LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Julian “Buck” Wheat, who was a revered figure at Churchill Downs after spending more than six decades working and playing in various capacities there, died Wednesday afternoon at University Hospital following a Tuesday fall at his Louisville home. He was 78.
With three grass races included on the Friday program at Fair Grounds, an off-the-turf afternoon would complicate matters for handicappers while depressing handle and disappointing track officials. But it also would probably improve the quality of the featured sixth race.
Twelve Twenty Two has lost just one race this year, when she traveled from New Mexico to Kentucky for the Grade 1 Humana Distaff in her last start May 7. Friday, she returns to action and won’t have far to go to run in the $50,000 Bold Ego Handicap at Sunland Park.
“She’s walking out of her own stall,” said Henry Dominguez, who trains Twelve Twenty Two. “She’s at home. That will be great for her.”
New York racetrack and casino owner Jeff Gural on Tuesday signed a 30-year lease with the state of New Jersey to operate the Meadowlands, a harness track in East Rutherford, according to the office of Gov. Chris Christie.
Gural signed the lease the same day that Christie endorsed an agreement reached between the state’s Thoroughbred horsemen and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority providing for the operation of Monmouth Park next year. Both Monmouth and the Meadowlands are owned by the NJSEA.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Richard Dutrow Jr. said he doesn’t feel Boys At Tosconova is ready to return to prime time just yet, a thought process which makes Friday’s third-level optional $80,000 claiming feature at Gulfstream Park just what the doctor ordered to prepare the Grade 1 winner for prospective stakes opportunities here later this winter.
The first foal out of the richest Louisiana-bred racehorse ever, Happy Ticket, is set to make the second start of his career on Thursday. Three-year-old Mr. Ticket, a Stewart Madison homebred by Distorted Humor, did not show much finishing sixth on a sloppy track in his debut last March, but Andy Leggio, who also trained Happy Ticket, expects more this time around.
“He’s a better colt than he showed in his debut,” Leggio said. “He had a little injury and I had to give him some time off. His works have been good. I’m hoping he runs a big race.”
Kip Didericksen, the retired jockey who won the 1990 All American Futurity with Refrigerator, will be inducted into the Ruidoso Downs Hall of Fame next June, the New Mexico track announced. He will be part of a class that will also include Four Sixes Ranch, trainer Heath Taylor, and multiple Grade 1 winner DM Shicago.
Didericksen was Quarter Horse racing’s national champion jockey in 1986, and from 1989-1992. The Four Sixes Ranch, founded by Captain Samuel
Royal Currier, who set a six-furlong track record when he upset the $250,000 Gallant Bob at 18-1 in his previous trip to Parx Racing, changed tactics to turn the tables on fellow 3-year-old sprinter Poseidon’s Warrior in Tuesday’s $75,000 Valley Forge Stakes.
A renovation of Lone Star Park’s simulcast pavilion costing more than $3 million has been completed. It was reopened on Dec. 5, with a formal launch set for Jan. 2, said Drew Shubeck, the track’s president. Renovations on the building, which sits adjacent to Lone Star, began in July. The project was the first undertaking of Global Gaming, the owner of Remington Park that took over Lone Star in May.
“The pavilion was 15 years old. It was crying for a remodel, and Global Gaming really stepped up and got it going,” Shubeck said. “The whole building has been renovated.
Back when he was riding nearly all Steve Asmussen’s horses in New Orleans, Shaun Bridgmohan was always a threat to have a huge day at Fair Grounds. Bridgmohan’s business model has changed since the Asmussen era, but the big days aren’t gone yet. Saturday, Bridgmohan booted home five winners on a 12-race card, winning two stakes while scoring victories for three different trainers.
