OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Likely due in part to the anticipation of higher purses – which kick in Wednesday at Aqueduct – activity at the claim box was quite brisk through the first three weeks of the inner track meet.
In 15 days of racing from Nov. 30 through Dec. 18, there were 66 horses claimed for a total of $1,186,500. Not a day went by when at least one horse wasn’t claimed, and on six occasions six or more horses were haltered.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Horsemen and horseplayers alike should be getting a little help with their holiday bills when racing returns to Aqueduct on Wednesday following a nine-day break.
For horsemen, the much anticipated purse increase from revenue derived from the recently opened casino at Aqueduct goes from fantasy to reality beginning Wednesday. Total purse money for Wednesday’s nine-race card is $390,000 – led by a $65,000 open maiden race – which is a 30.8 percent increase over what those same nine races would have been worth just 10 days ago.
Champagne d’Oro will be retired in January and will have one or two more races before she is sent to Kentucky to be bred to Bernardini, trainer Eric Guillot said Monday.
She will start in Monday’s $100,000 Monrovia Stakes over about 6 1/2 furlongs on the hillside turf course, which could lead to a start in the $300,000 Santa Monica Stakes over seven furlongs on the main track on Jan. 28.
“If she runs big, I’ll run her back in the Santa Monica,” Guillot said. “If she doesn’t run good, she’ll go to the shed. I’ve got a contract with Bernardini.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – A puzzlingly poor performance form Home Sweet Aspen in the minor Cool Air Stakes on turf at Hollywood Park earlier this month has essentially been stricken from the mind of trainer John Sadler.
“She just doesn’t like the grass,” Sadler said.
Home Sweet Aspen finished last of seven in the Cool Air Stakes over six furlongs on turf.
Instead, Sadler’s focus is on the filly’s Grade 1 debut in Saturday’s $300,000 La Brea Stakes over seven furlongs on dirt at Santa Anita.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Richard Grunder, whose enthusiastic and informative style of calling races has made him a crowd favorite at Tampa Bay Downs for the past 27 years, returned to the announcer’s booth last Wednesday after completing an eight week rehab following surgery to repair a detached retina in his right eye.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - Lentenor, a 4-year-old full brother to 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, could be headed to the Grade 3, $150,000 Tampa Bay Stakes on Feb. 25 after a victory Friday over a tough group of optional allowance turf routers.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Frolic’s Revenge was the only member in the starting lineup for Saturday’s $60,000 Ginger Brew Stakes at Gulfstream Park with Grade 1 experience, having competed in both the Alcibiades and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Yet she still went off at generous odds of 16-1 in the overnight turf stakes for 2-year-old fillies.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park has been granted legislative approval to exercise a dormant nonprofit Quarter Horse license and is hoping to run one Quarter Horse race prior to its regularly scheduled Thoroughbred program on Saturday, Dec. 31.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The memorial service for Julian “Buck” Wheat will be held Wednesday, Dec. 28, at 1 p.m. Eastern in the Triple Crown room at Churchill Downs, where Wheat was employed in various capacities for more than 60 years, including the last 25 as the track’s director of horsemen’s relations. Wheat died Wednesday, Dec. 21, at age 78 from a head injury suffered in a fall at his home the previous day.
