Charles Town plans to host a series of starter allowance races beginning in March that will culminate in a $55,000 final on the undercard of the Grade 2, $1 million Charles Town Classic on April 14.
The Charles Town Starter Tournament, open to horses who have started for a claiming price of $5,000 or less since Jan. 1, 2011, will begin with four races worth $25,000 apiece that will be contested at 6 1/2 furlongs on March 3.
Flat Out turned in his first work since shipping locally earlier this month, breezing an easy half-mile in 46.79 seconds for Scooter Dickey on Tuesday at Gulfstream Park. Flat Out went his opening quarter in 23.13, then finished up in 23.66 despite enduring a very strong head wind coming down the stretch. He galloped out five-eighths in 1:00.41. Flat Out is expected to make his local bow in the Grade 1 Donn Handicap on Feb. 11.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Little Mike, a dominant figure over the local turf course earlier this year, will conclude his successful but all too brief 2011 campaign against a strong field of fourth-level optional $100,000 claiming rivals in Thursday’s co-featured seventh race at Gulfstream Park.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – It’s doubtful anybody is enjoying Gulfstream Park’s early opening more than Todd Pletcher.
Not only has Pletcher jumped out to a big lead in the trainer standings, having already won 11 races just 10 days into the meet, which opened a month earlier than usual on Dec. 3, he has also shown off a quartet of talented 2-year-olds likely to make plenty of noise during the coming winter.
The state of New Jersey and its horsemen reached an agreement late on Monday night to keep Monmouth Park open next year, just meeting a deadline imposed by Gov. Chris Christie.
Under the deal, the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, the state agency that owns Monmouth, will apply for 141 Thoroughbred dates in 2012, running from May 12 to Nov. 25, with five days of racing per week. At that schedule, horsemen will run for average daily purses of approximately $150,000 to $175,000 a day, roughly half what was offered this year during a 71-day meet.
The Lecomte, a mile-and-70-yard stakes on Jan. 21, is the target for Sugar Bowl winner Exfactor, who won his third race in a row Saturday at Fair Grounds while making a successful return from a five-month layoff that began after a victory in the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill.
Exfactor was stuck down on the fence most of the Sugar Bowl trip after breaking from post 1, but he maintained his poise and outgamed Laurie’s Rocket to win the Sugar Bowl by a nose.
Given the kind of Fair Grounds meets he has had the last two years, and the fact his Fair Grounds string is as substantial as any other trainer’s, Steve Margolis figured to kick into gear as soon as his stable got fully settled following the end of the Churchill Downs meeting. That happened this past weekend, when Margolis won with 4 of 8 starters, taking the Blushing K.D. Stakes with Cherokee Queen on Saturday and the Letellier Stakes with Good Deed on Sunday.
When asked why he had decided to winter his stable at Fair Grounds rather than Oaklawn Park this season, trainer Larry Jones cited two reasons related to racing surface. First, Jones thinks his horses thrive on the Fair Grounds main track, and secondly, Fair Grounds – unlike Oaklawn – has a grass course.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Hollywood Park concluded its 26-day autumn meeting on Sunday with an increase of 9.5 percent in handle on its live races from the 2010 meeting.
The track released very limited data on attendance and handle. Fox example, no comparative figures were released of handle generated from simulcasting of races from other tracks.
A new $250,000 stakes for 3-year-olds, the Robert Hilton Memorial, is part of the 2012 stakes schedule released Monday by Charles Town.
The seven-furlong Hilton is part of a six-stakes program that launches the stakes season on April 14. The first of four big event nights at the West Virginia track, it will also include the $1 million Charles Town Classic, elevated to Grade 2 status, and the $200,000 Sugar Maple, a race for fillies and mares that was worth $250,000 for its first three runnings.
