Average all-sources wagering for the 2011-12 meet at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., declined 10.9 percent compared with the meet held a year earlier, according to figures provided by the track.
The average for the 92-day meet was $4.15 million, down from $4.76 million in the 90-day meet held a year earlier. This year, field size at Tampa was down from 9.11 to 8.54, and the track’s signal was not available on Television Games Network, a leading horse racing broadcaster.
BALTIMORE – Pimlico fans won’t have to while away Saturday just waiting for the Preakness to roll around. A terrific undercard precedes the second jewel of the Triple Crown, with a deep 111th running of the Grade 2, $300,000 Dixie Stakes serving as the traditional lead-in race.
Casino Host, winner of the Grade 2 Mervin Muniz at Fair Grounds last out, heads a Dixie field that also includes Smart Bid, Air Support, and Straight Story. A field of 11 older horses was entered in the 1 1/8-mile turf race.
AUBURN, Wash. – Trainer Roy Lumm will look to continue a hot start at Emerald Downs when he sends out two contenders on Friday’s seven-race card. Lumm has Justanother Bob in the second race and Wings of Pegasus in the featured sixth race, a $17,500 claimer for fillies and mares who have never won twice. First post is 6 p.m. Pacific.
Although it includes eight claiming races, four of those for maidens, the redeeming feature of Friday’s Belmont Park progam will be a $79,000 allowance pitting Group 1 winner Belo Acteon against six rivals, including the Marc Keller-owned entry of Eternal Ruler and Hailstone, the runner-up in the recent Grade 2 Pan American.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Rousing Sermon finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby on May 5, but could be back in the Triple Crown for the Belmont Stakes by the end of this weekend, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.
Depending on how Rousing Sermon works at Betfair Hollywood Park on Friday, and the results of Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico, the Belmont could be an option. Rousing Sermon races for breeders Larry and Marianne Williams and has won 2 of 10 starts and $404,000.
“We’ll see what kind of shape everyone is in,” Hollendorfer said of the rivals.
BALTIMORE – The primary focus is on the top finishers in the Kentucky Derby, and deservedly so, at least according to the Pimlico Race Course toteboard. But when the 137th Preakness is run Saturday, there is always the chance that a new face will emerge to upset the horses that became familiar to racing fans by running in the Derby.
BALTIMORE - A field of 11 was entered on Wednesday morning in the Preakness, which will be run for the 137th time on Saturday at Pimlico.
Posts will be drawn Wednesday night at 6 p.m. Eastern. The draw can be seen live on HRTV.
The entrants are Bodemeister, Cozzetti, Creative Cause, Daddy Nose Best, I'll Have Another, Optimizer, Pretension, Teeth of the Dog, Tiger Walk, Went the Day Well, and Zetterholm.
Coyote Legend could have advanced to the upcoming Grade 3, $300,000 Lone Star Park Handicap off his fourth-place finish in last month’s Grade 3, $200,000 Texas Mile. But his connections instead have chosen to spot him more conservatively, returning him to the overnight ranks for Friday night’s featured fifth race at Lone Star Park.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. – The 3-year-old filly Ann of the Dance doesn’t tower over her opponents in Arlington’s featured first race on Friday.
Figuratively, she’s a 3-year-old facing older foes for the first time, and her most recent race, in March at Gulfstream, might have been the worst of an eight-start career.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Corner Office and Real Conundrum were fourth and fifth in the $300,000 Snow Chief Stakes for 3-year-old California-breds on April 28. The Snow Chief was run over 1 1/8 miles and is the richest race of the year for the division, which made taking a chance worthwhile.
