race for California-bred 3-year-olds, is proving too tempting to pass up for the Southern California-based trainers John Sadler and Eric Kruljac.
Sadler is sending up Alcatraz winner Stoney Fleece, while Kruljac is running La Mano Nera, who will be making his first start around two turns after winning a first-level allowance turf sprint at Hollywood Park on May 13.
