ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Everyday Dave has a class edge in Wednesday’s Woodbine headliner, but the six-furlong allowance for Ontario-sired stock could set up for a sharp Haverhill.
The feature will be run as the seventh race and will anchor the pick four, which has a guaranteed pool of $100,000.
Hierro, the winner of the Derby Trial in his last start on April 28, will bypass the Preakness Stakes on Saturday and his connections will "consider other options," according to a press release from Barbara Banke's Stonestreet Stables, which owns the colt.
According to Stonestreet, Banke made the decision after she spoke with trainer Steve Asmussen Monday morning following Hierro's five-furlong work at Churchill Downs in 1:01.20.
The preliminaries are over and racing becomes a bit more serious when the first mid-week card of the Northlands Park meet starts at 6 p.m. Mountain on Wednesday. The first four days of the meet were filled with 3 1/2-furlong races and most were decided by which horses left the starting gate the quickest. Wednesday, seven of the eight races have been carded at six furlongs and the added distance certainly brings a lot more horses into the equation.
Parx Racing has added a second million-dollar race to its stakes lineup for 2012.
The recently finalized stakes package, 26 stakes worth $5.3 million, includes a $250,000 bump to the Cotillion for 3-year-old fillies. Now a Grade 1 race for the first time, the $1 million Cotillion will be part of a blockbuster four-stakes package on Sept. 22 that also includes the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby, the $300,000 Gallant Bob for 3-year-old sprinters, and the $75,000 Alphabet Soup at 1 1/16 miles on turf for Pennsylvania-breds.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Count Bodemeister in Saturday’s Preakness, and Isn’t He Clever and Hansen out.
The latter two horses were with removed from Preakness consideration Monday morning, their trainers said, while others continued their training for the race with breezes and gallops over a rain-soaked Churchill Downs strip Monday morning.
BALTIMORE – A Grade 1 stakes for Arabian horses is being staged early on the Preakness card Saturday at Pimlico Race Course. It will be offered as a special wagering event between the third and fourth races and will not be part of any multi-race wagers.
BALTIMORE – Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another went through another strong gallop Monday morning at Pimlico, where trainer Doug O’Neill chose to send the colt to the track earlier than usual to dodge expected rain later in the morning.
With the track still fast, and with exercise rider Jonny Garcia up, I’ll Have Another was accompanied to the five-furlong pole by his multi-millionaire pony Lava Man before breaking off into a very lively gallop of three-quarters of a mile. Pimlico clocker Mark Euga caught the colt in 26.60 seconds from the quarter pole to the wire.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Dhaamer won minor handicaps at notable racecourses in England in 2010 and 2011, but had never won a stakes before Sunday’s $72,950 Round Table Stakes at Betfair Hollywood Park.
The turn of foot the 5-year-old Dhaamer showed through the stretch left trainer Mike Mitchell dreaming of further glory in distance turf stakes this summer.
“He had plenty left in the tank,” Mitchell said.
INGLEWOOD, Calif.- Jockey Patrick Valenzuela had his first win since ending a four-month retirement last month in Sunday’s seventh race at Betfair Hollywood Park.
Valenzuela, 49, rode favored Langfurs Lightning to a three-quarter length win over King’s Red Journey in a maiden claimer over 7 1/2 furlongs. Langfurs Lightning ($5.40) was Valenzuela’s 25th mount since returning to riding on April 26, at the start of the current spring-summer meeting.
“I feel like I’ve got a monkey off my back,” Valenzuela said after he left the winner’s circle.
Jockey Omar Berrio, who suffered an apparent stroke on Friday, remained hospitalized on Sunday but was moving his arms and legs and talking with visitors, according to Southern California backstretch chaplain Eddie Meza.
There was concern in the aftermath of the stroke that Berrio had suffered damage to his speech and possible paralysis to his right side, but Meza said on Sunday that was not the case. Meza visited the 43-year-old Berrio in the hospital.
“He was moving his arms and legs,” Meza said. “He was talking.”
