SHAKOPEE, Minn. – A measure that has the potential to raise purses at Canterbury Park up to 40 percent overwhelmingly passed both houses of the Minnesota legislature on Tuesday and awaits the signature of Governor Mark Dayton.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The field is in the home stretch as far as Kentucky Derby workouts are concerned. Five more prospective Derby runners turned in their final major preps on Monday, including Santa Anita Derby runner-up Creative Cause and Mark Valeski, a horse who has yet to be confirmed a definite Derby starter by his trainer, Larry Jones.
Union Rags also made his first appearance since his spectacular workout 48 hours earlier, jogging a mile and visiting the paddock shortly after 7 a.m.[bc_video_id:250400:]
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Evidently there exists, at some obscure black market or on a forgotten dusty shelf of an ancient pharmacy, an antidote to the illness that strikes the Thoroughbred world each spring – Derby Fever. And the Joneses, former Kentucky governor Brereton and trainer Larry, have procured a dose of it.
Six of nine races on Wednesday’s card at Belmont Park are for fillies, among them a pair of overnight stakes and the first 2-year-old race of the meet.
The stakes action begins with race 7,the $85,000 Thirty Flags, scheduled for the inner turf at six furlongs.
Heading the field of nine is the Todd Pletcher-trained Sweet Cat, who last fall beat a total of 21 rivals in the Jessamine and the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
Hawthorne Race Course bounced back to life after a poor spring 2011 meeting, attracting far more interest from national simulcast players during a 41-day winter-spring meet that ended Sunday.
Average daily out-of-state betting on Hawthorne races rose from $1,465,271 last year to $1,947,130, an increase of 33 percent, according to figures provided by the Illinois Racing Board.
All-sources handle and ontrack attendance at the recently-ended spring meet at Keeneland Race Course showed double-digit increases in what was a triumphant exit for track president Nick Nicholson, who announced his retirement late in the 15-day meet.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Tony Dutrow has won 1,675 races in a training career that has spanned 34 years. He has won 27 graded stakes, including five Grade 1’s, and his horses have earned $56 million in purse money.
Yet, Dutrow is probably best known as the older brother of trainer Richard Dutrow Jr., who has developed the reputation as racing’s bad boy with a history of violations that have warranted fines and suspensions. He is currently appealing a 10-year-suspension handed him by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board for his indiscretions.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – This is a hot Derby, and the temperature is getting turned up. The field for the 138th Kentucky Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs is deep and strong, more than the maximum of 20 want to run, it’s a seller’s market for tickets, and the weather is heating up, with a predicted high temperature of 90 degrees for race day.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rahystrada had his drive for $1 million in earnings cut short when he exited the Grade 1 Canadian International last fall with a hind-foot abscess, but the setback was only temporary. The 8-year-old gelding will return to action Wednesday at Churchill Downs in a stakes-caliber allowance race that trainer Scooter Hughes is hoping will lead to another productive season and a toppling of that coveted milestone.
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Abrianna should be prominent in the headliner on the first Wednesday-night card of the Woodbine meet, lining up against six other fillies and mares in the first-level allowance at 1 1/16 miles.
Abrianna, a Stronach Stable runner trained by Roger Attfield, won her maiden going long here last spring after coming from Keeneland, and will try to duplicate the pattern on Wednesday. She went to the sidelines for about 10 months after a ninth-place finish in last June’s Woodbine Oaks, in which she was bet down to 7-1.
